Okay well i´m back! It´s hard to imagine snow here... really hard actually. However it´s not always pleasant and rosy here either. I don´t have a tan really because we haven´t been out a lot in the sun a whole ton. Which brings up how much time we spend inside........ :) you see though we are inside it´s still kind of out side and when we go out we go to peoples houses. etc etc. we do spend a few hours a day playing with kids outside which is often the highlight of the day. We have had times of deep discouragement for a few days followed by something awesome only God could do... okay so now it´s story time...
Instead of the 30 some hours it was to take us to get out to the deep jungle it took us 50 hours on a boat because we didn't leave the day they said we would.... so we met two little girls on the boat and played with them most of the time as well as the other kids. On the boat there is cargo underneath such as fruit and such then the other decks are full of hammocks and people. there were some chickens by our hammocks :) it was fun but long and thought they had very dirty showers... we chose to not shower so we were super yucky when we arrived. We jumped in the river and bathed which is how we've bathed for the last three weeks. it´s fun but you never really feel clean. I was very excited to get a real but chilly shower here. :) Right after you get out of the river or shower you feel gross again because of the sweat. great... but it´s been really good. The mosquitoes seem to love my white skin... gringo delicacy! We spent two weeks in one place that spoke Spanish and I've learned a ton but have SO MUCH Spanish to learn! We were very bored at first but as we meet people we are finding more things to do.
The third week we went to another place and i was blessed to have a woman from our previous place come with us to help us cook and stuff. She brought her four-moth old baby which ended up being an interesting adventure. well she understood my Spanish so well that when i could not communicate well to some of the women she acted as a translator for me, so I was able to share my one and only story i know in Spanish, the story of how my life has changed the last decade or so. which turned out well. in the village the first few days no one would speak to us but finally the last full day we were there the woman began talking to us and dressed us up like them and made us stand in front of the guys while they all laughed at us. :) then we nabbed some pictures of them and tried to talk with them. we will be trying to make some clothes next time we go.... i hope that works out :) I´m becoming more and more of a proficient clothes washer as we wash our clothes in the river... we are beginning to make them smell decent. :)
On our way back which was a 20 hour boat ride and a 2 hour van ride i got about a total of four hours of sleep....
Okay, today is valentines day. Happy day of love to you! We've gone out to a very remote place and talked to some women who for the first two days if they would look at us would not return any sort of communication with us... it was very very discouraging. on the third day some of the guys in our group were talking with the much more friendly men of the town and found some women who were willing to talk to us. they were very friendly offered us a friendship and talked to us a little this was so encouraging! then they decided to dress us up like them and they pushed us out of the back room area where the women talk and made us stand infront of the men with their tribal clothes on us while they and the men had a great time laughing at us... i believe this was a great break through in a friendship no matter how humiliating. we mannaged to get some pictures of us with them they did not look at the camera and looked about as humiliated as we felt. however they seemed to have a great time and we were so encouraged it didn't matter. after this i was given the opportunity to share my story.
We have had some sort of fruit for every meal and have had fish at least once every day. despite the fact that there is no shortage in chickens running around everywhere for two weeks in the town, we had no meat other than fish and had no eggs save one time. but we mannaged to aquire a chicken and a strange bird and a couple of rodents of some sort to eat. needless to say these were a breath of fresh air and we welcomed them.
Now, about the jungle. we are always on the edge of the jungle right by the river, the river now has some oil in it because of a small oil spill that has everyone upset. this is the same water that we bathe, do laundry, wash dishes and even drink out of. so we are careful to push the oil out of the way before getting our water and filtering it. despite what you might think we've not really gotten sick glory to God. back to the jungle. i've always thought there would be many fruits just waiting to be eaten.... not so. we have how ever tried a LOT of differen't "fruits" since we've been here... many of which have tasted bitter, one took all of the saliva out of my mouth even though when bitten into juice ran down my cheek... it was very odd, called a cashew even though it was not a nut at all! there have been some fruits that they boil to taste like bitter potatoes. and we had not found bananas until a week ago... on one leg the other day I was able to count 112 bug bites.. this was not a precise counting and i may have missed a few. needless to say i am diligently taking malaria medicine and many other vitamins to help control my health... just in case.
There have been many times where the enemy has attacked our unity, our sanity, and even attempted at our health i believe, but God has been dilligent to encourage us when we see we cannot do anything with out him. when we come to the end of ourselves he shows us he's in control. even in our dreams, which have been very odd, the enemy has been attacking. This type of conflict is very real and God is so powerful. there is no way that we can do anything ourselves. the first few chapters in joshua talk about being bold and courageous because God is with us were ever we go. I cannot say how much I am in debt to him and his love for us.
We have made friends with chickens in our boredom at times but our greatest success is with the children. everyday we play games with them followed by story time. They love this and at times we have up to around 20 and as little as 5 but God has used them to be a source of joy to us and encouragement. they are all very sweet and we can communicate to them quite well. I was very pleased yesterday to have a hamburger with cheese on it!!!! yum! granted it's not as amazing as one of moms burgers on the grill with barbeque sauce. but it was WONDERFUL! i have become a huge fan of passion fruit juice here. Yum!!
We often occupy our time talking about food... i´m afraid it´s become an idol... the enemy will use anything. :) but we have a good time. we found snickers and hershy´s the other day at one of the stores... we might buy some some time soon. :)
other news.... well the river has risen about i would say at LEAST eleven feet on the big river and maybe eight or ten on the little. i´m excited to see how much it rises this week too. it doesn´t rain every day but it does rain often. I love it!!! we have been blessed to be able to camp out in the living room area of a teacher's house and that has been great! we almost never get rained on! but it´s funny to see our hammocks in there hanging from the ceiling beems. they have banana roof houses, so it leaks at times, but they hung tarps so we won´t get too wet. we haven´t run into any enemy teachers yet, which has been a suprise to me, but i´m not expecting it not to happen. we often lose our sanity for small moments and curl up into balls in our hammocks hiding under our mosquitoe nets from the gnats and mosquitoes that feast on our pastey white flesh. :) what cowards we are. but it is very very okay most of the time. the stars at night are so beautiful and some times we brave the insects and lay out watching them. i am determined next time to let them feast on me and do what i want any way! we´ll see. :) we see butterflies some times and they are beautiful!! there´s a metal building built by the same person who designed the Eiffel tower, that´s been a fun bit of archetecture to gaze upon at times! however it´s not INCREDIBLY breath taking or impressive... but i appreciate it :)
we have attended gatherings in the bush and have loved it, but I never understand what they´re saying in the songs! it´s rather frustrating at times. i have decided that i love sleeping in hammocks a lot!!! but i do prefer beds at this point. some times you just can´t get comfortable at all. :)
I guess if i remember anything else amazing i´ll let you know and if you have questions feel free to ask.
