Dia Libre

Today all of Ecuador has shut up shop and stayed indoors because they are doing a census. It is a law that you stay inside your house from 7 am - 5 pm so that someone can come around and ask you the questions. Actually they have been very smart and used college kids to do the job - it's their civil duty so they have to pay them! All religious meetings or activities are cancelled so we have a great excuse to take the day off ourselves and veg out! So what have we been doing? Well everyone that knows me understands I have a need to change furniture around occasionally - and I never have time to do it on normal days so our bedroom is having a make over. Mark is cooking us a roast dinner (lunch), Amanda is doing her homework and C & M are busy little beavers too. Of course in between all this work we have found time for a few games of Settlers and maybe later we will watch a movie or two! Yay for the census - will only have to wait 10 years for the next forced day off. I shall look forward to that!

Not much been happening since the Brits left so nothing much to report except I had another first last night at the meeting. I answered without notes! And not a one word answer either!  I don't really know if I said everything correctly but it was a good feeling all the same!

A couple of Brits join our multicultural home for a visit

Ben and Louisa from England - having a laugh!

Just look at these 2 desserts - aren' they a work of art?

5 Brave Souls

Too late to back out now Louisa

My face says it all

Relief that I am actually still alive

Mark thinks he is George of the Jungle

So we have been having fun with our new friends Louisa and Ben from England - last night we went to an awesome restaurant which I just had to include the pictures of the desserts, they were so cool (and delicious). Today we went zip lining - it was a lot of fun - I have to own up that I only did two lines - not 5 but at least I tried!

I cannot BEAR to be called a ...

I have to tell you something really funny: 1st of all - as you know we are from NZ and C & M from America so our accents and the way we each say things makes for good teasing material for all parties. Michele has gotten into the habit of saying my name like she thinks I say it - BEETH. I don't mind that at all but at the moment we have Louisa and Ben, staying with us from England  and for some reason they have been very interested in how it is that we all can live together (something that fascinates a lot of people I might add). Now we know the reason it seemed to be a concept difficult to grasp - Louisa thought Michele was calling me BEAST!  They either thought that I was very forgiving or that I had my own derogatory name for Michele that I was muttering under my breath. Anyway we had a good laugh about that - as the British would say it was -Way Funny!

Trip to Santa Isabel

We cover our territory every 3 weeks here so it was decided that we would all go to a nearby town to preach in territory that is seldom worked. Santa Isabel has a small congregation and a big need so a bus was arranged and most of our peeps jumped on board with plenty of literature. Because the town is at a lower altitude - it is very tropical and the air much more humid - quite tiring really but a wonderful experience. The people are so nice there - happy to talk and discuss the bible. Of course everybody we talked to took something to read so it was a successful day for everyone. I hope we can go back there soon!  

Hats drying in the sun - interesting sight

The locals must have thought they had an invasion of Gringos when they saw us coming

Louisa - visiting here from England enjoying a welcome rest

Glad we didn't have to walk up that track on the otherside of the valley

Somebody had a tough day!

Now things are really hotting up - Amanda, Mark and I joined the Spanish Accelerated Language course being run by two brothers today. We have to do at least an hours homework every night and 1 & 1/2 hour class time weekly for 3 months! We will be starting at the beginning again but that's a good thing because now we can work on our pronunciation - something I need because I get told often that I am saying things wrong. For example Torro (bull) instead of Todo (all). I can hear the difference but evidently my brothers and sisters can't! Humph!

(South) American Graffiti

One not very nice thing about our new house is that on a wall right across the road someone had kindly graffitied IN ENGLISH so everytime we opened our curtains we were acosted by not very nice words! Amanda took it on herself to paint over the most offensive word last night when nobody was around so it looks a little better now. I wonder if any of the neighbours noticed a difference!!