The Control Booth

Jim is working out on the land with the work teams that come down.  He is enjoying this time and things are really coming along.  He is working on getting the control booth up.  This is the booth that will stand at the front entrance of the Living Hope Community. When people come and go, they will check in and out here. 

This is the team Jim is working with this week.

Jim next to the control booth wall that is going up.

Just Life

It is cold here!  Yesterday the high was 61 and today it is supposed to be only 58.  By 11:00 AM yesterday morning, my teeth were chattering.  You see, we have no heat in our house.  The houses here are just not equiped with them and the walls are all cement so any heat that we gained from the sun the day before, seeps out, and yesterday, there was no sun because it was raining.  Finally, by 1:00 in the afternoon, I had on two pairs of socks, jeans, a long sleeve shirt, a long sleeve pull-over sweater and a long-sleeve zip up sweater.  I also had turned on the oven to do some baking and stood in the kitchen in order to get warm.  Normally, we have heard, that it doesn't rain this time of year but it was raining yesterday and it is rainging again today.  So, it is also damp.  To sleep last night, I had on my two pairs of socks, sweatpants, a t-shirt, a sheet, comforter, and two blankets.  I was still a little chilly so I also put on my bathrobe.  I am just thankful that God has provided things for us to keep us warm and my family is enjoying the baking I'm doing in order to keep things warm too. 

Today Erin and I are going to a baby shower which should be fun.  Jim will be watching two of the other missionary boys so that their mom and sisters can go with us.  Jonathan always enjoys when the boys come over to play.  They all like playing Bionicles. 

That's about all to report for now.  I will post more pictures when I get a chance. 

Laguna de Valsequillo

Today we went to Laguna de Valsequillo which is a man-made lake near Puebla.  

It was a fun day together as a family.

This is the dam that makes the lake...

and the road that crosses the dam.

A monument of the President of Puebla, according to the tour guide. 

The dam was built during World War 2.

Jonathan

Gail and Jim

Erin

Horses and riders crossing the dam.

We decided to take a boat tour around the lake.

Our tour guide and his nephew.  Even though he only spoke Spanish to us,

 he told us that he had lived for 10 years in the United States, in Washington.

Jonathan is not real thrilled with small boats, so he stayed low.

From what the tour guide said, this is a place where you can rent houses for vacations.

Just a beautiful picture.

On the tour, close to the dam.

New Year's Day 2010

New Year's Day 2010 began with a hike up Zapoteca, a hill in Cholula.  The smaller kids call it a mountain.  It was a fun and challenging climb at times for someone who never hikes or climbs.  To many of the staff at Esperanza Viva, it is quite small since they climb the Malinche which is 7,000 feet above Puebla.  We had kids from 3 years old to adults who went on this hike.  It was a fun climb.

On the way to Zapoteca

Church ruins on the way there.

A white picket fence in Mexico?

Starting up the hill.

Very cool seeing this horse and rider on the way up.

That hill is where we were going.

At the top!

Overlooking the valley below.

Heading back down.

Our family.

Our family and the four kids we were in charge of on the way up the hill.  From the left, Angel (Cimitrio), Erin, Gail, Jonathan, Jim, in front, Kevin, Jorge and Braulio.

Later in the day, we had a lunch of hot dogs and tortilla chips.  Then there was a dodge ball tournament and the jumping castle that our church, East Hill, donated three years ago was up for the younger kids.  We ended the day with a time of worship and setting goals for 2010.  Everyone, ten years old and up, was given a piece of paper to write their goals, dreams or desires on for 2010 on.  We turned in our paper and they were then tied onto helium balloons and sent off  in the air.   It was a great day for all.

Erin with Blanca helping to put food out on the tables for lunch.

I noticed that the leaves were actually changing color.

 Hmmm...not from cold but perhaps from lack of water.

Lunch time.

Dodgeball

More dodgeball and the jumping castle in the background.

Worship time.

The balloons coming out

The balloons waiting to be launched.

We hope that you and your family had a wonderful day welcoming in the new year.

Chavos and Chavas

This past week we had the opportunity to have both the Chavos (teen boys) and the Chavas (teen girls) over to our house for dinner on two different nights.  Both nights we served spaghetti, green beans, cucumbers, and cantaloupe.

The boys enjoyed a movie and we had drumming contests on our new game, Jam Band, which is like Rockband but with all Christian music.  Leandro took two turns on the drums and in his second turn, placed first place with over 20,000 points.  Gerardo had fun singing Everything Glorious by the David Crowder Band.  We were very impressed with his singing since it was all in English.  All of the boys went home with a prize and the most popular prize was a big jar of hair gel.

The girls also enjoyed a movie and playing on the drums.  We had a drawing for prizes and found out that the body lotion was very popular but we only had two bottles.  The next most popular things were packages of cookies.  Everyone went home with a prize.

For each group we cooked about two and a half kilos of spaghetti which is about 5.5 pounds, five cans of green beans, 10 cucumbers, three cantaloupes and we also had bread.  We knew teens could eat a lot and we were glad to be able to have everyone eat as much as they wanted.  After dinner, there were homemade cookies which everyone enjoyed also.  Some of the boys were still commenting today about how good the spaghetti was.  We are very grateful for these times to make memories with the teens here at Esperanza Viva.