Family Visits

Eating our sack lunches at Salta Baiguate

   We had the privilege of having my folks with us last week for about 6 days and really enjoyed that. It went by way to fast but we did a lot in that time. We went to three different water falls here in town, took a tour of the coffee plant, visited some of the other SI sites in El Cajon and even made it to the Ice Cream stand (a couple of times if I remember right). Dad and I would go walk in the mornings with our dog Buddy, that was fairly uneventful. Mom helped Karen at Genesis and Dad worked with the construction crew a few days. I think our best time though while they were here was just sitting around the house and visiting with them. 

Mom helping out at Genesis

Dad working on a house in El Cajon.

I had to think back to when Fred and Lauren were here and that was true then also. We miss that the most about being gone. It was nice for them to see where we work, go to church, shop, and play so that now when we talk about those things they can picture it. Marcy, Janae and Nina even sent home some rocks to give Grandma Marner so she can have a little bit of Jarabacao in Shipshewana now. They both commented on the road condition and the driving habits of people. I guess it took a few weeks but there is so much that we don't even notice anymore when people do it. Running red lights, probably more people run them than what wait on them. Turning any direction from any lane, Stopping on a street that is only wide enough for one lane to visit with some one, maybe for 20 seconds, maybe for 4-5 minutes. Turing a regular, what we would call, a two lane road into 4 lanes just because, for no other reason, there is enough room.  I remember one time when mom jumped and said "hey, that guy is passing you on the right". I had to think how that happens many times on our way to and from the school and it is no big deal anymore.

    

 I see a real correlation in that our lives are a lot like that. We run red lights until it doesn't even register to stop at them anymore. We turn from any lane we want to, not considering the hurt it may cause us or others. We pass people by so fast that we don't even notice them until they are a blur in the rear-view mirror. When we have guests here, it always amazes us at how much they see that we miss. Here are some photos of some of the things that Karen and I have noticed and took the time to capture.

Transferring cattle, right on a main street in town with traffic going by.

Sidewalk fleemarket in Santa Domingo

This is how they hooked up the welder below to my breaker box when they installed my back door. Oh and by the way, our house is all on (1) 20 amp breaker, the well is on another one and the washer is on the other one. :)

"The Welder" enough said about that.

Lauren comparing her hand to Buddys

Truck load of bananas

Brother and sister at the the Lower Falls

Typical construction crew. All done by hand with a bucket  brigade

A cove about 1/2 mile from the Santa Domingo Airport that Jerry Yoder, Fritz Bontreger and I found a couple of years ago. We literally stumbled upon it.

Moto making a trip up the mountain.

New form of airide seat

Typical utility crew working on wires as the traffic passes by

One of the reasons I love it here so much (Sorry Carl, I couldn't resist :)

On the way to school

On the way to market

Home made table saw at the local lumber yard. I am not sure but it sure looked like blood to the left of the blade :(

View from the top of  Mount Mogote looking down on Jarabacoa.

We have enjoyed our first year away and look forward to the future. There have been good times, bad times, laughter, tears. But in it all we see God using us here and are excited to see what lies ahead for all of us. Thanks to all of you for making this happen.  Mike.

One more to cross off my bucket list

Janae drinking her Morir Sonando at the bottom of the mountain back in Sept.

       So about the middle of Sept. Janae and I rode to La Vega which is not that far (12 miles) but the elevation change makes it a challenge. Leaving Jarabacoa at 1700 ft and the mountain top is about 2250 then back down the other side to 400 ft. Of course you can figure out the ride down is great but you have to come back up sometime. When we did make it back up, I told Janae that I would like to ride to Santiago sometime but I am not sure that I could make it back up the mountain once I rode that far first. Well..... today I found out I was right :)

Proof that I did make it!

         Leaving the house at 6:00 I was riding back down the other side by 6:45 and enjoying every bit of it. (50+ mph). Once I reached the bottom I started the next  17 miles of the trip to the statue. I guess old age had stunted my memory as to the number of and the intensity of "hill" between La Vega and Santiago. I rode with some other bikers for about 4-5 miles until they got tired of riding so slow and then took off. I made it to the monument before 9:00 and I was aiming for 9:45 so I felt good about that and it felt good to finally get off the bike seat. 30 miles there and by 9:15 I was heading back home. The trip back to LaVega went pretty much with out incident except again I didn't remember the hills this steep and long before. As I turned off the AutoPista to the Jarabacao Highway, the next three miles went less than well. I kept thinking that once I actually started up the mountain, it would be 4 miles of no letting up until the first flat spot, and as my mind kept saying yes, my legs, arms, heart, and actually my whole body was saying NO!!!!!!!!  So my body won. I called Karen and told her that if she would come get me I would buy everyone a Morir Sonando (Orange Julius). 40 minutes later she was there. 52 miles on the odometer of the bike, Bike in the back of the car, Morir Sonando's in our stomachs, we headed back up the mountain to our home. After 1/2 hr nap I was getting ready for our afternoon Spanish church service where I worshiped like any other Sunday (You will need to come down to see what that looks like).

        Janae and I have both really enjoyed riding more since we moved. OK, Maybe that was a stretch to say that Janae has enjoyed it. What about it Greg, Abby, Rachel, Fred. Did you ever really enjoy it? :) HA. It  makes for great memories though, right? 

!!Our Vehicles Are Back In The Driveway!!

       Praise and Thanks to God. Our vehicles are back in the driveway once again. The Moto's are both running top notch and the car is .......... Well the car is in running condition again. Like I had said before, our vehicle maintenance has been probably our biggest frustration since arriving. But at the same time, God has been good in that when it does break down, it is always at a convenient time when either we dont have to have it for a couple of days and the weather is good for riding the moto or there has been another missionary away for a while and they have been gracious enough to let us use theirs. (Thanks so much Dick and Mary Ellen). At this point there is a gear in the front differential that is bad and a new one can't be ordered and so far no used one has been located. Since the vehicles here are mostly different than in the states, it is usually not even an option to order one from there and send it down. After thinking that they had located one from a different make that had the same part number, we were without it for about 10 days. They tried the one part right away and realized that it would not work then looked for the next week with no luck on a different one. So they did put it back like it was so it is drivable again at least. The Transmission is also slipping a bit here and there :(
           But, on the other side, all of our family has been healthy since arriving, we have all adapted well to the culture and Spanish is coming along for us at a slow but steady rate. So we really do have a lot to be thankfully for. We have decided now that we will begin to look for a different vehicle in hopes that we can come up with one while this one is still working. Some of the missionaries here have in the past had two vehicles so they have one that works all the time at least. We will not go that route, but I do think we need one that is more dependable so we will at least start looking.
           The school is going good. Check our the Genesis blog if you haven't yet. We have our first fall team here now and will start working at Genesis on Monday the 8th of Oct. They will be here for one week and then another 1 week team next week and then a week off before the two week team in November. My folks are coming down for a week in about 10 days so we are all looking forward to that. I have some projects lined up for Dad and I am sure Mom will keep busy as well. While Fred and Lauren were here a couple of weeks ago, I ran some ideas past them for things we could do with my folks. Lauren suggested that "cliff jumping" into the river would not be one of them so I will need to come up with another activity for that time slot. But they both agreed that the Ice Cream shop would work out well.