As some of you may know, not everyone here in Mexico has the luxuary of hot running water in their houses. We dont which is fine when its hot hot hot, but when it cools down a bit, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, not so good!
So hears a funny story from our first day in our new house.
I was emailing mum when suddenly I hear splashing water and screamng kids next door.
Turns out that its shower time! Today is quite cool as it has been raining a lot, so keep in mind, no hot showers.
The family next door do not have a proper bathroom with a shower in it at all. So they basically shower in the backyard from a bucket.
Tonight the dad is pouring a bucket of COLD water over the head of the first child while mum soaps him up. Dad moves on to the next kid and so on and so on for all the kids (theres heaps of them).
Once the kids are all wet and soaped up they are lined up in a row as though facing a firing squad while dad throws/pours COLD water over them again to rinse them off.
The poor kids are used to showering this way but because its much cooler the water is very cold for them and they were all screaming and yelling Nooooooooooo at the top of their voices.
All you could hear was " Nooooooooo Splash, ahhhhhhh. noooooooooo soap soap soap, ahhhhhhh, noooooooo, splah, splash, splash!!!"
It was quite funny to hear, but now as I contemplate my own nice COLD shower, the smile is wiped from my dust smeared face!
At least for me there is no bucket involved!!!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
ALL MOVED IN
The day is drawing slowly to a close and we are all moved in.
After a full day of cleaning like banchies yesterday, today we moved in "all" our furniture.
The house looks as empty as it did before we moved in but its much cleaner now!
We cant wait until a certain someone who will remain anonymous in the meantime gets here to help fill the space.
Thanks for your kind thoughts by the way, much appreciated!
After a full day of cleaning like banchies yesterday, today we moved in "all" our furniture.
The house looks as empty as it did before we moved in but its much cleaner now!
We cant wait until a certain someone who will remain anonymous in the meantime gets here to help fill the space.
Thanks for your kind thoughts by the way, much appreciated!
Monday, August 9, 2010
MOVING DAY APPROACHES
Well we finally found a house which is fabulous! (Well we hope it is anyway)
Move in day is this weekend the 14th Aug, yipeeeeeee.
Truly one extreme to the other is what we are acheiving with the new house.
Right now we live in a very small, cant swing a cat in it one bedroom house and the new one has so many rooms in it we wont know what to do with ourselves. Especially since we dont have any furniture!!!
A deal was struck with the landlord, his sister owns the house but she lives in the US. They want to get someone to rent the house that will take care of it. They dont really care all that much about the rent, they just want to make sure its looked after and maintained. WE CAN DO THAT!
Here there is a big problem with people renting a house and then leaving, but taking everything including the kitchen sink!! They leave the house a ruin. So a good tenant that will care for the house is sort after.
Sooooo instead of paying an astronomic amount in rent which would normally be charged for a house this size we are getting it for an awesome price, not much more than we are paying now!!
The house has two bathrooms although when we looked at the house the second one had not been finished. They build houses in stages here as money allows, so the house is not new, but parts of it are (new mexican standards, not nz standards). The bathroom has walls and a floor with pipes sticking out of the walls where the fixtures will be. We negotiated with the landlord and he has agreed to do all the work to finish the bathroom ready for us to move into! Yahoooooo.
This week is thus going to be very busy, trying to pack, having to clean two houses, trying to get ou time in, Dave has a public talk and then we have to go to Mexico City a day after we move in so we have to pack for that too. No time for mischeif in there!! There is a time for everything though, isnt there?!
So folks, thats me this week, hope you are all well, would love to hear from you all!
Move in day is this weekend the 14th Aug, yipeeeeeee.
Truly one extreme to the other is what we are acheiving with the new house.
Right now we live in a very small, cant swing a cat in it one bedroom house and the new one has so many rooms in it we wont know what to do with ourselves. Especially since we dont have any furniture!!!
A deal was struck with the landlord, his sister owns the house but she lives in the US. They want to get someone to rent the house that will take care of it. They dont really care all that much about the rent, they just want to make sure its looked after and maintained. WE CAN DO THAT!
Here there is a big problem with people renting a house and then leaving, but taking everything including the kitchen sink!! They leave the house a ruin. So a good tenant that will care for the house is sort after.
Sooooo instead of paying an astronomic amount in rent which would normally be charged for a house this size we are getting it for an awesome price, not much more than we are paying now!!
The house has two bathrooms although when we looked at the house the second one had not been finished. They build houses in stages here as money allows, so the house is not new, but parts of it are (new mexican standards, not nz standards). The bathroom has walls and a floor with pipes sticking out of the walls where the fixtures will be. We negotiated with the landlord and he has agreed to do all the work to finish the bathroom ready for us to move into! Yahoooooo.
This week is thus going to be very busy, trying to pack, having to clean two houses, trying to get ou time in, Dave has a public talk and then we have to go to Mexico City a day after we move in so we have to pack for that too. No time for mischeif in there!! There is a time for everything though, isnt there?!
So folks, thats me this week, hope you are all well, would love to hear from you all!
HANDS UP!!!!
So check this out.
We were all around at a sisters house the other day helping her move. Nothing strange about that. But this is Mexico and nothing is what it seems!
Sooooooo, all of a sudden there is a screeching of breaks and dust flying as the house is surrounded by three huge trucks full of Federalies (Federal Police). They are all clad with black balaclavas and automatic machine guns!!! And breathe....... we are still alive and no Im not writting this from prison!
Within seconds they have strategically positioned themselves for self protection, but for the best shot at us too.
Some marched straight into the house pointed their guns at the guys and started stearing them down without blinking.
Another one spoke to one of the brothers and asked him what we where all doing. He explained that we were simply helping his daughter move house and that we were all Jehovahs Witnesses. He asked what they were doing in their house!?
The officer explained that someone had made a call to them, informing them that there were lots of people gathered at the address, coming and going and that we must be selling/dealing drugs!!!! Nice neighbours!
Once we explained who we were he had no hesitation in leaving at all and could see the misunderstanding. However even after this had been explained none of the other armed officers moved until they were given the okay.
Dave said that there was one positioned across the road with a clear shot right through the window at him. That he never took his eye off Dave not even for a second!
Just as well all the kids were still at the old house as they would have been terrified.
In the end all turned out well and the officers left without a drug bust from us that day!
Oh how exciting things are here! That is something we would never dream of having happen to us in NZ.
Makes me wonder what will happen on the weekend when we move!!!
We were all around at a sisters house the other day helping her move. Nothing strange about that. But this is Mexico and nothing is what it seems!
Sooooooo, all of a sudden there is a screeching of breaks and dust flying as the house is surrounded by three huge trucks full of Federalies (Federal Police). They are all clad with black balaclavas and automatic machine guns!!! And breathe....... we are still alive and no Im not writting this from prison!
Within seconds they have strategically positioned themselves for self protection, but for the best shot at us too.
Some marched straight into the house pointed their guns at the guys and started stearing them down without blinking.
Another one spoke to one of the brothers and asked him what we where all doing. He explained that we were simply helping his daughter move house and that we were all Jehovahs Witnesses. He asked what they were doing in their house!?
The officer explained that someone had made a call to them, informing them that there were lots of people gathered at the address, coming and going and that we must be selling/dealing drugs!!!! Nice neighbours!
Once we explained who we were he had no hesitation in leaving at all and could see the misunderstanding. However even after this had been explained none of the other armed officers moved until they were given the okay.
Dave said that there was one positioned across the road with a clear shot right through the window at him. That he never took his eye off Dave not even for a second!
Just as well all the kids were still at the old house as they would have been terrified.
In the end all turned out well and the officers left without a drug bust from us that day!
Oh how exciting things are here! That is something we would never dream of having happen to us in NZ.
Makes me wonder what will happen on the weekend when we move!!!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
EXPLOSIVE NATURE!
Well as I write this I sit in the absolute middle of two massive thunder an lightning storms!!
The sky is almost continuously aglow with fork and sheet lightning with only moments of darkness.
Crackling along as though crawling toward you, you can hear the rolls of thunder and then the most almighty eruption of noise like nothing you have heard before!
There are car alarms being triggered all around and the noise of the wind ripping through the trees adds to the drama.
Some of the thunder sounds as though a skyscraper full of bullets has been struck as there are piercing sharp bangs mimicking gun shots, echoing from left to right.
On all sides the eruptions of sound and light continue, just when one hits another and another does without delay or warning.
So far we have been entertained for nearly an hour, in time though it will creep off into the distance and leave us with only the memory.
This is dedicated to you Robin, wish you were here to see it Robin!!
The sky is almost continuously aglow with fork and sheet lightning with only moments of darkness.
Crackling along as though crawling toward you, you can hear the rolls of thunder and then the most almighty eruption of noise like nothing you have heard before!
There are car alarms being triggered all around and the noise of the wind ripping through the trees adds to the drama.
Some of the thunder sounds as though a skyscraper full of bullets has been struck as there are piercing sharp bangs mimicking gun shots, echoing from left to right.
On all sides the eruptions of sound and light continue, just when one hits another and another does without delay or warning.
So far we have been entertained for nearly an hour, in time though it will creep off into the distance and leave us with only the memory.
This is dedicated to you Robin, wish you were here to see it Robin!!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
PIZZA, YEAH BABY!
Mmmmmmmmmmm!!!!
Tonight I was the master chef in the kitchen with some friends where all decided to make pizza.
We started making the dough only to discover that we did not have a rolling pin. Hmmmm what to do????
Well good old "kiwi ingenuity" came to the rescue. I said, "dont worry I'll just use a coke bottle."
I think they all thought I was kidding but when I pulled out the large 3 litre bottle of coke and started rolling dough with it, they saw just how serious I was.
It was so funny and would have made a great kodak moment.
The funny thing was, earlier in the day Dave had asked us what we were doing for dinner. We told him we were having pizza and lots of coke (neither of which we ever have very much here). He was delighted, its two of his favourtie foods, what else could he ask for right.
Well when he walked in after taking the evening witnessing group, there I was rolling pizza dough with a full coke bottle!! I really dont think thats what he thought we meant when we told him we were having pizza and coke!!!!
All I can say is, IT WAS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every night should be pizza night!
Tonight I was the master chef in the kitchen with some friends where all decided to make pizza.
We started making the dough only to discover that we did not have a rolling pin. Hmmmm what to do????
Well good old "kiwi ingenuity" came to the rescue. I said, "dont worry I'll just use a coke bottle."
I think they all thought I was kidding but when I pulled out the large 3 litre bottle of coke and started rolling dough with it, they saw just how serious I was.
It was so funny and would have made a great kodak moment.
The funny thing was, earlier in the day Dave had asked us what we were doing for dinner. We told him we were having pizza and lots of coke (neither of which we ever have very much here). He was delighted, its two of his favourtie foods, what else could he ask for right.
Well when he walked in after taking the evening witnessing group, there I was rolling pizza dough with a full coke bottle!! I really dont think thats what he thought we meant when we told him we were having pizza and coke!!!!
All I can say is, IT WAS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every night should be pizza night!
BEAUTIFUL THINGS!
Well, today we came across something I have never seen in the "wild".
We were in a little village witnessing and as we came around the corner we came face to face with hundreds of butterflies (mariposas in spanish).
There seemed to be two types, one that was black that had white and red markings and the other was white with black and red markings. The white ones also had what looked like a small see through window on the very top of the large wings and in some lights the white almost looked as though it was tinged with lime green. FANTASTIC!!
Although they were not swallow tail mariposas, they all had swallow tails. Long thin tails, ever so delicate.
They flew all around us landing right beside us and posing for the sister who thought to bring her camera, that was not me by the way, are you suprised??? no, Im sure youre not.
It was such a beautiful thing to behold. For me it brought back a delightful memory of when my mum took me to a butterfly house in Dunedin, NZ. There were thousands of the most magnificent butterflies you have ever seen from all over the world. They land on your hands and you can feed them. It was a wonderful time we had, one I wont forget. THANK YOU MUM! Many of these I have now had the priviledge of seeing in the "wild" both in Belize and here in Mexico.
They tell me that in many of the towns here the butterflies, monarcs and others migrate and at certain times of the year you can see literally thousands of them flying around enjoying the soft breeze and what appears to be the most tranquil of lives. I would love to see that!
What I did get to see today though was very special and one of those things you simply can not plan on seeing, making it all the more special.
What a Grand Creator we have and what a blessing to be able to enjoy the beauty he has given us!!
We were in a little village witnessing and as we came around the corner we came face to face with hundreds of butterflies (mariposas in spanish).
There seemed to be two types, one that was black that had white and red markings and the other was white with black and red markings. The white ones also had what looked like a small see through window on the very top of the large wings and in some lights the white almost looked as though it was tinged with lime green. FANTASTIC!!
Although they were not swallow tail mariposas, they all had swallow tails. Long thin tails, ever so delicate.
They flew all around us landing right beside us and posing for the sister who thought to bring her camera, that was not me by the way, are you suprised??? no, Im sure youre not.
It was such a beautiful thing to behold. For me it brought back a delightful memory of when my mum took me to a butterfly house in Dunedin, NZ. There were thousands of the most magnificent butterflies you have ever seen from all over the world. They land on your hands and you can feed them. It was a wonderful time we had, one I wont forget. THANK YOU MUM! Many of these I have now had the priviledge of seeing in the "wild" both in Belize and here in Mexico.
They tell me that in many of the towns here the butterflies, monarcs and others migrate and at certain times of the year you can see literally thousands of them flying around enjoying the soft breeze and what appears to be the most tranquil of lives. I would love to see that!
What I did get to see today though was very special and one of those things you simply can not plan on seeing, making it all the more special.
What a Grand Creator we have and what a blessing to be able to enjoy the beauty he has given us!!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
WE ARE ALIVE!
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to let you all know that we are safe and sound.
Many people have expressed concern as they had heard of the massive hurricane that hit Mexico.
We are in quite a different area from where the hurricane hit, so are quite safe, but thank you all for your thoughts.
We do however have many many brothers and sisters in that area that have lost homes and land. Many towns and villages have been simply washed away and nothing remains but mud mud mud.
Here we have a family that has a daughter in the area. They lost contact with her and her family once the storm hit and no one heard from them for days. However, thankfully contact was made with them last night and they are all well.
Many others though are not so well off, so we all ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers!
As for us we are doing well. I have been very sick again with a nasty flu virus. Thus the lack of posts in the last two weeks or so. I am still feeling the brunt of it but its getting better which is a relief. I hope to be able to get back out witnessing and in amongst the congregation again soon.
Dave is thundering along as per usual, impervious to all bugs it seems, must be his scary exterior or something, frightens the bugs away........... He is in the process of getting another job that we hope in time will replace the current one, we will just have to wait and see how it goes though.
So folks, we are all present but not so correct, so normal I guess! Thanks again for all your thoughts and concerned words, much appreciated!
TAKE CARE!
Just wanted to let you all know that we are safe and sound.
Many people have expressed concern as they had heard of the massive hurricane that hit Mexico.
We are in quite a different area from where the hurricane hit, so are quite safe, but thank you all for your thoughts.
We do however have many many brothers and sisters in that area that have lost homes and land. Many towns and villages have been simply washed away and nothing remains but mud mud mud.
Here we have a family that has a daughter in the area. They lost contact with her and her family once the storm hit and no one heard from them for days. However, thankfully contact was made with them last night and they are all well.
Many others though are not so well off, so we all ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers!
As for us we are doing well. I have been very sick again with a nasty flu virus. Thus the lack of posts in the last two weeks or so. I am still feeling the brunt of it but its getting better which is a relief. I hope to be able to get back out witnessing and in amongst the congregation again soon.
Dave is thundering along as per usual, impervious to all bugs it seems, must be his scary exterior or something, frightens the bugs away........... He is in the process of getting another job that we hope in time will replace the current one, we will just have to wait and see how it goes though.
So folks, we are all present but not so correct, so normal I guess! Thanks again for all your thoughts and concerned words, much appreciated!
TAKE CARE!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
YAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Well I never thought Id hear myself say this again, but "I love it when it rains!!!!"
Finally after nearly three months it has rained. Twice in 24 hours even!! I dont just mean rain, I mean RAAAAIIIINNNNN! Its awesome!
Big thunder and lightening to go with it too, excellent.
It has just started to get extra special hot, just in the last two or three days really and the rain has come with it.
The rain cools it down for about 10 mins which is really nice and then it turns into a sauna!!! hmmmmm not so excellent!!
But its rain baby, yahoooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Finally after nearly three months it has rained. Twice in 24 hours even!! I dont just mean rain, I mean RAAAAIIIINNNNN! Its awesome!
Big thunder and lightening to go with it too, excellent.
It has just started to get extra special hot, just in the last two or three days really and the rain has come with it.
The rain cools it down for about 10 mins which is really nice and then it turns into a sauna!!! hmmmmm not so excellent!!
But its rain baby, yahoooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
THIS IS FUNNY!!
Out witnessing the other day Dave goes to do one of his calls. Its Siesta time and many people are resting then.
He goes to the gate and calls out to the man in the usual fashion here. The lady from the house pops up from the bed right by the window, semi dressed I might add. Dave all flustered still asks to speak to the man he calls on.
Next thing, he pops up from the bed too! They had been sleeping and we had woken them.
Now Dave even more flustered says to them and I quote " I leavo a magazino?"
It was soooo funny, he had no idea what he had just said and asked me when we got to the street what I was laughing about. I tell him what he just said and he goes "Nooooooo I never said that!" I replied " Yeah ya did!" He and I just cracked up laughing, it was hillarious!! THATS WHAT WE CALL SPANGLISH BABY!!
We then walk past this bike shop and Dave asks the guys in weird Spanish how much for ALL the bikes..... the guys eyes nearly popped out of his head as dollar signs ran around in front of his eyes. Im thinking, Oh man how am I going to get out of this one!
The man says, "ALL of them???" "Oh no just this one and this one!" Dave replies. The man says "well this one is bla bla price and this one is a little more as it has a changer (gears)" Dave then says "Ahhhh geares"!!!! No thats not Spanish! ITS SPANGLISH BABY YEAH!!!
The funniest thing of all was the lady Dave had said "I leavo a magazino" to, replied "no worries!" in perfect english!!
All of you that speak or are learning Spanish will appreciate this from a different point of view, but good for a giggle aye!!
SPANGLISH BABY, YEAH!!!
He goes to the gate and calls out to the man in the usual fashion here. The lady from the house pops up from the bed right by the window, semi dressed I might add. Dave all flustered still asks to speak to the man he calls on.
Next thing, he pops up from the bed too! They had been sleeping and we had woken them.
Now Dave even more flustered says to them and I quote " I leavo a magazino?"
It was soooo funny, he had no idea what he had just said and asked me when we got to the street what I was laughing about. I tell him what he just said and he goes "Nooooooo I never said that!" I replied " Yeah ya did!" He and I just cracked up laughing, it was hillarious!! THATS WHAT WE CALL SPANGLISH BABY!!
We then walk past this bike shop and Dave asks the guys in weird Spanish how much for ALL the bikes..... the guys eyes nearly popped out of his head as dollar signs ran around in front of his eyes. Im thinking, Oh man how am I going to get out of this one!
The man says, "ALL of them???" "Oh no just this one and this one!" Dave replies. The man says "well this one is bla bla price and this one is a little more as it has a changer (gears)" Dave then says "Ahhhh geares"!!!! No thats not Spanish! ITS SPANGLISH BABY YEAH!!!
The funniest thing of all was the lady Dave had said "I leavo a magazino" to, replied "no worries!" in perfect english!!
All of you that speak or are learning Spanish will appreciate this from a different point of view, but good for a giggle aye!!
SPANGLISH BABY, YEAH!!!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
TECOMAN NIGHTLIFE!!
This is a strange ol post for ya, but it will give you an idea of what the night life is like here.
Each night Dave goes off to bed and I settle down to watch a movie or send emails or do meeting prep, whatever really. It usually involves the computer though.
I sit with all the lights out, so the only light is from my computer screen.
Talk about moth to the light, well sort of anyway.
I was sitting here last night assuming the usual position and this tiny little ant goes wandering across my screen, I kill it with my giant death finger, dead and gone.
A few moments later a much larger ant about half an inch wanders across the screen, this meets the death finger too, but with a little more force this time.
Next 9 mosquitos decide to have a hulla in the night light ( my computer screen), probably killed half of one of them with my not so stealth death hands.
Next a ginormous ant about an inch long goes by the screen. It had the cheek to rear up at me when I gave it the death finger times two this time, oh the power!
Now a cockroach goes by with its little feller things twittering in front of it, YUUUUUUCKKKK!! That got flicked of the screen and given the jandal treatment!!
Last but not least a spider arrives on the screen (not scene) and does its thing across it. It too meets an ugly death by jandal.
Now I sit here waiting for the next adventure, will it be a hippo next?? Oh no, safe there, we dont have hippos in Mexico!!
I now dont bother watching a movie, why would I ever need to when theres soooooo much excitment to be had!!!!
Those of you that want to come here, ................. still wanna come?????
Each night Dave goes off to bed and I settle down to watch a movie or send emails or do meeting prep, whatever really. It usually involves the computer though.
I sit with all the lights out, so the only light is from my computer screen.
Talk about moth to the light, well sort of anyway.
I was sitting here last night assuming the usual position and this tiny little ant goes wandering across my screen, I kill it with my giant death finger, dead and gone.
A few moments later a much larger ant about half an inch wanders across the screen, this meets the death finger too, but with a little more force this time.
Next 9 mosquitos decide to have a hulla in the night light ( my computer screen), probably killed half of one of them with my not so stealth death hands.
Next a ginormous ant about an inch long goes by the screen. It had the cheek to rear up at me when I gave it the death finger times two this time, oh the power!
Now a cockroach goes by with its little feller things twittering in front of it, YUUUUUUCKKKK!! That got flicked of the screen and given the jandal treatment!!
Last but not least a spider arrives on the screen (not scene) and does its thing across it. It too meets an ugly death by jandal.
Now I sit here waiting for the next adventure, will it be a hippo next?? Oh no, safe there, we dont have hippos in Mexico!!
I now dont bother watching a movie, why would I ever need to when theres soooooo much excitment to be had!!!!
Those of you that want to come here, ................. still wanna come?????
THE SKY IS FALLING DOWN!!
Heres a funny one for ya.
While out witnessing minding our own business the other day we approached a house.
Wow nothing outstanding about that right? So true, however what happened next was.
Dave knocks on this big fence that is surrounded by big trees, mango trees, almonds tress etc. Next things we hear is this very large rustling noise in the leaves above us.
We both had time to look up and with that this big ol mango comes falling from the tree straight for Daves big ol head!
There really wasnt even time to duck for cover. The mango hit the top of the fence and we both held our breath as the mango decided which way to fall, on the left of the fence and onto the ground or on the right of the fence and on to Daves head.
Well it choose option left and fell onto the ground, phew!!!! Chicken Little was nowhere to be seen which was great because now we have the rights for the movie sequel!!
Again the motto "always send Dave in first" comes to mind..............
While out witnessing minding our own business the other day we approached a house.
Wow nothing outstanding about that right? So true, however what happened next was.
Dave knocks on this big fence that is surrounded by big trees, mango trees, almonds tress etc. Next things we hear is this very large rustling noise in the leaves above us.
We both had time to look up and with that this big ol mango comes falling from the tree straight for Daves big ol head!
There really wasnt even time to duck for cover. The mango hit the top of the fence and we both held our breath as the mango decided which way to fall, on the left of the fence and onto the ground or on the right of the fence and on to Daves head.
Well it choose option left and fell onto the ground, phew!!!! Chicken Little was nowhere to be seen which was great because now we have the rights for the movie sequel!!
Again the motto "always send Dave in first" comes to mind..............
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
NEW HOUSE
So folks we have now moved into our new house.
We had our first visitor and everything.
The first visitor was a hummingbird! It was bright shinny green and hovered over our flowers for ages. It was a stunning sight to behold and Im very pleased to say that we have many little hummers as we call them visit us quite regularly too.
Dave has been out figuring out where to put his hammock only to be attacked by the ants already resident in the tree. They were not happy (by the thousands I might add) and have now up and left as they did not want to share their tree with giant Dave so they have left to find a new more undisrupted tree. Fine by us just quietly!
We have already figured out how to build a second bedroom on the house here which would be ideal but thats just dreaming right now really. Thats todays totally useless piece of information!
No major bugs to mention as yet but Im sure that will change before long, will let ya know when I have an update on that front.
Oh heres a funny story that might explain a few things for you all.
Sooooooooooo when I write these blogs I always used to do a spell check right, so you didnt all think I was stupid or anything (I know those of you that know me know better, wow that was way too many knows for one sentence!!)Anyhoooooo
I have now stopped spell checking okay! Why you may ask and rightly so. The reason is that this program recognises that I am in Mexico and when I spell check what I have written it highlights practically every word because its not SPANISH!!! How funny is that! hmmmm or maybe not, anyway.....
So yeah, I have stopped spell checking so you're all just gonna have to get over the spelling mistakes and send emails to me to tell me where I went wrong. (its some kind of weird plan to get emails you see, its not that I cant spell at all!)
We had our first visitor and everything.
The first visitor was a hummingbird! It was bright shinny green and hovered over our flowers for ages. It was a stunning sight to behold and Im very pleased to say that we have many little hummers as we call them visit us quite regularly too.
Dave has been out figuring out where to put his hammock only to be attacked by the ants already resident in the tree. They were not happy (by the thousands I might add) and have now up and left as they did not want to share their tree with giant Dave so they have left to find a new more undisrupted tree. Fine by us just quietly!
We have already figured out how to build a second bedroom on the house here which would be ideal but thats just dreaming right now really. Thats todays totally useless piece of information!
No major bugs to mention as yet but Im sure that will change before long, will let ya know when I have an update on that front.
Oh heres a funny story that might explain a few things for you all.
Sooooooooooo when I write these blogs I always used to do a spell check right, so you didnt all think I was stupid or anything (I know those of you that know me know better, wow that was way too many knows for one sentence!!)Anyhoooooo
I have now stopped spell checking okay! Why you may ask and rightly so. The reason is that this program recognises that I am in Mexico and when I spell check what I have written it highlights practically every word because its not SPANISH!!! How funny is that! hmmmm or maybe not, anyway.....
So yeah, I have stopped spell checking so you're all just gonna have to get over the spelling mistakes and send emails to me to tell me where I went wrong. (its some kind of weird plan to get emails you see, its not that I cant spell at all!)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
IM NEVER HYPENATING MY NAME!!
I went into a store here to buy our new oven (which by the way cost a whole $190 brand new).
One of the requirements for the paper work is to fill in your name.
Well that doesnt seem complicated right, not really. Well its not really, but they do have a different system for their names here, compared to us in NZ.
In Mexico the family name of your parents is extremely important as it tells everyone what stock you are from.
So on this form I had to write my name including surname and the family surname of my father and the family surname of my mother. This then gets printed on your receipt and stored in the customer information.
So my new Mexican name is Traecy Yvonne McCall Ball Cameron!!!!!!!!
IM NEVER HYPHENATING MY NAME!! At least it rhymed until it got to Cameron......
Take a second to think of what your Mexican name is, it could be good for a laugh!
One of the requirements for the paper work is to fill in your name.
Well that doesnt seem complicated right, not really. Well its not really, but they do have a different system for their names here, compared to us in NZ.
In Mexico the family name of your parents is extremely important as it tells everyone what stock you are from.
So on this form I had to write my name including surname and the family surname of my father and the family surname of my mother. This then gets printed on your receipt and stored in the customer information.
So my new Mexican name is Traecy Yvonne McCall Ball Cameron!!!!!!!!
IM NEVER HYPHENATING MY NAME!! At least it rhymed until it got to Cameron......
Take a second to think of what your Mexican name is, it could be good for a laugh!
EARTHQUAKE!!
So we were sitting back relaxing a couple of days ago.
I suddenly feel this very gentle rocking of the seat Im sitting on. I thought, hmmm that was strange. I ask Dave did you feel that? Of course he answers "what?" (he was playing on the computer after all......)
I thought, oh it must just have been a big truck going past, so I didnt think anything else of it.
Next thing the sister that lives next door to us comes running over asking if we just felt that earthquake.
Dave replies, Tracey said she felt a rumble but I didnt feel anything.
So there you go we have officially had our first earth quake for Mexico.
We had a big shake in the first few weeks of being in Belize and now another one in Mexico. Maybe we should stop moving countries!!
I suddenly feel this very gentle rocking of the seat Im sitting on. I thought, hmmm that was strange. I ask Dave did you feel that? Of course he answers "what?" (he was playing on the computer after all......)
I thought, oh it must just have been a big truck going past, so I didnt think anything else of it.
Next thing the sister that lives next door to us comes running over asking if we just felt that earthquake.
Dave replies, Tracey said she felt a rumble but I didnt feel anything.
So there you go we have officially had our first earth quake for Mexico.
We had a big shake in the first few weeks of being in Belize and now another one in Mexico. Maybe we should stop moving countries!!
Monday, May 10, 2010
CATCH UP TIME
Hi folks,
Well we have been super super busy the past few weeks and that is an understatement!!
We have just had the CO visit a week ago, which was fantastic.
Many an hour was spent out witnessing with them and we were able to get to know them very well which was great. It was sad to see them go but they will be back and we all look forward to that with anticipation.
Also on the job front we have some extra students now which make things a little easier although we still need more to be able to live off what we earn for teaching. So hopes are that more students will come along which will make things much much easier!
So on the house front we have finally found a delightful little house. It is on a corner in a reasonably quiet area, so the noise factor will be significantly reduced, wahoooooooooo!
It is a one bedroom house, but it does have a sort of kitchen in it which most houses do not have, so thats awesome!! There are no cupboards or anything like that anywhere in the house so we will have to use some good ol "kiwi ingenuity" for that.
Also extra cool is the garden in the front and back of the house. It is soooo beautiful! There are some gorgeous flowering beauties with a lovely shade tree in the middle. Dave will be able to at last hang his hammock!! He is a happy boy! There is a little patio area which we will be able to cover easily. We cant wait to sit outside and watch the hummingbirds at work!
Plan at this stage is to move in on the 16th May so we will see how we go.
We have slowly been gathering a few essentials for our move ie, oven, bed etc. We will certainly be living very sparsely, probably making some pieces of furniture (that should be interesting!)but we dont care, we are just delighted to have somewhere to call home!
So folks thats an update for ya. I would also love to hear from you guys so please send emails even if they are just about the weather!
Ciao for now.
Well we have been super super busy the past few weeks and that is an understatement!!
We have just had the CO visit a week ago, which was fantastic.
Many an hour was spent out witnessing with them and we were able to get to know them very well which was great. It was sad to see them go but they will be back and we all look forward to that with anticipation.
Also on the job front we have some extra students now which make things a little easier although we still need more to be able to live off what we earn for teaching. So hopes are that more students will come along which will make things much much easier!
So on the house front we have finally found a delightful little house. It is on a corner in a reasonably quiet area, so the noise factor will be significantly reduced, wahoooooooooo!
It is a one bedroom house, but it does have a sort of kitchen in it which most houses do not have, so thats awesome!! There are no cupboards or anything like that anywhere in the house so we will have to use some good ol "kiwi ingenuity" for that.
Also extra cool is the garden in the front and back of the house. It is soooo beautiful! There are some gorgeous flowering beauties with a lovely shade tree in the middle. Dave will be able to at last hang his hammock!! He is a happy boy! There is a little patio area which we will be able to cover easily. We cant wait to sit outside and watch the hummingbirds at work!
Plan at this stage is to move in on the 16th May so we will see how we go.
We have slowly been gathering a few essentials for our move ie, oven, bed etc. We will certainly be living very sparsely, probably making some pieces of furniture (that should be interesting!)but we dont care, we are just delighted to have somewhere to call home!
So folks thats an update for ya. I would also love to hear from you guys so please send emails even if they are just about the weather!
Ciao for now.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
BIG SPIDER THINGYS!
Well I was just going back over some of the posts and remembered something that happened the day we went four wheel witnessing.
During that day we were wandering down this lane in the absolute middle of nowhere and up in front of us I notice this weird stuff along the ground at the base of the trees.
On closer inspection the weird stuff was actually spider webs. They were clustered together in what looked like communities and had these funnel looking holes in the middle of them.
Hmmmmmmm I thunked to myself. These are strange! Soooooo Dave is down on his haunches teasing the web to see if he can get a spider to come out. Nothing happened. Well thats boring we thought to ourselves and carried on up the road. As we walked away I commented that they looked like funnel webs ie funnel web spiders but that I didnt know if they had them in Mexico.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel when we got home I jumped on the internet and typed in, what sort of spider makes webs on the ground. What should come up?????
FUNNEL WEB SPIDERS MAKE WEBS ON THE GROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the main identifying factors is that they build their webs in communities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I read further only to find that some Funnel Web Spiders are amoung the most deadly spiders in the world. If you are bitten you have 15mins to get treatment!
We were in the middle of nowhere, way more than 15mins from anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOTE TO SELF:::::: If I ever see any weird stuff again, keep sending Dave in first!!!!!!!! He he he
No seriously, dont go poking what you do not know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
During that day we were wandering down this lane in the absolute middle of nowhere and up in front of us I notice this weird stuff along the ground at the base of the trees.
On closer inspection the weird stuff was actually spider webs. They were clustered together in what looked like communities and had these funnel looking holes in the middle of them.
Hmmmmmmm I thunked to myself. These are strange! Soooooo Dave is down on his haunches teasing the web to see if he can get a spider to come out. Nothing happened. Well thats boring we thought to ourselves and carried on up the road. As we walked away I commented that they looked like funnel webs ie funnel web spiders but that I didnt know if they had them in Mexico.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel when we got home I jumped on the internet and typed in, what sort of spider makes webs on the ground. What should come up?????
FUNNEL WEB SPIDERS MAKE WEBS ON THE GROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the main identifying factors is that they build their webs in communities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I read further only to find that some Funnel Web Spiders are amoung the most deadly spiders in the world. If you are bitten you have 15mins to get treatment!
We were in the middle of nowhere, way more than 15mins from anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOTE TO SELF:::::: If I ever see any weird stuff again, keep sending Dave in first!!!!!!!! He he he
No seriously, dont go poking what you do not know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM STILL ALIVE
So here I am people.
Sorry to have been absent for a while there. I have been quite sick with the flu and typing on this thing was the last thing on my mind.
We do have some good news though. We got a job this week, yipeeeeeee!
Teaching English online to student in China.
Its all done throught the internet, skype etc, awesome really. My how the world has changed aye.
Still no news on the ouse front accept that we have a house we just cant get into it yet. So we may have to give up on it and try something else. We will do a few final last ditch efforts this week to get into it but we really do not hold our breath, so please dont hold yours!
We will however let you know what happens when we know what happened!
Sorry to have been absent for a while there. I have been quite sick with the flu and typing on this thing was the last thing on my mind.
We do have some good news though. We got a job this week, yipeeeeeee!
Teaching English online to student in China.
Its all done throught the internet, skype etc, awesome really. My how the world has changed aye.
Still no news on the ouse front accept that we have a house we just cant get into it yet. So we may have to give up on it and try something else. We will do a few final last ditch efforts this week to get into it but we really do not hold our breath, so please dont hold yours!
We will however let you know what happens when we know what happened!
Monday, April 5, 2010
I LOST IT TODAY!!
Now before you all start to worry, I did not loose my temper noooo thats not it at all!
We bought ourselves a second hand bike the other day for $70, its in really good condition and has no problems at all, awesome! Good price too. Now we just have to find one more and we will be free as birds again.
Now here comes the "i lost it part".
Dave rides the bike to the meeting as I am going with others and then have a study to go on straight away with another sister. Im taking the bike from the hall to the study.
Please note I have no been for a ride on the bike yet......
Please note 98% of the roads here are cobbles but not as WE know it......
Please note cobbles, here, means smooth riverstones laid carefully in rows or random order (oximoron) surrounded by sand. NOT smooth at all.......
Okay back to the point.
I get on the bike and off I go. To start with hmmm yeah this is weird the bumping but nah not to bad. Most of the way to the study from the hall is sealed roads and then some where the stones are worn nearly flat so bumpy but relatively easy going.
On my way home, well that was another story all together! The roads back to our house are 99% "cobbles". Cobbles that are not smooth, cobbles that are the devil!
I started out, hmm not so bad, what the heck this is getting worse, what the heck this is ridculous, what the heck...............................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
thats when my brain bounced right out of the top of my head and I LOST IT!
Eventually after much searching, which I might add without a brain is highly difficult to do, I found it. The song..... "Then the poor meatball, rolled under a tree" came to my mind????? Well came back to mind, when I found my mind, hmmmm yeah I think thats right.
So people I have decided that extra extremely full suspension should be the order of the day however until we are rich, we will have to do with losing our minds everytime we go riding!
BE THANKFUL YOU ALL HAVE SMOOOOOOOOTH ROADS! Its the small things in life!
We bought ourselves a second hand bike the other day for $70, its in really good condition and has no problems at all, awesome! Good price too. Now we just have to find one more and we will be free as birds again.
Now here comes the "i lost it part".
Dave rides the bike to the meeting as I am going with others and then have a study to go on straight away with another sister. Im taking the bike from the hall to the study.
Please note I have no been for a ride on the bike yet......
Please note 98% of the roads here are cobbles but not as WE know it......
Please note cobbles, here, means smooth riverstones laid carefully in rows or random order (oximoron) surrounded by sand. NOT smooth at all.......
Okay back to the point.
I get on the bike and off I go. To start with hmmm yeah this is weird the bumping but nah not to bad. Most of the way to the study from the hall is sealed roads and then some where the stones are worn nearly flat so bumpy but relatively easy going.
On my way home, well that was another story all together! The roads back to our house are 99% "cobbles". Cobbles that are not smooth, cobbles that are the devil!
I started out, hmm not so bad, what the heck this is getting worse, what the heck this is ridculous, what the heck...............................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
thats when my brain bounced right out of the top of my head and I LOST IT!
Eventually after much searching, which I might add without a brain is highly difficult to do, I found it. The song..... "Then the poor meatball, rolled under a tree" came to my mind????? Well came back to mind, when I found my mind, hmmmm yeah I think thats right.
So people I have decided that extra extremely full suspension should be the order of the day however until we are rich, we will have to do with losing our minds everytime we go riding!
BE THANKFUL YOU ALL HAVE SMOOOOOOOOTH ROADS! Its the small things in life!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
FOUR WHEEL WITNESSING!!
Went out witnessing on the four wheel motorbike today. We meandered our way out on some very long very dusty roads in the countryside (which I did not know we were doing when I got dressed). So Im wearing a white t-shirt to keep cool, good idea right, NOT! Well not when you travel on the very back of a motorbike on very dusty roads. Did I happen to mention there were four of us on the bike?
My whole back (my white t-shirted back that is) and right up both my arms and legs were covered in an inch or two of dust, it was so funny to look at. My hair turned into one great big wind swept dread lock, sexy baby yeah!
Finally we made our way back into town where we were laughing and saying to each other, its just as well it didnt rain, we would turn into mud puddles! Weeeeeellllll, right then a guy on a normal motorbike going the oppisite direction rode through the middle of the one and only puddle in all of Mexico at the moment! Where did the splash go??? OVER THE TOP OF US ALL!!!! It was hilarious! Mud puddles we became!
I took a photo when we got home of my legs. I have taken my shoes off but you can not tell at all. It still looks as though Im wearing them!
We all looked like something out of a really bad B grade, monsters from the marsh movie or something, but we did have fun!!!
Is it weird that I cant wait until we do it again?!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
AWAY THE WORRIES
Howdy partners,
Just a prelude to this email. It is written in good spirits. It is written based on research, much research. It is not written to offend or upset anyone. It is written simply to ease your minds and act as a reminder. It is to remind us all that, time and unforseen occurance befall us all.
I would just like to let everyone know a few things about Mexico and life here as there seems to be some worry amongst you as to our safety etc etc etc.
Yes there are news reports about Mexico and the crime here, but Mexico is a very very big country and only a small portion of it is actually dangerous.
If we were to take up drug running or lording then we just might have a few issues, but we dont intend, at all to take that up. We will stick to jobs we can do from home over the internet, quite safe and sound.
In comparision to other large countries for "TOTAL crime statistics" Mexico doesnt make the top 10! Among the top 10 are #1 the USA #2 the UK, France, Itay, Canada, Japan.
It is true that Mexico has violent crime, no doubt, but consider 08/09 year, Mexico has a murder rate of 13 per 100,000 people, now look at the US cities in comparision, Baltimore has 43.4 per 100,000, Washington DC 29.1 per 100,000 and Detroit with 47.3 per 100,000. This is a year old but the more recent article printed in NZ also indicates that you are 3 times more likely to be the victim of violent crime in the US than you are in Mexicos cities. In fact a NZ news paper reported that NZ, Findland, Hungary, the USA and Mexico all rate in the top 5 most violent contries as of the start of 2010!! Who knew NZ is as bad as Mexico!!!!!
Most of the violent crime in Mexico is boarder city based as this is where the drugs are travelling, where are the drugs going???? The US and beyond, out of Mexico!! Something to think about.
We are miles and miles from the boarder, but yes, we do have to be careful, just as you do. There is crime everywhere and we must all use our common sense to stay away from bad associates and the dark, crimey alleys of the world. If we apply that principal we can all but hope we will be fine.
We really want to tell you all once and for all, we REALLY REALLY appreciate your concerns and thank you all for expressing them. We dont feel we have made an unsafe choice coming here and we hope you dont either.
Now remember to smile and love the life we live!
Just a prelude to this email. It is written in good spirits. It is written based on research, much research. It is not written to offend or upset anyone. It is written simply to ease your minds and act as a reminder. It is to remind us all that, time and unforseen occurance befall us all.
I would just like to let everyone know a few things about Mexico and life here as there seems to be some worry amongst you as to our safety etc etc etc.
Yes there are news reports about Mexico and the crime here, but Mexico is a very very big country and only a small portion of it is actually dangerous.
If we were to take up drug running or lording then we just might have a few issues, but we dont intend, at all to take that up. We will stick to jobs we can do from home over the internet, quite safe and sound.
In comparision to other large countries for "TOTAL crime statistics" Mexico doesnt make the top 10! Among the top 10 are #1 the USA #2 the UK, France, Itay, Canada, Japan.
It is true that Mexico has violent crime, no doubt, but consider 08/09 year, Mexico has a murder rate of 13 per 100,000 people, now look at the US cities in comparision, Baltimore has 43.4 per 100,000, Washington DC 29.1 per 100,000 and Detroit with 47.3 per 100,000. This is a year old but the more recent article printed in NZ also indicates that you are 3 times more likely to be the victim of violent crime in the US than you are in Mexicos cities. In fact a NZ news paper reported that NZ, Findland, Hungary, the USA and Mexico all rate in the top 5 most violent contries as of the start of 2010!! Who knew NZ is as bad as Mexico!!!!!
Most of the violent crime in Mexico is boarder city based as this is where the drugs are travelling, where are the drugs going???? The US and beyond, out of Mexico!! Something to think about.
We are miles and miles from the boarder, but yes, we do have to be careful, just as you do. There is crime everywhere and we must all use our common sense to stay away from bad associates and the dark, crimey alleys of the world. If we apply that principal we can all but hope we will be fine.
We really want to tell you all once and for all, we REALLY REALLY appreciate your concerns and thank you all for expressing them. We dont feel we have made an unsafe choice coming here and we hope you dont either.
Now remember to smile and love the life we live!
OOOOOO SHOPPING!!!
You will have to forgive me, some of these posts have been sitting a few days waiting for me to post them, anyway........
Went furniture shopping today..... ouch you might be thinking, thats gonna hurt the bank balance, well noooooooooooo
Check this out:
Oven $220
Fridge (sep freezer) $350
Washing Machine (fully auto) $330
King size Mattress and base $300
Okay who has a calculator? Oooooohhhh you dont need one that maths is not that big!
Yes folks thats a grand total of $$1200 NZD!!!!!!! Now tell me someone, when on earths history could you buy all that for that price??????
Oh yeah did I mention that everything is brand new, NOT second hand!! hmmmm yes it is!
Okay so enough showing off about that, did I happen to mention that we dont actually have a house for any of it to go into yet, but thats completely besides that point! We do plan to get one in time........he he he
Went furniture shopping today..... ouch you might be thinking, thats gonna hurt the bank balance, well noooooooooooo
Check this out:
Oven $220
Fridge (sep freezer) $350
Washing Machine (fully auto) $330
King size Mattress and base $300
Okay who has a calculator? Oooooohhhh you dont need one that maths is not that big!
Yes folks thats a grand total of $$1200 NZD!!!!!!! Now tell me someone, when on earths history could you buy all that for that price??????
Oh yeah did I mention that everything is brand new, NOT second hand!! hmmmm yes it is!
Okay so enough showing off about that, did I happen to mention that we dont actually have a house for any of it to go into yet, but thats completely besides that point! We do plan to get one in time........he he he
MEMORIALS
Hi di hi all,
So there was a famine for a while there but here I am again.
So since we have been here we have been focusing on the Memorial Invites, keeping us nice and busy especially in the last week. (Thus the famine)
We have 20 pubs in Tecoman and there were 49 in attendance, yay! (only english speakers) So theres some work to be done as you can see. This was an increase on last year by some 13 odd people. Well not odd as in odd, but odd, you know, odd........ nevermind!
Just got an email from Belize with the figures for our old congo in Dangriga. They have 62 pubs, 8 pubs are assigned to the new group that was formed in a village called Hopkins about a year and a half ago, the rest are in Dangriga.
This is the first year that 2 Memorial services were held, one in Hopkins and the other in Dangriga as per usual.
Now brace yourselves...... The combined total attendance was 452!!!!!!! Remember 62 pubs!!! Hmmmmmm you could say they have some work to do to aye!
Another outstanding feature is that in Hopkins alone they had 135 in attendance thats with 8 pubs!
Kinda mind blowing right!! I guess you can see now why we were so hoping that we would be able to be there for it, but, that was not to be, alas. We are very proud though of our turn out and are more than eager to get into the work!
Dave and I meet a lovely young couple that attended for the first time, from the invite and we are off to see them tomorrow, so we cant wait to see what happens with them!
Well theres an update for ya, please feel free to spread the word on the figures above, they are all confirmed and accurate!
So there was a famine for a while there but here I am again.
So since we have been here we have been focusing on the Memorial Invites, keeping us nice and busy especially in the last week. (Thus the famine)
We have 20 pubs in Tecoman and there were 49 in attendance, yay! (only english speakers) So theres some work to be done as you can see. This was an increase on last year by some 13 odd people. Well not odd as in odd, but odd, you know, odd........ nevermind!
Just got an email from Belize with the figures for our old congo in Dangriga. They have 62 pubs, 8 pubs are assigned to the new group that was formed in a village called Hopkins about a year and a half ago, the rest are in Dangriga.
This is the first year that 2 Memorial services were held, one in Hopkins and the other in Dangriga as per usual.
Now brace yourselves...... The combined total attendance was 452!!!!!!! Remember 62 pubs!!! Hmmmmmm you could say they have some work to do to aye!
Another outstanding feature is that in Hopkins alone they had 135 in attendance thats with 8 pubs!
Kinda mind blowing right!! I guess you can see now why we were so hoping that we would be able to be there for it, but, that was not to be, alas. We are very proud though of our turn out and are more than eager to get into the work!
Dave and I meet a lovely young couple that attended for the first time, from the invite and we are off to see them tomorrow, so we cant wait to see what happens with them!
Well theres an update for ya, please feel free to spread the word on the figures above, they are all confirmed and accurate!
Friday, March 26, 2010
FIRST MEETING
We attended our first meeting as part of the Tecoman congregation today.
The congo is very very welcoming and straight away we felt quite comfortable.
I had a part on the meeting which was pretty funny since we have only been here for 3 days, he he.
After the meeting we practiced the songs for the Memorial which we thought was a wonderful idea. That way the public wont think we are a bunch of freaks that cant sing our own songs.
Here is Mexico and also down in Belize they have not started using the new song book so we had to hunt down an old one for us to use today, that was like a blast from the past! The Memorial is the first time they will be using the new book making the practice sessions even more valuable.
The congo obviously loves to sing and they do so with great gusto. Its wonderful to hear. Oh and the music is awesome loud so it drowns out the bad singing quite well, but we were all pretty good, if I do say so myself!
After the meeting Jasa and I jumped on the "moto" this is what they call a four wheeler motorbike and wizzed off to do some calls. We had a great 3 hours or so inviting people to the memorial. Dave and Dustin went on the bikes so all round I think the girls had the better deal!
There are some parts of the town where you have to go super fast as you are travelling under a bunch of trees that have hundreds if not thousands of big black birds roosting in them. Now try hard to imagine this: thousands of bird all lined up with their butts aimed at any unknowing passerbyer (just made that word up), you approach at speed and they all start to shoot you with poo. This is where the speed comes into it. Hopefully you are going so fast that the birds a) dont get time to aim and b) cant hit you cos you are a blur. We of course are in the open air on either a pushbike or a moto so its even funnier, well for the birds that is! he he
Hmmm not much else happened today we were out till late and we have an early morning as there is a deep clean on the hall to get it all spick and span for the Memorial. So I must away and get some beauty sleep!
The congo is very very welcoming and straight away we felt quite comfortable.
I had a part on the meeting which was pretty funny since we have only been here for 3 days, he he.
After the meeting we practiced the songs for the Memorial which we thought was a wonderful idea. That way the public wont think we are a bunch of freaks that cant sing our own songs.
Here is Mexico and also down in Belize they have not started using the new song book so we had to hunt down an old one for us to use today, that was like a blast from the past! The Memorial is the first time they will be using the new book making the practice sessions even more valuable.
The congo obviously loves to sing and they do so with great gusto. Its wonderful to hear. Oh and the music is awesome loud so it drowns out the bad singing quite well, but we were all pretty good, if I do say so myself!
After the meeting Jasa and I jumped on the "moto" this is what they call a four wheeler motorbike and wizzed off to do some calls. We had a great 3 hours or so inviting people to the memorial. Dave and Dustin went on the bikes so all round I think the girls had the better deal!
There are some parts of the town where you have to go super fast as you are travelling under a bunch of trees that have hundreds if not thousands of big black birds roosting in them. Now try hard to imagine this: thousands of bird all lined up with their butts aimed at any unknowing passerbyer (just made that word up), you approach at speed and they all start to shoot you with poo. This is where the speed comes into it. Hopefully you are going so fast that the birds a) dont get time to aim and b) cant hit you cos you are a blur. We of course are in the open air on either a pushbike or a moto so its even funnier, well for the birds that is! he he
Hmmm not much else happened today we were out till late and we have an early morning as there is a deep clean on the hall to get it all spick and span for the Memorial. So I must away and get some beauty sleep!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
FUNNY THINGS WE LEARN
Well today was another good day.
Dave went on a couple of studies with Dustin and they did some male bonding while Jasa and I bonded too.
They made us a wonderful dinner of pizza type bread with stuffed tomatoes on the side, mmmmmmm very nice!
Extreme Uno came out and they were taught the madness so now we have them hooked too, awesome.
Today we learnt some very important hand gestures, yes you did read that right! Lets see if I can explain.
If a car stops to let you cross the road in NZ we would raise our hand flat palm facing out and say thanks, right, well here, you raise your hand with the palm facing you and mouth thank you. Hmmmm sounds easy right, well not when you have to suddenly apply the rule. Try it and see what I mean. The trouble is that if you do it our way with the palm out then you are being very rude and basically saying you, punk why did you do that, fool! Not a good one to muck up!
In NZ to describe the height of something ie a child generally we would hold out our hand palm down to the side of us and raise it according to the height required. Not here. If you do that you are always thought to be describing the height of an animal!! hmm yes an animal. So to describe a childs height correctly you make a fist with the palm facing up and point your index finger skyward. Then place your pointing finger fist at the required height of the child. This too feels very wrong and to be honest, kinda rude. Try it and see what I mean.
So thats todays lesson for you.
I also have to say that today the toilet smell in the air has gone and all you can smell is wonderful food aromas, much better!
Dave went on a couple of studies with Dustin and they did some male bonding while Jasa and I bonded too.
They made us a wonderful dinner of pizza type bread with stuffed tomatoes on the side, mmmmmmm very nice!
Extreme Uno came out and they were taught the madness so now we have them hooked too, awesome.
Today we learnt some very important hand gestures, yes you did read that right! Lets see if I can explain.
If a car stops to let you cross the road in NZ we would raise our hand flat palm facing out and say thanks, right, well here, you raise your hand with the palm facing you and mouth thank you. Hmmmm sounds easy right, well not when you have to suddenly apply the rule. Try it and see what I mean. The trouble is that if you do it our way with the palm out then you are being very rude and basically saying you, punk why did you do that, fool! Not a good one to muck up!
In NZ to describe the height of something ie a child generally we would hold out our hand palm down to the side of us and raise it according to the height required. Not here. If you do that you are always thought to be describing the height of an animal!! hmm yes an animal. So to describe a childs height correctly you make a fist with the palm facing up and point your index finger skyward. Then place your pointing finger fist at the required height of the child. This too feels very wrong and to be honest, kinda rude. Try it and see what I mean.
So thats todays lesson for you.
I also have to say that today the toilet smell in the air has gone and all you can smell is wonderful food aromas, much better!
WHATS TECOMAN LIKE
So many of you are probably wondering what its like here. Fair enough I say so here goes an attempt at describing it.
Right now it is not hot, warm but not hot, not yet anyway. So its quite nice really.
Tecoman is flat but is surrounded by mountains (active and inactive volcanoes actually) very pretty. It is the Lemon (lime really) capitol of Mexico.
There is a strange smell that linges in your nostrils, is it onions from the street vendor or is it toilet, or maybe its both, yes thats it. Dont get me wrong its not putrid at all and not competely stinky but it does have that faint, hmmm what is that odor, about it.
The sounds surrounding our current rental are, cars with no mufflers, trucks with no mufflers, motorbikes with no mufflers. The odd dog barking, the odd siren as a emergency or police vehicle zooms by. The squeak of suspension from the cars as they bounce through the holes on the road. Music full of drums and rhythm, some loud, some soft. Roosters, yes roosters. People chatting loudly while enjoying life in the slow lane. Oh and the little green man that tells you when to cross the road, he beeps 10 times slowly and then 4 times fast when you are running out of time. (this is what you do when you are awake all night) Now imagine that all happening at once, right up to about 1am! All I will say is this rental is great, but we cant wait to get to a quieter one!
Now the roads, yes the roads.......... so far we have not seen a single dirt road! Bonus right, WRONG the roads here are paved, well sort of. Some are paved as we know it in NZ others are paved Mexican style. This means that years and years and years ago they put large and small stones on the roads and poured sand around them to hold them in place. Over the years the edges have been rubbed smooth so you wont cut your foot but it makes for an extremely bumpy ride. Not sure how this will go on a push bike but in a car, well its shakes you and the car to pieces so much so that stuff falls off them. This also makes it very hard to walk as they are so uneven. That will take a bit of getting used to I think.
About 10kms away is a massive surf beach with huge waves and a rip to go with it. Not so good for swimming they say but the surfers all come here, as it has a great reputation.
There are little street vendors everywhere, on each corner almost, the smells are amazing. You look for the one with the most locals and you know it will be safe to eat from.
The housing here is pretty rough really. The house really are right ontop of each other, they are all joined together and are that way for the whole block. I havent seen one yet that is a stand alone one. Oh I lie, out in the new area there are some massive houses being built and they do stand alone.
It is very very common to see elderly ones sitting out on the street just watching the world go by. They sit in the shade of a tree with a dog near by normally, both of them sleeping enjoying the cool breeze at this time of year (make the most of that its nearly over).
There are some strange stores which I really cant describe, you have to see them to believe them. Im going to try and get some pictures of them so you can sort of see what I mean.
The people in general are wonderful. Very friendly and kind, more than happy to talk and they love the fact that you are trying to speak their language. Very welcoming
Overall I think there are many many things that are going to take some time to get used to. But these are not break it things at all. Time and an open mind are just required.
Back out witnessing tomorrow, which will no doubt yeld some more stories for you. Meeting on Friday at 3pm as there are 5 congos that use the one hall! (mum and Robin, one of them is a sign lang congo!) We are very much looking forward to our first meeting and getting to meet the friends we just havnt met yet. Oh yeah I already have a part, whats with that! The day we got here I was given it, now thats a need!
So folks I hope that sort of gives you an idea of what the towns like, it might sound worse than it is, I havnt decided that yet! he he he
Post ya later!
Right now it is not hot, warm but not hot, not yet anyway. So its quite nice really.
Tecoman is flat but is surrounded by mountains (active and inactive volcanoes actually) very pretty. It is the Lemon (lime really) capitol of Mexico.
There is a strange smell that linges in your nostrils, is it onions from the street vendor or is it toilet, or maybe its both, yes thats it. Dont get me wrong its not putrid at all and not competely stinky but it does have that faint, hmmm what is that odor, about it.
The sounds surrounding our current rental are, cars with no mufflers, trucks with no mufflers, motorbikes with no mufflers. The odd dog barking, the odd siren as a emergency or police vehicle zooms by. The squeak of suspension from the cars as they bounce through the holes on the road. Music full of drums and rhythm, some loud, some soft. Roosters, yes roosters. People chatting loudly while enjoying life in the slow lane. Oh and the little green man that tells you when to cross the road, he beeps 10 times slowly and then 4 times fast when you are running out of time. (this is what you do when you are awake all night) Now imagine that all happening at once, right up to about 1am! All I will say is this rental is great, but we cant wait to get to a quieter one!
Now the roads, yes the roads.......... so far we have not seen a single dirt road! Bonus right, WRONG the roads here are paved, well sort of. Some are paved as we know it in NZ others are paved Mexican style. This means that years and years and years ago they put large and small stones on the roads and poured sand around them to hold them in place. Over the years the edges have been rubbed smooth so you wont cut your foot but it makes for an extremely bumpy ride. Not sure how this will go on a push bike but in a car, well its shakes you and the car to pieces so much so that stuff falls off them. This also makes it very hard to walk as they are so uneven. That will take a bit of getting used to I think.
About 10kms away is a massive surf beach with huge waves and a rip to go with it. Not so good for swimming they say but the surfers all come here, as it has a great reputation.
There are little street vendors everywhere, on each corner almost, the smells are amazing. You look for the one with the most locals and you know it will be safe to eat from.
The housing here is pretty rough really. The house really are right ontop of each other, they are all joined together and are that way for the whole block. I havent seen one yet that is a stand alone one. Oh I lie, out in the new area there are some massive houses being built and they do stand alone.
It is very very common to see elderly ones sitting out on the street just watching the world go by. They sit in the shade of a tree with a dog near by normally, both of them sleeping enjoying the cool breeze at this time of year (make the most of that its nearly over).
There are some strange stores which I really cant describe, you have to see them to believe them. Im going to try and get some pictures of them so you can sort of see what I mean.
The people in general are wonderful. Very friendly and kind, more than happy to talk and they love the fact that you are trying to speak their language. Very welcoming
Overall I think there are many many things that are going to take some time to get used to. But these are not break it things at all. Time and an open mind are just required.
Back out witnessing tomorrow, which will no doubt yeld some more stories for you. Meeting on Friday at 3pm as there are 5 congos that use the one hall! (mum and Robin, one of them is a sign lang congo!) We are very much looking forward to our first meeting and getting to meet the friends we just havnt met yet. Oh yeah I already have a part, whats with that! The day we got here I was given it, now thats a need!
So folks I hope that sort of gives you an idea of what the towns like, it might sound worse than it is, I havnt decided that yet! he he he
Post ya later!
FIRST DAY ON THE JOB
So today was our first full day in Tecoman. We spent most of it sleeping and trying to catch up on the 50 something hours of travel.
At 5pm we met the group and went out for the very first time!
Okay so let me explain how we do things here. First off we do door to door regardless of what language the people speak. They call this censous work. The aim is to ask each householder if there is anyone in the house or that they know of that speaks english. When you get a yes, you ask to speak to them. If you can, then you do your presentation and record all their details, ie name address etc and that is then recorded on a "map". If they are not available to speak to, then you still take their details and record them on the "map".
Next step is to return on the already censored maps and try to speak just to the english ones, the spanish are already well looked after so we dont worry about them. This basically means there might be anywhere from 2 to 6 english speaking people on a map and you only want to speak to them not everyone else as they are spanish.
So far they have only been able to censor 25% of the territory so there is a lot of work to do!
At the moment we are doing the invitation work so we are only doing the maps that have been censored. We get given a map which is not really made up of streets, its made up of addresses and names. Awesome things is that they actually have street names and numbers here!! Bad thing is that there is no rhyme or reason to the numbering system so you might go from 276 to 4 to 143 to 23 to 887 hmmm yes this makes it a little tricky, they do however keep the odds on one side and the evens on the other, thats a start.
We had a funny experience today. We went to a recorded english house and asked to speak to Juanita. They told us that she didnt actually live there and gave us hand directions on how to find her house. So we went there, nothing, so we asked the person there where she lived and they said try here, giving another address. We went there, nothing. This time we were told to go to the corner and that Juanita is the one that wears the red blouse. Okay at this point we are thinking, ooooookay does she always wear a red blouse????? So we go anyway and when we get to the corner we she a lady in a red blouse sweeping the sidewalk so we veer into the curb only to get a little closer and see that on the corner is a restaurant where all the ladies are wearing red blouses!!!!!! We all just cracked up laughing. Needless to say we never found Juanita.
Im sure there will be many weird and wonderful experiences along the way, which I will do my best to tell you about. So keep reading, you dont want to miss out on anything!
At 5pm we met the group and went out for the very first time!
Okay so let me explain how we do things here. First off we do door to door regardless of what language the people speak. They call this censous work. The aim is to ask each householder if there is anyone in the house or that they know of that speaks english. When you get a yes, you ask to speak to them. If you can, then you do your presentation and record all their details, ie name address etc and that is then recorded on a "map". If they are not available to speak to, then you still take their details and record them on the "map".
Next step is to return on the already censored maps and try to speak just to the english ones, the spanish are already well looked after so we dont worry about them. This basically means there might be anywhere from 2 to 6 english speaking people on a map and you only want to speak to them not everyone else as they are spanish.
So far they have only been able to censor 25% of the territory so there is a lot of work to do!
At the moment we are doing the invitation work so we are only doing the maps that have been censored. We get given a map which is not really made up of streets, its made up of addresses and names. Awesome things is that they actually have street names and numbers here!! Bad thing is that there is no rhyme or reason to the numbering system so you might go from 276 to 4 to 143 to 23 to 887 hmmm yes this makes it a little tricky, they do however keep the odds on one side and the evens on the other, thats a start.
We had a funny experience today. We went to a recorded english house and asked to speak to Juanita. They told us that she didnt actually live there and gave us hand directions on how to find her house. So we went there, nothing, so we asked the person there where she lived and they said try here, giving another address. We went there, nothing. This time we were told to go to the corner and that Juanita is the one that wears the red blouse. Okay at this point we are thinking, ooooookay does she always wear a red blouse????? So we go anyway and when we get to the corner we she a lady in a red blouse sweeping the sidewalk so we veer into the curb only to get a little closer and see that on the corner is a restaurant where all the ladies are wearing red blouses!!!!!! We all just cracked up laughing. Needless to say we never found Juanita.
Im sure there will be many weird and wonderful experiences along the way, which I will do my best to tell you about. So keep reading, you dont want to miss out on anything!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
MEXICO BABY!!!!
You'll never guess where we are at the moment, well okay maybe you will.
We are in a little place called Tecoman. Its a small town on the West coast of Mexico.
After more than 50 hours of travel we arrived today (23 march) safe and sound. We flew first to LA and then on to Mexico City and from there we caught a bus to Colima and the Irbys (new additions to the family) met us there and drove us to Tecoman.
Now your probably wondering why the bus???? Well yes good question especially when I tell you that the bus trip alone was 10 hours long. The buses in Mexico are awesome. This one only has 24 seats on it and they fully recline so you can lay down, TV monitors, your own closet space, bathrooms etc. It was very quiet apart from the man that keep sleep talking loudly in Spanish, that was funny!! You also get drinks and food on the bus. Cheap too, the whole trip, 10 hours for two people cost less than $200 nzd!!!
Harold and Susan then took us for breakfast where we had our first sit down meal in Mexico. It was okay, not great though. They also took us on a little tour of Colima (40mins from Tecoman) and to Sams Club (department/supermarket store), lets just say we wont starve here, no no no. The food variety was soooooo much more than in Belize and the price, man sooooo cheap.
On arriving in Tecoman we were taken to our apartment. This belongs to another brother and his wife who have kindly offered it too us until we can find our own place. It is normally used by the CO or by visitors when they come. It has everything we need and more in it.
Now lets be honest here, when we were told from the street, this is where you will be staying, I thought, oh man your kidding, this coud be interesting. But when we went upstairs and inside we were very pleasently surprised. It is very very nice and just the perfect size. I wish we could stay here but Im sure there is something similar waiting for us.
I tried to get some sleep in the afternoon and then we met Jasa and Dustin. These guys have also been extremely helpful in our planning stages so it was fantastic to met them in person. The four of us went to dinner and had Tortas con pollo y todos los ingredientes basically a huge chicken sandwich with everything in it. Very very good!! This I think was $3.90 and I had a rice water drink which was a first but was yummy, kinda cinnamon tasting for $1!!!! yes that was an entire dinner for $5.
So why Tecoman? Short story is we met the Irbys at the Mexico International Convention and when they found out that we were heading back to NZ and were looking for somewhere else to go they grabbed the bull by the horns and said well come to Tecoman.
The congo is an english one, with only 20 pubs. They have a huge huge territory to cover but cant get around it so there are massive areas that havnt been touched. In the 25% they have done there is so much interest they cant keep up with it, thus another reason for not being able to get to the rest of the territory.
Right now it is 12:30am and there is no traffic noise like during the day but there is loud music and drums being played near by, actually it sounds like one of those marching bands only theres no marching.......and there is a guy on a skateboard outside too. There are still some cars going by but not many. I think it will be quite hard to find somewhere that is quiet so that will be interesting. There are also church bells in different churches that chime all the time.
Unlike Mexico City, Tecoman does not stink, well not yet anyway so thats a bonus for sure! There are food smells around from street vendors etc. We have seen stray dogs and cats but not on the Belizan scale which is nice too. Also looks like we might not have too much of a problem with bugs but that might just depend on where you live, will keep you posted on that one.
Next time I will describe Tecoman for you and I will see if I can put a couple of photos up for ya too. Then you can really imagine where we are.
Dont worry about our safety, we are in one of the safest towns around and in the safest state in Mexico too. All good things. If you hang with the drug lords and do dope then you are a dope and will be in danger so we will just have to stop that habit!!!! Its all about being sensible, staying with the right people and keeping your wits about you, just like anywhere.
Please please please keep in touch we would really love to hear from you all. This we hope is a permanent move so we would benefit greatly from your emails and comments on the blogs. My email address is tymccall@gmail.com so please keep in touch!!
We have a very busy time ahead of us, trying to find a house, doing the invitation work and coping with the language are just the tip of the iceberg. But we wont let it sink us, chin up and face to the wind!
We are in a little place called Tecoman. Its a small town on the West coast of Mexico.
After more than 50 hours of travel we arrived today (23 march) safe and sound. We flew first to LA and then on to Mexico City and from there we caught a bus to Colima and the Irbys (new additions to the family) met us there and drove us to Tecoman.
Now your probably wondering why the bus???? Well yes good question especially when I tell you that the bus trip alone was 10 hours long. The buses in Mexico are awesome. This one only has 24 seats on it and they fully recline so you can lay down, TV monitors, your own closet space, bathrooms etc. It was very quiet apart from the man that keep sleep talking loudly in Spanish, that was funny!! You also get drinks and food on the bus. Cheap too, the whole trip, 10 hours for two people cost less than $200 nzd!!!
Harold and Susan then took us for breakfast where we had our first sit down meal in Mexico. It was okay, not great though. They also took us on a little tour of Colima (40mins from Tecoman) and to Sams Club (department/supermarket store), lets just say we wont starve here, no no no. The food variety was soooooo much more than in Belize and the price, man sooooo cheap.
On arriving in Tecoman we were taken to our apartment. This belongs to another brother and his wife who have kindly offered it too us until we can find our own place. It is normally used by the CO or by visitors when they come. It has everything we need and more in it.
Now lets be honest here, when we were told from the street, this is where you will be staying, I thought, oh man your kidding, this coud be interesting. But when we went upstairs and inside we were very pleasently surprised. It is very very nice and just the perfect size. I wish we could stay here but Im sure there is something similar waiting for us.
I tried to get some sleep in the afternoon and then we met Jasa and Dustin. These guys have also been extremely helpful in our planning stages so it was fantastic to met them in person. The four of us went to dinner and had Tortas con pollo y todos los ingredientes basically a huge chicken sandwich with everything in it. Very very good!! This I think was $3.90 and I had a rice water drink which was a first but was yummy, kinda cinnamon tasting for $1!!!! yes that was an entire dinner for $5.
So why Tecoman? Short story is we met the Irbys at the Mexico International Convention and when they found out that we were heading back to NZ and were looking for somewhere else to go they grabbed the bull by the horns and said well come to Tecoman.
The congo is an english one, with only 20 pubs. They have a huge huge territory to cover but cant get around it so there are massive areas that havnt been touched. In the 25% they have done there is so much interest they cant keep up with it, thus another reason for not being able to get to the rest of the territory.
Right now it is 12:30am and there is no traffic noise like during the day but there is loud music and drums being played near by, actually it sounds like one of those marching bands only theres no marching.......and there is a guy on a skateboard outside too. There are still some cars going by but not many. I think it will be quite hard to find somewhere that is quiet so that will be interesting. There are also church bells in different churches that chime all the time.
Unlike Mexico City, Tecoman does not stink, well not yet anyway so thats a bonus for sure! There are food smells around from street vendors etc. We have seen stray dogs and cats but not on the Belizan scale which is nice too. Also looks like we might not have too much of a problem with bugs but that might just depend on where you live, will keep you posted on that one.
Next time I will describe Tecoman for you and I will see if I can put a couple of photos up for ya too. Then you can really imagine where we are.
Dont worry about our safety, we are in one of the safest towns around and in the safest state in Mexico too. All good things. If you hang with the drug lords and do dope then you are a dope and will be in danger so we will just have to stop that habit!!!! Its all about being sensible, staying with the right people and keeping your wits about you, just like anywhere.
Please please please keep in touch we would really love to hear from you all. This we hope is a permanent move so we would benefit greatly from your emails and comments on the blogs. My email address is tymccall@gmail.com so please keep in touch!!
We have a very busy time ahead of us, trying to find a house, doing the invitation work and coping with the language are just the tip of the iceberg. But we wont let it sink us, chin up and face to the wind!
ON THE MOVE AGAIN
Hi to everyone.
Well here I am again. Lots has happened since the last blog so heres the short version.
We came home from Belize and went to my mums house in Oamaru for a few weeks where we had time to catch up and to generally spend time together. It was great to be home and to have a real live hug from my mummy again. Imagening them is just not the same! There were many late nights and long talks had, oh the raspberries, mmmmm. Dave found a new favourtite food at Riverstone cafe, a highlight for him all round.
From there we drove back up to Hamilton, stopping for a couple of days with Daves mum and neice and a night with Rob and Judy Walker in Rotorua.
On arrival in Hamilton we stayed with Jonny and Amber Motley. Their hospitality was outstanding and we throughly enjoyed our time with them too.
While in Hams we were able to see old friends and get back into our congregation in Nawton. It was wonderful to see everyone again and to see the progress particularly of the young ones. They are all doing so well making the truth their own. Keep it guys!
Hamilton served as a base for us so we were able to go up and see family in Whangarei which was awesome and to see Daves Grandparents in Point Chev Auckland. Tina and Troy meet us for dinner and coffee a few times and we even went on a tour of the farm they are on. That was very cool. Got to meet all Troys family too, its so good to be able to put faces to names now and I can image the things they talk about now easily, very cool.
Time went very fast and before we knew it life was to take us on another adventure. Some of you may have heard, but for those that have not, we are off to Mexico to serve where the need is, exciting and scary, yes it is!
I will fill you in next time with how we came to that decision and where we will be going.
Until then, take care and keep up the fight for the faith wherever you are!!
Well here I am again. Lots has happened since the last blog so heres the short version.
We came home from Belize and went to my mums house in Oamaru for a few weeks where we had time to catch up and to generally spend time together. It was great to be home and to have a real live hug from my mummy again. Imagening them is just not the same! There were many late nights and long talks had, oh the raspberries, mmmmm. Dave found a new favourtite food at Riverstone cafe, a highlight for him all round.
From there we drove back up to Hamilton, stopping for a couple of days with Daves mum and neice and a night with Rob and Judy Walker in Rotorua.
On arrival in Hamilton we stayed with Jonny and Amber Motley. Their hospitality was outstanding and we throughly enjoyed our time with them too.
While in Hams we were able to see old friends and get back into our congregation in Nawton. It was wonderful to see everyone again and to see the progress particularly of the young ones. They are all doing so well making the truth their own. Keep it guys!
Hamilton served as a base for us so we were able to go up and see family in Whangarei which was awesome and to see Daves Grandparents in Point Chev Auckland. Tina and Troy meet us for dinner and coffee a few times and we even went on a tour of the farm they are on. That was very cool. Got to meet all Troys family too, its so good to be able to put faces to names now and I can image the things they talk about now easily, very cool.
Time went very fast and before we knew it life was to take us on another adventure. Some of you may have heard, but for those that have not, we are off to Mexico to serve where the need is, exciting and scary, yes it is!
I will fill you in next time with how we came to that decision and where we will be going.
Until then, take care and keep up the fight for the faith wherever you are!!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
THE VULTURES
Hmmmmm we seem to be jumping back in time here. I will do this a little as there is still so very much to tell about Belize, so enjoy or get over it.
We were sitting on our porch one afternoon and I noticed that there were all these vultures sitting up in our palm tree. About 8 of them.
I watched them for ages flying down and back up and soon began to wonder what they were flying down for. Thinking, hmmmm vultures they are scavengers, what are they up to.
On closer inspection I found that there was a huge pigs head in the middle of the road and the vultures were having a field day with it.
Some would stand on guard while the others all had a good ol peck at it. They would try to fly off with it but that was never going to happen it was that big.
I wentback to my seat and thought to myself, "there goes a pigs head"!
My how funny the things we get used too!
Friday, January 15, 2010
DISNEYLAND!
We just had to do it!
We went to Disneyland a few days before we left La. We bought ourselves a two park pass that got us into Disneyland and into California Adventures.
I had my photo taken with Minnie she was delightful, didnt say much but anyway....
There were only so many hours in the day so we crammed in as many rides as we could.
In Disney there are a lot of rides based around movie themes, ie Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean etc. These were great and really made you feel as though you were on an adventure with Indy.
Even some of the kids rides were cool. Dave went on the Tea cups that spin around and around, didnt even throw up!
We laughed and screamed our way around the parks, getting the best of both worlds.
If you ever go to California Adventure park you have to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, it is fantastic! You are in an elevator that goes wild, thrusting you into the air and then dropping you all over the place. Oh did I mention in the dark! Very cool!
There is also the ride that holds you at the bottom and after a painstaking pause it slingshots you into the air 180 feet in four seconds. This ride even has a barf shield! he he, didnt need that, phew!
All the rides were great and we would love to have spent many many days there being children all over again!
Would love to have gone to Six Flags Magic Mountain but couldnt get out to it, so we will have to save that for next time.
We went to Disneyland a few days before we left La. We bought ourselves a two park pass that got us into Disneyland and into California Adventures.
I had my photo taken with Minnie she was delightful, didnt say much but anyway....
There were only so many hours in the day so we crammed in as many rides as we could.
In Disney there are a lot of rides based around movie themes, ie Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean etc. These were great and really made you feel as though you were on an adventure with Indy.
Even some of the kids rides were cool. Dave went on the Tea cups that spin around and around, didnt even throw up!
We laughed and screamed our way around the parks, getting the best of both worlds.
If you ever go to California Adventure park you have to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, it is fantastic! You are in an elevator that goes wild, thrusting you into the air and then dropping you all over the place. Oh did I mention in the dark! Very cool!
There is also the ride that holds you at the bottom and after a painstaking pause it slingshots you into the air 180 feet in four seconds. This ride even has a barf shield! he he, didnt need that, phew!
All the rides were great and we would love to have spent many many days there being children all over again!
Would love to have gone to Six Flags Magic Mountain but couldnt get out to it, so we will have to save that for next time.
BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD!
Well folks we are back in good ol NZ. We are freezing our butts off but yet are glad to see family and friends.
Before leaving LA we spent some time with old friends and are having a great time catching up.
We went up to a place called Fresno, this is about an hour or so drive from the giant sequoia forest. We saw one tree that is about 2000 yrs old! This thing was massive! The tree stands over 267 feet tall. Thats very big you might say, but no. There is another one, the biggest tree in the world.
The General Sherman Tree stands approx 275 feet tall with a trunk that weighs approx 1385 tonnes and has a ground circumference of approx 103 feet! Unfortunately we were not able to get up to this tree as the road was closed by snow. But we did see the General Grant which is the one that stands 267 feet.
Having seen the Tane Mahuta kauri tree we thought we had seen a big tree but this really blew our minds. Actually the tree had a strange resemblence to the tree we see drawn, depicting Daniels dream.........
There was another giant we wanted to go and see, this is called the tunnel tree. This tree is so wide at its base there is a road that goes through it! SERIOUSLY!!........ road closed there too.....
The forest was just magnifient, there was snow on the ground that glistened with the setting sun and the towering trees looking down on us. We really did feel small. And to think that the General Sherman tree is so old that it was around when Jesus was on earth!
Many photos were taken and many "wows" were uttered. We hope to one day go and see the other trees we were so close to but yet so far from.
Before leaving LA we spent some time with old friends and are having a great time catching up.
We went up to a place called Fresno, this is about an hour or so drive from the giant sequoia forest. We saw one tree that is about 2000 yrs old! This thing was massive! The tree stands over 267 feet tall. Thats very big you might say, but no. There is another one, the biggest tree in the world.
The General Sherman Tree stands approx 275 feet tall with a trunk that weighs approx 1385 tonnes and has a ground circumference of approx 103 feet! Unfortunately we were not able to get up to this tree as the road was closed by snow. But we did see the General Grant which is the one that stands 267 feet.
Having seen the Tane Mahuta kauri tree we thought we had seen a big tree but this really blew our minds. Actually the tree had a strange resemblence to the tree we see drawn, depicting Daniels dream.........
There was another giant we wanted to go and see, this is called the tunnel tree. This tree is so wide at its base there is a road that goes through it! SERIOUSLY!!........ road closed there too.....
The forest was just magnifient, there was snow on the ground that glistened with the setting sun and the towering trees looking down on us. We really did feel small. And to think that the General Sherman tree is so old that it was around when Jesus was on earth!
Many photos were taken and many "wows" were uttered. We hope to one day go and see the other trees we were so close to but yet so far from.
(the picture at the top was one of the smaller sequoia at the entrance to the park, notice to the left of the tree, thats Dave!)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
DEPORTATION!!!!!!!!!1
So here we are back in LA. We will stay wit our friends Pattiann and Mike until the 10th Jan when we fly back to NZ.
The weather is cool here at the moment, well it is for us anyway. It has been wonderful catching up with old friends and sharing experiences with them.
On arriving into Miami (en route to LA) we were stopped in customs. There we were taken into this "back room" with a bunch of other people. We were told that there was a problem with or visa waiver thingy. We waited for about an hour before someone finally spoke to us.
We were taken into separate room where we were each asked a whole lot of questions. I guess they were trying to see if we had the same story as each other. This questioning went on for about 3 hours!
Eventually we were told that one of our forms had that we were seeking employment in the US but the other said we were not. They thought that we were going to try and "overstay" and remain in the US illegally! Can you believe it?
Finally the man comes out and says to us. "We really only have two choices, either we believe you or we deport you to NZ on the next plane! Right now it doesnt look very good for you". He said that he and his supervisor would have to review everything we had said and decide what they would do with us.
Out he comes again, now 4 hours have passed. He tells us that they have decided to believe us and we can stay until the 10th as per our tickets.
Oh my goodness, what a sign of relief we gave!
The funny thing (although not funny at the time) was that we looked as though we would try to stay. We had sold our house, we had no real job to go back to, we had sold all our possessions etc, hmmm that really didnt look good ha!
So anyway, we ended up missing all the flights out of Miami that night and had to stay over until the next plane left in the morning.
One good thing that came out of this was that American Airlines ended up paying for us to stay in a hotel as the plane had landed a little late. Also in light of what had happened they contributed towards breakfast and dinner. They put us in the HILTON baby! Man that was awesome!!!!!!!!!
Now if we want to travel to the US again, Dave has to get a proper visa as he can no longer travel under the visa waiver programme. All in all a much better outcome than being deported!! Oh and the HILTON did I mention that?
The weather is cool here at the moment, well it is for us anyway. It has been wonderful catching up with old friends and sharing experiences with them.
On arriving into Miami (en route to LA) we were stopped in customs. There we were taken into this "back room" with a bunch of other people. We were told that there was a problem with or visa waiver thingy. We waited for about an hour before someone finally spoke to us.
We were taken into separate room where we were each asked a whole lot of questions. I guess they were trying to see if we had the same story as each other. This questioning went on for about 3 hours!
Eventually we were told that one of our forms had that we were seeking employment in the US but the other said we were not. They thought that we were going to try and "overstay" and remain in the US illegally! Can you believe it?
Finally the man comes out and says to us. "We really only have two choices, either we believe you or we deport you to NZ on the next plane! Right now it doesnt look very good for you". He said that he and his supervisor would have to review everything we had said and decide what they would do with us.
Out he comes again, now 4 hours have passed. He tells us that they have decided to believe us and we can stay until the 10th as per our tickets.
Oh my goodness, what a sign of relief we gave!
The funny thing (although not funny at the time) was that we looked as though we would try to stay. We had sold our house, we had no real job to go back to, we had sold all our possessions etc, hmmm that really didnt look good ha!
So anyway, we ended up missing all the flights out of Miami that night and had to stay over until the next plane left in the morning.
One good thing that came out of this was that American Airlines ended up paying for us to stay in a hotel as the plane had landed a little late. Also in light of what had happened they contributed towards breakfast and dinner. They put us in the HILTON baby! Man that was awesome!!!!!!!!!
Now if we want to travel to the US again, Dave has to get a proper visa as he can no longer travel under the visa waiver programme. All in all a much better outcome than being deported!! Oh and the HILTON did I mention that?
Monday, January 4, 2010
THE FEDERAL DISTRICT
During our stay in Mecixo City we went walking as we were very close to the Federal District. Not sure if you guys have heard of this part of Mexico but I'll try to explain it for ya.
You may have seen pictues of an area where there is a huge square or plaza as they call it, it is surrounded by these old old buildings. Some of them are old churches, others are old government buildings.
The whole area is lit up with lights at night and is just beautiful. When we were there unfortunately there was a huge Christmas thing going on in the centre of the plaza so you couldnt stand in the middle and get a good view all around of the buildings. There were huge christmas lights on all the buildings which were quite pretty too really.
We wandered the streets most nights eating dinner among the throngs of Mexican people. What an amazing experience! The sights, the smells, the experience, Woooooow.
Our Mexico experience was amazing, I will fill you in more as I go along.
You may have seen pictues of an area where there is a huge square or plaza as they call it, it is surrounded by these old old buildings. Some of them are old churches, others are old government buildings.
The whole area is lit up with lights at night and is just beautiful. When we were there unfortunately there was a huge Christmas thing going on in the centre of the plaza so you couldnt stand in the middle and get a good view all around of the buildings. There were huge christmas lights on all the buildings which were quite pretty too really.
We wandered the streets most nights eating dinner among the throngs of Mexican people. What an amazing experience! The sights, the smells, the experience, Woooooow.
Our Mexico experience was amazing, I will fill you in more as I go along.
OTHER CONVENTION DAYS
So heres a little more info on the International Convention.
Due to my health we stayed in a hotel with delegates from El Salvador, Guatemala and Cancun. They were all crazy just like us so we got on extremely well. Many a new friend was made there.
On each of the other days at the convention there were great crowds of people lined up creating a corridor for us to walk through. It would start out on the street and then weave its way into the stadium.
It would often take an hour to get to our seats as so many people wanted us to stop and get a photo with the people from New Zealand, it was so funny. The same would happen when we would leave each day.
There were delegates from, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, USA, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba I think that there was one more but I dont seem to be able to remember them, sorry delegates........ So yes it was a melting pot of mainly Spanish speaking cultures.
The Mexican people were so hospitable and welcoming, leaving was a real challenge and many tears were shed by all, even the brothers.
We now have friends in a few more countries around the world which one day we would love to go and see. They all felt like family by the time we left.
If you ever get a chance to get to an International, THEN GO!!!!!!
Due to my health we stayed in a hotel with delegates from El Salvador, Guatemala and Cancun. They were all crazy just like us so we got on extremely well. Many a new friend was made there.
On each of the other days at the convention there were great crowds of people lined up creating a corridor for us to walk through. It would start out on the street and then weave its way into the stadium.
It would often take an hour to get to our seats as so many people wanted us to stop and get a photo with the people from New Zealand, it was so funny. The same would happen when we would leave each day.
There were delegates from, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, USA, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba I think that there was one more but I dont seem to be able to remember them, sorry delegates........ So yes it was a melting pot of mainly Spanish speaking cultures.
The Mexican people were so hospitable and welcoming, leaving was a real challenge and many tears were shed by all, even the brothers.
We now have friends in a few more countries around the world which one day we would love to go and see. They all felt like family by the time we left.
If you ever get a chance to get to an International, THEN GO!!!!!!
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