Yes they are real!

While in town the other day we spotted this awesome looking store that was selling cowboy hats, boots and belts, you name it they had it.

They were made out of the skins of some animals I didnt think could have stuff made out of them......

These are a pair of boots made from snake skin!! Yes they are real and yes that is a snakes head!!!!

Check These Out

These bougainvillea were growing at the site of some Nahuatl (Na-wat-al) ruins just outside of Tecoman. They grow everywhere here and are just beautiful. I have never seen so many varieties or shades!

Isnt this a little stunner!! This plant grew in the backyard of one of our old houses.

And No One Said A Word

So we had to go to Guadalajara recently to pick up people from the airport and this funny thing happened on the way.

We caught a bus to the airport and we were hooning it along the highway when suddenly the bus driver hauls it into the petrol station.

Dave and I look at each other with blank expressions on our faces. We then look at everyone else, only to notice that they are just carrying on like nothing weird is happening. Looking out windows, reading etc.

We ask each other, what are we doing, is this a bus stop too?? Well Nooooooooooooooo It really was a petrol station and we needed gas, dahhhhhhhhhhh

The funniest thing was that we sat there for about 15-30 mins while the driver went and got some lunch and had a drink, then chatted to the other people at the station and finally filled the tank. No one on the bus even blinked an eyelid!!!!!!

We just laughed and said it was just as well we left in plenty of time or we would have been soooo late. We couldnt believe that no one commented or even seemed to notice that we sat in a petrol station for 30 mins!!!

We figured, this must just be normal!!!

FIGURE THIS ONE OUT

Sooooooo I been meaning to try this on ya all for ages.

When we first moved to Mexico I went to wash my hands and looked at the taps for which one was hot and which was cold.

At first I was confused because one had "C" on it and the other had "F"........ so I thought, hmmm "c" must be cold right, but whats "f"????? Can you work it out?

So here is the answer, Dahhhhhhhhhhhhh the symbols on the taps represent the spanish words for hot and cold not the english words!!!!!! Sooooooo "c" is NOT cold, its hot!!!! C= caliente and "f" isnt, flippin hot, its the cold.... F= frio.

Its theres weird things that still catch me out!!

Experiences from the Special Assembly Day

During one of the interviews a sister was telling us how her family had violently opposed her becoming one of Jehovahs Witnesses and how she had to cope with it all.

Right as she was explaining how at one point her life had been in serious danger, a HUGE bug fell from directly above the brother who was interviewing her, hit his shoulder and bounced onto the floor next to his foot.

All within a split second he raised his foot instinctively to squash it as the sister very gently said "oh dont do th......"squish went the bug!! The whole audience gasped then erupted into laughter, while the poor sister having just explained her near death circumstances shook her head and sighed all the while having this cheeky, "the timing couldnt have been better" grin on her face, she then broke into laughter too.

The brother who after squishing the bug looked sheepishly up at the sister with horror on his face because he had just heard her say dont do th...... then saw her smile and heard her giggle and he too began laughing. It was quite a moment and I would say a first for all Im sure!!

POTENTIAL!!

At a recent assembly we were told that here in Mexico, every day there is a circuit assembly, a special day or a convention, there are enough people baptized to create a whole new circuit!!! hows that for freeeeeaky growth!!

Experiences from the Special Assembly Day

A brother related his experience of before he became a Witness. He had been in the Vietnam war and was on the "Search and Destroy" team. (We were told by his best friend later that his job was to go around after the ambushes and kill anything that moved, he didnt tell us that off the platform as it would have been a little graphic for us all).

He told us of a situation where he found himself in a shoot or be shot situation with a 12yrs old boy. He shot and killed the boy to save his own life. He explained that he now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He talked while tears ran down his face of how every day he sees the face of that young boy and it strikes deeply at his heart that he took his young life away.

His experience was related in the part about how we have the privilege of living in a spiritual paradise even now. He said that before he found the truth he was lost and wanted to kill himself because of the extreme guilt he felt over his past actions in the war. He then went on the explain the impact the truth has had on him and how now although he still grieves every day for that young boy he has the hope of seeing him again in the resurrection and he hopes and prays that Jehovah will give him the chance to meet the boy, to study with him and to teach him the truth!

The dear brother had tears rolling down his face throughout the entire interview and he had to stop a few times to get it together so he could carry on. The brother interviewing him was the same and we, the audience silently felt his pain and cried quietly with him too. What a moving day that was!

The truth cant take away our past actions, but it sure can put them into perspective. It allows us the chance to make amends as it were and to make the most of our now precious time sharing a wonderful hope of eternal blessings for all, with others. What a privilege!!

Special Assembly Day

Back in Jan we had our Special Assembly day in a city called Morelia. First time we had been there so that was cool.

Our whole congo traveled by bus for the 8 hour trip, one way. We made it safe and sound and had a fantastic weekend of up building spiritually, physically and emotionally, thank you Jehovah!

Anyhoo, I have to say I have never cried so much EVER in an assembly. The experiences and interviews were so heartfelt that they were bringing the entire audience to tears! I will share a couple of experiences with you over the next few days.

What was that you said?

I was lying in bed the other morning listening to all the new sounds of our new house when I heard this very strange squawking kind of noise. I listened and couldnt figure out what it was. So later I went and did some investigating. Turns out there is a huge parrot that lives next door and it chats away to itself constantly. The parrot is very cleaver and can talk too, whats funny though is that its speaking Spanish!!! Weird how in my mind parrots only speak English!!!

ON THE MOVE

We have just moved house as our old landlord wanted to raise the rent by 75%!! Yeah whatever, dreamer! Our new house is very cool, it is way smaller than the last one, but thats just fine, its much easier to keep clean.

Funny thing happened though when we first walked through the door to the house...... It has not been lived in for a while so all had been quiet in the house. Well we opened the door and switched on the light. We walked into the main living area to see how messy it was and how much cleaning we would have to do before we moved our furniture in. As we did so there was a flurry across the floor as cockroaches scattered in all directions, they starting coming out from under the skirting boards, everywhere!!!! We began jumping, stomping, yelping on a murder spree of epic proportions!! In the end we counted about 25-30 squished ones!!!! AWESOME! and we thought we were the only ones in the house......

Obviously the first thing we did was buy highly potent spray to kill them. It has been funny, as each morning there have been bodies big and small to greet us, but the good news is each morning so far there have been less and less of them, so Im living in the hope that there will be none soon!!!! Ahhhh the joys of life in Mexico!!

Apart from the cucarachas, the house is lovely and quiet, which is very weird for Mexico, but Im not saying it out loud in case it changes, so shhhhhhh.

WELCOME BACK TO YOU ALL!

Hello all you out there!

Yes I am back! We have been trying very hard to get ourselves settled here and to be honest it has taken a lot of our time and energy and has taken longer than we expected. Obviously in the process the blog has gone astray!

We are some what settled now so thats good.

Never fear, it is back and running and I will endeavor to keep you all updated on the happs for us on this side of the world.

By the way we would love to hear from anyone on the other side of the world, we miss you all and love you more!!

SHOWER TIME?

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!!!

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!

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!

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!!!

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!!

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!

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 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!

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!!!!!!