Black Tea and Biscuits

 If you ever wonder what it's like to be a business administrator on the mission field, I'll fill you in a little.
 First of all, there is book work, lots of it. Water bills, rent bills, electric bills, hospital bills and phone bills. Work permits to renew, work permits to apply for. Insurance for properties, insurance for vehicles. Enter and keep track of school tuition, offering money and staff allowances. Maintenance and inspection of 5 buses, 1 truck, 1 scooter and 4 bikes. Unclog washers, (LaBorie teachers, I won't give ANY detail:), shower drains and toilets. Taxi driver for school field trips, sports days and Bible quizzing. Chats with beggars, fixing bike tires and shooting a few hoops with random people at any random time. Furniture making and odds and ends painting. End of month reports to the board, stressful meetings, and kisses from old ladies.
  Maybe I should explain that one. On Tuesday, we went to meet "Ivan & Betty" (not their real names), the old folks that I will be helping with the care of her husband. I was going to start a few weeks ago, but thanks to holidays and hospital stays, it never worked out before. So finally, we set the date for Tuesday, "a short visit, just to get acquainted," said she. "Bring your husband, so I can meet him!"
I should have known that it would be more than just a short visit, since "a real brief" phone call from her can last half an hour. But anyway, we set off, thinking probably an hour stay should be long enough for us to get acquainted.
After a few wrong turns, we found the house. The house without a roof since Hurricane Ivan. They live in the basement part of it. She met us at the door with arms wide open. After enveloping me in a huge bear hug and dowsing my face with kisses, she looked pleadingly at me. "May I please give your husband a hug?" she asked..."and do you care if I kiss him?" What could I say? If I would have said no, it would have been more for his sake than mine. She proceeded to give him a hug and a kiss, which he awkwardly received.
"Oh, do please come have a seat on the veranda!" she invited.
"Sit down and make yourself comfortable while I get the water hot for tea. And, Chris, please come in. No, Katrina, just your husband."
 She lead him back to the far end of the house, to shelves full of books and proceeded to ask him which type of books he likes to read. History, human science, sociology, physiology and the brain, philology, Jewish culture or biographies...?
 Now my husband's reading interests are probably equal to that of getting kissed by old ladies. He does it when he has to. She proceeded to encourage him to pick two books off the shelf to take home. He feigned interest and plucked 2 gigantic books off the shelf...."The Shadow Presidency of Dick Cheney" and "Alistair Cooke Reporting America." I have a feeling they'll serve more as paper weights than reading material.
After meeting her bedridden husband, who has Alzheimer's, we settled comfortably on the veranda with hot, black tea and dry, flaky biscuits. She talked and we listened, occasionally interjecting a word or two. She talked and talked. I was sorta wondering before we came, what we would have to talk about. I shouldn't have worried.
 She wondered if we could stay till 11:00, till her gardener friend shows up.
 "He's only staying for a brief visit, then could you help me turn and change Ivan after he leaves?" she wondered.
 I figured that would stretch our visit to at least an hour and a half, but that should be fine. I should have known down here, you should usually add an hour onto the expected time. Finally around 12:00, we decided we'll not wait till her gardener friend comes and completes his visit, but will do Irvin's care before he even comes.
 It took quite awhile, thanks to some family pictures on the wall that I asked about. That proceeded into a lengthy conversation about her genealogy way back to her great-grandparents. Quite interesting, actually. She was born a Jew in India in 1943. As a young girl, her family moved to England, where, quite a few years later, she met her Grenadian born husband.
 Till all was said and done, our projected hour long visit, had turned into 3 hours.
  My poor, bored husband sat waiting on the veranda, his empty tea cup beside him, vainly trying to get lost in the shadowy mysteries of Dick Cheney's presidency.
And I wondered.
 Do days like this make him miss those stressful trucking hours? Fighting traffic and those crazy four wheelers? Balancing log books and always trying to meet the many deadlines? Flat tires and DOTS?
Hmmm...maybe sometimes.
 So now that gives you a little glimpse into the unpredictable "schedule" of a business administrator.
 

Carter and his lovely teacher...Miss Amanda Eberly. So glad she's coming back for the next term!

The students have one field trip per semester. This time it was a tour of the island. Basically alot of driving with about 3 stops along the way. This is at Anondale Falls. There is a pet monkey there which provided alot of entertainment for the children!

                  The co-pilots...Miss Janisa and Miss Natalie. I think they were having
                       way too much fun sitting up there like big stuff in the front of the tour bus!:)

                             We stopped at the water bottling plant. This was interesting 
                                    and a real hit since they all got a free bottle of water!:)

Here she is showing the small plastic pod before and one after it gets heated and air blown in it to stretch it and make it into a bottle.

                                    We stopped at this beautiful beach in Leverea for a picnic lunch.

             With a little imagination, big branches can become bucking broncos for little boys

                            But sometimes the bronco goes wild and throws little boys off!:)

                       Christi holding Jaxon. This little fellow is going to be missed down here
                            since his parents are moving to the States! Bill & Brenda Coutain's son

                                   2nd & 5th grade classes...They are in the same classroom

                                                Mr. Ryan Horst with his bunch of 3rd graders

These little boys spent all their energy and now the long drive home put them to sleep...(was fine by me:))

                   Just a random picture of Carter taking a Sunday afternoon snooze in our bed
                  

                               Had these folks for supper one evening...they taught us all the ins
                                   and outs of playing Dominos! Was so much fun!

And then James had a birthday...so I made him a cake...well, not really, but we pretended it was one:)

                     Happy Father's Day...to a wonderful Dad! I'm sure he found it comforting
                            that his daughter loves him so much that she don't want him to die.....

Kaylah loves to paint and since Bill's are moving to the States, he gave her some of his painting stuff and a DVD with painting tips. To say she was thrilled would be an understatement. The good end of the deal for me, was that it entertained ALL the children:)

The long awaited, much anticipated, event has arrived! Thaddeus & Rose's wedding! So happy for these two!

 

Here comes the bride....escorted by her son, Bill Coutain

                                 Lots of people and lots of food...two of my favorite things:)

                                                   Waiting for the food for the noon meal
Front row: Janisa Nolt & Natalie Martin
2nd row: Ben Weaver, teacher at Limes, John & Rachel & Leanne Lauver, teacher at Limes
3rd row: James Brubacher & Justin Zimmerman, teacher at Laura

The happy Mr & Mrs!

                              Carter looks way too giddy over some wild Uno move!:)
Luke & Joanne Weaver came down for the wedding and we had the privilege of hosting them.
Was wonderful to get to know them better and we greatly enjoyed their time with us. Their son Daryl and his wife Jen served in Grenada a number of years ago.

                                                                            Just relaxing

                         We went with Lukes and Eugene & Elaine Weaver visiting the one day.
                          This area is called the Coconut, which is a poorer section of Grenada

                                                   Christi fell in love with this cute puppy

                                                       The meat market in Grenville

              Roasted cow head anyone? It is setting up side down, in case you're trying to figure it out:)

                     Couldn't believe it when I saw this candy in a little, hole in the wall, grocery store!
                             I waxed nostalgia about good ole Lancaster County for a bit....

                                                    Luke and Joanne Weaver....
we didn't like to see them leave, but I wonder if our dog breathed a sigh of relief when they did???:) I don't want to embarrass Joanne, but, lets just say her and Dusty can both squeal pretty loudly! I guess I would squeal too if someone stepped on me. Maybe this will teach Dusty to stop always getting underfoot! haha

                          Jim & Joyce Weaver were down for the wedding too, so I had them for a meal.
                           Jim is my cousin and a half....if I figured out the genealogy correctly

                                The boys thought this beats walking to church any day!

That concludes this blog post.
A lot of fun, exciting happening, but certainly not all fun and games on this little island. The devil is as busy on this beautiful island as he is elsewhere. Lots of turmoil and unrest and unknowns.
 If there is any special prayer request I would ask for, it would for peace and love among everyone here.