Blessed, Stretched & Challenged!

    Close to the equator, where the tranquil waters of the Caribbean Sea meet the angry waves of the Atlantic Ocean, lies the little island of Trinidad.
  One hot, sultry night, on this particular island, a young mother wiped her sweat-filled brow and heaved a sigh of relief as another screaming bundle of humanity entered this world. A cute, dark-haired, dark-skinned newborn, this tiny baby had no idea of the pain and trauma he would endure, neither did he know how he would use his pain-filled past to bring glory to God and lead others to Christ.
  The mother was from East Indian descendants, as well as the man assumed to be the father of this child. As the child grew though, distinctive African American features emerged. After being questioned, the mother relented and admitted to an affair with the local shoemaker, an African American man. Enraged, the man, previously assumed to be the father, gave the mother an ultimatum. "I will stay, but the baby must go. If the baby stays, I go."
  There is something about the mother/child bond that is stronger than life itself and most mothers, if given the choice, will choose their own flesh and blood over their lover. Sadly, in the life of Daniel Pollard, this was not the case. At the tender age of 3 months, this mother not only chose her lover over her baby, she selfishly wanted this child out of her life for good. Nestling the small child on her lap, she fed little Daniel bitter poisoning, hoping to kill the baby and be rid of him forever. Praise God, in a moment of clarity, she realized the awfulness of her deed and rushed the dying child to the nearest hospital where doctors worked frantically to save his life. God had an amazing plan for this unwanted, unloved child and he spared the wee child for a purpose.
   As Daniel grew from a little baby to a young child, he bounced from home to home, many of them abusive. A root of bitterness took hold and as he heard more details of how his mother tried to kill him, it grew till it filled his very soul with hatred and rage.
  Around 10 years of age, he saw his mother one day at market and just the very sight of her filled him with such rage it threatened to consume the young lad. Desperate for something to numb the pain, he turned to alcohol and drugs at a very young age. After a night of partying and drinking, he would wake up to throbbing headaches with the void in his aching heart deeper than it had ever been.
   At 14 years old, trying to eke out a meager living, he sold mosquito coils and nets and other accessories at the local market. One day, he turned to a lady and said, "Ma'am, would you like to buy a mosquito coil?" The lady turned, and only then, to his shock, did he realize it was his mother he was speaking to. The lady looked at him and replied, "No, son." Devastated by another rejection, he firmly vowed to never speak to his mother again. Not only had she refused to clothe and feed him, she refused to even help him support himself.
  Time went on and, through lots of hard work and determination, he managed to secure a well paying job at a hospital. One day, someone came to Daniel with the news  that, due to septic poison from an attempted abortion, his mother had died. His heart hardened as he relived how his mother had tried to kill him and now she herself had died from having tried to kill one of his siblings. Again he felt intense hatred for her and, instead of mourning her passing, he went out that very evening to another party.
 One evening, at the age of 18, he stood on the curb waiting for a taxi. As he stood there, in the pouring rain, along came a group of girls from the local convent. There was one in particular that stood out to him and, in an effort to meet this sweet, young women again, he made sure he was at the same place, at the same time again the next day. It worked, and he tried inconspicuously to make it happen again a few evenings in a row before he got the nerve to ask this pretty young girl out for a date. She accepted, but because of his poor background the girl's mother did her best to stop the budding relationship. One thing Daniel had vowed in his heart, because of his sad growing up years, was that he would never father a child out of wed lock. Unfortunately, his resolve was not enough to keep this young lady from becoming pregnant, but, now that he knew a child was on the way, a wedding was planned so the child would not grow up as an illegitimate child. The day of the wedding arrived but Daniel was so busy smoking weed that, until a friend reminded him, he forgot this was the day he was planning to get married. In Trinidad, the tradition is that the bride doesn't go into the church before the groom. Anxiously, the young bride paced in circles before, finally, in a cloud of dust and smoke, a wildly careening taxi delivered Daniel Pollard at the doorstep. And so, began the wedded life of Daniel and June Pollard.

 We were honored and blessed to have Daniel & June Pollard and their son Joziah with us for our week of crusades. Above is part of the story that Daniel shared with us bit by bit each night of crusades. He shared just enough to keep us all in suspense, wondering what was going to happen next. And when he said, "and then something happened", we all groaned because we knew that was the end of what he was planning to share that evening on his life story. Somehow he always managed to stop at an exciting place that had everyone wondering what was going to happen next. Now don't get me wrong, we certainly weren't bored the rest of the evening. Daniel has a way of presenting the Word of God in a clear, easy to understand way, that left many hearts encouraged and convicted, including mine.

 Above is only some of the story he shared. Unfortunately, I stopped taking notes the last few evenings and I don't remember enough of details to make it into a story. I did take the liberty to add a few small details to make it into story form, but all characters, events and locations are nonfiction and actually happened. The rest of the story, as well as I remember it, goes like this.
  Their first child, a daughter, lived only 6 short months. Sometime during their early years Daniel visited New York City and loved it so much he decided to stay there and only go home to Trinidad for occasional visits. The main reason he loved New York City so much was that drugs, women and booze were cheaper and more easily accessible there.
   Somewhere around this time, June became a Christian. I don't remember the details of her conversion but she thought she will move to New York City to be closer to her husband. Loving him in a way that could have only been God through her, she catered to him, even laying out his clothes and getting everything ready for him before he left to party the night away. Later on she admitted she kissed him and waved goodbye till the taxi took him out of view, all the while quietly praying, "God, I hope he has an awful night."
   Even through the haze of sin, smoke and adultery, God was doing a work on Daniel's life. Through the faithful love of his wife and a series of events, with the final one being a visit from 2 men that witnessed to him, he finally committed his life to God. God blessed them with 6 children and the children are blessed to have wonderful parents.

                                   

                                                          LaBorie worship team
          Amanda Eberly, Natalie Martin, Janisa Nolt, James Brubaker & Ryan Horst

 

                                      Daniel sharing at the children's meeting

                                    Now I'm resting, sweetly resting....
                                church 8 evening in a row did these little people in

                    Daniel & June love to make food for large crowds and offered to
                    make the hot food for the fellowship meal on Sunday. Collin &
                    Carter are helping them cut the speck of the chicken. We hosted
                    the Pollards at our house the week they were in Grenada and I
                    learned some good cooking tips from them!

                             We shelled alot of pigeon peas for the fellowship meal.
                              Here we are working at it one night after crusades

                          Kendall & Ginger brought their guests and food up to make a pot
                          of oil down, a Grenadian dish. It was very tasty.

                                           Yea, it's what it looks like, a pig snout.
                                            If only I could get past the thought of
                                            what all the nose rooted through in it's life
                                            it wouldn't be so bad. It does give it good
                                            flavor though!

                          Fellowship meal, I'm not sure exactly how many
                           people we served  but it was alot! Strewed chicken & rice and
                            peas were the main dishes
                             

                               To maintain portion control, we serve the food

                            With the boys having to wear white dress shirts to school,
                             it seems there is always ironing to do. The week of crusades
                             I ironed 22 shirts for one week.

                                 We laugh at the monkey's strange antics.....
                                  and they probably laugh at our strange antics...

                                 Paper airplanes fly better from heights

                              The High family band....we will let
                              you know when our CD will be released

                                Lynford & Erma Rutt were visiting Geneva the same
                                time Jeremy & Sheri Martin were visiting
                                 Kendalls so I had the clan here for supper

                                

                                  Church picnic for Limes, LaBories & Laura churches

                       

                                  Beautiful sunset after an afternoon hymn sing

                                Kaylah's class is one of the lucky few that
                                 are back in their original classroom
                                 due to the remodeling project

                                  All school chapel....Chris is responsible for them every
                                  Monday morning the month of March.
                                  Kaylah's class and teacher are on the back bench
                               (she's trying to duck but was a few seconds too late:))

                                      Kaylah's classroom

                      For those of you that were familiar with our children's
                      mild taste buds before, you will be shocked to know this hot sauce
                      has become a staple on the table...
                      (still didn't get their momma convinced  yet, though)

                   The children keep very close track of who's turn it is to get
                  a ride to school the mornings that Chris is working down there

                                              Practicing for sport's day, the American
                                                     equivalent of track and field

                                       Bag races...if I had to do this
                                       the distance they do, I'd croak!

 

                                                400 meter dash

                                  Since Chris had the honors of busing students to the
                                  playing field, he stayed to help supervise the games
                                  L-R: Austin Smoker, Sammy Mapson, Chris,
                                   Kaylah, Justin Zimmerman & Ryan Horst

                                          

 

                        I took a snack down to the men working at the school...
                        the school had break over this time so the teachers got
                        lucky too:)             L-R: Mark Brubaker, (from Canada) Chris,
                         Mr Moses, (Kaylah's teacher) Mr. Conhi (pastor from Laura),
                         Johnny (from Canada) and Mr. Bill Coutain (principal &
                         teacher at LaBorie School)

                              Trying to figure out something.....

                                  Moving the scaffolding....Chris, James & Mark
                                  (brothers from Canada) & Johnny

                              This picture shows the height of it and the reason
                               for the grimacing on the picture before....
                               also they were hoping the paint bucket
                               on it wouldn't fall off and land on their heads:)

                                Senior youth night...we play games, then
                                 have devotions and a snack

 

                                If nothing else, being down here should make
                                professional dishwashers out of the children
                                (maybe in my dreams, they have a long way to go!)

                                This is what we do for fun on week ends; the poor animals
                                   get the brunt of our children's bored minds

                                              "Low riding pants...I think I'm in style!"

                                                 "I affirm if I get out of here alive
                                                 I'll never chase another mouse!"


                   Thank you for your prayers and support! We appreciate you all so much!

More Visitors (unwelcomed)

 It was one of those glorious, luxurious nights...the kind where you go to bed just glorying in the fact that the next morning you don't have to get up early and rush around trying to get children out the door to school. It was a Friday night so there were more people reveling in the fact they don't have to get up early the next morning. Loud music pulsated in the distance and people shouted back and forth to each other as the party dragged on into the night. This was becoming almost as common as birds chirping outside my window used to be and I was all but oblivious to the loud noises being carried in on the breeze through my open window. I read a good book till late before snapping off the light. Stretching out luxuriously on my foam mattress I recalled the first night I crawled into this bed and thought I would never be able to sleep on this thin piece of foam. No box springs, just boards held up this pitiful thing called a mattress. The bed was half the size and a quarter as thick as what I was used to sleeping on. It's amazing how fast a body can adjust though, and as I stretched out I thought, you know, this bed is really quite comfortable. I had almost entered dream land when all of a sudden I felt wide awake. I was really rather annoyed because, even if I can sleep later tomorrow, I'm done reading; now I want to sleep. I had dealt with some mild insomnia since we're here and I know the more you try  make yourself sleep, the more you can't. Oh well, whatever, I thought. So be it. I lay there for awhile and was somewhere betwixt reality and dreamland when I heard a few slight noises. Hmmm, I thought, I already had killed an annoying fly so I knew that pest was forever gone...maybe a lizard or a grasshopper? While both creatures are relatively harmless, I didn't exactly relish the thought of them using my head as their stomping grounds while I slept. I groggily rolled over and forced my sleepy eyes open. It took a few seconds for my brain to register what I was actually seeing. No fly. No grasshopper. No lizard, but a long, black arm reaching stealthily past me, mere inches from my head. I often wondered how I would  react to a situation where my instinct would be my first response. I always liked to think I would have perfect clarity of thought and with some quick action end up a hero. Well, now I know. No heroic action, but a scream that erupted from deep down inside of me; from a place I didn't even know existed within me. "AAAARRRRGGG!" I roared. "GET OUT OF HEEEERE!!!" As the dark figure quickly withdrew his hand and took off running, I rose up in my bed and pressed my face against the bars of our window and roared again at the hastily retreating figure, "Get OUT of HEEEEEERE! Leave my family alone!!" Really, I never in all my life, knew I could yell like that. I actually sounded quite manly! I sat back on my hunches, panting. My husband, rudely awakened from his sleep, looked bewilderingly at me, with eyes as big as coconuts. (I think he was trying to figure out if his wife totally lost it for good or if I was having a horrific nightmare.) "There was a man reaching in our window! His arm was inches from my face!" I explained. "It wasn't that I was that scared, I screamed more to get him running," I further explained. (I'm not even sure why I said that because when I got up to check the children my legs were that weak and shaky I could hardly stand on them.) Our headboard is right at the window and Chris didn't like that from day 1. All was quiet in the children's room and, after Chris removed the cement block our visitor used to stand on from outside our bedroom window, I settled in to rehash the events and all the things I could have done differently if I wouldn't have been taken so off guard. Option #1. Reach out and shake his hand and say, "How do you do?" Option #2. Grab his arm and hang on for dear life till Chris gets the gate unlocked and goes out to meet him or till he would call the police, whatever he would decide to do. Option #3. There was nothing on my nightstand to steal except Bible's and Christian books so I should have left him take the whole stack and maybe later under the moonlight he would sit and read his stolen literature and become saved. Maybe he would have become an evangelist and saved many souls and it would have all started with the "mustard seed" he stole off my nightstand.....

 Ok, picture time....

                                The boys helping Chris prop up the benches they use on
                                 the back of the truck.  They prop them up then
                                 Chris backs the truck partially underneath and then we
                                 huff and we puff till we get the whole contraption
                                  loaded the rest of the way up on the truck.

                             Carter was completely unimpressed with his sister's amazing
                                  talent of wearing sunglasses and goggles at the same time.

                                 The truckdriver in my husband couldn't believe this
                                  wide load was headed down the mountain with no
                                 escort and only one chain holding on the load.

                                                   

                            The children play more games together than they ever did.

                                 Chris working on the bike with a friend looking on.
                                 This boy knows he'll get a beating when he goes home
                                  so he tries to prolong the inevitable as long as he can.

                                A boy and his dog...if I ever saw a dog smile, this is it.

                                     The girls hung these self imposed rules in their bedroom.
                                    By the looks of the next two pictures they obviously don't
                                              have consequences for breaking them.....

                                                   By the looks of this room I should
                                            be embarrassed to post these pictures. I am.

                                       Another sign Kaylah made for her bedroom...I think she
                                       lives by this one far more than the one with the rules...

                                             I have learned quickly, the hard way, 
                                                 to not let food out uncovered...

I used to decorate with fake birds...

now I upgraded to the real thing

                                        Limes & LaBorie School's had a cross country
.                                           race/walk.  I went along to help supervise.

                                  Mr. David Fox won first place for his age category!

                                        All little boys like Lego's. These were well worth
                                        every inch of space they took up in a suitcase

A scrapbook made by Kaylah's classmates at Shalom was

a real highlight and day brightener for her! Jeff Brubaker

brought it down when he came down with a work crew.

She keeps this by her bed and looks at it often! 

Many thanks to them for thinking of her!

Visiting & Visitors...

 Last week I decided to visit Miss *Susan, a dear lady that attends our church. I had met her twice before, the first time at church and then again after she was admitted to the hospital for a blood clot in her leg. After I heard she was discharged from the hospital but needs to take it easy for a few weeks I thought this would be a good time to visit her at her house. I was never there before but after asking around I got a general idea of where she lives. It was quite the walk...about a mile uphill. I was stopped on the way up by a young fellow asking why we wear "the black thing on our head", dresses and what the Mennonites believe and how our beliefs compare to Pentecostal, Jehovah Witness's, Catholic and Rasta. After explaining things to the best of my ability I continued my upward climb. Up and up and up...until I got to the point where the main road makes a sharp left. This was the place where I was told it is soon after that turn and I should, "just ask someone, they'll tell you." I saw a few people milling around and called out, "G' mornin'! Do you know where Miss Susan lives?" "Yes! Yes!" They all tried to tell me at once where she lives but one man's directions seemed the easiest to follow so I decided to listen to him. "Go past the yellow house on the left and the next house is hers. The green and white one. On the left." Sounded easy enough so I headed on up past the yellow house on the left and, sure enough, there's the green and white one. "Hello! G' morning!" I called out after seeing her sitting out on the front porch shelling pigeon peas. I headed up her steps and opened the gate and left myself in. After she declined my offer to help with peas I settled comfortably on the veranda wall resting my tired back against the post with my aching legs stretched out in front of me. It was a beautiful view from her veranda and I made myself right at home. "So, how are you feeling by now? How's your leg?" I asked, noticing she still was using a walking stick. "Oh, pretty good, but after that fall 2 weeks ago it's been acting up again," she said as she gingerly rubbed the offending knee. "So when did you come home from the hospital?" I asked. "Oh my, let me think", she replied, " I don't exactly remember! The older you get the harder it is to remember things!" I didn't tell her but I did notice she aged considerably since her hospital stay. Instead I assured her even at my age we forget things! We chatted comfortably about the beautiful view from her veranda, family, weather, recipes and faith. She talked and talked and talked. I listened and through the course of conversation she revealed to me she is 88. I about fell off my wall to the concrete drive a good 15' below. There are numerous people on this island that have shocked me with their ages but this one topped all. The first time I saw Miss Susan I would have guessed her to be in her 70's, at the most. Must be the tropical weather, I concluded. She had a bandana covering all her hair this time but I did see a few stray gray hairs escaping. After chatting a good half hour I decided it's time to head south. I gave her a good-bye hug and she clutched my hand tightly and said, "It was so good visiting with you! My name's Josephine. What's yours?" It's a good thing I wasn't sitting on the wall at this point or I would still be laying on the driveway below. I tried to hide my surprise and said, "Yes, it was good visiting with you too!" I didn't tell her I thought she was someone else. (Here is where I'll insert my feeble excuses for my mistake.)
Excuse #1. I did think something looked different about her but when I visited her in the hospital I thought the same thing, I concluded her medical condition was taking a toll on her.
 Excuse #2. After visiting with the "correct" Miss Susan I found out this lady is her great-aunt so maybe there was some resemblance?
Excuse #3. This lady had a sore leg too...
 Excuse #4. She had a bandana covering all of her hair so I couldn't see her hair color.) And I guess God knew she must have needed a friend that morning that I made the mistake and visited the "wrong" person.
I headed out her drive and, wouldn't you know, a few houses down there was a yellow one and, you guessed it! The next house was a green one....
*Name changed  
 Ok, here's some pictures...some are a few weeks old already...

I almost could forget I'm in Grenada with all these familiar faces. Thanks Angie, for getting married and giving these people a good reason to head south. I know you did it all for me...

                          Lauren & Nick went to school one day with the
                         children which was a real highlight for them!

                         Miss Janisa, all bright & colorful. This day they were celebrating
                         Independence Day. The students all wore colors of the Grenadian flag.

                          Carter loves basketball, or any sport, for that matter. Here he
                          is playing with some of the students and Mr. Coutain and Mr. Moses.

                                                And he even managed to score!

                               This is what Michelle thought of octopus. I don't think
                             her mother will need to put it on her grocery list anytime soon...

                                       Just hanging out

The reason for the (wedding) season. I didn't get lots of pictures
 for some reason. Probably because I hated to make them pose for one more picture....

I was telling someone how the Grenadian children will take as many bags of snack mix and lollipops as they can get from the punch table. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when I turned around and saw my Grenadian American son with snack bags and lollipop papers littered around him. Sigh...had me a large slice of humble pie...

         

                                       Chris was glad for Dwight's help this week.
                                     Here they are making a platform for crusades.

                                   Lauren celebrated her 13th birthday in
                                  Grenada. Kaylah decorated a cake for her

                               We played lots of games this week. Hopefully they
                               didn't cause any permanent marital stress...(Krista?)

                          

                                       

                              Some pics from another week...

 I invited Celina and her brother Keondra inside to bake one Friday afternoon. As a general rule the children are not allowed inside our house without permission. One of the first days I found Celina wondering through our house and, on the advise of others, told her she needs to ask permission before she comes inside. She steps outside the doorway and says, "Ok, may I come in now?" Ummm, not really what I had in mind. While we certainly want our children to interact with the Grenadian children we do want them to have a place to go if they feel the need to "get away." So anyway, I told Celina we will set a date to do some baking together. She was thrilled and Friday couldn't come soon enough for her.

Celina mixing the cookies. I needed to remind her to keep the hand mixer in the bowl after having cookie batter sprayed over my microwave and surrounding areas.

This scene unfortunately is not as peaceful as it looks. I made the grave mistake of telling Kaylah she cook bake on Friday too, thinking, mistakenly, that her and Celina would work together at baking cookies. Instead it was a real power struggle with who gets to do what and this pan is mine and this pan is yours, ect. Sigh!

                          Trying to relight the oven. It goes out about every 10 minutes:(

This picture doesn't look as funny as it really was. Kaylah baked "her pan" of cookies first and offered some to the men. The whole pan disappeared within seconds. Celina got "her pan" out offered some of hers to the men. They looked excited till they saw the underbaked lumps of warm dough. Dan bravely got a glob and ate it, I believe more for Celina's sake than his own:)

 

This game gets played alot

And that's all for now! We are going to a "wake" (funeral) tonight. That will be another new experience. Thank you for all the prayers and support. It means so much!

               

                                                    

Ramblings & revenge...

Dearly beloved, ....vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Romans 12:19b...No, this post is not about a great evil done to us and we are waiting for the Lord to exact His justice on the perpetrator. Rather, it is about my husband and the verse I do believe he has claimed as his personal promise from God to him...regarding me. Let me explain. Back in the States, back in the good old days, back when I used to have the freedom to drive anywhere, anytime, my husband used to frequently comment (complain) about my less-than-stellar driving abilities. Now, before you get the wrong idea and think I was a horrid driver, I really wasn't. I would bring up my near perfect driver's record anytime I felt the need to defend myself. And, I usually didn't get the opportunity to display my driving abilities to him unless he got home from work late and there were shoes to be put on on the way or maybe a plate of supper to be eaten. Which, of course, meant we were probably already running late, which, of course, isn't a real good time to display any proper driving techniques. I have to wonder why, after 15 years of marriage, he wouldn't have learned to not try to eat on the way with me driving. If  he didn't get indigestion from the stress of sitting in the passenger seat he sure didn't get much eaten between mutterings such as,

 "You know, tailing the car in front of you isn't gonna make the whole string of traffic go faster". yea, but maybe the car in front of me will get the hint to speed up alittle and move closer to the car in front him and that car will get the hint and, well, you get the picture...or,

 "That was NOT a complete stop at that stop sign!" All but!

 "Did you see that caaaaaar? yes, dear, of course I did, that's why I stepped on it...

 and, my personal favorite...(no, not his, mine:))
  The time he was talking to a customer on his phone and we approached a traffic light. Here again, we differ. My philosophy is to wait to apply the brakes until I deem absolutely necessary, especially if the light has been green for awhile and is in danger of turning yellow on me. Now, less you are picturing me losing my Christian testimony by wildly screeching through a near red light, it's not so. With the valuable seconds I gained prior to braking I now have enough time to slow down and ease my way through the traffic light, Christian testimony still intact. Again, I think he would know this by now. But anyway, this particular time he's busy wheeling and dealing with a customer on the phone and I approached the upcoming traffic light in my customary way. This time he is so horrified he became speechless and instinctively stomped an imaginary brake pedal clear to the floor. (on the passenger's side, that is). Only after his customer said, " Chris, are you there yet? Can you here me yet? Hmmm, did we get cut off?" did he come back to earth and reply, "Uh, yes. Yes, I'm still here"...while shooting me less-than- loving glances. By the way, I DID stop at that red light. I guess from previous episodes he thought I was gonna sail through it. Poor guy, being a trucker, and having had his livelihood depend on his driving makes him an extra cautious driver.
  Anyway, fast forward to this day and age on the little island of Grenada...
 Like I said before I can't drive here so I need to depend on him for most of my transportation needs. That's ok, but let me explain Grenadian driving. In Grenada everyone drives on the left side. That alone is enough to disorient me. But also, the driver and passenger sides are switched, as well as the turn signal and windshield wiper lever. The first time I went away with him, which coincidentally was the first day he was driving, I promptly started to jump into the passenger's side until he reminded me that is actually the driver's side. We headed out through and he put his turn signal on to signify which way we are turning, and the wipers blades start going. Oops. Wrong lever. Truly, the way people drive in Grenada makes my driving look good. Yellow lines are nonexistent and after seeing how they drive I realized they would be a futile waste of paint anyway. They pretty much drive in the middle of the road unless you see another vehicle coming. Around turns, in the middle of the road, no big deal, you just toot your horn to let oncoming traffic know you're headed around the corner. And, it's THEIR fought if you blew your horn and they didn't get over. Around here, it's not impolite to blow your horn, but considered rude and dangerous if you don't. There are also alot of people walking beside or, more likely, on the road. All this to say I was a nervous wreck driving with Chris the first time. Not that he wasn't a good driver but this time it was me saying,

 At a red light that's at the side of a building, not where a light would customarily be located, "Did you see that red light???!!!!" Yes, I remembered it was there from the last time we drove through here.

 "Do you see that lady walking on the road???!!!" as a  truck comes flying from the other direction...no response, but a white knuckled clasp of the steering wheel....

"You do know there's a steep drop off here and no guard rail, right???" as I peer anxiously out my window and directly down the cliff...yea, I know, kinda dangerous, right?

 "Don't you think you should get over alittle more on your side of the road?" as we round a turn...that's why I tooted my horn.." 

 That traffic light's REEEEED!" yea, but we're turning and that little green arrow on the other signal is green..."oh."

And most vehicles down here are European style with the driver on the right side but the mission truck is American style with the driver on the left side. That's all fine and dandy except where does that put me, his passenger? Yup, in the middle of the road with cars whizzing by seemingly inches from my right side. Traumatizing enough to give me gray hair in just one trip...

Or the time we were looking for a parking space...we were thinking about just parking at the side of the road but he decided to drive to the top of the hill to see if there is a better spot at the top. Only after we got the top and turned around and headed back down again did he look at me and say, "You know what? I just drove up that hill on the right side." I guess old habits die hard...especially when he's somewhat distracted. Thankfully nothing was coming the other direction!

 Yes indeed, I now can empathize with him and scary passenger experiences

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Empathy
Definition	Understanding what others are feeling because you have experienced it yourself or can put yourself in their shoes.

                    Business administrator in training. Dan Burkholder has been great
                 at showing Chris the ropes. He had been filling in till we got here.

                               Cottage meeting one Wednesday evening. There were
                                visitors from Canada here at this time.

                                   Trying to stay one step ahead of those nasty mosquitoes!

                                                 Just a random shot of Carter showing
                                                 off his candy from his dear Grandma

                               Some visitors that stopped by for a drink of water or out
                               of curiosity or something....I don't really remember

                               This was taken about 2 weeks ago but the scars remain:(

 No, he's not a malnourished child trying to scrape the last remains of precious food out of a near empty dish. He had been begging for snow ice, the Grenadian equivalent of a popsicle, since the first day of school. He came home from school and said the students are sucking something sweet out of a bag and he wants some too. He got a piece of finger jello and wrapped it in a plastic baggie and slurped it out. I don't know if he thought anything he puts in a baggie would magically turn sweet or what. I finally got some made and it's a perfect after school snack.

                                    Was glad I had my camera handy for this quick shot.

 The children's new play house/hideout underneath our house. I try not to think of the 2' snake and 3 centipedes Chris killed behind our house. A centipedes sting is worse than a scorpion's...or so I'm told. I don't want to ever find out. And no, the toilet doesn't work:)

                                                   The entrance to their "den"

                   Fresh orange juice coming up...anyone want to try some? 
                 Get away  from  all that  ice and snow and come on down!:)

                                         Loved this sticker on one of the bus's windows

I started this post over a week ago but it remained dormant this long because of more important things like weddings and friends and fun. I will post more on that later.....
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