Terre Hill Senior Trip

 Another day is almost history.
I believe the class could all say, in spite of all the grief and pain they endured in Grenada, they also made some good memories, too. I am so thankful for that. We are really enjoying having them with us. They are a great bunch!

I had to make rotis for around 80 people for supper, so I stole some of the girls to help me cut up vegetables. It was so nice to have their help and I enjoyed getting to know them better. Was also very nice to have some familiar faces with me in the kitchen!

Chris took the guys from our group to pour a concrete floor for Carmel John. She lives up a very steep hill. Because of the steep incline his load shifted, and the truck that was bringing the gravel up for the project overturned. No one was hurt, thankfully. A friend of Carmel's was driving the truck. With lots of muscle power they got it right side up again. Limes group was also there to help.

                                       Many buckets of concrete and lots of hard work!

Singing at Mt. Gay, a psychiatric hospital, this afternoon

Terre Hill Senior girls

Part of a Heavenly Plan

As the murky twilight stole the deep shades of pink and blue from the colorful sky, salty tears fell as praises were lifted to God. Death has a way of conquering cultural divides. It is a pain all colors, cultures and countries understand. A pain that draws people closer, dissolving petty differences.
"When a tragedy like this happens in Grenada, all of Grenada grieves with you," Thaddeus shared at the LaBorie Mennonite church. "We are so saddened," he continued. "I couldn't wait to meet the group and thank them for the work they did on my steps and then I heard that one of them was killed. My heart was so heavy. But then, I heard he was ready to meet God, and I felt better."
 "Even though I didn't know him, when I heard a young man drowned, I immediately burst into tears," another young man shared at our church this morning. "We are so sorry this had to happen."
 As we sang tonight at a joint song service for all 3 of the mission's churches, the words of "Thomas's Song" jumped off the page..."your death was part of a heavenly plan..."
 Jared's death was not in vain. It is part of a heavenly plan.

This class is being such a testimony in Grenada!
 Through all their pain and tears, they continue to praise God!
(I apologize for the shaky video)

The LaBorie group

                                                      Skyping Josh Martin

                                                   Big smiles across the miles!

                                     James & Josh "meeting" each other:)

                               Josh being showed the beautiful country of Grenada

                                                     Unloading the cattle:)

                      Playing basketball before the song service started tonight

                                                   Heavens really gonna shine!

                         This group of seniors are touching many lives!

Life goes on...

And so, life continues to move on in the tiny, little island of Grenada. Moment by moment, day by day, till the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months. The first week we were here, it seemed like a year should have passed, with all the new sights, smells & experiences. New faces, new roads, new grocery stores, new school, new church, new food, different temperatures, new house & new neighbors. Each new day that passed brought so many new things that, sometimes I could hardly fathom it was only a few days since we had left home. As we adjusted to life in Grenada though, it seemed like time picked up speed. Now I look back and think, has it really been 4 months already? Of course, winter is a busier time down here, with more visitors and 2 high school groups coming down. Maybe time will slow down when the hot summer months hit. We shall see. Temperatures are climbing and I've accepted the fact that I will be sweating more hours out of the day than I'm not. So far evenings have cooled down somewhat but it remains muggy most nights. We are in the middle of dry season so that means there are times they turn the water off for a few hours at a time. It also means that the water we do get is from the bottom of the reservoir, consequently it is cloudy and sometimes brown. After some stomach issues we started boiling our drinking water, as many people on the island are doing as well.

 How are we adjusting? Depends when you ask:) I don't think the longing for home will ever completely go away but most times it's bearable. Of course, there are the exceptions when you just really wish you could see everyone again! Last night I dreamed I was on a plane headed home and I was so excited that I forgot to take any luggage with me:) Hopefully that never happens! It definitely helps if I keep myself busy. Chris has not a chance to be bored yet and he usually always has something on his agenda. It doesn't help that everything that needs done takes twice as long. He'd much rather have it that way though than not have enough to do! Between fixing houses, vehicles & appliances and endless paper work, he has plenty to do.
  I am kept busy with normal housewife duties...washing, cooking, cleaning, ironing and then starting all over again.:) Really, not much different than what my life used to be. Wednesdays find me at the hospital and after meeting a lovely, elderly couple there, if all goes as planned, I will be helping the lady take care of her husband 1 morning a week. They would come into the hospital every Wednesday morning for medical care and I always so admired the cheerful, selfless way she took care of him! They are such a sweet couple! He recently broke his leg, so after he's discharged I plan to go help with his care. 

 Kaylah has made tremendous strides in adjusting! So thankful for that! She still really misses her friends though. Of course, it helped that she had her grandparents visit to look forward to! Also, her constant shadow, Diamond has brightened many of her days! That mutt is well worth the $25 she cost. 

 Collin & Christi have adjusted well and enjoy school for the most part. Their teacher Ryan Horst, has an excellent way of captivating their attention and making learning sound like the most fun thing in the world! 

 Collin's arm still is crooked and after endless phone calls, countless messages left & emailing x-rays, we have finally reached a decision. We got differing opinions from 2 different doctors, so for awhile, we weren't sure what we were gonna do. The one doctor, that thought we shouldn't wait till November to get it fixed, emailed the x rays to a pediatric surgeon at Hershey for his opinion. That doctor said if it would have been right after we discovered it had healed wrong he would say to get it fixed immediately, but now that it's considered an "old" injury, waiting 6 months won't make any difference. So on our visit home in November we will get it evaluated, so we know what to do about it. Most likely rebreaking & resetting.

Carter took to Grenada like a fish to water and he even sounds like one! (A Grenadian, not a fish:)) It is definitely true that the younger they are, the easier they adjust. He usually always has a smile on his face and makes friends wherever he goes. Ok, he can be a world class whiner sometimes too!

   Alright, now for a picture update of our lives:) 

Below is a set of steps that has been filling Chris's spare moments. They belong to Thaddeus, a member at our church, who plans to get married in June. His bride-to-be is in her 50's, so for her sake he decided to put in a flight of steps down to his house instead of making her use the steep, turny path he previously used. Very thoughtful of him, but they will still both be building lots of leg muscles going up & down all those steps!

Chris, Collin & Carter shoveling off sand to be used for the steps. They 

(not just Chris, others have been helping, too) have been framing the steps one

 section at a  time and many, many buckets of cement were carried down that hill!

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

          ....then this post is a library. For those that don't like to read long
            winded blog posts but prefer lots of pictures, this is for you...

                        ...starting with some beautiful scenery pictures! Thanks to
                         quick, sudden down pours, we see rainbows quite often.
                         This one was a full arch but I couldn't get it all on the picture.

Man's destruction, God's handiwork...

                                Our enterprising children have opened a coffee shop...
                                 you will be delighted to see it is open to the public.
                                 As you can see on the sign, it is opened most afternoons
                                 after school hours. Your taste buds will tingle with unheard
                                 of cuisine and brew...seaweed salad washed down with a
                                  mug of iced mud frappe. If you're feeling really rich you
                                  could order a side of sand dollar cookies.

                         Waiting for business...oh the fun they had stacking cement
                          blocks to make walls and dragging out chairs and other
                          paraphernalia. Oh the work it is to put everything away!:(

                          Next up...Kaylah's 12th  birthday...

Kaylah sheepishly enduring the church singing Happy Birthday to her.

Diamond in the Rough

 She needed a friend. One she could confide in. One she could share her hopes and dreams with. One she could trust to not tell anyone her deepest secrets. Yes, she has friends, but they are thousands of miles away. She misses them dreadfully. She will reconnect with them when she goes home....but until then she needed a friend by her side. A friend who understands her, trusts her, is devoted to her.   She has her Dad & Mom but they are, well, a little old fashioned. Even a slight bit embarrassing in the public, she has to admit. Sooo, well, 1970's.
 There are very few girls her age in LaBorie. Actually, none that I know of. She is the only girl in a class of boys and the closest girl her age at church is 10 years old.
 She has her sister, but, as she told her yesterday, she is NOT going to like her till they are grown up.
I guess my constant reminding her, that one day your sister will be your best friend, is slowly sinking in. Yes, it brings back so many memories of me and my sister at home. Of her being so annoying, wanting to follow me everywhere, wearing my clothes and other high crime things like that. After warning her if I catch her wearing my clothes one more time, I am going to dump all her clothes out the window onto the adjoining roof, I did just that. My poor mother. I pity her now. So, yes, she has her sister but it will be awhile till she likes her.
      Meet Diamond...her shadow, her confident, her soul mate...

 Diamond, I, at first, didn't really like you. With your scrawny legs, gaunt body and flea infested belly, it was not love at first sight. But, as I saw the change that came over my daughter as she fell head over heels in love with you, I grudgingly accepted your position in the family. You took advantage of that little flame of love and worked it to your benefit. You made me weigh the consequences of breaking my vow of  NEVER having a dog in MY house with the fact that you do add a lot of character to this house hold. When you look up at me with those big black eyes and wag your scrawny little tail, I can't help but like you a little bit. Added to that, is the fact that my floor has never been cleaner, with your razor sharp eyes noticing every crumb that falls. If I were to write a book on you, this is how it would go....

                                                         Chapter 1
We were a happy family of 6. We thought it was really pretty near perfect....2 girls and 2 boys. But then there came some changes in our lives. A few scares to be exact....and we started thinking. Wouldn't it be nice to add another member to the family? One that would stay alert when we are deep in sleep? One that we could count on to protect us? We weren't looking for a viscous beast that would leave its marks on any intruder. Just a yip and a yap would be fine. With those thoughts in mind, we began thinking about ways to extend our family. But where do we begin?
Yes, there were lots of canines roaming the neighborhood. Some short, some tall, some fat, some scrawnier than scrawny. Ugly ones, cute ones. Friendly ones, viscous ones. But, which one is the one for us? Most of these dogs, even if they roam for miles, have a home and someone who cares for them, so we couldn't just pluck one off the street and say, "Ok, this one is ours now."
Well, soon after we began our search we noticed a litter of puppies at a random house. Hmmm...could one of these be for us? After finding out that, yes, they are for sale, Chris asked how much he wants for one. "Well, how much do you want to pay?" the guy asked. (That should have been our first clue) Now we bought and sold more than one dog back home, but those were pure bred, registered, de-wormed, vaccinated dogs and we had no clue what the going rate was for a flea infested, worm bellied little pup. "How about $100ec" asked the guy. (That should have been our 2nd clue) "Yea, she's a good mom...she drops 12 or 13 each time," he added. (3rd clue, this guy probably would have paid us to take one, but we are naive foreigners) My husband, striving to get the best deal, said, "Well, how about $60ec." With some quick figuring in his head, he figured out that would only be around $25 American money for the dog. A real deal, if you consider back home we'd pay around $500 for one. The deal was finalized and he walked away with 4 thrilled children and one lucky mutt. After I shared this story with Alana, one of my Grenadian friends, she looked at me incredulously and said,"You WHAT? You PAID for a dog!??" So now, instead of gloating over our deal, we feel we paid $25 too much. At least we made someone's day.

                                                 Chapter 2
 It was her 2nd evening with us. Kaylah and I were gone for most of the evening and returned home to find furrowed brows and anxious eyes. "We've looked EVERYWHERE for Diamond and we can't find her!" In milliseconds Kaylah's mood went from delighted to distressed. We began OUR search, calling her name, (which she didn't even know yet) and looking in all the nooks and crannys on our small property with flashlights. We looked long after the rest of the family retired for the night. We prayed and strained our ears in hopes of hearing any distant whimpering. All was quiet. Finally, after admitting defeat, she crawled in bed, with tears in her eyes and a prayer on her lips. Sometime after midnight, I was aroused out of a deep sleep. Am I dreaming? No, I'm not! It's a yip and a yap, and it sounds familiar! I crawled out of bed, unlocked the padlock on the gate and began a circle around the house. I softly called out Diamond's name, wishing by now, I would have grabbed a flashlight. After a few circles around the house and not hearing or seeing anything, I gave up my fruitless search. I locked the gate on the porch behind me and headed into the house...when, what to my wondering eyes did appear...A girl! Laughing! Crying! Holding her beloved pup! What rejoicing...the lost had been found! Or was she ever really lost at all? Not really. She had been sleeping under Kaylah's bed the whole time, hiding behind a stack of suitcases.

                                        Chapter 3
She has been with us now for a few weeks. After some more scary instances, we realized she fails miserably at being a watch dog. However, she loves us and we love her. Instead of, Mary had a little lamb, it's Kaylah has a little dog...and it follows her everywhere! Almost. After being very distracting at an outdoor cottage meeting, we banned her from any more worship services. Or so we tried. On Sunday evening, we were headed down the road to church. Chris had taken the bus to pick up church members from a distance so it was just me and 3 of the children walking to church. It was a joint song service with all 3 churches and I was looking forward to it. We first realized we were being followed a few yards down the road, when we saw a stealthy, black and white, 4 legged little creature slyly trying to follow in our footsteps. This should be an easy fix I thought and send Christi back with
her in her arms. After waiting impatiently a few minutes I headed back through to see what is taking so long. After all, we are late enough and have no minutes to spare! "She won't stay back!" Christi wailed. "Well, she will for me!" I thought, defiantly. "STAY!" I told her, in no uncertain terms. She tucked her scrawny little tail between her scrawny little legs and crept out behind the house and I walked smugly out the drive. We half walked, half ran, trying to make up for lost time. We were about halfway to church, when, what do you know! Here comes the little mutt, trailing a few yards back, half walking, half running, trying to catch up to us. Now, we're in a real predicament. Either we take her back and be late for church for real, or we admit defeat, pick her up and make haste to church and then try to decide what to do with her. Before I really decided, Christi had her scooped up in her arms, whispering endearing words to her, like how she has to be careful on the road, because we all really love her, and we don't want anything to happen to her. Although I didn't have one loving thought towards her at the moment, I decided we are late enough...we really need to keep walking. Almost everyone was already seated till we got there, except my husband standing at the doorway, wondering where in the world the rest of his family was. Little did he know, he now had a dog he had to deal with yet. After a quick search he found some string and tied her up outside of the church. All was well now and we walked in and unfortunately had to parade almost the whole way to the front for seats. No sneaking in late for us! The singing was beautiful and I was singing my heart out when, to my dismay, I heard a familiar hoooooooowl coming from outside the church. I tried to act oblivious, hoping everyone was just thinking it was just a neighbor dog howling at the moon but when her howl reached an octave higher than the high tenor singers, I gave up, and send Kaylah out see what's up. After a long time she came back in, anxious and worried because there were some older boys out with Diamond and she was so afraid they are going to steal her. At that point, I would have been glad if they would have. Unfortunately, they didn't.
 And so she's still with us. Cleaning up my floor, dragging my wash all over the yard, scaring the wits out of me by silently entering a room and staring at me with her big black eyes and slowly, ever so slowly, stealing her way into my heart.

                                         A scared little puppy & a very happy girl

                    A scared little puppy and a very sad boy (he was upset
                   because Collin got to go with Chris on the bike instead of him)

                               Rub a dub dub, Diamond's in the tub....

              She's bathed and powdered...can she pleeeease be in the house now?

                                                      Inseparable

                                 Whither thou goest, I will go....her first truck ride...

           Trying to hold the dog with one hand and pack his lunch with the other..
            This is where I draw the line...dogs & food prep do NOT go together!

                          She acts so goofy sometimes...she thinks she's part human

               You well earned your nick name, "flea infested rat". We try hard
                to stay ahead of those little critters but I still don't condone using half a
              bottle of flea & tick powder at one shot...

                                     Smile and say, "Doggy bone!!"

                        Carter claims he has her trained to take off his socks
                         so he doesn't have to bend over & do it himself....
                         and then I wonder why half their socks are missing?

                                   When the going gets tough, I will carry you...

                                                 One hot dog!
                             
                   Since I don't want this whole post to center around a dog, I'll add
                    some pics of our "new" church & some church activities....

               Mt Gay, a psychiatric hospital we sang at one Sunday afternoon...
               Seeing all these people behind locked doors just made me really
                wonder what their life story is...

                                          Another view of the hospital

                                                          A high High....
                         After a busy week of tying up loose ends, we deemed the
                         church close enough finished to hold our first service in it...
                         Was so  lovely to worship in bright sunlight & a nice breeze
                          through the windows instead of underneath a house, where
                          we had previously been. Now instead of one Sunday School
                          class in the kitchen, one in the living room & one right
                          outside on the porch, we could each have our own space.
                                  Ah, twas lovely indeed....

                         This lady gets credit for lots of the church cleaning!
                          She is one hard working Grandma!

                                           Finishing touches on the painting

                                Trying to get the last layer of filth off
                                 of everything.  It was very dirty!

                                              Pastor John sharing a message at our
                                                first service back in the church

                        This young man almost seems like part of our family these last few
                         days...Chris & James have been kept busy making furniture for
                         the school and since the shop (shed) is at our place, he is here
                         most of the day. We aren't complaining! He has been a tremendous
                         help and Chris is glad for a "right hand man".

                      And this picture leaves us with some decisions to make...after
                       Collin had his cast removed we were very disappointed to see it
                       was not properly set and "healed" crooked. He has very limited
                       range of motion and can't raise his hand up at all and can only
                       put it down a little bit. The way it's looking is he'll probably
                       need surgery to correct it and that leaves us with the question,
                       where? We want to make sure it's done right since we want to
                        make sure he regains full use of his hand again. If you think
                        about it, pray that we would know what steps to take next.

                     And again, many thanks for all the prayers on our behalf.
                      We appreciate and we feel them...it's
                      hard to believe we've already been here almost 3 months.
                      While there have been challenges, there
                       has been a lot to be thankful for!