Vacation?

                This last month has been an adventure! It all started with a planed flight to take some skilled network workers to Guayaramerin and Cobija in the Beni to set up equipment to broadcast Red ADvenir over the two small cities. All the flying was going to mean about a week home alone for me. Then the opportunity to go in an empty seat to Guayara came and I jumped in with Timothy. It sounded like a lot more fun to spend the week without Steve at the school in Guayara with my sisters, rather than alone here in Santa Cruz (it was raining, cold and overcast in Santa Cruz, sunny and warm in Guayara).

Timothy helping make bread

It was cold enough in Santa Cruz to have our heater going very often.
 I took advantage of it and baked some buns on top of the heater.

Rainy, overcast, and not very warm. It had been like that for a few months.

In Guayara it was a different climate. Hot, sunny, and dry.
We set up our temporary home in the shade of some palm trees.

                It was very nice to be back at the school. It had been three years since I had visited there last. The school has changed a lot. There are more buildings, and bathrooms. The spring has now been piped all the way down to the creek at the bottom of the hill and is pumped up to a storage tank and is gravity fed to all the buildings. All the taps have fresh spring water coming from them. Such a blessing! There are a lot of banana and papaya trees now too. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the heat and the lovely creek where the laundry is washed and hot bodies cooled down. Most of the houses have showers now, but there is nothing so refreshing as jumping into the cool creek on a hot day, and the days there are almost always hot.

Bringing in some bananas with Aunty Sara

Bath time. We would go and swim and wash clothes and diapers in the hottest part of the day.

                While we were visiting the school, there was a group there headed up by Jeff and Ray to build a church at the school. They brought a few guys with them from the US and Belize and within a very short time had the floor and walls up. They then pushed on and got a foundation and floor poured for the new boys dorm. 

Timothy thinking he is helping.

                It was interesting being back. It is as a Mom this time, not a single person. I found it hard not to just jump in and do the things I used to do. Sometimes I struggle with guilt because I am “just taking care of a baby”. I know that it is the most important work that has ever been given me, and I am choosing to make it my priority, but there are so many things to be done on all sides. Saying no to it all sometimes makes one feel useless in the work. I ask for prayers for all the moms, and especially the mission moms who are the support behind their husbands and sole caregivers for their children, as family is too far away to give a helping hand. All the same, it was a blessing being back at the school, and Timothy and I did what we could together to help in the garden, a day in the kitchen, a day giving sewing class, etc. We also had fun Aunty times with Sara and Anne. It was vacation at the school when we first went up so the Aunties had a little time to have some fun too.

Sitting in the wood box playing with the wood while Mommy was cooking.

                Meanwhile, while I was having fun, Steven was very busy... His story to come