Rainy Season?

Thanks Kim for asking about the rainy season. Be ready to be shocked. We are in the rainy season and have been for about a week. This is the crazy part....For the first 3 weeks we had about 15 seconds of a sprinkle. All of a sudden over night it switched. It has rained every night (well not sure about last night) but basically every night for the last week and it is rain like I have never seen or heard before. Our days are fairly cloudy with spots of sunshine here and there and the mornings are super duper humid - more so than Virginia ever has been. This humidity I am sure is caused by the nightly rain. It starts to sprinkle on and off in the early evening and then all night long it pours down really hard. We have a tin roof over our real roof so the sound of the rain is beautiful but the thunder is soooo loud! This will sound crazy but one morning early it thundered so loud that my skillet fell off the drainboard. May have been coincidence but it WAS really loud. I am loving the rainy season so far because it has only been a week and basically only rained while we are sleeping. But ask me again in a few months!

By the way we got good news yesterday. We can have stuff shipped to us in the vehicles being exported to Nathan. I immediately gave Nathan's Mom a list, bless her heart, brownies, frosting, peanut butter, tootsie rolls, my raw almonds, and shout spray because we have no stain lifter here and I have to wash everything in cold water so our clothes are clean but don't look it! Shout should help me out. If not I will have to hire someone to do my laudry because the women here in Guatemala are extra awesome stain fighters. Ingrid said she would teach me but she is so busy and I hate to take her away from her children when she is not working. I think that Stormy may be able to send us our PO BOX personal letters this way. We are going to test it this round and see how it goes.

Tina,

The spanish is coming easier. I have to overcome my fear of speaking but the words are coming to mind more fluidly now. I'm sure the grammar is still crazy but my thoughts are being expressed. The kids are surprising me with how they are picking it up. Gabby loves to watch the rock n learn series I bought in the states and is learning it this way. I have to admit I have learned a lot watching it also. I definately recommend it.

Homeschool?!? Well - we do our school work in the living area from 10 to 1. That's about as long as I can keep the kids in doors for now but we will have to expand the time gradually. I was going to take an early two month summer vacation while we adjusted anyway, but decided that we need structure to our day or I go nuts. We do not test them. We didn't test them in Virginia either. I took out a religious exemption. In Guatemala kids do not have to go to school. There is no regulation because some of them are helping support the family at a young age. I think most children go to school though and I am very impressed with how smart they are. My older two kids are begging to go to school because they have heard of some different examples of gringo kids going to school and becoming fluent in Spanish very quickly because of the immersion in the language. I am really hesitant and we are debating it. Nathan really wants to give them a trial run, but I am having reservations... We'll see what happens. I guess a trial couldn't hurt.
I'm sure they will win out but we need to investigate it further first.

Mama, yes those were sister missionaries in the picture. One was from Guatemala City and the other from Panama. The one from Panama speaks English pretty well which was nice for me. They gave Nathan's friend the first discussion that day. It went really well. I hope the Jungle Medic doesn't hunt me down and eat me for lunch now!!! Just Kidding!

Kim - that story about Aaron is hilarious! Thanks for giving me a laugh today.

Mel