Week 2

Here's the beautiful view from our front door. The mountains here are just amazing.

I had no idea that VW made a pickup truck until I came to Mexico. They have all kinds of cars here that we don't have in the US.

I can't imagine that this man had dug this all by shovel, but then again, the people here do work very hard.

Chastity and I went for a run and came across this outdoor "gym". Pretty interesting! The next couple of pictures show most of it.

I have to tell you a little about our last few of days. Wednesday Ken and Tammy came over and brought us one of their cars that they are going to rent to us while we are here. They have been such a help to us and taken really good care of us. Their car is a 2009 VW Crossfire with only 16,000 kilometer on it (this info will come into play later in the story). Thursday after service Chastity and I went to Walmart and on our way home we got lost. I didn't think we would ever find our way out of this neighborhood we found ourselves in and though most everywhere here we've been told is very safe, it's always a little nerve-racking when your in a different country, it's late at night, pitch dark and you can't find your way home! After about 15-20 minutes of driving around we finally get home. Then Friday afternoon I had to drive Chastity to her dentist appointment downtown. We of course got a little lost again on our way there and so Chastity is stressed out because we are going to be late for her appointment and then all of a sudden I here a really bad clunking noise in the front of the car. I pull over and inspect the suspension and though I'm certainly not a mechanic, I couldn't see ANYTHING broken or loose so we continue on. After her appointment I try to call Ken on his cell using Skype on my iTouch. The reception was so bad he could only make out a few words....."this Lance.....downtown right now.....meet you.....VW dealer...." "WHERE?!" "VW.......front end.......bad" "I WILL HEAD THERE NOW. "

We find out that the chassis is cracked in 3 spots AND the car is not under warranty because it wasn't serviced at the VW dealer! But it's only two years old with 16,000 km Ken tries to reason with them but to no avail. That's the policy, "you would have to take it up with VW." The service man goes to find out how much this will cost to fix. He returns and says the cost is 1500 hundred...........PESOS! WHEW!!!! That's only $120, we all thought for sure he was about to say 1500 dollars! We pick it up tomorrow evening. Ken and Tammy were again so kind to bring us back to their place and give us their CRV to use for the rest of the day and tomorrow until the VW is fixed. There were many other stressful details to this story that would take to long to tell but needless to say, Chastity and I are just relieved to have it all behind us now.

Here's an example of the colorful houses here. This was taken in the city, most of the houses in the outer neighborhoods are colorful too but not near as nice. Many of the locals have very little, in fact the minimum wage here is $5 a day. That being said, the people are still so happy and friendly.

If you look close you can see a pelican diving and just about to hit the water.

Here is the family who is renting their house to us, Miguel, Suzanna and their one year old David. They came by the other night to pick up a few items they had left behind. Neither of them speak any English and when I tried to tell Suzanna that her house was beautiful in my broken Spanish she interrupted me. I said "Your house is......and then she said, NO it's your house now." What a loving couple! It's so wonderful to be a part of Jehovah's organization.

Here is most of the group taking a breather while a man in the background is being witnessed to by Jared and another sister (I forget her name). The people here in Mexico have such a love and respect for the Bible and what it teaches.

This is Bonita's (one of our sisters) little girls. I think she got a little confused with the drink and just bit a whole in the bottom and sucked all the juice out.

Everyone in our group had to stop and say hello to these two cute little girls. Their mother was selling sugar cane juice on the street we were working. (see next picture)

This was our break after finishing on of the blocks in the territory, a refreshing cup of fresh squeezed sugar cane with lime added to it.

Chastity comes to the aid of Tammy by applying a bandaid to her foot to help her blister.

Jared checking to see what this man is doing. He's got this huge iron kettle filled with green corn cooking it over an open fire. Sounds yummy huh.

At the end of our day in service we stopped by Todd and Amy's. They are the couple that just arrived this weekend from Canada. They drove down from Edmonton Canada in there little Toyota Corolla with their belongings and plan on staying for good here. They just found a nice little house not far from us, a nice 2 bedroom, 1 bath house in a great little community for $350/month.......anyone ready to relocate to Mexico? Here is Ken and Jared helping unload a bed and frame Todd and Amy just bought.

Todd is soooooo excited about being in his new place!

What is it? It's Yaka fruit, also known as jackfruit, which is in the family of breadfruit. It is apparently the worlds largest fruit. Though we didn't try it, supposedly it tastes like melon, banana, mango, and papaya all rolled into one. The locals use it for a remedy to stomach problems, ulcers, and curing hangovers. The fruit even produces a sticky latex that was used to caulk ships. Who knew?

This is Ken's toilet seat that he's so attached to (no pun intended) that when it broke he called his carpenter to fix it for him.

Brandon Zubis, eat your heart out. If this won't get you here for a visit, nothing will. This was at Ken and Tammy's house and he said quite a few of the friends are Catan fans.

Ken and Tammy were our translators with our Spanish brother, Miguel. He is renting his house out to us while we are here. Sad story, basically he and his wife had their first child and so he had his uncle build him this house for his family. They have only lived in the house a short while and now they can't afford it so they are moving out on Tuesday and moving in with a family member to save money. He wanted to rent it to Witnesses so that he knew it would be cared for. He is such a nice brother and was willing to do whatever he could to make sure we are comfortable during our stay. He wants us to pass on the word that he has it for rent for other brothers and sisters who are willing to come and help the congregations here.

The view from the front of the house. It's about 7 blocks from the kingdom hall.

Chastity was so excited to see roses growing out in the front of the house. Miguel said she could cut some off for a vase inside the house.

The front of our residence for the next 3 months.

This is another one of our spanish brothers. His name is Nacho and he lives a block away. He lived for many years in California and speaks pretty good english. He runs a little bakery and supposedly makes incredible pizzas and will even deliver them up to our house. We can't wait to try them! Here he is making cookies to sell with his son, Javier to the left and his daughter, which you can't really see, Janet. They are a very nice family. For 8 pesos (65 cents) he sells these big wheat philadelphia rolls with cream cheese in the middle of them. I had one hot and it was amazing!

Here we are after the meeting Monday night. We had about 30 in attendance and they welcomed us and another couple, Todd and Amy, to the congregation. Todd and Amy are moving here permanently from Edmonton Canada.

Stange scene huh? It's not strange to the locals. Once a week they bring their trash to the middle of the intersection and pile it up for the trash truck to come by and pick up. You just have to drive around it when navigating down the streets. Look close and you can see another pile on the next block.