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July 4th on SA

It had gotten a little dry around SA but Thursday night there came a nice 1-inch rain followed the next night by another 3/4’s inch so the place was looking pretty good on the 4th for our little get-together. It was the usual suspects which meant a lot of kids to take advantage of the water slide and blowup pool. The afternoon was warm and sunny but pleasant in the shade of the bois d’arc trees. Those so inclined played volleyball before hotdogs and ice cream and many, though not all, of the same crew played more after ice cream. The elderly groundskeeper, in a rare moment of clarity, sat out the second session so that he might be able to get out of bed the next day. Tino the dog was so exhausted by it all he was barely able to take nourishment. Both managed to live to fight another day.

Sunday we grilled steaks for Abigail’s birthday dinner. Her birthday isn’t until Tuesday but we wanted to celebrate while everyone was around. It was nearly mid-afternoon before we sat down to eat. Dave needed to get on the road home so we didn’t want to wait until normal dinner time. When that rolled around we just had birthday cake and called it a day.

Normalcy

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Things have returned to normal on SA and the Golden Spread, at least for the moment. We haven’t had rain for a couple of weeks and the grass is not growing like it was. I’ll still need to mow in the coming week but, if it doesn’t rain, I don’t expect to have to mow again for a while. Before June is over I will have spent over 16 hours on the mower and that doesn’t count the push mower, trimmer or edger. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I know there are probably Chinese guys who have no yard to mow, I won’t mind a little respite, though, especially since there are so many other things around the place that need attention. Continue reading “Normalcy” →

Nathaly

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Nathaly Alejandra Sermeño Zepeda. She’s the short one in the picture. El Salvador is about the size of Massachusetts, or so the Internet says so it must be true. Even still Nathaly, Anna her Compassion center tutor (left side) and her mother Carla (second from left) had to get up in the wee hours to get to the waterpark in San Salvador where we met for the first time and spent a “fun day.” The young lady to Nathaly’s right is Gabi, the CI interpreter. When we walked into the park, all the children were lined up to greet us. I didn’t spot Nathaly right off. In the picture we had of her she wasn’t over six years old and was probably younger than that. As young children do, she had changed a lot. Continue reading “Nathaly” →

Our group

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Hillside Christian Church supports Compassion International and through the church’s sponsor signup drive about a year and a half ago, we became a sponsor. Our group was composed of Hillside people and, other than the vague look of villainy we all have, seemed like decent people. Brenda (front, right) called me baby most of the time but I didn’t mind. Her husband Jim (bald head) is a stewardship pastor at the church. To Jim’s right is Carmen, who lives in Colorado Springs. She represents CI on some of these trips. She’s fluent in Spanish which is handy in a Spanish-speaking country. To Jim’s left wearing a red shirt is Mark. Mark manages all of these sponsor trips and has been on a number of them himself. Instead of flying home with the rest of us he flew on to Belize to rendezvous with another group. Wally (to Mark’s left, hat and beard) and Richelle (white chick in front of Wally) attend the Lubbock campus. Wally has a droll sense of humor I enjoyed. Behind Brenda is Kimberly who works for the church in child Sunday school area.

VBS

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After a tour of the Compassion center facilities and a home visit, we retuned to the center for a little vacation bible school. I was asked by our group leader to read a bible passage written in Spanish. I was prepared to give it a go but apparently it got bumped and never came up so I handed out suckers and blew bubbles instead. We also made animals with silly putty. I think the lesson must have been on Noah’s ark because the bible passage I didn’t read had to do with God promising not send another flood. That explains the emphasis on making silly putty animals. I tried my hand at it but the bubbles and suckers went over better. A little boy absconded with my bubbles but I had more. Later when we were about to leave and after the group picture with the center staff, the staff people handed out little gifts to our group: paper flowers in a nice bamboo holder for the ladies and a pen in the same bamboo holder for the gentlemen. My little friend who I gave the bubbles to talked the staff people into letting him give me my gift. From the rock star welcome we received on arrival, the warmth and friendliness of the people all through the day through the parting gifts, well, I’ll just say it warmed the heart of this old sinner.