Amazing Creations

God never ceases to amaze us! There are so many wonderful and amazing creatures right here in our own backyard. Just yesterday, Joe saw (and we all heard) 2 very loud blue parrots playing in the trees behind our house. Walking to get the kids at school, I saw a large vulture in the trees by the suspension bridge. We are amazed daily at the beautiful creations God has made.
Last week while having a cookout with the HCJB bunch, Sebastiao trapped this amazing grasshopper in his mud-boot. I think it is the most beautiful insect we have seen so far. Hope you enjoy.

How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: 8 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow

How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: 8 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow

Ok, so today while trying to find out how to shell peanuts, I came across instructions for how to make a pb&j. Yes, actual instructions for what my 4 year-old can already do on her own and it even includes pictures for the more sandwich challenged amongst you. So, enjoy the link and don't forget to "Wipe any residual peanut butter from the knife onto the second piece of bread."

Oh yeah, the reason I was looking for shelling peanuts was that today we got some fresh peanuts from the jungle. One of the missionaries brought back the peanuts from one of her jungle trips and is selling the peanuts for the village. Joe had an amazing idea to make peanut butter, so we are experimenting with different recipies. There is one store in the area that gets peanut butter for the Crazy Gringos, but it is almost $8 for a very small jar. I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy making $2 PB&J sandwiches for my kids, so we are going out on our own and will report back.

A Texas Drought in Ecuador

Ok, so thank you to everyone for praying for us. My mom is so funny, she asked if we brought Texas weather to Ecuador. I sure hope we didn't. We haven't gotten any rain, but the city did get their water pump working, so we do have some water for the time being. We usually use water from the hospital cistern. Now it is being pumped from the local rivers. I never thought I would be so happy to see brown, chunky water coming through my faucets, but I am very pleased! I can at least wash dishes and allow everyone to poop at home! We don't know if we will have water all day or how they are going to ration it, so please continue praying for rain, it is very much needed.

Rain Update

Please pray for rain. The water to the houses at the hospital has been completely turned off so the hospital can have water. We are able to walk to the guesthouse and take quick showers, but normal life (washing dishes, washing hands, cooking) is a little bit more challenging than normal. Please pray for patience and a sense of humor as we wait for rain.

Rain

I know this will sound like a strange request since we live at the edge of a rain forest, but please pray for rain for us. We have had a week and a half of sun, sun and more sun. We have a home-made rain guage and since we have been here, a typical week brings about 6-7 inches of rain. We have only had 1 inch at our house in the last 7 days. As a result the hospital's water system is just about empty and we are water rationing so the hospital has enough. The hospital was going to buy some water from the pueblo, but they are just about out of water also. Please pray that we can get plenty of rain and soon.

Primera Dia de la Escuela

Sebastiao started school this past Wednesday. He absolutly loves his class and his teacher. He is attendiing Nate Saint Memorial School. This year there are 7 kindergartners, 5 second graders, 4 third graders and I think 4 in the 4,5, and 6 th grade class. The classes are combinded so 2-3 are together as are 4,5, and 6. His teacher Miss Meusser has her hands full with lot of boys.

Whats the Best Way to Get Milk?

Ok, so the days of picking up a few gallons of milk in the refrigerated section of an HEB are long gone. In Shell, you milk options are either boxes of milk that don't have to be refrigerated until they are opened, powdered milk or fresh milk from someone who has a cow and then pasteurizing it. The boxed milk tastes pretty good, and when it is cold, the children don't complain. The down side to this is, however, trying to carry home enough for a family of 4. For the first month we just bought milk about every 4 days, because I didn't want to carry home an entire case from the store, and the children wouldn't volunteer to do it for me. But then our neighbors told me that they buy milk from a family who has cows and then they pasturize it themselves. Fortunatly, one of our neighbors had an extra pasturization machine we could borrow. The machine is from like 1950, but it works well and now we have fresh milk delivered to our house and I can carry home more important things from the store like coke zero!