Day 34 – Tea time

View of Cristina's house as we were walking to the territory.
Her back yard drops off and she has a beautiful view
of the river and valley.

We met for service at Hermana Cajas' house. We didn’t all fit in Shawn’s car (the amount of people, not our size – I know what u were thinking) so Erik and I walked down to the territory. Not a bad walk – 10 minutes or so and all downhill. The only bad part is it’s the main road and people drive fast and crazy. Not to mention at 8:45 it was already at least 70 degrees and very sunny. We knew we were in for a scorcher today.

View walking down to the territory in Namirez

View of the bridge connecting the town of Namirez

We did RV’s from last week, didn’t find anyone, but found quite a few new people that were willing to listen.

At 11:15am we regrouped to drive up the road up the mountain to do a call of Erik"s from last Wednesday. But first we stopped by a call of mine. His friends (or brothers) nicely told us he wasn’t home and then proceeded to chuck water balloons at our feet as we walked away. This is the start of “Carnival”-from what I can understand a senseless holiday where the sole purpose is to soak people, usually with water but can include anything, such as urine. I guess we should be thankful it was just water in the balloons (but why do our shoes smell like p?). Supposedly there a 2 days next week when you can’t even leave the house (or you are asking for it) to go in the ministry or do a study. Right now there seems to be a discrepancy between the locals as to which days exactly it is – hopefully they get it straightened out soon.

We drove up the mountain, unfortunately Erik didn't find his RV at home, but at least they found someone walking along the road to talk to. Then some horses wandered by the car on their way down.

We came home for lunch and Ryan & Veronica had made Sancocho de pescado (that delicious fish soup w/peanut butter broth I learned last week) - Yummy - we still didn't try the head.

Back out in service for the afternoon. Did I mention it was super hot and sunny? Despite all the sweatiness I had another good visit with the young girl, Raquel and we considered more info/texts from the Peaceful new world tract.  Next week we r gonna finish it and hopefully I can start a study in the Bible teach book.  Passed by my other study Alexandra, whose husband died a year ago. She was stressed bc the strong winds Monday had detached part of her metal roof. But with no ladder, Erik was forced to stand on a chair that’s sinking into the dirt and very unstable, to try to put the pieces of wood up there to hold it down. But he wasn’t doing exactly how she wanted so she’s standing behind him smacking him on the but saying stuff in Spanish. You have to picture this, she’s about 4.5 ft tall and 34 kilos (less than 75 pounds) but kind of a spitfire. She is tiny, which also led to her next question directed to me  - “What do you eat to get so fat? I mean ur really “gorda”, what types of food do you eat?” I think she was expecting me to say something like a whole pig a day but I just stood there and Erik quickly came to my rescue and said fruits, veggies, etc. (probably seeing the look of horror on my face and hoping I didn’t say something sarcastic).  I don’t think she really believed him but I’m pretty sure she meant it as a compliment and was sincere in wondering how she could bulk up like me but it’s still tough to hear, especially when I was feeling “thin” yesterday. But I couldn’t stay offended bc then she proceeded to tell us that 4 days earlier her 10 yr old daughter had been hit by a car walking home from school. It was on that main road (where the police stopped us) and the person never stopped, they took off and left her there). She found her daughter like a half hour later. She’s in the hospital in Zamora, sounds like she lost a lot of blood and bc they don’t have money she may not be receiving the best care. That was sad but I think her reaction was almost more sad – as if this were just a part of life there & somewhat normal.  She’s had a lot of bad things happen to her but hopefully we will have the opportunity to explain why.

After we left, Erik suffered his own tragedy, realizing he had misplaced his water bottle while doing door to door with Shawn earlier.  It might not seem like a big deal, but these water bottles are coveted here and impossible to replace. So we backtracked & fortunately Shawn remembered where he saw Erik  put it down and they asked the little boy & he ran inside to get it. By now it was raining, of course, and as we hiked up the hill to the last 2 calls it started pouring. It is truly incredible how quickly the weather here changes from one extreme to another.

Returned home and the house had flooded again but not nearly as bad as before – Jim had stayed home and was mopping and had it under control.

When we stopped by Cristina’s earlier for our customary glass of jugo she gave me “hierba Luisa” for making tea – I think it’s similar to the Cedron tea we’ve been buying which is Lemon Verbena? This looked like a grass, but has a lemony smell. So I attempted it last night and it was delicious. Robin, Shawn & Erik all liked it – Jim was skeptical that I had washed it good enough to get all the dog pee off. There is really an abundance of very inexpensive or free things to eat and drink here. And it's fun to try new things. If the grass tea doesn't prove to be poisonous we'll blog at ya' tomorrow. Be good!