Day 49 – “3rd times a charm…or is it a nightmare?”

notice how dark it is out the door?

2:30am - I awoke to the sound of rain on the metal roof. A sound I know well and before moving here, it was a sound I enjoyed.  It took me all of a minute to realize it was raining hard and flashes from the previous 2 times came “flooding” (no pun intended) back. I asked Erik, “Where is the computer?”. To which he answered, “I don’t know,….over there, why?”. “Because it’s pouring”, I answered. Even though he had been sound asleep, the power of those 3 words struck him like a lightning bolt and we both immediately shot out of bed to move the computer and “prepare” the room. No sooner had we secured the computer then a much dreaded drop fell from the middle of our ceiling. So I said, “I think you should go get a pot.” But by the time he got back from the kitchen, there were drops beginning to fall all over and I wasn’t really sure where to put the pot or if it really mattered. And within 5 minutes there was literally a torrential rainstorm in our bedroom.

Erik's water shoes came in very handy

In front of the window, it was just running down the wall like a waterfall, as well as on the other side of the room. After 20 minutes or so, Erik and I realized we were in over our heads and he woke up Shawn to help clear the water out of the dining room. This was the worst yet, in maybe 25 minutes a huge pot and bucket completely filled with water in our room. We got soaked, but fortunately, we were able to keep the damage to a minimum. And we spent the next hour and a half sweeping out the water, then mopping & drying. At 4:09 Erik made himself a cup of tea and I went back to bed-crisis over. All I could think was how happy Jim would be that they decided to leave yesterday instead of today. Every time it rained hard, he would get this look of panic in his eyes. He would also wonder "when are they gonna' fix the roof?" Logical question.

Flowers at the house of Erik's RV - they weren't home

7:30am came way too quick! This is the first day I felt too tired and lacked motivation to go out, but I had appointments for the ministry, one that I had verified the night before….arrrrrgggg. So the three of us literally dragged ourselves up and out & met for service in Santa Rosa. No one else came so we said a prayer and we were off-driving of course! It was still raining and I don’t think any of us had the energy to walk up and down the hills to visit our RV’s. 

But of course, Jehovah blessed our efforts and we had a good morning. We had a really nice visit with JoMyra (the younger sister of Jessica, whom we studied with yesterday). We went over the question in the truth tract about the hope for the dead and some other questions she had. Like her sister, she is a real thinker. There seems to be something in the family because the mom always listens to our discussions as well. Next week she wants to do the question on prayer.

The RV also has tons of papaya trees with a bunch that are ripe.
It's sad she wasn't home!

We also stopped to see Alexandra and caught her before she had to go to the hospital and had a study with her about why we die. Fortunately, it sounds like her daughter is doing better since she moved her to Loja. Although it is quite a bit farther, it is a much larger facility. She’s not the most expressive person but she seems to enjoy our discussions and the things she’s learning.

After service we went into Zamora to run some errands and get a bite to eat. Erik & Shawn had a bowl of chicken soup, a piece of beef, rice, menestra (beans), a potato pancake thing, a drink (horchata-but not like the Mexican horchata) and a little bite of dessert for $3 each-you gotta love it!

We came home and napped (of course) & prepared for the meeting. I made dinner for us to eat after meeting-a roasted chicken with potatoes, onions & carrots and green beans.

With Ryan gone, Erik had a busier night than usual-he read for the congregation book study, read the scriptures for the oral review, did a presentation on starting a study out of the WT for the announcements and had the last 25 minute part on the meeting out of the reasoning book.  After meeting, I helped Diana collect the donations from the boxes because Veronica wasn’t there – that was a first for me.

We came home and had a real “American” feast! It turned out pretty tasty  but unfortunately I thought about a pic half way through. Sorry – you’ll have to use your imaginations on this one.

Erik talked to a brother in Florida (why, you may ask-we'll keep you informed) & we went to bed early. We were really looking forward to sleeping in and hoping for no rain!