Day 84 – The Memorial

It started like any other memorial day….just without water in the house.  It had rained hard all night and was still raining pretty hard so we weren’t surprised or overly concerned. But the CO & his wife were coming for lunch and there was a sink full of dishes, so Erik & I stayed back from service to clean & keep the water at bay.

We had a nice lunch w/the brother and his wife. After lunch, Erik worked on his talk & I was a little concerned as the hours ticked away and still no water! If you remember, we got home last night pretty dirty and antsy to shower. So at 3:30pm (our memorial started at 6pm), I decided to start washing my hair. The water never came back on. We only have one pic (this is a family blog) but the water you see in that pot was shared between Erik & I. By now,  there was not even a drop of water (it had stopped raining) in the house, we packed our toothbrushes and headed to the memorial at 5pm-medio limpio.

At least we had the bread and wine!

The sisters arranging the flowers before the memorial

Zully y Veronica (nicely matching)

Sabina, her daughter Ivana, Wilmer y Jesley

Erik and Shawn were going back at 5:45 to get our neighbor Sabina and her 3 kids – this was gonna be her first meeting ever! We were super excited. They were dressed really nice & by the way, she doesn’t have water either but that didn’t stop her. Diana sat with me and helped with the kids. Sabina really seemed to enjoy it. We had 150 people (35 publishers) – that’s the most they’ve ever had in Cumbaratza.

These kids are always smiling except when I wanted a pic

"Blonder" with his mom Fanny

By the time we quickly made our way to the door, the young brother from Zamora was there waiting to take us to the second place Erik had to give the talk. It felt somewhat secret serviceish as we jumped into his car and he wisked us away. Not to mention he was flying to get us there on time (Erik went a little over time). We walked in with 2 minutes to spare. They have theirs in an auditorium which was nice but a little dark. There were 262 (approx. 100 publishers).

Afterward, the family of the young brother, Edison (his nickname is Blonder) invited us over for cake and coffee (and turns out chicken and potato and plantain). – Erik was very happy.

Maria with the couple that gives her studies in sign language

There was a study, Maria, that came with the couple that lives at the KH in Zamora-they are from Germany but the wife is learning sign language. Maria used to be hearing but several years ago when she was giving birth they gave her too much anesthesia and it affected her hearing so she can still speak and somewhat read lips. She was very sweet and has a real appreciation for what she is learning and the love of this couple. Unfortunately, as we were all leaving, she fell down 6 of the concrete steps and then a metal shelf fell on her. It was dark because the motion detector was covered by a giant butterfly. She was startled and sore but seemed like she’d be ok. We are gonna visit her tomorrow.

We got home at 11:15 – tired but content!..............still no water