Hello Everyone, For a while now, I've been enjoying the songs of a cheerful Mexican bird in the mango trees. One of the workers at the orphanage says it is singing for the rain. We've had some rain, but rainy season hasn't arrived for real. We are getting ready though. Our clothes line has been hung up inside near an air conditioner. We have been here 4 months now. So many changes have taken place that I am sometimes surprised when I remember my initial actions, thoughts and feelings here. For one thing, our Spanish continues to improve. People who know us tell us that we are speaking more Spanish. We don't feel so lost when having a Spanish conversation. We can hear the individual words and tell someone which words we don't know. Of course, precise details are always an opportunity for a misunderstanding. “Were we suppose to wait for them to pick us up or did they understand us when we said we could drive ourselves?” Also more complex subjects are not easily discussed which is a frustration for me. I have attempted conversations about genetically modified foods, or explaining foreign parenting habits of Canadians with limited success. My consolation is that people keep trying to talk with me even when I trouble them with such conversation topics. Another change is the purchasing of a family vehicle. After four months without a vehicle, we are fit from all the walking, but very happy for the convenience of our own vehicle. This allows us more freedom to travel past army check points (this was a problem with our previously borrowed un-licensed car) and to no longer depend on others for transportation. At one point I was feeling like my ancestors, born, raised, and diseased in a few square kilometers. Thank you for your prayers, as getting a vehicle was not as simple as purchasing one in Ontario. This month, Bill, Sam and another brother from the church traveled to another state to met with an expert on fish aquaculture. He was extremely helpful in his advice and knowledge. He has offered the help of his teaching assistants to set up the initial tilapia ponds at the ranch, and supplying the stock. We are very grateful for all his help! The necessary grading of the land in preparation for the first ponds has been completed. This too is a great step forward, as it has been a whole year of waiting. We are also aggressively investigating getting power(aka “hydro” for Canadians) to the ranch. This is a prerequisite for the tilapia, both for fresh water supply and aerating the ponds. Recently two new workers have joined the staff at El Faro. The orphanage has been understaffed for a number of months so their presence is greatly welcomed. Other changes have been made to the staff, shifting areas of responsibility to better match the abilities and interests. For now, these changes are helping make the work easier for everyone. Just last week, Rebekah celebrated her first birthday. She is a bright cheerful little girl, waving enthusiastically in greeting. The doctors have advised Bill and Tammy that decisions need to be made regarding her leg. As many of you know, Rebekah was born without a femur. There are different options available for her to help her walk, including the amputation of her foot to allow for a better fit of a prosthetic leg. Please, pray for Rebekah, that the condition of her knee and hip will be optimal (the disorder, Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency, has various degrees of severity). El Faro's website is finally up: http://lostandfound-mexico.com. You will be able to read updates from Bill and Tammy there. Enjoy! We also have a website for our family. It is www.dielemanabroad.ca. We will still be sending monthly update e-mails, but we'll also try to post weekly on the website to give you a bigger picture of our life in Arriaga. Here are a few animal pictures for the nature lovers, and not:  Sam saw these baby crocodiles when he visited the expert on aquaculture. They are being raised to be released into the wild since native populations are so low. They were also raising manatees, but we don't have a picture of them. This iguana lives with its family in the yard of our friends. They eat grass and spend the day lazily grazing on the lawn - sort like cows. Our house was fumigated last week and these were just a few of the remains that Hannah and Jude collected. While I'm not a fan of spraying pesticides in our house, I am also not a fan of sharing the house with so many insects. One day I watched a stream of ants leave a little hole on the floor, tramp up the wall, across a table, back onto the wall, and into an outlet. The stream was at least 4 m long and it wasn't single file. Fumigating the house also helps prevent scorpions from moving in. Sadly, the men who sprayed the house did so without any respiration devices or protective overalls. When they began spraying, they began coughing too. We appreciate your prayers and letters from home. In the last month or so we have missed some important events of family and friends. Thank you for keeping in contact with us. It helps us feel close even though we are 4500 km away. Love Sam, Wendy, Hannah, Jude and Jeremiah Prayer requests: El Faro needs a Mexican worker for the babies. We will increase our Spanish vocabulary. God will give wisdom in making choices about Rebekah's leg. Prayer updates:Ronnie and Ivonne Mouser had their baby boy Judah. Both mother and baby are healthy. We have a vehicle now. Maylin, the most recent child to arrive at El Faro, is fitting in very well. Two new Mexican staff members have begun at El Faro. |
  Homeschool in Mexico is very different for our family than it is in Canada. For one, we miss Friday mornings spent with other homeschooling families. We also miss the Public Library and seeing our favourite librarians. I miss the predictability of our routine in London. However, living in a new place is enriching our homeschool in so many other ways:
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 In three days we received mangos from four different people! What a delicious blessing - mmmmmmm! There are more than a 1000 different types of mangos and each one has its own flavour and texture. There are three kinds in the bowl:
But if these mangos are not enough to satisfy us, we could always order them by the truck load.  This is one of many trucks waiting outside the juice factory near Arriaga. And may we sugget one posible theme song for eating mangos: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/mango/ Beware, the song has a tendency to linger. Mango, mango |
Often I have noticed a man poking around in the dumpster near our house with a big stick. He pulls out metal cans and loads them in his tricycle. I'm sure this is not a nice business in the heat and stench. (Did I mention that toilet paper goes into the garbage rather than the toilet?) Since seeing him gathering cans, I started saving cans at home intending to give them to him. I'm not sure what he does with them, but at least I can save him the work of fishing for our cans. Plus, it makes me feel better that some of our garbage is being recycled. Recycling programs like in Canada do not exist in Arriaga. However, that doesn't mean people in Arriaga do not reuse and recycle things as well, as in Canada. Back home we often look for second hand items if it is reasonable. But here many things can not be bought second hand because the original owner uses and repairs the item until it can not be repaired again. Another example of recycling, is the great variety of old cars still driving the roads of Arriaga. Sam and I laugh to think about how cool we would look driving an old Datsun. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle do exist here. It just looks vastly different. So today I saw him again and decided to initiate a recycling program with him. I told him I had some cans at my house and he could have them. He understood that much of my garbled Spanish and followed us home to get the cans. Next I told him I would save more cans for him. I think he understood. I'm not sure about the fine details of this recycling program - where and when, but I did learn that I can include plastic bottles too. I hope the man is as pleased about our "agrement" as I am. |
Carmello (barefeet) preparing to race.
Playing in the rain 
"Swimming" at a friend's house (in the laundry tub!)
