We have been living here in Magdalena for just over a month. We have accomplished many things during our time here so far. Our car is officially registered and has tags, we have filed our residency paperwork, which means we will not need to leave the country every 90 days. And just this week, we found a house to live in, but it will not become available until July or August, so in the mean time we will continue to stay here in The Steed's home, and after they move to their new home, we will stay on here until we are able to move into the other house.
Our Spanish lessons are moving along and we are not quite sure if we are really grasping it. After 50 plus years of only English, it is a bit of an undertaking to retrain our minds to think so differently, but we are praying for patience and understanding of this new language.
We have been helping out with a couple of homes that have been built in the past week. Butch helping the work crews with pouring floors a bit more efficiently and I have been taking pictures for Chris and attempting to talk with the families a bit (just general conversation) and playing with many of the children. We have also been revisiting the homes in progress and taking update pictures, which is helping both of us out, because we have a chance to continue building relationships and become more familiar with the families.
The smells, sounds and sights are so much different here. Most of the time you can smell wood burning because that is how most of the people here cook. It can be quite noisy at times, the barking dogs, the crowing roosters, and there are many people walking the streets selling their goods and each of them have their own sound or call. The Ice Cream lady rings a bell, the scrap metal guy has his own blaring call that comes from a speaker on a vehicle, and the people walking around with their goats selling fresh squeezed goat milk have their own sound, and so on. Trying to capture an image of all of this in words is something I just can not achieve. It just needs to be experienced first hand. I spend a lot of time just looking around trying to take all of this in.
Many times we find ourselves feeling a bit lost, with not much to do. Our lives used to be so full of "stuff" to do, but we are beginning to venture out on our own a bit, going to tiende's (corner stores) here in the pueblo, driving to some local grocery stores and to Walmart. Our progress is slow, but it is good.
We miss our family and friends terribly, and God knows exactly what we need and when the time is right. We are grateful for the phone calls and Skype and FaceTime sessions we have had with some of you. It helps us out more than you can imagine and we always look forward to our Sunday morning chats with Pastor Markus, Michael, Jessica and anyone else who may be at church bright and early on Sunday mornings.
Here is our latest video... Catch A Glimpse - 2
Our Spanish lessons are moving along and we are not quite sure if we are really grasping it. After 50 plus years of only English, it is a bit of an undertaking to retrain our minds to think so differently, but we are praying for patience and understanding of this new language.
We have been helping out with a couple of homes that have been built in the past week. Butch helping the work crews with pouring floors a bit more efficiently and I have been taking pictures for Chris and attempting to talk with the families a bit (just general conversation) and playing with many of the children. We have also been revisiting the homes in progress and taking update pictures, which is helping both of us out, because we have a chance to continue building relationships and become more familiar with the families.
The smells, sounds and sights are so much different here. Most of the time you can smell wood burning because that is how most of the people here cook. It can be quite noisy at times, the barking dogs, the crowing roosters, and there are many people walking the streets selling their goods and each of them have their own sound or call. The Ice Cream lady rings a bell, the scrap metal guy has his own blaring call that comes from a speaker on a vehicle, and the people walking around with their goats selling fresh squeezed goat milk have their own sound, and so on. Trying to capture an image of all of this in words is something I just can not achieve. It just needs to be experienced first hand. I spend a lot of time just looking around trying to take all of this in.
Many times we find ourselves feeling a bit lost, with not much to do. Our lives used to be so full of "stuff" to do, but we are beginning to venture out on our own a bit, going to tiende's (corner stores) here in the pueblo, driving to some local grocery stores and to Walmart. Our progress is slow, but it is good.
We miss our family and friends terribly, and God knows exactly what we need and when the time is right. We are grateful for the phone calls and Skype and FaceTime sessions we have had with some of you. It helps us out more than you can imagine and we always look forward to our Sunday morning chats with Pastor Markus, Michael, Jessica and anyone else who may be at church bright and early on Sunday mornings.
Here is our latest video... Catch A Glimpse - 2
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