A Brief Encounter with a Possible Complete Disaster

Yo Yo party people.  Jayson and I are in a total snack mode...  and there is nothing in the house that is ready made.  I was thinking about pudding.  Chocolate. But I would have to make it... I know all of you can identify with this particular conundrum that we are facing.  Time zones do not separate the evening munchies.  

Update on the bruiser.  James is healing very nicely.  Stitches are out, and it looks great.  The ace bandage comes off tomorrow.  Which is welcome relief in many categories.  Especially because he has not had a fully immersed bath in two weeks.  That’s a bit frightening for a 4 year old boy who plays hard from sun up to sun down.  

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo this week.  We had some friends over and their parents who were visiting.  It was a yummy feast with very little mention of Mexico’s victory over France, but we tried.  I made Pico de Gallo and because there are no tortilla chips here - well maybe there are, but it would cost about $1000 to buy them - we scooped with Pringles.  Not an exact representation of the much loved tortilla chip, but it crunched and it scooped - a lovely combination.

So, Monday, I had a brief encounter with a possible complete disaster.  It was raining quite a bit, no, a lot.  Like really, really hard.  Well, I have only ever driven in a downpour on flat surfaces, not on steep hills like the ones we are now surrounded with. And when rain comes down hills...it’s quite whooshy.   I’ve never been to Universal Studios, but I have seen commercials of the movie set that all of the sudden has a river coming at you... Well, that is what it was like.  And our car/van/can, as mighty as it is, could really get swept up in the mass of water.  And we do not have any sort of defrost.  And I always drive with the window down, because the horns on vehicles are not just for sport, they are crucial to staying alive.  So, here I am, trying to avoid serious rivers, wiping off the inside of the window with a rag, while having the window down a titch (being splattered with rain) so I can hear if another vehicle wants to tell me something.  Meanwhile, having the thought of, maybe I am not supposed to drive in this...  

Hey everyone. I’ll (Jayson) give you a quick Freedom Firm update. One of my projects right now is overseeing the Roja aftercare house building project. They’re digging a well (Roja hasn’t had water all month), building a security wall and making ground usable for a garden.  So I’ve never even heard of a “diviner” before last week. But in order to find water, they have this guy come to the land, coconut in hand, and walk. (Oh, and a diviner’s blood type needs to be O+. Is that an India thing or worldwide?) So he told me to watch, he walked, and as he came to the area where they had found water, the coconut moved. It moved! Everywhere he walked, the coconut pointed toward the same spot. Crazy. 

Each week I get to do lunch with all the staff and rescued girls. This week there was a huge cake on the table when we arrived with the name “Mary Magdalene” written on it. As it turns out, one of the girls decided that she wanted to separate herself from her hurtful past, so she asked if we could give her a new name (which she picked herself). It’s an amazing story of change and growth for one of our girls. 

Well, that’s it folks.  I hope you’re doing well.  I hope the kiss of spring has finally met you all.  We do appreciated all your blog comments and emails sent.  As much as we are glad we are here, thoughts from “home” continue to encourage and fill us up.  Oh, and just so you are not tossing and turning tonight, wondering what snack we decided upon, Jayson had a cinnamon and sugar tortilla with a cup of tea and I had curd “yogurt”and mango with a cup of hot cocoa.  Pudding called for corn starch...  and there was not a trace of corn starch to be found.