Well we have survived the first week.  And it has been an adventure of first experiences.  We washed our clothes for the first time in a semi-automatic washing machine.  You have to fill and drain it by hand and then put the clothes into a little tub that spins..then it’s on to hanging them on the line.  I haven’t hung clothes on a line since I was a kid.  It was fun……I’ll let you know if it continues to be fun week after week.  We also had two Spanish lessons this week; one of our friends came over to teach us a few things.  Clara is so much fun to watch; trying to roll her r’s and sound out the vowels.   Ahre, eere, ire, ohre, oore….it’s pretty entertaining.   Our friend says that Clara is….’complicated’. 

Adjusting to no air conditioning hasn’t been too difficult.  We have had rain every day since Monday and that cools things off right when the heat starts to get unbearable.  The only really annoying thing is the dogs…they bark non-stop.  This unfortunately includes at night.  One dog in particular is starting to get on my bad side.    At the moment we are experiencing, I’m assuming, the Saturday traffic jam right outside our window and the neighborhood dogs are going nuts. 

We also had quite the excitement with the construction going on next door.  The houses here share walls and our neighbor is remodeling.  Clara and I were minding our own business when they started banging on the back wall and the next thing we knew concrete started flying off.  I yelled at the man, ‘Senor, por favor, necesitta alto!!’   A few minutes later the owner of the house next door came over and introduced himself as a pastor.  He told us the lady that owns our house knew they were working on the wall and he had told her they would repair it.  He asked if his worker could come in and work on our side.  When he left we had a six foot long hole in our wall.  The biggest problem is there side of the wall is open to the outside.  We have been told they have bats here, so we’ve been sleeping with the lights on to keep them out.  Clara has resorted to sleeping with her door shut. 

We have also been venturing out and walking to the local shopping center…they actually have a Dairy Queen.  I’m not sure that is a good thing or not.  The language barrier is starting to get frustrating but we know it’s just a matter of time before we are able to communicate.  So please continue to pray that our Spanish improves daily and we are able to stay committed to practicing.  The good news is Pastor Roosevelt is a teacher at the seminary here and has agreed to come and teach us English.  He said that he taught a missionary couple from Africa for one year and now he preaches in Spanish. 

We had our first meeting with our team last night.  We cooked them spaghetti.  They ate two big bags of noodles..obviously they liked it….alot!  We were able to make some plans for the next few months.  There is a pastor’s conference in November that we are bringing three people in from Diwarsikua to attend.  We are also praying about bringing a team from the U.S. to work in the city sometime in December.  We are also tentatively planning a trip in January and March to Diwarsikua. 

We have decided that transportation is high on our needs list.  Getting around this city is difficult and expensive.  We decided we would start looking for something that we can use for our team, but also could be used to raise money for the ministry.  Other mission teams come into Panama on a regular basis and they are always needing transportation.  This vehicle could be hired out to them and the money used to help with our plans.  We are praying for a 15 passenger van.  We would greatly appreciate your help in asking God to provide us with this gift.

I’ve attached more pictures if you are interested in seeing some of our adventures.  We miss you all and can feel your prayers.  We covet them greatly!! 

God Bless,

Christy and Clara