HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

We posted a picture of the outside of our little house, but with my mom's prodding... here are a few pictures of the inside. Above is our cozy little living room. Thanks to Ikea, and Azelia's old bed... it's actually pretty comfortable now. We have a nice place to relax after service: comfy chairs for each of us, and a place to stretch out if we can steal  a couple minutes for a cat nap... and of course ample places to sit and even sleep for our guests... YAY! The clothesline above the "couch" is for hanging the laundry when it's raining outside. No one has a dryer here... so on your days off from service you pray for sun, otherwise you will have nothing to wear for the next week! If there's rain, we hang the most important things on this little line and blast them with the fan!

Our little dining room, kitchen and laundry room all in one! The table and chairs came with the place...

... and thanks to my mom's creative mind, they now look like something you are not scared to sit down on. :) Emily, do the covers for the back of the chairs look familiar? And do you spy a Catan box in the background! ha ha ha

Our little bedroom. Although we seem to be the only couple that uses a mosquito net here... we don't care what people say, we're not taking it down!

This is our bathroom (in case you couldn't tell). The barn door in the back opens and is great for "drying out" the moisture that the shower creates.

The little sink area :) We brought a mirror that sticks to the wall from Ikea, and it has been a lifesaver, now Eric can see when he's shaving and at least we know what we look like the from shoulder's up! ha ha ha You can't rinse your mouth with the water from the tap, hence the water bottle with drinking water next to the sink... And yes Dr. Lockwood, our electric toothbrush came with us!

Our dining room, laundry room, and kitchen from a different angle. Avalon, can you see your pictures hanging on our fridge?

RANDOM MOMENTS

This is how we do it! Currently there are two couples in Hopkins that have a truck... so when all of us "non-vehicle owners" get offered a ride, we take it! So this is the whole service group piled into the Watkin's truck to head to Silk Grass. This would SO not be legal in the States!

By the way, this is the finished product... the new Kingdom Hall: fully painted, with security bars, rain gutters, a proper fence, stairs, running water, a proper toilet, a freshly poured concrete basketball court, and most importantly a sign!

If this gives you any indication of how packed we were in the truck... I was sitting on Eric's lap taking this picture over my shoulder...

There were 8 of us inside the cab, 2 in the back, and 6 bikes!

Desi Pelayo. She just became a publisher a few months ago. She is on fire for the truth! Little did she know that this afternoon would be her first time biking back to Hopkins from Silk Grass (7 miles: 4 of them on a rocky, pot-holed dirt road with the wind in your face, the other 3 on the main two-lane highway with semis zooming by)... but she did it for Jehovah!

Yes Azelia, it's Shelaine and Sanjay! Sanjay is walking now if you can believe it! And of course he is still breast-feeding every second... 

Our favorite girl Ebony! You can't go out of your house here without running into someone you know... this was a chance meeting with Eb's as I was on my way to study with Rosie, and she was on her way to the store.

Alberta (April's bible study) and her three girls. Sophia, the youngest, graduated from Infant One!

This is Sophia "working" her graduation outfit!

SITTEE RIVER DAY

Yes you got it... it's a crocodile...

As mentioned before, the group usually rides to Sittee every Friday. It's probably about the same distance to get to Silk Grass, but in the opposite direction... with about the same amount of paved road. Although the ride is long, and it tends to rain, the sights are awesome! This shot makes me feel like I'm on the plains of Africa...

This is how close that croc was to us in the first picture... this was to give a little perspective... and then we looked at the canal on the other side of the road and saw a baby croc and finally realized... we should probably get outta there! ha ha

April leading the way to her bible study Gloria.

This is Gloria. You would instantly fall in love with her.... after all of the things she has been through, she is doing so well on her study. Although she cannot read, she listens to the bible on mp3. She is always ready for her study, she is rarely missing from the meeting of which she makes heartfelt comments in Kriol. She speaks Spanish fluently, so she comes to the Spanish meeting in addition to the English, and comments up a storm! She is going to help me prepare a comment for the Spanish meeting this Sunday :) Her son Edgar is 15, and couldn't read a few years ago when he started to study... he is now baptized and gave a No. 3 talk on the school last week! They are such an encouragement to us all! By the way, the HUGE pot that is steaming is FULL of chicken tamales! Her son chops fresh banana leaves from the bush each morning, and she makes the tamales from scratch... then steams them in this pot to get them ready to sell at lunch time... SO YUMMY!

On this secluded dirt/rock road back to Hopkins we saw a large white chester (fill in the blank) van coming down the road... now if we were in the States we would have not made eye contact with the pervy driver, but in Belize we flagged him down and as 3 "white" girls would, we said, "Can you take our picture?"Obviously you can guess his answer. :)

More African Savannah :)

A DAY IN THE MINISTRY

We have two young sisters visiting us from Canada at the moment... they are wonderful... very zealous in the ministry and so sweet! They got a study that wants to study multiple times a week, but she only lives part time in Hopkins, and the rest of the time in a village called Silk Grass about 7 miles away. They were so eager to study with her, they decided to pedal the 7 miles to Silk Grass Friday afternoon. Because the road is pretty secluded Eric and I decided to bike with them. Don't let this picture fool you... the paved section of this road is only about 1/2 mile... the rest of the 4.5 miles is dirt and rock, and now mud because of the start of rainy season :)

Before we got to the main highway, we stopped for a water break. The turquoise roof in the background is the bus stop... it's called the Hopkins junction.

Biking on the main highway... it's a little scarey when big trucks go by, but it's smooth sailing!

And the scenery on the way to Silk Grass is BEAUTIFUL! People live in these little wood houses brightly painted along the road.

This is one of my favorite houses... as you see its a sub-par board structure off on its own...

...and this is the sign they have painted... ha ha ha classic Belize!

Youna Choy. She is one of the young sisters visiting from Canada... she was smart (of course, she's Asian :)) and wore board shorts for the ride, and carried her skirt in her bag to change when we arrived...

Some more scenery from the road...

My honey.

Wouldn't you love to be able to paint your house this color! ha ha ha Needless to say there are no HOAs here!

This is April's study Yvonne. She is so humble and sweet. She cannot read, so we go thru the Listen to God brochure with her. She enjoys her study, and comes to many meetings.

Youna and Abby with their bible study Leila... the first time they studied with her she exclaimed, "This is the truth!" and she and her husband attended the meeting that same night. When the girls leave I have the privilege of studying with her. YAY!

The road sign from the Southern Highway...

MORE OF THE FIRST MEETING...

The first meeting was so exciting I deemed it worthy of two posts :)
The brothers who had them wore full suits (usually they just wear shirt and tie) for the special occasion. And we all tried to get there early to get a seat, because it was soon standing room only!

Sou's study Natasha from Silk Grass.

Ebony doing what she loves most... singing :)

The place was packed! We were not sure that the "house" was build to hold that many... ha ha ha

This is Desi. She just got married, and soon after became a publisher... she is ON FIRE! I wish we could bottle her zeal and sell it!

Admiring the work they did the night before.

Rosie and family... some of the many studies who helped with the build...

Sou and Helen... our Frenchies :) When Helen and her husband Yannick came to Belize 6 years ago, they could barely speak English, now they are conducting numerous studies in English and giving parts on the Theocratic Ministry School... they are great!

The neighbor, Shirlette, had witnessed our weeks of hard work... she actually let us use her electricity, and store supplies at her house for the build... although she didn't attend the opening day, she stood at her door and waved.

The DuShey's with TJ and Lacy McManus. They are a wonderful couple from Michigan whose soft-spoken, humble spirit is so endearing! He has been a wonderful asset to the elder body! Both are regular pioneering and focusing on the Mayan field in Belize.

The woman in the orange on the right is Shawn: one of April's studies to get baptized in Hopkins.

Ken Usher studied with Aaron... and he nicknamed the DuShey's "Mama and Papa Bear" 

(Psalm 27:10)

Will Shin was visiting from New York and had the privilege of giving the first talk!

Eric, right where he likes to be... with the Asians :)

From left to right: Stu (visiting from London), Eric, Harry, Amalia (visiting from Norway), and me...

Harry even wore his fancy socks for the occasion!