Catch Up

Sigh.. Where to begin. First I must say that you may want to scroll down and look at the pics I just posted first so you can see some things we did yesterday. Also, I accidentally left my camera in our friends car (who lives an hour and a half away:( and I'm hoping to get it from him tomorrow in David??).  So currently I don't have all the pics I took the last few days. They were great!! I will post them asap.
Saturday we woke and things were sooo crazy (2 were sick and we had to pack up and move to a different location in Boquete- there was some miscommunication and the house we were staying at only got booked 3 days instead of 4).. Anyhow, so we went to a Hostel by the river in downtown Boquete. The view was killer!! Can't wait to post those pics! That night we went to a Gringo restaurante and had an awesome Margarita (Mom it's in the arena trying to challenge yours:). We got to witness to the owner (who is from like Maine) and she asked for a Bible, the New World Translation. She said she has done research and reputable sources say the Bible we use is the most accuratly translated Bible, without a hidden agenda (which we know is man's traditions and oppression).. Which of course witnesses know this, but it was nice to hear that she has taken the initiative to educate herself. So I got an English Bible for her and turned her over to a local sister who knows her from her daughters school. She said she really liked her and had always wanted to opportunity to witness to her but it hadn't come up. Well now that it has she is super excited. By the way, that sister who is taking the call, her name is Lori, and talk about a near spitting image of me!! Not in looks but in practically everything else!! She makes smoothies, makes/eats kale chips, does the whole no dairy, no gluten thing, takes wheatgrass..you get my drift if you know me :) Oh, and watches nearly nothing but Jane Austen movies (period pieces).. She is a blast!! Well..at least to me, hahaha. I digress..

So Saturday night Harriette and her grandson Aidan and my girls and I went to a Hostal for the night, and the Murphy's stayed in a different house. That evening 3 of the local Friends came over and we all played cards for a few hours and got to know each other. When they left we all went to bed, and Aidan slept outside (we were on the 2nd floor). I was soooo jealous because we were only like 30 feet from the river and it sounded sooo peaceful. Too the wind was blowing..it was like out of a movie!! Well about 3am Aidan woke and went to his bed.. So I woke my snuggle bug (Asa) and she and I went and took his spot on the deck so we could be "one" with the river :) I woke a little before 6a and tried to take some pics of the sun rising. It was beautiful at first, but then before it came into view there was no color in the sky. Now..I'm not typically up to see the dawn (ask my hubby) so I don't know if it's less colorful typically right before it breaks past the horizon, but I'm thinking it's because there just isn't as much pollution there. There's no "big" factories, about 1 person per 5,0000 smoke, and the whole time we have been in Panama I've only seen 2 people with a pack of cigs, the rest just buy them a few at a time. (I love that there is hardly any smoking, it keeps my girls and I from embarassing ourselves.. we always make a disgusted face, plug our nose and be really dramatic about it, like we are about to die or something, hahahaha). Anyhow.. The day finally started and we had to pack back up and get ready for the 930a meeting there in Boquete. We had every intention of going home Sunday, at that point.

So we finally make it out of the hotel and head to the Kingdom Hall.. My girls and I were the first English speaking ones there. See, the small Eng group meets in the SMALL library at the KH at the same time as the Spanish friends. So we start at the same time and sing at the same time, etc.. Anyhow, we were the first ones there.. We got there at 5 after 9.. We were warmly welcomed by the Spanish friends, and to my surprise, most of them knew as little Eng as we know Spanish :) It was funny to watch us all chat..again, we resorted back to "miming" have our words. I'm soo sick of saying "no comprende" :(  I loved how the friends were sooo welcoming and sooo friendly despite the language barrier. Anyway.. we got set up in the library room and there was just enough room to fit 20 chairs and the podium.. I t  w a s  c r a m p e d !! But we made it work. It was a lot of fun!! And a wonderful experience. Oh, and yes, there were more butts then there were chairs, but we made it all work. I love challenges (at times:). I have pics of the setup, but of course it's on my camera that is MIA right now..

After the meeting 19 of us (were only 4 shy of the "whole" Eng group) went to lunch. It was actually kind of expensive for my girls and I, it was like $10 for all of us (hahaha). See, we found a different restaurante but they were closed on Sun and we eat there for $5 for all of us.. and the food is waaaay better!! It was really cool to be such a large goup there and to have so much fun together. Well Dan and his wife Crystal didn't want us to go home just yet, they wanted to take us to the Hot Springs since we hadn't got to do that, and instead of paying "tourist" prices ($20/person) we got in for $2!!! And of course, I have pics of that too...on my camera. There was lots to see!! A water buffalo, pet monkey (awesome-ish) who didn't fling poo-yay!, peacock, turkeys, geese, horses, goats, and who knows what else. Oh, on the way into the springs I saw a black squirrell. It was really beautiful. I never knew those existed. Too, other than the springs there was of course the river close by, so we all went and swam in it. It too was really beautiful, breath-taking. And those pics are..ya, you guessed it.. We have some videos that we took there and I'm going to upload them to youtube.  I will tell you guys when I get them on the net. O, and the monkey was a trip. He was soooo honry! He bit Aliah's nose and now she "hates" monkeys:( I told her you can't base allll monkeys off the one experience.. I hope she can get past it. Tho it made for a funny time. Anytime he would get near her she would run off screaming like Zoe does if she sees a millameter spider within a mile radius (those of you who know her, know how she is:). The night went great. The girls all made friends with Lori's daughters, Aribey and Alyvia- 14 and 11 and they stayed the night at their house. Next door was the Murphy's and a few more houses down from them was Dan and Crystals where Harriette, Aidan and I slept. We had a great evening chatting around and being "old" :)

Monday Dan wanted to take us sight-seeing in Boquete. So we, after having our arms twisted :) obliged. I borrowed Dan's camera and took some pics (so did he with it too) since my camera was dying and I hadn't charged the battery (at the time I couldn't fine the charger). His camera rocks, just mentioning :) I posted some of those pics on the blog under this post.

So too we just relaxed a bit and hung out. Oh yeah, this is the day Harriette and Zoe both felt sickly. So bad, Zoe was in tears with stomach pains. So of course our first thought is "parasites"!! Lori had wormwood wine, and ONCE she got it down she felt some relief...for a little while. So pretty much she and Harriette were down for the count for most of Monday.

Oh too, my girls sniffed out a Wii game when we were all there, somehow, and so we thought it would be a great idea to play it. It's called "just move" for those of you who know the game. We boogied our hiney's off and it was waaay too much fun :) And great exercise!! And yes, I have pics (and a video) of this :)

We were going to go home Monday, but of course..again..we were having way too much fun and they didn't want us to go, so we didn't. So Tuesday morning, today (for like 45 more minutes), we got up, packed up..cleaned up, cleaned ourselves up..and we went back to town for some last minute things. One thing we wanted to do was go to the "Gringo Market". There was probably 20 booths set up with stuff to buy. Jewely (and yes that's the main thing I bought..crazy huh because I neeever wear jewelry.. but things are a-changing:) It's not like jewelry in the states, this stuff is original (that's the huge differnce). I have things made by locals, Kuna Indians, Knobe Indians, people from Costa Rica and all over. Funny enough I didn't even buy anything from the "whities". haha. But cool thing is, I got to witness to a really nice guy and his wife from Costa Rica. They had a booth there with jewelry they were selling. The discussion went sooo smoothly. I just mentioned (for what reason, I know not - so Thank you Jehovah)  that we are witnesses..and he spoke up and told me somethings he believes that are what we believe. It was really neat. I asked him how he learned that (since he wasn't a witness) and he said simply reading the Bible without pre-concieved thoughts/ideas/agenda. I  told him that's how most of us friends come in to the truth too!! Anyhow, he mentioned he likes reading the "Atalya" which is the Watchtower, and so I tried to find him a "What does the Bible really teach book?" but to no avail. So Dan is running him some literature tomorrow morning and offered to take them to the bus station in David tomorrow so he can try to talk with him about the truth and answer any questions he may have. It was really cool :)

After the market we (Harriette, Adain, Dan, Crystal, me and my girls) grabbed a super cheap lunch at Nelvis, the place that is delic. Again it was $5.25 for me, Aliah, Asa and Zoe to eat. Can you belive that?! Oh, and of course, I took a pic of my food to show you! Will post it soon.

Then we loaded up all our garb and took off for Volcan, Dan drove us since most of us had parts on the meeting in Volcan and were really pushing it close to miss the meeting. But we made it on time. However the drive like to had made me barf!! I was helping re-write Zoe's talk and weaving up/down/side/side on the road.. Yeah I was not feeling so hot on that ride. And appearently Dan's dog wasn't either. She was in the back seat with Aliah and Asa and she barfed!!! It was truly nastly!! But funny nonetheless. Too we couldn't stop anywhere to clean it up, so the dog of course was trying to lick it up. Ewww!! Really, she wasn't "trying"..she was doing it!!

So we get home about 3p, mind you the meeting is at 4, and we hadn't been home in 6 days.. Whew.. the house was a mess with our luggage :( After the meeting, which Zoe did a fantastic job on her number 2 talk, we ate out with Doug and Peggy at Loco Pollo. Don't worry, I didn't eat any chilcken nor crazy chicken :) While we were out to dinner Harriette and Aidan loaded up their stuff and moved in with me and my girls. It'll be great, I really like Harriette a lot :)

After that and a little other things, I got on here and posted some pics and now this looooong, never-ending post. I have fallen asleep several times, so I'm sure this post is discombobulated. Please forgive me. There are so much more 'little things' that we did on our trip, I hope my other pics with cover those areas for me.. We shall see.

Okay, guess this is goodnight for now. Until we meet again.