Another busy week is past...Nicole has been gone alot..dealing with medical things and contacting people about trying to get the boys back...She let the boys Pablo and Carlos go to see their parents over the weekend and they never came back(2 weeks ago). Now the parents are trying to say Nicole is the children kidnapper..of course that is not true but there is paper work to do and the proper official people to talk to etc and that all takes time so at this point they are still not back with us and there have been reports of seeing the kids on the street and when asked where the mama was , they pointed to the whore house so that is pretty sad..pray with us that we get them back soon to get them away from an awful life.
Juana's baby is doing well. And now just yesterday another mother Carol who is soon to have her baby girl came to the village so it is baby time:)
The men(included Asher this week) have been working in the field this week....so Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we got up at 5 so we could get their breakfast , prepare their lunch and get them off to work by 7 or soon there after. This week they have been working in Huautla. One of the brothers there gave us some land to work, also Bro. John's wifes family gave him some land to work...Bro. John's land was grown up in weeds and brush so that had to be cleared and burned before we could plant. Of course all is done with machete and hoe. Part of it we planted in black beans. We also planted part of it in peruvian beans, the rest was in corn. Its a little over 2 acres in all.
Corn is planted using a pointed stick. The holes are made on 1 meter squares, 5 grains of corn dropped in each hole, and covered. Then a handful of chicken litter is dropped on top for fertilizer. (they did come home very smelly, LOL) This process is quite time consuming, quite a bit different than planting 70 acres a day sitting in the tractor seat. Hopefully we will finish that on Monday and then we will go on to help other brothers with their farming projects.
The weather has been quite ideal this month. Warm sunny days during the week and rain on the weekends. Soil moisture is very good so farmers are quite hopeful in their planting! It was good for me to be reminded of Ashers perspective because rain to me means mud mud mud, dirty clothes and hard to get clothes dry so his perspective helps me let go of my negative feelings and remember the good it is doing and how it is really a starve or be fed kind of situation and rain is such a gift!!
This weekend Asher and I came away for a few days to have some time away from the work and pressures and be together before I leave for my 9 day trip to see our daughters and family in Rhode Island..part of this time away we drove to Pahuatlan to get some bee equipment. In January a guy gave us 2 bee boxes. One had a strong hive. The other just had a nucleus. During February's cold rainy weather the nucleus didn't make it. But recently a strong hive moved in. Thank God! So we went to get a veil, gloves, smoker, and 4 honey boxes so we can take care of these bees. Hopefully we can add more hives as we go along. The bee equipment is quite reasonable here. To get everything you need for a hive cost about $70. The nucleus with the queen cost about $45.
The scenery was amazing..the mountains are a breathtaking view. And I am still in amazement of how these people live on the sides of the mountains and make gardens and a living on the steep slopes. Even the towns are on the mountain sides..very amazing. And I know I said it before but it amazes me at the gorgeous beautiful rich houses and not far away the littlest of shacks and the poor poor people. Its heart wrenching!
Adios...till next time:)
