A Day of Adventure

The Almond tree in the back yard.  The people in the village say
this tree has the best Almonds.  They don't stay on the ground
long enough to get any for themselves.  It makes me think of the book,
The Pineapple Story. 

After a wonderful breakfast we went to town.  Going "to town" here is much different than going to town at home.  There are no Wal-marts, McDonald's, Hobby Lobby, or other stores that I love to visit at home.  Here the stores are more like fruit stands.  Some of the shops have upgraded to small containers that have doors that lock.  These stores carry very specific items.  The stores have Bible names like:  "Jesus Saves", "He will Provide", "Thy Will be Done", "Blessed Assurance", and one of Joe's favorites "Naked I Came".  Some stores carry items like fresh bread, eggs, cooking oil, or vegetables.  One near Joe's house is a small hardware store.  There is a carpenter's shop, material shop, and a tailor's shop.  Each of these little shops are very limited in the items they carry.  Joe explained that they are very superstitious people.  The people usually do not know the Lord, they are just trying to have a good omen for their stores.  You can tell the impact that Missionaries have had on the people.  They have a form of religion added to their own religion.



Each school has a different colored uniform.

The village Joe lives in is called Kansawurado.  The roads are lined with these small shops.  It is amazing to me how you find things that you want.  I guess it just takes time and much exploring to know where things are. That is Joe's speciality.  He loves to meet people and visit with them.  I think that is how he has found much of what his family needs. 

Shops upstairs and down.



Laura and I had talked about curtains for her living room.  The bars that they had installed for security sure left an unwelcoming spirit in their house.  It was a little startling. 



Bars on the inside of the windows.

The walls are made of solid concrete blocks.  It is difficult to hang curtain rods and nails for pictures.  Laura thought we could use the bars themselves for the curtain rods.  I thought it would be a great idea if we could find some Velcro.  I only inserted this little story because we were going to think about where to find Velcro while we were shopping in town.  

Papa had no idea what to expect.  It is so different than our life that it is almost overwhelming to try to take all of the sites in while you drive around.  The first experience was the Post Office.  You use one door to check your mail and see if you have a package.  Today they did not get a package.  But, if they did then they would have to come outside to go into another door and present the package slip to the person at the counter.  They would take the slip and you would go to another window.  The same person would greet you at the other window to give you the package.  The person would open it to be sure that no contraband was inside.  Then you would go back to the first window to pay any duty on the box.  Mind you it was the same person at each window. 

We went on to the Coca Cola plant to try to buy juice and sodas.  Today they didn't have Coke, just juice.  The kids need to take juice to school for their lunch.  Laura makes such good ice tea we really didn't need any Cokes today. 

We were going to go to a grocery store.  This one is much like our type of stores.  It is air conditioned inside.  Nice.  On very hot days this is a nice place to cool down and get a few things you need.  A Lebanese man owns this store.  Some things are just out of our price range, but at least you can get some things that are familiar.  It is more like the Dollar store than any other of our stores.

We decided everyone was getting hot and tired.  We needed something to drink and a break.  So we went to eat at a French restaurant.  Joe said they had eaten there many times and knew it was air conditioned and a nice clean place.  



It was so cool and restful.



We had a great lunch.  It was fun to listen to the kids talk and discuss things they liked.  We had such a good time.  Joe is a good host!