John's Birthday

It was John's birthday yesterday. I would have a lot of pictures to share, but, alas, I forgot the camera. Since it was Tuesday, Erika and Nichole, the missionaries came over during the afternoon. We had an early dinner and they left for their Tuesday meeting. Nichole brought a chocolate cake for John. We were all to meet at 8:00 pm at our friend's house behind Christ for the City. It was supposed to be a surprise party for John, but I told him; otherwise, he probably would not have wanted to drive out that late. It is extremely dark here once the sun sets. At least I kept the guest list as a surprise.

We set out in our little borrowed Nissan Stanza with one windshield wiper, but we did not even make it out of the Hacienda, which was a blessing, because the clutch went out. We were stuck a few yards away from the guard gate. We tried calling our friend where the party was, but he did not pick up his cell or his home phone. I guess they were all very busy with the getting the party started. We then called Nichole and told her our predicament. She, then, told everybody at the party our predicament. We had a flash light with us, so we walked to the guard gate. By the time we got there, our friend was already calling the guard gate. He works here also, so he has all the phone numbers. We can make phone calls here with our cell, but it is an international call for them to call us. Anyway, in a few minutes Nichole arrived with our friend. With the guard's help, they were able to push the car out of the way. I got the cake out, John locked the car, and we were on our way to the party.

All our friends from town were there, even the pastor and his wife came. It was a nice mix of Christians and non-Christians. We had B-B-Q chicken and sausages that are eaten here in a corn tortilla, very delicious. We also have fried green bananas with guacamole, refried black beans and pico de gallo, all very tasty. Then we had Nichole's chocolate cake. It was a very nice party. Pastor Alejandro had a very nice prayer of blessing at the end. We got home at 11:00. A lot of those people had to be at work at 6:00 am today, so it means a lot that they were willing to come for John's birthday. We came home in Nichole's car, since they were spending the night here anyway. I will post pictures as soon as our friends send us some.

And the car? A mechanic is taking a look to see what can be done. We give up! We are going to rent a car for the rest of the time here. Even if our own car gets fixed and we get it back before we leave, I think we are going to stick to the rental. We are a little tired of car problems.

Until next time...From the beach...