I have to find out the name of this tree. It is a shower of gold

 

Sunset at Playa Bonita

We have had a very busy week. On Monday, our friends, Carlos and Rosario, from the capital came. We spent a relaxing time watching the sunset, having dinner here, and talking. On Tuesday, we drove South with our friends to where the two missionaries who work here in town live. It is about a two hour drive. Unfortunately, John got a speeding ticket on our way there. Since we are driving a brand new rental car while our car is NOT being fixed, John did not realize he was going over the speed limit. He was driving at 60 mph in a 50 mph zone. No big deal, right? The ticket is $600!! Half what a person makes here in a month! In this country, everything is paid at the bank; therefore, we will have to go to the bank to pay the ticket next week, or pay it through our rental car agency. We have to go to the agency tomorrow to find out. Anyway, we have to extend our rental for another week because the mechanic is working on the side, so he can only work on our car after 6:00 pm, AND this is Holy Week. Nobody works here from Thursday through Sunday. Please pray for our car situation. This is getting too expensive. 

View from our balcony - Carrillo Beach

This was the shower at the motel

Anyway, we arrived at Samara, where the missionaries live. One of the girls is married and owns a nice house. Her husband is local, and not a missionary. He has a computer business. We had a long meeting, talking about the ministry, setting goals, and talking about future changes. Christ for the City does not plan to stay in our little town forever. It is too small. They would like to turn the ministry to the local church, but right now we don´t see leaders able and willing to take it. Please pray for the future of our ministry here. Pray that the Lord will raise Christians to take up leadership positions at the church and with the ministry of Christ for the City. By the time we finished, it was too late to go to the beach as we had planned. We visited the home of the other missionary, a single girl who lives with her family. They have land across from the beach where people can camp. It is a very rustic set up. We went to our hotel at the other end of the beach. The room had a view of the beach, which we enjoyed in the morning, as it was too dark by then, and one of the most unusual showers I have seen. It had jets running down, so that you got hit with water from different angles. It started to rain very hard that evening, so we went to bed at about 8:00 pm. We were very tired.

We left Wednesday morning and arrived back at the condo without any incidents. Rosario and I went into a cooking frenzy because we thought that the family of five from Guatemala was arriving for lunch. We waited, and waited. Finally, Carlos said he needed to get home, so they had lunch and left at about 2:30. The family from Guatemala arrived shortly after that. We had a very late lunch and walked around the condominiums before it got too dark. We ended up watching the sunset from Playa Bonita. It is, after all, the main event around here. We met two different couples that we know. One is an American couple who live here full time, and the other is a very nice local couple who live in the capital. Their condo is just two doors down from ours. Yesterday the day was spent between the swimming pool, the beach, the beach club and horseback riding. John and I did not go horseback riding. It is not our favorite activity, but they all ride very well and enjoyed it very much. By the way, our shower broke also. It was shooting water straight out from the wall. Maintenance fixed it after two hours of going back and forth to get the right range. (Goodness, even I knew that he had the wrong tools!) After dinner, we had a chance to have a long talk with them and get to know each other better. They left this morning after breakfast. We are planning to relax the rest of the day, while I do laundry. Hopefully, the washing machine will cooperate! So far, so good!

Until next time...from the beach...!