Hi friends! I wanted to show you all some pictures that are really so sad. In my last post someone asked if we ever just get really sad. Well, I do. However, I must say my friend Estella's life probably makes me sadder than anything else. Just a few weeks ago her husband died and now she is fighting just to keep the little shack that is rightfully hers. Her husband's family is trying to sell it out from under her and they can. They have told her that if she leaves this house to stay with her mother, they will sell it immediately.
While Rachael was here she had some money donated to her that she wanted to spend on someone in need. She used it to buy Jacob (Estella's son) a pack-n-play. The following pictures are of Estella's home.
This is how Jacob was sleeping when I arrived at their home. They had him covered with a sheet to keep the flies off.
This is blurry, but it shows how they sleep. The mat she is standing on is where Estella, Chata and Jacob all sleep.
We picked him up and put him in his new pack-n-play and he slept like and angel!
This picture shows the fly net that keeps him fly free and also the cardboard on the floor that is Marcos' (Estella's 16 year old son) bed.
Me and Estella.
Their roof. It has holes all in it where the rain continually comes in. The house only has 3 walls and a tarp for the 4th one.
This is one wall you can see behind Chata that is only halfway bricked, and when it rains, it comes in the side of the home.
Under that white tarp is where they cook if it isn't raining too hard. You can't really see it, but there is a pot over a stack of bricks that they use. They have NO water at all, for anything, drink, wash, anything. They have one light that they have from an extension cord from their neighbor, other than the one lightbulb, they have no electricity. Times are tough!
Every night we watched beautiful sunsets!
The boys froze in the broken hot tub! They still had fun!
Annie was the smart one!
We met this sweet lady who told us how she was a Jesus follower. This isn't exactly normal in the villages here, so it was interesting to find so many.
We stopped to talk to this man, his name was Gregorio too and he and Greg hit it off. He told of how he too was a Jesus follower and we were then learning that this area had MANY Jesus followers! We were blessed to see so many brothers and sisters in this area!
The beauty was breathtaking! I mean REALLY breathtaking!
This was a camp by the river. Really neat place!
This sweet man was showing us the cabins by the river. They were REALLY nice!
OF COURSE.... he too was a Jesus follower! ;o) It kinda became comical for us. He explained that an M came there years ago taught them all about God's Word and many began to follow Jesus instead of Mary.
This is Julio. He is the nephew of our landlord. He is now working at a church there and helped to show us the area. We learned a lot from him. He too is a Jesus follower. Heehee! ;o)
The sunsets we saw each night were amazing!
My sweet Alex!
I asked them to act like they liked each other! It worked!
Alex was enjoying all the views he saw!
While there we visited a water park for Jerod's 16th birthday. They had fun.
Greg and his boys.
Me and my babies!
The hotel we stayed in was not exactly the Ritz, but we had fun b/c we were the only people there!
Annie on the swings.
He was 2 yesterday, I am sure of it!
Annie had fun feeding the fish everyday.
The boys had fun playing Chess.
It was a good trip and we learned a lot. Hope you all have a great weekend! Love you all, Missy
