Personal updates from the last couple of weeks.....



~ Mike is styling a new haircut thanks to his wife!

~ Megin found some new red ant hills under her clothes lines... actually, the red ants found Megin and had her doing a dance before she ever saw them!

~ Mike is learning how to play piano... and doing a great job at it!

~ Megin is having to learn to play piano again, although not by choice.

~ Mike & Megin got a very nice visit from Uncle Dick Walker and Ron Sabin! We wish they could have stayed longer!

~ M&M hunted octopus yesterday at Isabela beach... it was fun (although I don't think the octopus enjoyed it)!

~ Megin happily discovered that she can watch some of her favorite American TV shows online anytime she wants (as long as the internet is working).

Yesterday it rained most of the day which is pretty unusual for this time of year and for this side of the Island. But our work crew made the best of it and didn't let it get them down. They insisted on working in the rain until we just couldn't work anymore because it was raining too hard. We were pretty impressed with them. We kept telling them that they could just take the day off but they wanted to work! We finally found inside jobs for them to do but by then we were all soaked to our underwear.

WAY TO GO ALABAMA!

Side note: It might be time for Mike and I to invest in an umbrella (especially with rainy season coming in the fall)! You should have seen Mike's creative way of trying to stay dry.... he zip-tied our shower curtain around him and put his head through a plastic bag to cover his neck. He looked pretty funny! I'm sure our PR neighbors think he's insane! At least he's entertaining! (I really wish I would have taken a picture of his costume!)

Puerto Rican Beauty!!

Sunset!


A wild manatee at Coffin Island!




A beach on the North side of the Island that has rocks that form a cove allowing people to swim where it is calm (instead of in the 10 foot waves)!





Coffin Island! (I wish the camera could show the actual color of the water! It is so bright green and blue that it looks like someone put fake coloring into the water!)

My husband...The Great White Hunter!

Since being here in Puerto Rico, Mike has shown true in his great hunting skills. He has caught numerous crabs, lizards, fish, sand dollars, and, most recently, a bat. *Please note that although PR has rainforests, it doesn't have any predatory animals (unless you consider stray dogs as predatory animals ). So its a little hard to be considered The Great White Hunter when there really isn't anything to hunt! Also note that Mike hasn't chosen this name for himself.*

Mike wanted to keep the bat as a pet and even named it but after a few stories from co-workers, he (thankfully) changed his mind and let the bat go free! Here is a picture of "Panchito".

Working with the work crews!

Building an entrance

on to our existing chapel.


Mixing cement!

Megin's Stove Story....

After only a few weeks in our apartment, it became apparent that we would need a new stove. The stove we had was so old that in order to use the oven, we had to figure out the conversion from Celcius to Fahrenheit and it took twice as long to bake something. So one of the missionaries informed us that we could use an old stove that was being stored on the property. We were also told that it should only take 2 days to switch from the old gas stove to the newer (yet still old) electric stove. Since Mike was busy working with the work crews, this became Megin's project (with much help from Al). Well, to make a long story short, the electric stove was so dirty, rusted, and infested with dead cockroaches that we had to completely take it apart, clean it, rust protect it, paint it, and then reassemble it. Then we had to set the apartment up for the electric.... which meant adding a new fuse to our fuse box, putting up the tubes to hold the wires (due to concrete construction, the electrical wire aren't in the walls), stringing the wires through the tubes, and then actually hooking them up to the stove. I learned so much about electricity through this project. Finally, about 3 weeks later, we had a working electric stove! Our stove works great and you would never guess that it was the same stove that we originally took apart because it looks brand new! Thanks Al for all the help and for teaching me so much about electricity! I couldn't have done it without you!

Here are some of the picts that we promised to show you!
This is Mike's swollen balloon hand (after 2 days of antibiotics).
This is us after spending most of the night at the hospital. (Mike is drugged up if you couldn't tell. And I have no idea why I am so happy?) The stickers on our sweatshirts give us permission to be in the hospital (you can't pass security without them)
More pictures to come.......