Manaña

So another day in paradise. Its quite nice being here in the small town of Rio Verde, although it does present some new challenges. The bus being one. We have had to wait upwards of 30 minutes in the rain to catch a bus home, which can be a pain. Since there is no butcher in town we asked our neighbor for a chicken as she provides this service and somewhere lost in communication we got a chicken except she cooked it and provided soup as well. Not a bad thing just a bit of a surprise when it arrived and we had already had supper. And laundry can be interesting. As mentioned Heidi does a hand wash of the basics every morning and once a week we end up busing into town to drop our bedding and larger items for wash. We brought our stuff to the 2 hour wash the other day at 10 in the morning she weighed the items wrote everything down and then told us it would be ready at 8 pm. I guess the 4 had fallen off the board from beside the 2 (24 hr wash). Either way it was okay as we had a meeting at 6:30 that evening and I ran over after the meeting to pick up our stuff.

Service has been quite fulfilling. Our first day out we spoke to quite a few people in our little town. The territory is worked every 3-4 weeks but people are still willing to talk. Someone studies with our neighbor across the street so we had a chance to meet them and know them a little better. Next week we have to hike up the side of the mountain and see 4 houses there. Plus in town here no ties necessary. We went into town on Saturday for service and that was just as productive. We met a gentleman in his sewing shop who had studied with someone twice a week and then I understood he suddenly stopped coming. That evening at the meeting I asked the friend I was with who the person was that was studying with the gentlemen we met as it turns out he died 11 years ago. So I guess I have my first study here.

Meetings are very good and we are really starting to understand a lot of the language. I really hope by the time we go home to be fairly fluent. Next weeks meeting will be even better as the hall we are associated with is split into 2, since the territory is so large there is a meeting in the next town over from us every Sunday. There are only 14 friends that go there. When I told them we were going to be going they were quite happy. In fact I may even have a chance to do the reading on Sundays once in a while. Practice, practice, practice.

Manaña - so here we are, why Manaña. Living in this sleepy town has given a new appreciation for tomorrow. The running river is relaxing, our king size bed is relaxing, the fireplace is soothing, the coffee although it takes 30 minutes to make seems all the more enjoyable, and the beer is calming. I wake up some days and just want to do what I have to do, manaña, as today I want to do nothing. And today may well be one of those days. Its the election so everyone is busy voting and nothing is up and running so I think neither will I.