"Comidables"

That's not a word by the way.  "Comida" is dinner/supper/meal in Spanish.  Edible comida might be a cross-cultural "comidable?"

Whatever.

Here are a couple of pics of stuff we've munched on recently:

This is a well-known Mexican dish called "chochinita pibil."  Traditionally, it would involve a suckling pig (ours was not) as well as cooking it in an underground pit (our was cooked on the stove in the kitchen).  Minor differences really...except for how it tastes.  But never mind that.  It was good.  This was Beth's first attempt to make it.  It needed some adjustments for next time.  We decided the best way to eat the leftovers was to put all the meat in a skillet and bathe it in Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce!  That was good too!

Kristin sold Beth two Tupperware empanada makers (they were only $30 pesos apiece on sale!).  For dinner recently Beth made some with ham and cheese in them and others with beef and cabbage.  The boys preferred the ham and cheese.  Beth and I preferred the beef and cabbage, although I drizzled Louisiana Hot Sauce and Valentina Salsa Picante on top of mine.

The cherry empanadas with glazed sugar were easily my favorites.

This is...what IS this?  Oh yes, this is actually nothing, or rather two things.  One is a nopal cactus salad and the other is some kind of lentil salad (sort of like pico de gallo).  Not sure which salad had which ingredients but in the photo I detect cubed nopal cactus, tomato, onion, cilantro, lentils, lime juice, and serrano pepper.  Yes, I did eat this.  Yes, I liked it!

There's Nothing Better Than Fear

I've been reading through the Bible this year using a daily Bible I found while in Texas last fall.  It groups the readings by date so there's no need to find the passages for each day scattered all over.  It also helps remember what day I'm on.  It's not that I'm getting old and can't remember things like which passages to read or what day I'm on, but then I can't really remember why I thought this format would be helpful.  :-)

When I began the daily reading this year, I made a last-second decision to read it out loud to the boys as I put them to bed.  This has been the best decision I've made all year!  What a blessing it has been to read with them each night and explain passages with them and to admit my own lack of understanding at some things too.  I look forward to each night's reading and what we're going to cover together.

As you probably know, there are some very "interesting" passages to have to read to 12 and 9 year old boys.  Sometimes I find myself making a quick decision on whether to "translate" the word to a milder reference or just let the Word speak the way it was written.  There are certainly some PG-13 (or maybe R) rated stuff to cover in the Old Testament!

Anyway, we enjoyed reading this portion from Mark's Gospel tonight along with an accompanying commentary from the editor's notes (J. MacArthur):

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” (Mark 4:37-41, New King James Version)


The disciples were afraid they would die from the effects of the storm raging outside of their boat.  Then after Jesus with supernatural power ordered the storm to immediately cease (and it did!), they "feared exceedingly."

MacArthur adds this comment:
"The only thing more terrifying than having a storm outside the boat was having God in the boat!"

So true sometimes, isn't it?  We'll never know the power of God unless we experience a storm and what He can do to calm it.   It's through the valley of the shadow of death that He demonstrates His power.  I think we should not shun or be afraid of the storms around our "life's boats" but instead allow the God who is inside our boat to show Himself powerful and to find ourselves fearing Him in reverence and awe.  That's the kind of fear we need.  That's the kind of fear our children need too.

Proverbs 14:26 
"Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge."

Lucha Libre

NACHO! NACHO! NACHO!

Beth and I took a walk downtown on Friday in the warm weather.  Yes, it is warm here.  Almost hot.  Summer is arriving believe it or not.

When we arrived in the main plaza, we noticed lots of people milling around and seated in plastic chairs.  There was a large wrestling ring installed and to our surprise an amateur "lucha libre" started up.  I took a few photos and a video which I may get formatted and uploaded.  It reminded us a little of the movie Nacho Libre.  The people watching seemed to enjoy it, especially the children.

Dust in the Wind

We spent most of our Valentine's Day (and our general day off) traveling in Querétaro attempting to get both boys and Beth to dental appointments.  Beth has needed to see a dentist for months but we were unable to locate one in our area here last summer that didn't have a negative recommendation from the experience of either ourselves or someone else so that she never had a chance to see one.  In October when I was having over $800 worth of dental repair done, we really couldn't afford to have even more done so Beth had to wait on getting some work done that she really needed done.

Finally, today was the day.  We just received a new recommendation on a dentist so we're giving him a shot.  He's young.  He's got some fancy-looking equipment.  He's not cheap for Mexico.  However, we'll give him a try.  We have an annual medical/dental membership card that saves us money with certain doctors and dentists in Querétaro, and this dentist is new to the discount list.  Beth has two teeth that need immediate attention (one with a continuing cavity).  He'll work on those next Monday.  Then, on future Mondays he'll be working on 10 more teeth that have very old (20-30 years old) fillings that are crumbling.  He was impressed that these fillings had made it this long.

Including today's visit and all the subsequent work he has planned out, it should cost about $8,000 pesos.  That's under $700.  For that much work being done, we really can't complain.  Whether he does the work well or not is the big question.  We sure hope so!  We've seen such promising starts end poorly before, so we'll just have to see how it goes.  If it goes well, I'll probably eventually go in for a bit of work myself.

Finally, you may be wondering what the blog post title has to do with visiting the dentist.  It isn't anything profound.  Simply, we were within sight of the dentist's office today on a 6 lane highway and we were needing to go further up the road a bit and follow a "retorno" (basically a U-Turn) to get over to the other side of the highway where the office is located.  Up ahead we could see in front of us a white local bus ("ruta") and out of nowhere, just to the left of that bus a cloud of dust all of a sudden whipped up in the rocky median.  Within moments we realized that somehow a car was in that cloud of dust and was now resting on its side.  We see a lot of accidents long after they've happened, but not very often do we see one happen right before our very eyes.

Beth took a photo as we passed by after having made the U-Turn.  About 5 minutes later after dropping Beth off at the dentist, Cameron took a photo of the car after it had been pushed back onto its wheels.  Amazingly, just before taking the first picture, we had seen the driver pull himself up out of the seat and jump up on his car and hop off of it.  He must have had his seat belt on to avoid serious injury.  It was quite a surreal-looking scene.  Glad it seemed to end up better than what our first glimpse of the dust in the wind made it appear.

If you notice in the bottom photo, the front right bumper of the white bus, appears to have a dark scrape which matches a dark scrape on the driver's side quarter panel of the small Nissan Tsuru.  It appeared from the tire marks on the pavement that the car apparently changed lanes too close to the front of the bus which spun it a bit, and then by hitting the curb, it popped over onto its side there in the median.  (My first job out of college was as an insurance adjuster.  I covered auto accidents among a lot of other types of claims.  Always find this stuff interesting.)  Knowing how aggressive the buses in Querétaro often drive, it could be the bus that was changing lanes but it didn't seem like the bus was moving laterally when the accident unfolded in front of us.  Either way, we praise God for a safe drive to and from Querétaro every time we go.

A Sunday Evening Stroll Downtown

My "sweetard" (see previous post) and I went for an evening stroll to the plaza in the "centro" (center of town) this Sunday evening.  It was cool enough for a light jacket.  Many sanjuanenses (residents of San Juan del Rio) enjoy weekend evenings in the adjacent plazas eating street stand foods, watching the children play, talking, talking, and talking, and listening to any concert that the city may have sponsored, and also, talking.  Tonight there was a jazz concert (in Spanish, of course).  We're not jazz fans, and it does sound a little odd in Spanish, but it is what it is.  We only stopped in passing long enough to see if we could hear what language was being sung from a half-block away.  I thought it was English at first.  Beth said it could have been Chinese since the sound system was craftily concealing the words, but there was a "voy a..." and we knew it was Spanish.  We would have been surprised had it been in English.  Most sanjuanenses do not speak much English, if any.

The city has been digging up many of the streets downtown in order to redo some utilities that need upgraded or repaired or installed for the first time.  I have no idea exactly what all went into the trenches which have mostly been covered up again.  So, the photos I took of the food stands make it look a little dirty, but the streets are normally a bit nicer than with this current work-in-progress.

One photo I took with the flash (the darker photo), and the other photo was taken without flash.  I took our little compact camera with us so the quality for the night photo is not very good, but at least you get the idea.  I enjoy the evening strolls downtown which we do regularly about once a year.  I don't know why we don't do this very often, but we typically are busy with things to do and boys to get ready for bed, and don't always feel like a 1 to 2 mile roundtrip walk, etc.

Anyway...enjoy a still moment of our evening with us:

...and no, we didn't try any of the food stands.  Most of them look rather risky and most don't offer any foods that we enjoy.  It's OK if you want to try something though.  We won't stop you.  We might say "I told you so" later tonight though!  :-)

A Valentine's Day Thought: Love Is More Than a Word...and so is "Sweetheart"

Most of us who are English-speakers struggle with our own language, and those who don't, probably should!  We probably always will struggle with it for a variety of reasons.  Not the least of these reasons is that the language, as is true of all languages, is subject to change.  Change by manner of usage, change by neglect, change by design, change by ignorance, and change by error are just some of the forces that cause the language to change.  Some of these changes happen slowly over hundreds of years.  Other changes, in keeping with rapidly expanding technology, science discoveries, and a host of other reasons, occur at a much quicker pace.

What does all this have to do with Valentine's Day and Love?  I have no idea.

Actually, what it has to do with the context of the words "Valentine's Day" and "Love" is a third word: "sweetheart."  We probably use this word more in the context of Valentine's Day than during all other times of the year combined.  There is even a candy many of us grew up eating just at Valentine's Day (and perhaps afterward when they were on sale at 50-75% off).  The name of the candy?  "Sweethearts" of course!  

What's special about the candy isn't its flavor because it tastes like sweetened aspirin tablets in my opinion.  It's the little messages on the candy with sweet sayings for our or from our "sweetheart" that makes the candy an indispensable part of Valentine's Day.

As kids we always gave boxes of these candies to our classmates and then enjoyed reading the little messages to each other.  In retrospect, some of these messages, like "Home Run," may not have been appropriate for innocent 1st graders.  However, as I recall, we just read them, giggled or humphed, and quickly chomped them down without further thought of the potential moral implications of such messages.  (I still don't know what that one means.  At least, I'm not admitting to it.)  After all, Valentine's Day was all about eating as many candies and frosted cookies as we could shove in our faces before we got home and had to share them with anyone else.  As I recall, Valentine's Day was also about getting sick on the way home from school.

Speaking of making my way home...I seem to have gotten off the blog post path a bit.  I shall return to it.

Words.  

Love is more than words, but to the human heart, love without words just seems to be lacking something critically important.  We want to see love in action, but we also want to hear the words of love too.

At this point in my linguistic ramble, I am tempted to point out how God loves us in both Word and action (see John 1).  However, that wasn't remotely the point I was about to make.  Although for a missionary blog that probably would be the safer way to go.  However, as an educator with a fascination for the English language I thought you'd like to know something special about the word "sweetheart."  

You see the word didn't used to be spelled this way.  Originally (several hundred years ago), the word was actually spelled "sweetard."  Seriously!  The meaning was slightly different then as well.  "Sweetard" was a reference to a drunkard.  Somehow, over many generations our English-speaking forefathers and foremothers not just changed this word's spelling but its meaning.  At least, I hope they did!  Perhaps, there was a time when a "sweetard" turned into a "sweetheart" because the drunkard was a loved one.  I don't know.  

So, as you wish your "sweetheart" a Happy Valentine's Day this year, I thought you'd want to do so while in the back of your mind, the original meaning of the word sort of ruins it all for you.  No, no, no...what I mean is, as you express your love to your "sweetheart" this year, perhaps you'll appreciate that our language is alive and changing for the better (at times), just like your love for your "sweetheart."

And with that narrow escape, I wish you and your special sweetheart a Happy Valentine's Day!

POST EDIT:

After further research, I have discovered that "sweetard" was not actually a reference to a "drunkard."  The suffix "-ard" was an intensifier for the root word, as in "drunkard."  Thus, "drunkard" was merely an example of how the word "drunk" was used with this intensifier to further describe a person who was drunk.  So, "sweetard" would have been a Middle English word that intensified the meaning of the word "sweet."  Unfortunately, this development is made more complex by the fact that as a suffix, "-ard" was used from the Middle High German in a pejorative sense thus intensifying the root word to mean something even worse.  Hmmm...so how could going from "sweet" to intensifying that word to come out as meaning something worse?  The obvious answer is that it doesn't!  The nice thing about English is there's always an exception to the rule.  "Sweetard" and later "sweetheart" did always refer to addressing a loved one.  It was never used in a disparaging way.  Well, it never was used in a disparaging way until the 1950s when it was used to describe questionable, if not nefarious, labor contracts (i.e. "sweetheart deals").  So, even the exception has an exception.  Which leads me to conclude with one question: Why exactly do we use this language?!?

Good News to Share & Some Plans Needing Prayer

If you've followed our blog and/or updates, you might remember that my (Alan's) dad went to the local ER on Christmas Eve and was finally looked at by a doctor on Christmas morning.  At some point that morning Dad suffered a massive heart attack and nearly died.  It sounded like the doctors weren't at all sure what had happened until the following day.  After about 2 weeks in ICU and then a regular room, he was transferred next door to a rehab facility.

Tomorrow, February 9, at least a month after going into the rehab, Dad is heading home!  This is great news and apparently Dad is in better shape now than he has been for months.  I only had a couple minutes on the phone with Mom and didn't get to ask any questions but I'm sure they'd appreciate your prayers for Dad to get acclimated back home again and to keep up whatever exercises they may want him to do.  Mom will need to get used to grocery shopping for two again but I'm sure she won't mind.

I'm still hoping we can get home for Thanksgiving this year.  That was always our family's big holiday of the year and we haven't been "home" for Thanksgiving since 1995.  Neither of the boys have ever experienced a Christmas or Thanksgiving with their grandparents, and Cameron will be 13 this Thanksgiving!

I am trying to figure out how we're going to get there but after considering the cost of flying, renting a car, and figuring out lodging, we are now considering the original idea of doing some representation by late September and into November and winding up in central Florida to spend some time with my folks and enjoy Thanksgiving with them.  I had also pledged to be in Parkersburg, WV at our sending church's annual missions conference this year.  I don't think we've been able to attend this conference since 2002 or 2003 which is rather a long time ago now.   This is normally held the first weekend of October.

Aside from the hopes to attend that conference and Thanksgiving with my folks, I think we're going to need to raise about $500 in monthly support due to some support that is being phased out by a church and an individual.  It's always hard to know ahead of time as the Lord provides at times through unexpected sources.  That's my best guess currently.  We'll know better as we see how those things unfold throughout the year.

We appreciate your prayers for my parents and for wisdom as we consider travel plans for the late fall.  CAM's travel policy which requires us to travel with at least one other vehicle makes for difficulty in making solid dates for land travel.

Piza, Italy Would Be Proud!

I don't know what you would do with some mismatched pieces of boards and 54 bricks that have no flat surfaces on them, but this is what I came up with.  The office is a bit neater now, which is a plus.

Unfortunately, I think I need to put up a sign that says, "Don't exhale in the direction of the 'Leaning Bookshelf of Pieces.'"  It is a bit wobbly.  I think I can make a few adjustments with the bricks but I doubt it will help much.

One problem I solved was what to do with an old car battery that seems to have taken up permanent residence on the office floor.  It makes a great weight to balance the tragedy waiting to happen.

Hey, this is Mexico!  I've seen construction worse off than this for housing!  Of course, people eventually were injured or killed, but that's beside the point!

Recent Guests...and Another Student

Last Saturday we enjoyed a visit by our long-time friends, Juan, Carmen, Christian and Nayeli.  (I'm not sure how to spell all their names, but this is close I think!).  Carmen came early Friday evening and showed Beth the first steps of making a delicious pork dish called cochinita pibil.  Saturday the whole family came over and Carmen and Beth prepared the pork (they shredded it and cooked it in some spices...not sure which spices, maybe achiote, some chile peppers (?), and vinegar (?)).  We put the pork on corn tortillas along with refried beans, sour cream, shredded cheese, and homemade habanero salsa.  Don't worry, the salsa was mostly tomato and so not very hot.  Just hot enough that one bite instantly made a line of sweat appear on your forehead.  Glad it wasn't hot!  Didn't think to take a photo of the meal, but I did get a photo of the family.  

Christian is hoping to get into John Brown University in Arkansas on a special scholarship awarded to a few select Latin American students.  However, his English skills have deteriorated over the past year or so from what I can tell.  I've agreed to help him hone up his skills on Wednesdays for a couple hours.  It would be great for him and his family if he could study at JBU.  I have no idea whether he could be accepted at JBU or not, but I'll work with him and at least help him with the English end of the deal.  We'll see what God has in store for him.    

Currently, Christian is finishing his last semester of high school ("preparatoria" or "prepa") and is also in the 2nd month of his compulsory military service which is comprised of serving about 6 hours every Saturday for 10 months.