Views from our house

Our front door opening to the street. Brad is ready to welcome visitors!
There is a wall like this that surrounds the whole compound. The large door is the entrance for the vehicles.

I took this picture standing in the middle of the road just outside our front door to give you an idea of what is around us.

This is the view the other way :)

The compound is on a corner lot. Nico and Lia's front door is around the corner from us. Above is a picture of the wall and their front door. If we continue down this road a short ways and then go right, we would be at the church. It is very close so we walk to church.

This is our neighbour across the street. None of the houses are very beautiful here. A lot of them are made out of mud bricks and they are surrounded by dirt. This fellow happens to have a vehicle, but that is not very common. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of garbage around and the whole town looks dirty. I expected to see a nice town square at least but even that was all run down and full of garbage. Thankfully, the beauty of the mountains surround us!

Wilf went with Nico to visit some of the people who live just outside the city on the mountain side. Kristen went along with him and they said although the people were very poor, the view from their homes was lovely. Wilf has been doing these visits with Nico for the past two days and he really enjoys it. Most of the people they visit are Christians and they visit and encourage them from God's Word. What an exciting way for Wilf to spend his time!

Brad looking out our doorway. The compound is very nice but the kids and I don't get out of the compound area very often. The town is too unsafe for me to let the kids out without me and there is not a lot for us to do-besides take a bit of a walk. Perhaps we will do more of that when the weather cools off. Although not super hot here, it is too hot when the sun is out, to walk with kids hanging all over the stroller. :) When the sun is not out, it is most likely about to rain!

The pool in the pictures I posted earlier is lovely and close by, but it is not cheap. Lia is talking to the owners about the possibilty of a family rate for the whole year. It is a very new idea around here so I'm not sure yet if they will agree.

One last shot of Ryan! He just had a nice bath :)

Happy Birthday Wilf and Kris!

Friday was Wilf and Kristen's birthday! We spent most of the day unpacking and organizing the house but we took a break around dinner time and went to the local pool. Lia and Nico brought along a wonderful birthday dinner and even presents for Wilf and Kristen.
This pool was built just recently and is a very new thing for a town like this. It is really nice and thankfully it is very close to our house! We hope to visit it quite often as there doesn't seem to be a lot of recreational things to do around town.

There is a smaller heart shaped pool that is great for kids and a much larger pool with a deep end and a bridge to jump off of.

I wanted to try to show the surroundings of this pool because it can look like the town is really exotic :) The pool is like an oasis in the midst of dirt roads, cow pastures and run down and unfinished homes. It looks really out of place, but we are very thankful for it!

Our new home!

This is a picture of our new home in the town of Cub.. The town has only about 8,000 people in it and it is at the end of the road...and it feels like it too. It is much more rural then anything I have seen in Mexico (Wilf has seen places like this in his travels as a kid through Mexico). I didn't take any pictures of the town yet becuase I want to be a bit careful with that. But even though we live in the center of town, we have cows, roosters, horses and other animals all right around our house! I was awakened the first morning by a noisy rooster announcing the dawn at a very early hour.

On our walk to church this morning there was a large cow meandering ahead of us and on our way home, a cowboy rode by on his horse.

We live in a large walled in compound with the other missionaries, Nico and Lia K. They have been here for 8 years or so and plan to return to Canada in December. We have been so thankful for them and their three kids. Above is a picture of our house. Under the small overhang you see in the picture, is our back door. Our front door is a small door that opens onto the street. We share a nice large yard with the K's. There are lots of trees on the compound as well as a trampoline. I will post some more pictures of the house itself after I get things a bit more organized!

This is Nico and Lia's house. Our houses are almost identical.

Thankfully, there are a lot of fruit trees on the compound. I was feeling a bit discouraged after our initial shopping trip becuase the food is so much more expensive here and some things we are used to getting are just not available at all. One thing that is really expensive is juice. I decided we would survive the year just drinking water. But I was very pleasantly surprised to see the great fruit growing in our own backyard. Our house was equipped with a juicer, so the kids and I have been busy making limeade (limes in the picture above) and fresh squeezed orange juice (orange tree pictured below). Now maybe

we should get a cow so that we can get milk as well.... :)

Ready to Go!

We are getting all packed up and ready to leave early tomorrow morning! Please remember to pray for us as we begin our journey to G.

I will post more pictures in a few days, Lord willing.