quick update

Dear Family,
We are very busy this week with a group of nursing students from Union college. They arrived on May 24 and will not be leaving until June 3. We are letting them do a lot of the hard work and go to the other villages on the mobile clinics. I am staying here with the children and the clinic in Francia.
I think that Bethany may be teething. She is running a low grade temp and is very fussy. Brandel is fussy too but I think that is because our schedule has been disrupted and I have been gone a lot.
I will write more again after they are gone.
Lots of love
Marilyn

Weekly letter May 16

May 14, 2005
Dear Family,
What a busy week! This week the rain started again. Actually it started a week ago Friday as Rilla and a group of youth was leaving on a campout. It rained them out. They returned Sabbath evening wet and cold. After supper and dry clothes, they were able to complete their activities at the church. On Sunday morning they taught honors for knot tying, first aide, and trees. It was a huge success. Rilla is looking forward to planning their next activities.
Since the rain has started we are trying to shore up all of little ends that cause such misery, such as leaky roofs and missing gutters.
This week also has seen the finishing touches put on many of our clinic remodeling projects. The wall is up in the med room with a new window to fill prescriptions. The lab has tile and paint. It is still lacking a shelf but for the most part it is done for now. We have painted until our paint ran out. The outside of the clinic all has a new coat as do many walls on the inside. More painting is needed at a later date. They poured the lid for the septic system on Friday morning. The well and pump have been shored up, a little deeper with new water coming in. It took three days of cleaning to put the clinic back so that we can start seeing patients on Monday.
On the home front� Brandel and Bethany have made lots of little steps this week. Brandel can say "Bethany", "rain coat", "Rilla", "hammock", "church" and some new Miskito words. He is also pedaling his bicycle. He has discovered "bomboms" which are the suckers on the stick. He loves them and asks for them every time he goes to the village with us. He knows the store ladies and always go behind the counters, where they give him one when we are not looking. Brandel has decided that most all clothes are hot. If you ask him if he wants a shirt or shorts or pajamas, he will say "no hot". He will get the hymnal off the shelve and walk around singing. He really likes rice and potatoes. When we tell him it is time to eat first he will ask if it is rice, if not then potatoes. We had pasta the other day (which he can also say) but he was very unhappy that we didn't have rice. This is in contrast to Clint who does not like rice and needs it disguised any way possible, like with gravy or tvp or cabbage.
Bethany is continuing her independence. She will now not let anyone feed her. She has to do it herself, and actually she is not too bad, more times than not the spoon makes it to her mouth. She has also learned to climb on and off the rocking horse. Her feet don't reach the floor when she is sitting on it but she gets on and off rather quickly. If you leave any gates open she is gone in a flash, shutting the gate behind her. Of course she doesn't stop to put on her shoes before she goes!
This week celebrated Fatima's (the pastor's wife) birthday. She is 22. Rilla baked a cake. We all decided that it was so good that we should celebrate birthdays for our family so we could get more cake. I don't think that Rilla was excited about doing all the work to bake a birthday cake every week but it was a nice thought.
Since the rain has re-started we have begun planting. We had 20 coco plants that we were waiting to plant. We started planting them this week. We also got some more banana plants. I think that for us the key for growing things is going to be trees, banana trees, mango trees, tropical pear trees, coconut trees, avocado trees, papaya trees, citrus trees, etc. So I started buying and planting again this week. Papaya takes less than a year to grow and start producing. Avocado, mango, and citrus all take much longer. We probably will never see them grown and producing but the next missionaries will have them to appreciate. The coconut trees can be faster producing in 3-5 yrs. We might see some of them bearing, depending on how well we take care of them.
I also have some small plants in pots on the porch. My tomatoes and peppers have flowers on them. I was out in the garden to look it over also. We stopped watering it a few weeks ago since nothing was prospering. Now there are two small (very small) pepper plants that have one little pepper on each of them. Also, I am trying beets again in a large pot just off the porch so that it gets some of the rain. We will see. One of my bags of beet seeds germinated and the other one didn't. I don't know which was which. Now I will have to try them both separately to see which one works. They tell me that now is a good time to plant corn too. Unfortunately, I wasted all my corn in the last two time I planted it. We will have to purchase some corn seed in Port this week.
Love
Marilyn, Clint, Brandel and Bethany

May 1 update

May 1, 2005
Dear family,
Hi. Just a short note this week. Most of us have been sick this week with a viral intestinal bug. Brandel was the worse with vomiting for 2 days and 3 nights. We worked to keep him hydrated and he is feeling much better. Bethany has not gotten sick, so I hope that she doesn't get sick now.
The clinic will be closed this week so that we can replace the wall in the medicine room. Clint is going to put most all of our regular workers on it so that it can be done quickly. The wall has to be replaced, plastered and shelves put back in before the Union group comes in 23 days. We are also trying to get the lab done and some painting done before they come also.
In the midst of all these last minute projects we have to add another big project, digging the well at the clinic deeper. We found it dry last time we went to pump water. It is only 24 feet deep. We dug our well at the house deeper from 24 ft to 32 ft in Feb. Now we are going to do the clinic also. And just to make sure we don't have any water trouble with 30 extra people, we are going to dig our well about 18" deeper so that we can add one more length of pump tubing.
So all of this will keep us very busy for the next few weeks. Our outhouse is almost done. It is just waiting for the top of the sides and the roof. The toilet seats are even installed! But Rilla and my vote is to wait to use it until there are walls. I was hoping that we were going to be able to rebuild the showers before they came but the outhouse was more urgent. It was going to be much worse for someone to fall into the 15 ft hole for the outhouse, than for the flimsy showers to fall someone. So the outhouses got the cement ear marked for showers. Oh well, the Lord will provide when the time is right. :
We sent all of you our proposed itinerary. Now you will have a better idea when we will be in your area. We are willing to do any presentations you can schedule for us. Please write to us if you want us to speak in your area or church. We are willing to speak on Sabbath morning but are also willing to do presentations in afternoons and evenings. Please contact your church or group and make tentative arrangements. You can then confirm with us via email. This trip home is as much a fund raising trip, as a visiting trip so please schedule as many presentations in your area as you think people will attend. The presentations can be 10-40 minutes long. We do not want to impose upon people or churches so if they are not interested, do not push. Thanks for your help.
Don't forget to check our web page. Evelyn has done a really good job on it. I can post items and letters directly from here in Nicaragua! hanleymissions.blogspot.com
It is only two months before we start home to see everyone. We (I) am getting excited!
Lots of love
Marilyn