Foote Notes November 2008

Greetings to all,

We want to thank you for your continued prayer. We have been here in Santiago for three months and have felt the Lord leading in so many ways. Thank you for praying for our transition and adjustment, Praise the Lord it is going well.

Danny and the kids are working more and more on their Spanish as we continue to learn about the culture and the people. Sometime the beginning of next year we plan to start formerly learning Tz’utujil. We would like to find a tutor who is a good teacher, someone who can read and write. Up until now we have been learning words and phrases. It is exciting to be able to use and understand words in the market or in church but we have a long way to go. The locals love it when we use the few words that we already know; it really motivates us to learn more.

We are so excited to be able to go ‘home’ for Christmas. We are going to split the time between both families. We will be in New Orleans with my family and in Pell City with Danny’s family. Regretfully we cannot see all of you during this short visit but we do hope to see a lot of you. We ask that you keep us in your prayers as we travel this holiday season.

We are thankful to those of you who came down this year. You were a great encouragement and help to us. We look forward to seeing who the Lord is going to send our way this coming year. Our calendar for 2009 is already getting filled up, Praise the Lord!

As our Pastor Gary says in Luling, We have a perfect Savior but we do not have a perfect church. Our church Alpha & Omega is going through some turmoil. We ask that you keep Pastor Abraham and the Elders in your prayers. Pray that they would let the Lord lead them to make wise Godly decisions. We do not know all the ins and outs of each situation but we too are fervently praying.

Praise the Lord!

The Lord answered our prayers.

We got our truck fixed and are finally home. We had a great time with Glen & Judy, but we are all excited to be home.

Last night Danny picked up the part from the Airport at 4:45, dropped it off at the mechanics at 5:15 and around 10:15 last night. He called to say it was finished.

We are thankful to the Lord the total cost was no more than $200.00.

Thank you for your prayers, and for everyone who was involved an extra thank you!!

Daphne

Check it out

I haven't taken the time to blog but Judy has, She took some cute pictures of my kiddos while we were in our meeting.

Click on this link to go to it. http://judyfrommoody.blogspot.com/

I'll blog soon I promise:)

We just think we have a schedule!!

Danny and I had a meeting in the capital yesterday. So we came in on Tuesday to do a few errands. We had come through the mountains, on isolated roads, It's about a three hour trip to the city. Danny had dropped me off at Price Smart (our Sams) and was going to run to the Seminary to check out the bookstore. He had just passed Tikal Futura on the main road through Guatemala when the truck stopped. He could barely steer it over to the side of the road and when he got out it was leaking water, a lot of water. We are praising the Lord we did not break down on the way here, as Glen said we are glad it was here and not out in the boonies!! Thank goodness for friends. We called Glen S. He came to the rescue with a mechanic, picked me up from price smart and then we went to check on Danny. It turned out to be the water pump and a belt!! We could not find the parts to the truck here in Guatemala but Praise the Lord one of our missionaries is in the states and coming back Friday afternoon and is bringing the part. Thank you so much Bob. We are also thankful to Ken S. who has loaned us his van while we are without it has given us the freedom to get around while we are here. We are ESPECIALLY thankful to the Stewarts for opening their home to all of us(they thought for one night but has turned into at least four). Judy has been an excellent hostess with delicious meals, babysitting the kids and we just had some hot brownies with milk. The Lord is in control and we are enjoying a small break from lake living and deepening friendships here. Last night the Stewarts invited the Connors for dinner, it was great fellowship for the adults and kids too.
We just got word that another missionary Dave Ekstrom is going to stay here at the "Stewart Inn" tonight. Actually we have been wanting to meet with Dave to discuss our ministry and glean from his experience with indigenous groups. Wow God cleared our schedules so we could meet:) Isn't it neat how the Lord works?

Danny joined us Bloggers

Check it out! Click here to see. danielwfoote.blogspot.com

Take it easy on him he's just getting started:)

A Day in the Life of Daphne

My day usually starts around 6:30 a.m. It is a gorgeous time here on lake Atitlan. It is sunny and the lake is calm, I enjoy seeing fishermen going to work.

As I sip my coffee that is grown here locally I can really appreciate the hard work the coffee farmers do so I can drink an awesome cup of coffee. I had a stack of papers to grade but I was doing a puzzle instead.

I have to hurry and wash my clothes and get them on the line because this is rainy season and usually by 2:00p.m It starts raining. If I get an early start I can get 2 loads of laundry done. I am so thankful that I have a washing machine. The locals either go to the lake to wash or they have a pila(a large outside sink made for washing clothes and other things). You know as many of you may think "I would die if I had to hang up all my clothes" but you get used to it and I actually enjoy now, and the kids and Danny help too.

I do not have a grocery store here, I have what you call a tienda(a small store which carries all your basics). I can get sugar, noodles, mayo, milk ect... I also get an early start to go to Market. The early bird gets the worm here!! You have to go early to get the good veggies or you get the picked over ones. I have been able to build a friendship with the lady I buy my chicken from and another lady I buy my vegetables from and a sweet little man who goes to our church sells me dried beans. Poor thing he can't ever remember my name he calls me Mrs. Daniel:)

Speaking of my name... nobody can remember it or pronounce it!! I was at a ladies meeting and they said what does you name mean anyway?? I told them that Daphne is a flower like a laurel tree. They said OOHHH "hermana Flor". Needless to say, now I have a new name. My name is Flor!

I have a house helper her name is Ana. This is her with Chloe Ann and her school uniform. She comes in a couple times a week to help me with some of the cleaning. It has been a real culture shock for both her and me.The first day she came I was trying to find out what she knew how to do. Needless to say this is pretty much in sign language because she only speaks about 10 words of Spanish. I asked a friend to tell me how to say a few words in Tz’utujil for example help me, come, clean, like this and of course Thank you very much. It has been interesting. I asked her to sweep and mop but I didn’t know the word for mop the first time so she said “no need” I was like oh well O.K. I asked her to hang some clothes on hangers. I gave her a box of clothes and a box of hangers. She said “Utz ka” Which means that’s good in Tz’utujil, she came to me and said xuban (shuban) it means no more. She did a great job for someone who had never used a hanger. Some shirts were through the arm, a few dresses were just wrapped around and around the hanger. It was great all I could say was Utz ka!! I also asked if she knew how to iron she said she had never seen an iron! She felt very bad about not knowing how to iron so I decided to show her how. That was umm hmm, can I just say I will do our ironing. Then I showed her the Vacuum and how to use it. She used it twice then came to me and said “could I please just sweep it’s not as scary and it’s calmer”. Of course I said yes, Poor thing she was scared to death of the vacuum. She has made life so much easier for me. She has cooked for us a few times which has been neat to eat typical food of Santiago. Ana wanted to know what we eat, She said she makes tortillas in the morning, at noon and at night. She said if they are not hot her husband is not happy. She asked “If you don’t eat tortillas what do you eat?” She has made tortillas for us several times, I got in there and tried to make a couple but she just laughed and laughed. She said you really don’t know how to make them. She took my tortillas and fixed them then cooked them. I have a tortilla press that a dear friend gave me and Chloe Ann and I can make great tortillas with it. Maybe I won’t be the laughing stock of Santiago.

Today for lunch we had chuchitos, it is like a tamale but different(it is corn meal wrapped around a piece of chicken with yummy tomato sauce around it then wrapped in a corn husk). A lady comes to our door and sells them. I buy them for 2 Q each (approx. 27 cents). We all like them and it is a quick meal for me. Living here in Santiago we only have a few restaurants. No fast food here:) This is a delicious treat for us when I don't feel like cooking.

We were asked to finish the English classes at the Alpha & Omega High school. The previous teacher is on maternity leave. They had about six weeks left. Danny taught the first few classes then I ended up finishing up teaching. The classes are Monday & Friday 1:20-5:40. There are 5 classes, each class has about 40 students. The kids are mostly from the church. It is neat to be able to build friendships with these kids. I have been very busy with classes, projects to grade and now exams to give and grade. Thank goodness this is the last week. Here are a few of my students.

Some days we go down to the lake for a swim. Most of the time we don't even stay in for an hour. It's a little on the cold side this time of year. Naomi and I are the life guards for the other kids. This afternoon the kids and I planted flowers. My mom sent us a whole envelope of flower seeds. We had a great time planting together. Isaac & Chloe Ann liked digging in the dirt, Titus was our official sign maker. Naomi just toddled around. It was a lot of fun reading about each flower and deciding where it needs to be planted. As I am sitting here writing it is pouring down rain. I hope the seeds are not washed into the lake:) I will let you know if we actually have any come up.

Tonight Danny went visiting with the men and the kids and I hung out here at the house. I sauteed some vegetables and made a pasta salad. As I am Blogging Naomi is sitting right beside me holding her nena and the older kids are all upstairs playing Lego's but I think they are playing hide and go seek now it is getting louder and louder. Maybe I should go check on them!!

Pictures promised in last post

This was one year ago on our way down here to Guatemala. As you can tell the kids have grown, here we are in our front yard over looking the lake. We still can't believe we are finally here.