Day 6 - Friday March 7

Getting ready to ride some waves at Manuel Antonio Beach!
Amanda with the kids on our driveway. Several of them are studying the Bible with some of the Spanish-speaking friends! They were so cute and friendly. Issac is the youngest one in the green shirt.

This morning we made breakfast, studied our Watchtower lesson for Sat., cleaned up the house a little, and then headed down the driveway to catch the bus (the girls first time, and Blake.....Chaz did great, no screaming out loud or nothing!). We took it to the end of the road (about a 2 mile ride) where it stops at the entrance to Manuel Antonio park. You don't have to go into the park to visit the beach here, the one we have been at the last few days. I decided to rent a boogie board today since the waves were suppose to get bigger as the day progressed. We first stopped at a little store next to the beach were I bought a new pair of sandels, a must for around here. We met up with another sister here that we met at the bookstudy on Wednesday. Her name is Desiree, a single pioneer sister from Colombus Ohio. She told us that she was going to be at the beach early in the morning to catch some waves with the "need greaters surfboard" (that's the surfboard that some brother bought while he was here some time back and just left it behind and said that the friends who came here to work were the need is greater could use it and pass it around). Desiree also introduced us to another brother and sister from Holland. He is just here for a week on vacation, but his sister who can speak Spanish is here for a year, working with one of the Spanish congregations. He had rented a board and graciously let me take a few turns on it. The waves were pretty big (probably about 6-7 foot swells), but I was able to get up twice and ride it a little ways. It was a blast! I also must have got touched by a jellyfish. I started all of a sudden feeling a burning sensation on my side, and when I got out of the water and took a look at it, it was red. A nice guy at the outdoor restuarant gave me some vinegar to put on it. That healed it right up and I was back in the water within minutes! While we were having lunch at the beach a huge iquana came walking up (probably about 3 feet long) he was eating the food that people had dropped on the sand. No one seemed to pay him much attention. We caught the bus home at around 4pm and when we were walking up the driveway one of the little neighbor boys was standing in the middle with his hands out as if he wasn't going to let us by. He followed us up to our house and kept talking to us in Spanish. I took my camera out and asked if he wanted his picture taken and he said, "Si!" so I took it. Before long two more little girls came over, also speaking only Spanish. I went into the house to get them each a granola bar but by the time I came back to the porch there were 6 kids total! I told them they had to share the 3 bars. They were all so happy. I got a picture of Amanda with all of them with their granola bars. They kept playing this game were they would say "Si happy!" and I would make a big smiley face, then they would all say "No happy!" and I would make a sad face, and then they would all just laugh so hard......all the children here are so friendly and happy, they are always outside playing with one another......no xbox's here to keep them indoors, in fact they were all so intrigued by my digital camera. I took a video of them and then played it back and they all just started laughing at it and pointing at the camera and speaking lots of Spanish that I couldn't understand. The girls decided to stay home tonight and just relax and I went down and caught the bus up to another internet bar that I found about a 1/4 of a mile from the house, a good busines with all the American vacationers here. Think I'll go grab a cold beer at the restaurant up the road after this and then catch the bus back down the hill. As you see, the pictures are uploading fine now, though they do take awhile and I have to pay by the minute here so I'll try and post at least one picture for each day we are here. More to come!