Hasta Luego!!

Today, we packed up all our stuff (all 2 bags worth), and are en route to Volcan where we will house sit for 2 moths. El Valle is amazing. Not because it is positioned in the crater of a volcano, or because no matter which direction you look you see a breath taking view, or because the weather is always between 65 and 75 with a great breeze. It is amazing because of the people. The church the meets in the building behind David and Lisa's house to be specific.

We enjoyed and learned so much in our short 2 months there. We are supposed to approach life with a childlike attitude...they do. We are supposed to live together in community and harmony...they do. We are supposed to make a joyful noise unto the Lord...they definitely do.

We became great friends with the teenagers. It's funny, there were people who we look up to because they are great parents (or expecting), family members, hard workers, friends, and yet 10 years younger than us! Juan Miguel and Saribeth with a toddler and infant...what a beautiful picture of commitment, trust, and faith. And not to mention the hikes and beach trips with so many of the teenagers- Ivan, Gilberto, Shaina, Jorge, Immanuel, Jackeline, Richard, Alieth, Antonio, Blas, y Joel. The picture is of our the last Bible class we taught last Sunday.

Some of the boys and Patrick played soccer in the back yard with Ivan and Antonio taking turns commentating. So funny!

El Valle in a nut shell...wonderful. We do not say Adios or Chau, we say Hasta Luego which means see you later. We will visit again in July.

For now we are headed (it's 10:42pm and our bus leaves at midnight) to Volcan. A 7 hour bus trip will take us to the home of Joy and Yari. Joy is an American missionary who needs to go back to the states for 2 months. Yari is her 18 year old, live-in, Panamanian, sort-of-adopted, daughter, who taught me (lynea) most of my Spanish, will be staying at the house while we house/animal/18 year old sit. The first two weeks of our adventure in Panama was spent with them so we are familiar with the town and are already great friends with Yari.

We are planning to spend much of our time in Volcan to studying and practicing Spanish. Yari knows just enough English for us all to speak "Spanglish" to each other. And, she is a wonderful teacher, correcting me in a gentle way, and reminding me of verb tenses and such. We will also be taking over Joy's responsibilities in 2 schools providing food and doing English lessons periodically.

Next week however, we will take a slight vacation and meet up in Costa Rica with Robert and Kathy (the family we stayed with in on the farm in Vermont last year). Before we take on full duty of house sitting, we will get to relax with old friends.

Sorry this was so much reading and not many pictures. Thanks for reading though. We love you all!!!