Shrimp week!

This was a hard week, but ended up good. 

 On Monday, we went for a power walk on the beach

 and saw some fishermen pulling in their nets and stopped

 to watch and take pics. 

  Then the guy, Armando, asked if we

 wanted to buy some fish so we asked if he had shrimp and

 he said maybe. We waited and when the nets came in they

 did catch some so we asked how much and dad thought he 

said 40 metacaiz and all the fishermen laughed and he said,

 "nao, nao, nao.  400 metacaiz and wrote it in the sand. 

 So we calculated and it worked out to be 75c per shrimp and 

these are LARGE shrimp. 

  I had just had some at a restaurant

 and they were $20 for 5 shrimp so we said ok and sprinted

 home for money. 

We tried to cook them like the restaurants do, which is to split the back and grill tummy side down with the shell on. It was kinda tricky and took awhile to prepare but they were so good! Look how HUGE they were!

On Tuesday, we worked all day to move out the old Sr couple apt. There are 2 apts that we have to empty and dispose of the unwanted furniture because they got 2 newer apts , of which we are in one - or will be when the furniture gets here. It's been hard work with all the moving, hauling to storage, cleaning,etc. Dad and I will both be super glad when it's all done in a couple weeks. Then we went back to the old apt to have the Internet. 

On Wednesday we did big moving with another Sr couple (the Banks) that drove 3 hours to come and help us and another family that's here came. The wife is from Alpine and he's from Brazil (the Buenos). He works here for Care for Life, a humanitarian organization started by a past mission president's wife (and is Pres Kretlys counselor). Well, that was a long day that got longer - we got a call about a sick elder and had to drive 30 minutes to pick him up in another city and drive back to our city and take him to the clinic, and then back to his house and back home. We got to bed at 1 am.

Then Thursday the water shut off at noon and didn't get fixed. We went to the old apt where the Banks were staying and worked some more and then I made quesadillas for us and they came to our place and she taught me how to download pics from my phone. Then we left to the Buenos in another city for dinner. It was really good! - an African dish, made with cabbage. The wife made bananas flambé, which was so easy and delicious! I'm gonna add it to my recipes.

We got home and the water was still off- used makeup wipes for the first time in my life....The water ended up not getting fixed until the next day (Friday). It was awful! I had a ton of laundry from the move ( I'm up to 10 loads now). We had to go buy 2 cases of water to drink. I talked to the site manager (who's named Nelson and doesn't speak a word of English)and he turned it on for 5 minutes and I ran around and filled up any big container - a garbage can, bucket, plastic bins, so we could flush the toilet. It reminded me of the hurricanes in Mississippi. Then they got it working at 8 pm and I started my laundry but the washer didn't work - still doesn't....

 So yesterday we went for a quick walk in the neighborhood and saw 2 fisherman and asked if they had shrimp. They did and told us it was 260 mtz a kilo and to follow them to a house to weigh it ( at least that's what dad thought they said). So we followed these guys for 50 minutes and finally dad asked how much longer and they said 20 minutes so we said we'd just buy them w/o weighing them and they pulled out a scale and weighed them. (????) and we offered them less to buy the whole batch of 3 kilos. We have no idea where they were taking us...... We still didn't have water so I just boiled the whole batch and made shrimp salads from the veggies we bought from the vegetable stand lady ( that I had to bleach).

Then we went to a double wedding with 2 couples at the church. Here, the people just live with each other because they can't afford the wedding so then they can't get baptized. So some Elders and local leaders got together and came up with the idea of combining the marriages and having the church pay for a simple celebration. That was cool to see and the couples were so cute! It seemed like they were happy to have us there and while we took pictures of them, their guests took pictures of us.

The church has sent wedding dresses from DI and a couple of missionary moms have sent some for them to use so they usually wear wedding dresses donated from the US.

THEN, we got a call that the elder was getting worse so I googled online, decided on a antibiotic, and dad called the clinic to see if we could get the prescription w/o bringing him in, to save time. They said perhaps, so we went in and dad showed the nurse pics of his foot and I showed him the article on my iPhone and he gave us the meds and we went to 2 pharmacies but they were closed so we went to the other city, got the elder and his companion so they could show us where a pharmacy was that was open. Late night again. Then church at 8:30 today. It went better this week. We're starting to know the people, and they asked me to say the prayer in RS and when I thanked Heavenly Father for our families I started to cry, which was awful but oh well. They also asked me to play the piano in SS meeting but I told them that I'm terrible plus it'd be hard because I don't even know what the song is until we start singing because I can't read, so the chorister (a YW) said, "Ono, dos, tres" and we all sang acapella. Then after church, the 2 couples were baptized!
So, it was a LONG week with ups and downs but I'll sleep good tonight!


Sure love all you!