Mas Fotos

2 Juanitos. The elder Juanito is deaf and is showing a Palomera bird to the younger Juanito with hand signs.


The Palladinos met a man named Jose in SB who is from Puerto and this is his family. I got to go to their dinner as the "translator". One of the most amazing things about the Mexican families we have met is the way they love to share. We were blessed with the most delicious dinner (and as you can see, soda, which is like water here). I even ripped the heads and legs off of the shrimp all by myself. I'm excited to meet Jose now too. Heidi is really sick with the Mexican sickness and Chris was home studying.

Steve and I have had lots of time together since we went to church together too. Chris stayed home with Juanito since Juanito-nino is quite the pistol at church.


This is in our kitchen with our neighbors Felix, Maria, Erika, Javier and baby Felix-Jesus. Also, our #1 teacher Angie and her son Diego (far right next to Andres) came too. Our friend Alejandro, took the picture.

Famila Frohling on another Andador walk with the Pals.

Alejandro, Ari (our other #1 teacher), me and Chris on Ari's last day of school.

This is Felix and Javier, our neighbors with the Fro boys at the place where Felix works. It's about one block up from our house and he cuts fish that the fishermen bring in. I didn't go b/c I wasn't feeling well and I'm so glad I didn't. David said there were more flies there than he's ever seen in his life. And Felix wanted to show them how fast his hands were and he was able to catch 7 flies in one try. This whole experience was a highlight for the boys. Huge fish. I'm so glad I wasn't there (did I already say that?). Andres and Chris ate bugs that are dried from the water or something like that. I'd rather not think about it. Felix brought us over some amazing shrimp and fish that he cut up and his wife cooked. They are another example of delicious cooks and great share-ers.

I'm so thankful for this experience. It has been so great for our family. Although, Andres did ask Chris and me the other day as we were walking to the beach, "Do you guys even know what you're doing here?!?" Not disrespectfully at all, just reflective. We didn't really have an answer at that moment in time. David came up into our room a couple nights ago holding back tears because he "missed America." I think it will be so great for us all to have more grateful hearts and to thank God for all the things in our life that we used to take for granted.

My Spanish isn't that great, which is very frustrating for me, but I'm trying and I am praying every day that God would remove "los paredes en mi mente" (the walls in my mind) that don't allow me to get the words out of my mouth.

This Friday we leave on a 12 hour bus ride (yes, with Juanito) for Tuxtla Gutierrez to meet our Compassion kids, Juan y Luis. We expect it to be a highlight of this trip. David and Andres pray for their "brothers" almost every day and I think it will be great for them to actually get to meet them and see where they live and go to school. We leave at 9:30 pm on Friday and return Tuesday morning. We will play in Tuxtla during the weekend and meet with the boys on Monday.

Only 3 weeks left until we come home. I hope you all miss us! :)

Pura Vida

This is a great picture especially for la familia Leon y Pura Vida...

Por mi mama

Chris talked about how he misses his brother, Brad... he misses Timbo, too. I really miss my mom. And my friends. And Pura Vida church. And my bed. And Trader Joes. But I do not miss my work or other commitments. I feel so thankful for this "do-over" of life as Cari refers to it. I'm having fun with the kiddos and having Chris around so much.

My mom wanted to see a picture of me, so here is one of the kids and me on the way to Playa Angelito (we were the only white people there and many people wanted pictures with los gueros - "pale skinned" - it was a little uncomfortable since I was in my bathing suit!).

Some Ramblings

David had a great time yesterday afternoon at a soccer practice with some local kids who play together twice a week. David did well, and it was fun to see him getting along with the other kids and talking in Spanish with them. I was able to talk in Spanish for about an hour and a half with a really nice guy named Oscar who is enrolled in a seminary. After the practice we got a ride back to the main road in the back of a pick up truck with about 20 other people. On the way down a big hill, I mentioned to David that we would probably not be doing this again when we return home!

Yesterday afternoon I had such a fun surf session. I surfed for an hour and 15 minutes, but it seemed like 3 hours. I got some great waves, and I surfed well. I surfed to the side of a crowd, and I caught all the waves that I wanted to go on. The last couple of days have been smaller (only 1-2 feet overhead). It is still really powerful, but it is very playful compared to the earlier days. I have been able to surf on my shorter board. On most of the surfing adventures in my life, I have had my good friend and brother Brad with me. I have missed him. He is so fun to surf/hang with and he always gets me fired up to surf better and charge harder plus we always have good laughs together. Yesterday I was thinking a lot of how much fun it would be to have him here and I was also thinking about how hard he would have been ripping during that session. As a side note, I pulled into a big right (about 3 feet overhead) the other morning and got a big heavy tube, but I did not come out (next time).

At church on Sunday I met a guy named Willy who has only been a Christian for about 3 months. He surfs a lot and we are going to surf together soon. He also offered to go on a little surf adventure with me to some really good breaks that we will need to get to via bus.

We have been having fun times at the beach with our kids. On Saturday afternoon we were at this one beach, and it started raining really hard. We kept swimming for a while (the beach water was warmer than the outside temperature) and then we finally got a ride back to our house. On Sunday we went to a different beach, and we took a boat ride. We found some big turtles in the ocean. I jumped into the water with Victor, our "captain". We swam with the turtle for a while and then he brought him up on the boat so the kids could touch him. Based on the large size of the turtle, Hector guessed that he was over 100 years old! It was a really fun boat ride, and toward the end of the ride David told me, "This is going to be one of my favorite memories. I'm going to write 3 pages in my journal about today."

Our Spanish is coming along. Krista and I are trying to take a lot of time to study and we are also trying to talk mostly in Spanish. We are also watching movies and news in Spanish. David and Andrew have been completing lessons on our Rosetta Stone computer program, which helps to reinforce what they have been learning.

This week: tonight I'm going to a Bible study in Spanish. Tomorrow we are going to the beach with our new friends (Krista mentioned Sherry and all of her kids in an earlier blog) after classes. On Thursday afternoon, this guy named Mondo is going to take us to the orphanage. This should be a good experience for all of us. They have about 20 kids at this orphanage.

Krista and I had a fun time talking last night about what it is going to be like to be back home. We feel like this is such a great opportunity to prayerfully re-evaluate our committments back home and how we live.

As soon as Johnny wakes up from his nap, we are going to walk down to the beach and enjoy a couple smoothies (agua fresca).

Hasta pronto,
Chris

Fotos

The boys checking out el faro on our walk on the Andador (see previous post).


Here is Chris checking out the waves (and keeping an eye on these 2 naughty dogs who tried running away with one of Andrew's sandles and who wouldn't stop mounting each other... quite disturbing. We just tell the boys that they like to shake their booties.)



David on his way in from the beach.


The boys LOVE swimming in the water...

Juanito y una sonrisa

On the way to the beach on the street outside our house.

Eating lunch (served by la unica mujer) on one of our terraces while checking out the waves.

El Andador y La Lluvia

Okay, so the rain didn't stop for 6 straight days. Some may think that this was a nice break in the hot weather, but they would be wrong. It was still hot (although much cooler) and the rain makes the unpaved roads turn to mud so when you walk, the dirt/mud flips up onto your calves. It also multiplies the mosquito popluation. And our ability to connect to the internet is based on the weather (it's via satellite). All that to say, I am so thankful for the beautiful sunshine no matter how much it makes me sweat.

We've had a couple changes with our Language School. It really isn't a school for ninos, despite what we were told, so we felt it would be best to find something else for the kids. And thank you, God, we found a curso de verano (summer course) that is full of kids. There are many great things about it: the whole month of July costs less than one week of school (!!), it's right between our house and the school, there are tons of fun things for the kids to do (swimming, PE, drawing, soccer, etc.), and there are lots of Mexican kids who only speak Spanish which is a better way for our kids to learn anyway. Es mucho mejor and we are all feeling so thankful.

For Chris and me, our homework is typically to write a story about something in the past (to practice the imperfect and preterite tenses) and the last story I wrote about was very close to perfect. :) I'm still having difficulties getting the things I know out of my mouth in any conversations with people besides my teacher and Chris. I can write well, but speaking is another story. It's how it was for me in college too. I did have some conversations with people in el mercado today... vamos a ver.

Last weekend we went walking on el andador in the rain. It was a beautiful 1-mile walk along the water on cobblestone pathways. We saw lots of crabs, powerful waves, and couples making out. When Chris told me (quietly) that there was a couple making out, Andrew overheard and asked, "What does 'making out' mean?" Without thinking (because, you know me), I said, "It means they're kissing with their tongues." I had to answer many more questions as a result of my un-thought-out response... even from Johnny, who kept saying in his not-so-quiet voice, "What?!? Kissing with their tongues? They are kissing with their tongues?" I hope the couple couldn't understand english!

Sorry, I keep trying to downlowd a picture of the boys checking out el faro (the lighthouse), but it's not working. I don't know why it's so hard (Rich, any ideas?!? :) ). I'll try again later. Hasta pronto...

Another surf update and some of our day

Yesterday I surfed for my second time at La Punta Zicatela (I usually surf straight out from our house at Playa Zicatela). There were some really good lefts off the rocks, and it was about two feet overhead on the sets. When I paddled out, there were only three guys and I kept thinking of my brother Brad who would have been going crazy on these lefts. It is a more forgiving wave compared to the waves right out at Playa Zicatela. I got some really fun waves, but toward the end of the session it got more crowded. The whole family came down and Krista played with the kids on the beach and while I surfed with a guy named Alejandro from our language school. He is Swiss, and Spanish is his 5th language (makes us feel a little stupid as we struggle with our 2nd!). The first time I surfed the point, it was smaller and I saw a shark fin after about an hour and a half so I decided to call it a night. I jogged back on the beach to our place and picked up two big bags of our laundry from the lavandaria on the way home.

Last Wednesday I had a frustrating day - just one of those "oh my gosh what have I done by taking the family here" times, and Krista encouraged me to go out and get some surf right after our language school (at 5 pm). So, I really had a good session and it was just what the doctor ordered. I surfed for almost two hours and I got a bunch of waves. Every single time I surf the spot out front, it is at least 3 feet overhead on the sets. These waves are heavy and remind of Pipeline or Sunset (in terms of the power of the waves and the water temperature). I've seen three broken boards so far. It is a fast beach break. Some of the waves close out, and the ones that don't are very fast but there are some good opportunities for big tubes or a couple quick turns. I have surfed my 6'10" pintail McCoy board out there every session, and I am glad I brought a bigger board. Anyway, I was much more confident this session and I got some great waves. A few of the lefts that I got were solid 3-4 feet overhead (encontre mis huevos).

By the way, our internet connection is somewhat sporadic and it is hard to post pictures, but we'll try to do some more soon. Some of you mentioned surf pics, but if I'm out surfing that means Krista is on the beach playing with the kids or back at our house. So, we'll try to get some surf pics, but they will not be of me.

We had a great day today as a family, but Krista and I did not speak as much Spanish as we have been lately. We were able to connect with a really nice woman who is here with her husband as missionaries. They are from California, but they have been here for 14 years. They have eight children! Krista and I were in awe. Her husband is one an outreach trip right now with their oldest child, but she is going to pick us up in the morning (along with 7 of her children in her 15 person van) to bring us to the church that they attend. We are really looking forward to it. We had somewhat of a bizarre experience at the church we visited last Sunday. One of the big things that the husband does here is organize youth soccer (which they did not use to have). David is going to play with some other kids on Mondays and Thursdays. They do not have any grass fields in Puerto, but Ronne (the husband) is working on that.

Oh, we brought a soccer ball down to this dirt field that is two blocks from our house and David joined in a pick up game with about 15 local boys. David had a blast playing with these kids. It was funny because he was the youngest (they ranged in age from 9 to 15), and he was one of the tallest. We left him there playing while I retrieved cold water and a snack for all of the kids. I had fun talking to them in Spanish. They were still thirsty when they finished playing so about 10 of them came to our house for another helping of agua. It was really cool the way the kids welcomed David into their soccer game. I'm guessing that David might become a regular at their pick up games. By the way, half of them were barefoot (the goalie had only one shoe on)!

Enough for tonight. There is so much else I want to share as every day of this trip is such an adventure for us, but these were some of my musings tonight. Peace and love from the Fros (Krista says "hi" - she is studying her Spanish vocabulary right now).

Chris

Fotos de la escuela

Johnny in his (and Andrew's) class

Andrew climbing a tree next to the outdoor classrooms (he thinks he's a monkey... his new nickname is el mono)

El estudiante David