adventures of the mango-picking kind . . .

Wednesday afternoons are always a little bit crazy. The kids leave at around 2ish and Bible Study/prayer meeting starts at 4. Yeah, not much time to do much of anything. And normally I try to rush around and get all my school work done and classes planned for the next day. But today I threw that all to the wind.
You see, the other day Veronica and I noticed something while we were sitting in devotions. Through the open chapel door we noticed the trees in the back pasture were loaded with ripe mangoes. Don't worry, we were still paying attention to the Bible story!
And so it was decided that today was the day to go find mangoes. So we lassoed Elmer and the boys into helping us, since they're a little bit better at the whole tree-climbing thing than any of us gals.

Heading out - fully equipped

Sadly, the "mangoes de oro," the great big juicy ones, that Veronica and I thought we had seen were still green. However, the other tree had a few ready ones.

First ripe mango of the season!!

I have learned to like the green mangoes the way they eat them down here, drowned in salt and hot sauce and maybe some soy sauce, but there is still something about a perfectly tree-ripened mango.

There is a reason we hauled the guys with us! 

Elmer enjoying a fresh one while supervising Carlos in the tree

Miguel sucking on the seed for the last little bit of deliciousness

Believe me, they were worth the snag in the dress from the barbed wire fence, the bee stings, the hundreds of little "hitchhikers" we had to pick out of our dresses afterwards, the thorns that are so big they cut your foot through you flip-flop, and even the lovely aftereffects of eating three ripe mangoes in a row. Probably should have known better than that! And it was even worth having to work later into the night to finish up school stuff. That's what coffee is for!

My little cowboy, just 'cuz he's so CUTE!!

a life of Adventure . . . .

A few months ago I put "create a blog" on my 'bucket' list for 2015. And I kept looking at it and wondering why I felt I needed to start a blog. I mean, my life's not that interesting. Sure, there are people who are nice enough to act interested, but mostly because they're family and that's what they're supposed to do & because right now I'm living a life that most people consider exciting.
Living in a foreign country.
Teaching deaf children.
And, no doubt about it! I have definitely had my adventures! But we won't go there right now . . .
But I got to thinking. Saying my life is not worth sharing, or thinking my life isn't worth the bother documenting is like saying that God is not doing awesome stuff for me.
And that is SO not true.
I have learned so much living outside my comfort zone. Hard things. Things I probably would not have chosen to learn. And I can look back and say, "Wow! thanks for taking me through that, God."
But what about later? When I move back home. When I'm back in my comfort zone? Do the adventures stop? For a while I was thinking that, "Yeah, probably they will. But then maybe some of the Hard Things will stop too." And I was kinda looking forward to that time a little bit. But lately I've been thinking . . . "I hope, Oh, I really hope, things don't go back to normal." How can they? I've changed. And one of the things I've realized is that no matter what country you live in, in your comfort zone, out of it. No matter what your work is, whether you live and breathe it or whether it's something you do to feed the family, if you give God your book and say, "You know what, I'm not that great of a writer. Why don't you write the rest and I will live it." Believe me, God will take you on adventures you never dreamed about. Guarantee it! And that is why I decided to start a blog, because God is writing my Story and He's gonna keep sending Adventures my way as long as I let Him hold the pencil. Long after I no longer teach deaf kids in Central America.