Thursday, October 4, 2012

Seasons

Missing the change of seasons.  Don't know if this helps, or makes it more painful.  Check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=der-21wmIjw

Headline News

Every day Jairo stops and gets the newspaper at the same little newsstand at the bottom of the hill.  Lourdes holds up the front page and we all look at it.  Today Jairo explained to me that yesterday alone, 80 more people were killed from drug trafficking, gangs and violence.  So far this week 3 more judges were killed, in addition to the 8 that were killed last week.  One had his car stolen and was driving around, looking for the stolen car in a neighborhood that is gang infested, where he never should have gone.  He was shot dead.

I should start reading the newspaper.  But I don't know if I can handle it.  I read about fútbol, but to be honest I try to avoid the hard core news.  I used to watch the news on TV.  Now I prefer to live in ignorance and stay inside my little shell where I am safe and happy.

Today on the way home we came from a different direction.  Jairo stopped at the pulperia on the corner for me.  I meet him on that corner every morning as he and Lourdes drive by on their way to church.  I needed to buy big bottle of water and this way he could drive it to my house in the van.  As we drove away from the pulperia he was still looking over his shoulder at the people inside.  I said, "That place sure is crowded today.  Usually there are not so many people in there."  He told me, "Those are bad men.  They are bad."  I hadn't really looked at the men.  I was more concerned about exchanging my empty bottle for a full bottle of water and getting the change back in a crowd of people.  I didn't look at who the people were.  I won't go to that pulperia alone any more.  I don't usually go there anyway.  There is a new one closer to my house and I really like the people who own it, so I try to always give them business.  But the pulperia up on the corner was the one that Jairo recommended to me six months ago when I first moved here.  Things are changing.  Not for the better.

Just so you know, those people cannot come into my community.  That pulperia is outside of the guarded gates.  Here is a picture of the front wall, so you can understand why we had such a hard time breaking in the other day.

The smaller door on the left leads to the patio. The bigger doors open to the driveway.

Two coils of barbed wire on top

October is the 30th anniversary of Iglesia en Transformación.  Today I got this shirt, key chain and pen.  We'll sell the shirts this weekend at church.


Good news about Pat Pike.  His health has been steadily improving over the past week.  We can be grateful but still continue to pray.  His recovery will be lengthy.