THINGS I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SAY

• I thought I was really sick but it turned out it was just parasites...again
• Can you crawl up on the roof and throw me down the mangoes?
• I only reported 8 studies this month :(
• So-and-so is looking to study twice a week now, and I just don't know where I'm going to fit her in!
• I'm so sorry your pig died! (I really said this to a student; pigs are big money here! One piglet costs about $30 and a full-size farm pig costs about $150)
• I'm really craving beans for lunch
• The broom and mop have rubbed a blister on my fingers
• Hold on, I gotta wash the feathers off this egg before I can crack it
• It's the road past the volcano.  No, the OTHER volcano
• I know it could save us money, but I'm NOT going to turn the refrigerator off at night
• Well poop! I'll just have to wash tomorrow because we've run out of water!
• Shelina, I woke up with a cockroach on my stomach
• Look at this perfectly good lime/orange/avocado I found in the gutter!

SPECIAL BRANCH MEETING

I just realized I forgot to write about an amazing meeting we had hosted by Central American branch in Mexico back in April.  Now that we don't have a local branch these kind of meetings have been done annually and are really important to us.  It helps us feel connected to our international brotherhood, and the fact Bro.Losch from the Governing Body was a guest speaker really made us feel cared for.

A quick shot right beforehand in the backyard. Shelina went to 1 location in Masaya while Jocelyn and I went to another to listen to the tie-in of the meeting.

Not sure if you can see it, but here's us in the entrance to the high school looking at a projector screen up on the platform. The picture was not great and the video went in and out quite a few times, but I think we got the highlights at least :)

One of the most interesting things Bro.Losch mentioned had to do with our associates.  Here in Nicaragua, kids have the exact same class from kindergarten until they finish, so they become VERY close with their schoolmates often considering them lifelong friends.  Also, it's no big deal to let your kids loose with all the other neighborhood kids to play everyday...it's just part of being "neighborly."  Anyway, Bro.Losch mentioned that we have "classmates, workmates, and neighbors, but they are just that; they are NOT our friends."  He also mentioned that since we would never have "intimate friendship" with someone who was not Jehovah's friends, we wouldn't promote that in our children either by sending them out to make friends with neighborhood children.  I felt those were points that could really help us here.

In total, we had almost a million in attendance between Mexico and all the Central American tie-in locations.  I'm hoping we get another meeting next year :)