Oct. 12, Wednesday

??:??
This morning we were on our way to Trevor's to help with painting so that he and Erika will be ready to move soon. On the way Chris and I were talking with Randy, asking him about counting over ten in Spanish, when he pointed to our right and said, "Hey, check out how close we are to that bus." and. . . WHOA!
It was RIGHT there! We probably had three or four inches between us!

??:??
Violeta decided that it would be better if we didn't stay for church tonight because of the weather and the amount of traffic it would cause. I don't mind the rain much (live'n in the north west YA~!) but apparently this rain is "apocalyptic" and "it never rains like this here. . . The only time they've seen rain like this was during hurricane Mitch."
Now to put people's minds at ease, while the weather is coming off of Jova which is passing through Mexico, we are not actually suffering through it but rather weather coming off of it. The problem here however is the same as for those nearer the storm in that the rain has been almost continuous, with varying strengths and repeated downpours. Although El Salvador does have a rainy season and is hardly a dessert, this storm has been dropping several inches just over the last few days.
Violeta told Randy that at least 800 people have already been made homeless.
Make sure to pray for the people here; not only their physical well being, but also ask God that He would use this time of worry and strife to bring the people of El Salvador and all of Central America to the joy of His saving grace.
I would also ask that you pray for all of our safety in this time of unrest as being from the U.S. can mark us as prime targets for theft, particularly that of the girls, Jaymi, Kayla and Karin, and Noah (age 10) and Ben (age 4), who are both very independent and still getting used to remaining closer to their parents than is often required in the states. Pray for all of our attentiveness in being aware of what is happening around us, watching out for each other and keeping track of the children. I would also like to request prayer for Noah, and particularly Ben's, adjustment to living in El Salvador; although they seem to be handling it well there are a few things with Ben that have been giving Karin concern.
People I met today:
Josue, Chris and I spoke with him at the church before beginning work. He speaks English very well, and is also semi-fluent in Japanese. He's a nice guy and fun to talk to but I can already see how easy it would be to spend most of my time around the English speakers and hinder my own ability to learn Spanish. It will be tough, but I will need to watch out for it.
Karelina, our supervisor as we cleaned up a storage room for school supplies. She doesn't speak a lick of English as far as I could, or at least not conversationally, and I'm happy for it. Figuring out where things went sometimes required her guidance, and it was a good way of being eased into the great challenge of language immersion. I learned a few things, though I'll probably need a refresher course tomorrow, and was able to use some of the things I've been trying to memorize in a practical setting. I wasn't entirely sure how patient she was with our questions though. . .