No Internet, Bobs Visit, Quimixto CLINIC

Something happened this last weekend and we no longer have the internet. This means we can not update the blog from home and I can’t work from home anymore. It was on and available from the end of February till now. We have to start hiking down the hill to a cafe so we can do what we used to do from our guest room.

This last weekend Thursday through Monday, my dad (Bob) came for a visit. He helped us move down here in February but did not get to see much because he was only here one full day. This time he saw it all.

Thursday after he arrived, we ate at El Arrayan, which is supposedly voted the Best Mexican restaurant in Puerto Vallarta for 3 years in a row. I think they must have someone stuff the ballot box because it was not anything head and shoulders over other restaurants we eat at and it was way over-priced. I had a steak, Leslie had some shrimp and my dad got fish. It tasted ok, but for the price we could have had 3 meals somewhere else.

Friday, while I was practicing music for church, my dad drove the car for Vera and fed the people working on top of the garbage mound. He brought my video camera and got some good shots I can use in Dennis and Faye’s Video. On the way home, he drove Vera to pick up some chicken which we ate for lunch, then we went to school to teach kids at Pan de Vida.

The first part of class, we had the kids go out back and work on the garden. This garden was planted by Patty and Ray while they were here. It’s about a 5ft x 5ft square behind the school building. They harvested the radishes, weeded, and watered the plants. They tried the radishes but didn’t like them.
We continued working on vocabulary for the rooms of the house. This week was the bedroom and the closet. I drew a big picture of a bedroom and Leslie wrote a list of vocabulary words. The kids would stick the words onto my drawing in the appropriate place. They seem to like the way we are teaching class but I fear they are not learning these words as well as they did in the kitchen last week. This Wednesday there is no school because of “Kids Day”. Thursday we plan on doing review and Friday we will have the big “Auction” for all the cool cash. This will be the first of 3 auctions we have planned.



After class on Friday, we stopped by the beach for about an hour, then Leslie cooked an awesome meal. She made Lasagna from scratch, Salad, Bread, and fresh fruit. Vera came over and we had sunset dinner on the Balcony.

Saturdays plan was to make a concrete floor, but the people whose house we were supposed to pour had not done any preparation. Pastor Ric stopped by on Thursday and said the floor had 1.5 foot holes all over. Instead of physical labor, my dad and I went to help Leslie teach our Sunday school class. We taught them the verses in Romans that exemplifies God’s plan for salvation...aka “Roman’s Road.” They seemed to get it and were able to reiterate the gist of each of the verses. After school we went to Sayulita. It was a “beautiful sunny day” but small waves. For dinner we ate Tacos al Pastor. We were there early and got to see them put on the huge mound of meat. It takes about 20 minutes for it to cook the outside enough for tacos.

Sunday, we went to church, then to Breakfast, then to Misamaloya (a beach south of the city). There is supposed to be good snorkeling there. We layed in the sun for a while and then my dad and I chartered a boat to “los Arcos”. We got to see some fish as Barauch our boat driver threw bread in the water. Unfortunately, when we got in the water, we could not see past our hands. We swam around for about 20 minutes. Barauch swam with us and brought up some Star Fish and even a puffer fish! It blew up to the size of a small balloon with spikes exposed. He was holding it with his bare hands and passed it over to my dad. I on the other hand did not volunteer to feel the spikes. My dad said it felt like a bunch of needles. After Misamaloya, we went to the Grocery store for Vera and then to Costco for Pizza. We had another nice sunset dinner. Below are some pictures from the evening

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All in All it was a good visit for my dad. He saw the dump, and the north and south parts of Vallarta. He ate at the “Best” restaurants and the cheapest. He got some sun and warmed his bones from the cool Northwest weather.

Before my dad’s visit, Leslie had her first day at Quimixto doing the clinic. As all first days go, this one did not go as smoothly as planned. She had a crowd of people who wanted her service. Unfortunately they were asking about things that do not necessarily have treatments or concrete answers such as arthritis, back pain, random other symptoms. As you can imagine, she also had a really hard time with the language barrier and trying to get across treatment strategies, collecting all the information, and trying to communicate home and/or medicinal remedies. Leslie brought her stethoscope, but did not have her blood pressure cuff. Some people wanted their blood pressure taken so she’ll have to do that this week. It was very discouraging for her to not be able to give them the answers they wanted, she feels like she doesn't have the ability to “diagnose” all they are asking and feels tremendous pressure to give answers and a “magic cure.” It would be really good to have a local there to translate. She is not looking forward to going back as she is so discouraged about the first time...you could be praying for courage and wisdom for her. This Wednesday I will be going with Leslie to see first hand what the clinic is like. I will be an UCNA (Un-Certified Nurses Assistant).

Well, that's all the news to report for now. We will try to keep our blog updated as much as possible, but may not be able to write as often given the current internet situation. We love you all very much and appreciate you checking in!

The Kellners