A Weekend Back in Bocas Plus Other Events

We ended the old year and began a new one with the assembly in El Espino near Panama City. We are still using the assembly hall there at the Branch since the property hasn't been sold yet.

The friends that live in the area of the assembly hall volunteer their homes for all of us who travel far to stay with them. Scott and I stayed with a young single brother who had an extra bedroom and bath in his apartment. Scott stayed on with him for a week after the assembly to attend the elders school.

Five baptism canidates. Three of which were from Changinola. In the last year, seven new publishers in English are from Changinola.

The boys have grown in the year since we left Bocas. Here is Connor, Riese, and Wes, with Sean Bones. Sean is from Hawaii and visits Bocas often to live and help out.

                                                LAS LAJAS

We have great sunsets at Las Lajas beach. It's about an hour and a half drive from David. It is the Pacific Ocean. We really like this beach because the waves are gentle, which makes it is safe to swim and boogie board there.

In the evening when the sun is setting the hermit crabs find their way onto the beach. This one is trying to find out what is preventing him from his travels.

There are covered shelters all along the beach. However, they have been replacing the branches on the roofs for several weeks. They have not gotten very far so we didn't have shade. But we go to the beach in the afternoon and it's not too hot. We enjoy sitting in the sun anyway and then cooling off in the water.

The sunsets are amazing.

                               WEEKEND IN BOCAS
After having been away from Bocas for almost a year we went back for a weekend.

On the water taxi that takes you from the mainland, Almirante, to Bocas.

Although the sunsets in Bocas are not as vibrant as over in David, they still are beautiful.

The English congregation in Bocas had the CO's visit the weekend we were there. Here's the group photo after the meeting Saturday morning.

Ixa in her bicycle shop. There is more competition for bike rentals on the island but still she does well.

Ixa had a very large dog named Rex that was given to her as a puppy and he was her baby, we all loved him. Unfortunately he was hit by a taxi and died. So her brother, wanting to help her with her grief, gave her this poodle and now she is Ixa's new baby. Kitty is very famous on the island. Ixa takes her every where with her in a bag and on her bike.

Some of us got together Saturday night to say goodbye to our brother Don who has to go back to the states unexpectedly. He is the one at the end of the table in the gray shirt. He has been coming to Bocas for the past couple of years from Colorado.

We were fortunate enough to stay with friends from Canada that now live in Bocas. They live in a house that is next to Bluff beach. It's about a half hour drive along the muddy beach road to the jungle. Next to where they live is a small one room house that they use as a vacation rental for income. We got to stay in the house and it was wonderful. Here is Scott sitting on the deck of the house looking at the beautiful jungle view.

The house is surrounding by a deck. Here is the sink with running water. And there is a small cart for kitchen items. 

View from the house. Three of the walls open so you can enjoy the ambiance.

Todd installed a toilet on the deck. There is a bathroom down the hill but who would want to go down there in the middle of the night?

The comfy bed. We light up the room at night with candles. No electricity.

The hammock is a great place to relax, sleep or read. Here I am waking up in the morning not wanting to go any where. It really makes you slow down when you are there. Nice.

An unusual flower I had never seen before.

This strange fruit stems from the same plant as the flower. It grows in clusters just straight up from the ground. Very Jurassic looking.

The house that the Sherman's live in. They are living in it without charge until it sells. They have cleaned and fixed it up so much. This house was shifted by a mud slide so they are hoping it doesn't sell and they can continue to live in it.

Todd airing up the tires. Two were flat in the morning when we tried to go into town. He has a handy air compressor  that uses the battery power of the car.

Scott and I taking a picture before the meeting at the Sherman's house. The house is open to the jungle, we are in their living room and you can see there are no walls, only a ceiling. 

Ixa insisted we ride her scooter all over town. She can't drive it until she gets her drivers license so she wanted us to and we loved it.

Here's Ixa and Kitty going on a bible study. I went with them. We took a boat taxi over to another island. Kitty knows exactly where the study is, as she walks along the path on her leash she turns on the correct path to the house and greets the householder. Then during the study she sits in Ixa's lap, very content. She is very popular where ever she goes with the bows in her hair and pink painted nails.

                                                               THE COTTRELL'S CASITA'S
The past year the Cottrell's have been building two casitas on the property next to their house. They rent out these very lovely rooms to vacationers.

The entrance

The grill area that is shared by both rooms.

             Looking back at the entrance. The pool is between the rooms and shared by both casitas.

Scott and Steve

View of one of the casitas. They were both occupied but they are one bedroom with a bath and a small kitchen area and tv with a couch. To the left is the beach. They are very close to the water.

Me and my buddy Riese, I bought him this shirt when I was in the states.

After a great evening spent with the Cottrell's playing football on the beach and going out to eat they drove us back to our little house in the jungle and got a tour. Quick tour. But the fun part was hiking up the muddy hill to the house in the dark.

Unfortunately we had to return to David after only two days. We took Ixa with us so she could do a driving course and get her license.

 We had a great lunch at a place Ixa knew in Almirante. She was born and raised there so she knows the place well.

We stopped and checked out the progress on the kingdom hall build in Almirante. This project will take about three months to complete. There are about twenty volunteers that travel around Panama doing the builds.

Inside the hall.

A couple of the brothers in charge of the project with Cheryl, me, and Ixa.

The ride home was nice and relaxing. I drove half way and everyone in the car feel asleep including Tookey and Ixa's dog Kitty. Tookey will be with us a few months while the couple who usually look after him are in the states. He'll go back to the island right about the time we need to go back to the states to work this spring.

So that was a few highlights of what has been going on with us. The trip to the island was so enjoyable and refreshing. It was good to visit old friends and return to our first home in Panama.  

The Ministry and English Group in David

When we left David in April we had four publishers in the English group. We had many friends from Spanish helping out too. Now we have come back to a great, big group. We have, I think, fifteen publishers now. The Spanish friends are mostly going to only there own meetings now, the brothers said they must choose one or the other. So we are all from the states. Us Woodall's from Wisconsin, The Dansler's from Michigan, The three Boyd's from Kentucky, Desiree from Panama, Angel from Arizona, The Gombale's from North Carolina, The Walkers from Wyoming, Roger Elder from Oklahoma. Naomi from FL. Hope I didn't miss anyone. We have a family of four from Florida but they moved to a different town last weekend. There is a couple from North Dakota who are here for six months. They just arrived last week. Also, a single sis from AZ I haven't met yet. We also had our C.O. visit last week. What a busy week of meeting's and eating. :)
Our C.O. and wife are from the states but became C.O. when they moved to Mexico nine years ago so the Mexico branch sent them here recently. They are the Klien's, Larry and Provy. From Arizona too, hmm.

Paul, Scott, and Curtis. 

Not all can be glamour shots... We walk the territory a lot and use our umbrellas to keep us cooler.

We are doing a searching for English speakers in the territory in and around David. Here's my presentation: "Buenas Dias, estamos buscando las personas que hablan engles. Algiun en su casa?" (Hello, we are looking for people that speak English. Anyone in your house?) Then hope you understand what they say back to you.

Amber, Desiree, and Brian. We are standing under a huge grapefruit tree but you can't tell so I cropped it to show the important stuff, us. :)

Here's Desiree with her study Carolin. We studied in a park down town. We were nice and cool under the big trees there. It started raining later. Make sure you always have your umbrella! We had a lot of rain when we first arrived and for most of the month of December. Mostly it would rain in the afternoon. Then one day last week the clouds parted and we have SUN and beautiful, gorgeous, days around 80*. Wow, come for a visit any time.

Here's some of our group in the ministry. The family with the little ones are the ones that moved. They are the Lee's from FL. So we have Terri, Ileinne, Amber, Jade, Blake, Jesse, Baylin, and Sara.

I won't attempt to tell you who everyone is here. But not everyone is in our group. It was the CO visit and so we took a picture since it was so big. The CO and his wife aren't even in it. I think he was taking photos and so was one of the sisters father who was visiting from Louisiana. 

Great group, future of English in Panama, secure. :)

November 25th, Return to David

We've been  in the states seven months and we have returned to Panama. We are now living in David in a two bedroom house and have a car. Things are a bit different from living on the island but we like it here too. Here's some photos of our return through Costa Rica. We decided to fly into San Jose and take the bus from there to David. Bus cost is about $37 each person. When we got to the border we took a taxi to our house for $35. It was worth it. Our bus air conditioning died at the beginning of our eight hour journey so it was very uncomfortable and hot. When the rain started and the windows fogged up I got claustrophobic and had to sit in the front of the bus by the open door. But we made it to David, put our car battery in our Honda Accord and it started right up. We washed off all the dirt and Scott went to the grocery store for some vittles. We had several days of late nights cleaning and organizing but all is settled now.

Hot on the bus. The funny thing is the driver and coworkers took out the belts for the fan and so we had NO air movement. Fine for the driver and helper, they were at the front with a door and a window. But behind them, where we were was completely closed in.

We had to cross the border from Costa Rica to Panama. First we check out of Costa Rica and then into Panama. Two bus loads at a time plus semi drivers and locals. It took two hours, at around 10pm we were headed home in a taxi that was about forty five minutes from the border.

Scott wanted me to remember how much fun it was to be on a hot, humid bus and wait in line for two hours. But somehow the agony melts away once you arrive at your destination, sleep, eat...

Why does he look so happy!?

Our yard was overgrown and the plants were twice the size than when we left in April.

These lovely flowers took over the corner. When we moved in the house in February they were just a few little ones that I nursed back to life. They are crowding my flowering bush now too.

This was our back yard. It was about four feet tall. Yikes! I don't want to find out what was living in there. But the lawn cutters came and we got it sorted out.