Saturday Post -- 16/10/10

When I set out to blog our goings-on on a weekly basis, I opted for the monicker of 'The Saturday Post', despite aiming to write it on a Friday afternoon of every week. Two reasons led me to this point: firstly, the British readers probably wouldn't get the chance to see it till Saturday anyway; and secondly, it gave me breathing-space so that if I forgot about it on the Friday, I could still get it posted on time.

Well, I think I've done rather well in the sense that it's taken me about nine months to completely forget to post our update on the Friday afternoon. However, being a little pressed for time, I'll need to make it a brief one. Work-wise, I managed to prepare materials for the remaining English classes of the year, while Amanda spent a couple of days at the school where health checks have been carried out. They're doubling their efforts now because they want to get the whole school seen to by the end of the year.

Outside of work, things have been fairly quiet, though we've been able to harness the power of the internet to our advantage in our recreational time. Since we came down here, one of the biggest adjustments has been the lack of books we have at our disposal. Even in subsequent deliveries from Scotland, it's been a struggle to get a lot of texts down here as they take up so much space and weight. However, if you have a Mac (as we do) I discovered this week that it's possible to download a 'Kindle for Mac' device from Amazon, meaning you can read on your computer -- no substitute for the real thing, of course, but as good as we'll get here. Not only that, but they have a million or so classics available to download to your device without having to pay a penny. I'm hoping to read Middlemarch in the next few weeks. We'd also been lamenting our lack of board games. Again, we had to resort to the computer, but we've managed to find a couple of pretty decent versions of probably my two all-time favourites, Risk and Monopoly.

I'd mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we were due to host the Gutierrez family, whom my family have known for some years. Unfortunately they weren't able to come but they insisted that we join them for Sunday lunch this weekend. So we're really looking forward to spending some time with Sammy & Nayara, who only a few years ago came to a saving faith, and their children.

I'm without any preaching or meditations commitments for the next couple of weeks, so I'm hoping to use the slight slackness in the schedule just to get my thinking cap on and pray for wisdom as to the direction of the area of Education at FT. Prayer appreciated.

Prayer
• For Amanda and the team working in the local school, that they may be able to check all children by the year’s end.
• For another visit to San Pedro, site of the five-day club in July, on Tuesday afternoon, for a couple of hours of games and teaching.

Praise
• For a productive week at work for both of us.
• For finding practical solutions to our leisure needs. May seem trivial, but it makes a huge difference in a town that lacks even a library.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda