All Good Things Must Come to an End

In case you haven't been keeping up with us, this is the final blog that we are going to be writing from Uruguay. The trip has been great and we've both learned a lot about ourselves and God. It's going to be good to be home after the time gone but at the same time it's going to be sad to leave the relationships that we've made while we were here. Next week we will be posting some final thoughts and a full overview. So let's look at what we've been doing since the last post.

So the farm has over 4,000 trees in it. So just because one orchard gets finished doesn't mean that the work is done. We started pruning another orchard and as of today we are about halfway through it. This orchard is a lot smaller than the one that we just finished so we will hopefully finish it by the time we go home. Roy has also said a few things about other jobs that he wants to get finished so it all depends on what he gives us to do. Only 2 more full work days though. As I type that it's finally hitting me how close the end of the trip is, WOW!

This last weekend was the first weekend since the very beginning of the trip that we didn't have a place to go and we got to make our own plans. We decided to stay at the OM base for the weekend and spend some time with the girls. Saturday we decided to go to the center of town and do some souvenir shopping. Little did we know was that it's normal for most places to close early on a Saturday. We basically only found 2 stores that were open. Dan got what he wanted to get but Chris didn't find what he was looking for so we are hoping that we can find some time this week to go down there one last time. That night we decided to try to make fondue for dinner. We didn't have everything that we needed so we kinda made up our own recipe. If anybody is thinking of doing this stop and go buy what you need. It had the consistency of chewed gum and taste...I don't even know how to describe it. Then we watched the Paraguay soccor game and they lost 2-0, so the girls were unhappy. All in all is was kind of a failed day, but such is life.

Sunday we got up and came back to the farm early so that we could participate in a Sunday School that they run here. The girls planned and taught the lesson and we participated. They taught that story of David and Goliath so naturally Dan played Goliath. Instead of using a rock though we decided that it was a good idea to use an egg. Again, if you are planning on doing this stop and think it through better. Leyla was the one throwing the egg and she missed the forehead a little bit and hit Dan square in the squishy part of the nose. The egg didn't break, it just bounced off and broke on the floor. Luckily it didn't break his nose, it didn't even bleed actually. The turn out was pretty good and we will be continuing to pray for the ministry that they will continue to have after we leave.

Since it was our last weekend in the country we decided that we needed to take our first trip to the beach and jump into the ocean. For those of you that don't realize it, Uruguay is in the southern hemisphere so the seasons are the exact opposite of the ones in the northern hemisphere. And for those who still don't get it; THAT MEANS THAT IT'S WINTER!! As soon as the shirts came off and we started to run into the water we realized that it wasn't the best idea that we've had. Also it turned to being rock about 10 feet out so while we were running our feet got tenderized. Basically I think that the theme for this weekend, besides having a good time, was making bad decisions. All in all it was still a fun weekend.

Well, with only a few days left in the trip we are trying to concentrate on what God still has for us that we haven't learned yet. For anyone that is interested in knowing, we will be arriving at the Reno airport Friday June 12 at 8:09pm on American Airlines from Dallas. Hopefully we will see some of you there and if not sometime soon after.

As the Nights Grow Colder

So as of today we are officially 8 days until we leave Uruguay and 9 days until we will be back in Reno. Part of it is sad because the relationships that we have made here are amazing and it's going to be hard to leave them. On the other hand it will be good to see everyone back at home and see how things have been moving in our absence. It's kind of a bitter sweet feeling but we have both agreed that the sweet out-weighs the bitter. Enough of being sentimental though, let's look at what's changed since the last update.


Since it has been getting further into the winter here it has definitely been getting colder. It definitely gets colder in Reno but the difference here is that we have heaters. Here there is no heating inside the houses so the only warmth that you have is what the insulation keeps in. For the most part we've been doing pretty good with this but it's not something that we're completely used to yet. This morning we actually had a little bit of trouble getting out of bed because it was so warm and the apartment was so cold. It's changed the work conditions as well. All day yesterday we were working with jackets, hats and gloves on. By the end of the day we were looking forward to a hot shower just to warm up. But today the sun is out and it's not as bad. This morning we finished the orchard and Roy has told us that we are going to be starting something other than pruning. We are excited to see the work that we will be doing in our final days here.


Last weekend we joined Siegfried and two other OM volunteers (Job and Tim) to tour around the country and make people aware of the ministry that OM is doing. This was good because we were never 100% sure what it was that OM Uruguay did outside of a teen event once a year and the planning for the youth center. We got to see that they are in charge of supplying material to different churches and stores so that they have christian material that is usually only available in the big cities. Dan got to join Job and Tim in playing some Ecuadorian Folklore music at all the stops. IT was fun because it was a different experience and a type of music that he's never played before. Chris on the other hand was put in charge of running the book table a couple times and that doesn't work out too well since he doesn't know and Spanish.


Besides all the time with churches we got to see other parts of the country outside of Montevideo. All in all it was all flat farm land. If you've ever driven through the mid-west it's a lot like that. It made us long for the mountains that surround us in Reno. The last stop that we made was the most northern city in Uruguay and it actually went right up to the Brazil border. Since people will live on one side and work on the other they don't have border patrol there until you leave the city. So during some down time we decided to take a walk to Brazil. Basically it was just a river with Spanish signs on one side and Portuguese signs on the other. We may not have gotten a stamp on our passports but we can at least say that we've been to 3 different countries this trip.

Well, there is only one more post until we come home. Keep praying for us that we learn what God wants us to learn in this home stretch.