Its not over 'til its over

This weekend we went back up to minister at Llano Verde it was a wonderful event as always.  It is a small community in the jungle with the church that Clint is pastoring.  The name of the church is La Casa de Immanuel. "God's House". It takes at least 5 or 6 hours to get there, and Clint usually makes the trip 2 to 3 times a month.  The travel is through the mountains on 2 lane highway with lots of semi's and then through farmland with lots of farm trucks etc.  Going there on Saturday, we didn't hit rain until we were there.  The last 45 minutes are on very rough gravel roads which change to slippery red dirt at the last.  Because there were 6 of us, we took the 15-passenger van which is not an off road vehicle.  We had to slide into Victor and Aurora's driveway which is a narrow one through the gate.  We got there by 4:00, just in time to run the power cord from their house down 2 lots to the church.  We held a family meeting in which Clint is teaching on family dynamics and relationships according to the Bible.  The area was holding a 4-wheeler rally as a fund-raiser to try to fix the road.  RV'ers from all over the country attended.  Aurora made homemade tamales to sell to raise more money.  They only got about 30 people and had hoped for 100. During church, there were scads of noisy, very, very muddy ORV's that went by.  The church is open on the road side, and very close to the road, so we could both see and hear them very well.
After church we gathered all of the equipment and took it over to the house, and set up our beds and unloaded the van.  We always stop to buy food, and Victor and Aurora help us out by cooking for us.
Because there were fewer than usual there (none of Clint and Renee's kids went this time) We were able to blow up air mattresses to sleep on.  All six of us slept in the "living room" in a row.
After leftover (from the sale) delicious homemade tamales, spaghetti, and rice we helped to take care of Victor's leg wound. Apparently a cable pulling one of the 4-wheelers had snapped and hit his shin.
He had a nasty cut, which could have used a few stitches.  We put ointment and a some butterfly-type strips on it and gave him some pain meds and an ice pack.  He said it helped.
He was a subject of prayer last weekend as he had been taken to the hospital after being thrown from his horse.  He hit his head, and the MD said he was lucky to be alive as far as he was thrown.
After a good night's sleep, we all awoke pretty early, the howler monkeys, the roosters, the cow's being milked and the daylight with no curtains make for a dawn arising usually.
Victor made some of his cheese with the 10 or so gallons of milk he got.  That is their living.  He makes about $100 a week with it.
He washed a cheese cloth and a large plastic tub and poured the warm milk through the cloth.  Then he added about 10 cc's of the coagulant.  (I forget the term for it).  In about 20 minutes, the milk formed curds.  He dumped off a lot of the whey and used it for the hogs,  next he brought the pail of curd into the house and added salt, mixing it in by hand.  This was put into a cheese-cloth lined mold which had holes in in for drainage. A weight was put on top to help squeeze out more water. This was left for a few hours until a fairly firm cheese was formed. This is queso fresca.  It is delicious fried or crumbled on any dish.
We noticed Victor had quite a bit of blood on his back and questioned him.  His biggest rooster had attacked him getting him pretty deeply on his back and his arm.  He said that the rooster was bound for the stew pot.
Clint had a pistol, and brought it out and handed it to Victor.  The bird was right beside him and it looked like a guaranteed shot.  However when the boom was done the bird was screeching away, and there was a hole in the ground.  He must of hit his tailfeathers.  Clint then went hunting.  He got off several shots, but only came back with a small tree which he had neatly dispatched.  He had trophy in hand, but not bird. 
We joked with Clint about the fact that most pastors don't go shooting chickens before church on Sunday.
We cleaned up and had a great church service.  The amazing rain poured down at one point making it cooler and making us shout to hear.
As it was my birthday, Clint had them sing a spanish version of "Happy Birthday" which was really lovely.  It was a great surprize and sweet of them.
We had a leasuirely packing up after the service, and Kati, decided to stay there in Llano Verde for the next week. She will be living a very basic farm life and will have an intensive spanish course.  Victor and Aurora's son Arsel is taking an English test next week and can use the help in learning from her as well.  It will be a wonderfu experience, but she will have to scramble a bit as she didn't really pack expecting to stay that long.  She is resourceful though.
When we left, we thought all of the adventure for the day was done, not so, however.  We were almost through with the bumpy part of the road, when Clint decided to take another route than usual.  He had been on it before quite some time ago, and wanted us to see something different.  It was evident that it had rained recently there, and the road also went from gravel back to the slippery red, clay dirt.  It also got much more deserted and was pretty hilly and almost washed out in places.  Clint did a great job of getting through some pretty tricky places without us getting stuck.  We had to go up a couple of places sideways. It was remote enough, that we might have walked quite a ways to get help if stuck.
After the road got back to gravel, we were relieved because if we went slow we could get through pretty well where there were big rocks and washouts.
On one steep hill we met a truck and had to back up a ways to find room for both of us to pass.  Clint was informed by the driver that there was a nasty bridge ahead.  The good bridge had mostly been washed out and there were some logs filling the gaps.  Not good news because turning around and going back through the almost impassible road with a poor off-road van seemed like no fun at all.
There was also a good chance of more rain, making it worse.
When we got there he was right.  The passengers got out to "guide" Clint.  To be truthful, we were also chicken to ride the van accross.  The truck driver had come back on a motorcycle to see if we would need help.  He also helped direct the van.  He pointed one way and Dale another. We thought Dale was making the better calls.  So did Clint, and he made it.
After we finally got back to the main road, we hit the pavement pretty quickly.  Then the road was safe once more.  As the sunset approached we could see Arenal, probably the prettiest, most active and famous of Costa Rica's volcanos.  It is rare to see it well as the clouds and rain in the area obsure it frequently.  We got many spectacular pictures.  This was a pretty nice birthday present as well. 
We stopped for icecream, one of our groups' favorite pastimes and stopped at an iguana park.  There are many large iguanas sitting in the tops of trees right by the roadway.  You can get very close to get photos.  The trees are quite tall, like fifty feet, and there are no iguana bodies down below.  They manage to get around in the tree tops just fine.  Then a long winding rainy trip home. 
But not done yet. . .We stoped for a meal at a place where a man, who raises his own pigs, cooked the pork over a BBQ fire for many hours.  We ate pieces of smoked pork with a fresh tortilla.  It was delicious.
To top off a wonderful birthday, Renee and the Wisdom kids were out front when we arrived to sing "Happy Birthday".  They are a large enough group to really make an impact.  It was a party when we went inside with home made cards,  fudge covered cake, and HOME MADE icecream.  I don't think I really have ever had a fuller more wonderful birthday.  Thanks to all. You make my life rich.


The iguanas seemed content to allow us close to take pictures. We were about 5 to 10 feet away.




Victor pouring his milk through a cloth.




I don't think Victor knew that the rooster drew this much blood on his back.
you can almost see the arm puncture which was not as deep 


T


The cheese in the mold weighted with a plate and a rock. The rest of the liquid is being pressed out.




This was the tree that clint hit dead center. Bulls eye.  No escape for this marauder.




Just a hansome fellow watching us on our slippery drive.




We bailed on Clint on this crossing.  The guy trying to help wanted Clint to hug the side with the giant hole.  He didn't though and made it.  The crossing looked pretty wild.




Arenal in glory



God's birthday present

                                                                          XXXOOOXXX.