Robyn.Bowles.es

I don’t have anything too profound to write about, but thought I’d jot a few things that have happened lately.

We’re half way through our one month of Spanish classes. We really enjoy them and we’ve been getting lots of personal attention. Sometimes we’re the only ones in the class. The daily commute is tiring – it takes about 1.5 hours from door to door and includes a 5 – 20 minute wait at the bus stop near our house, then a wait at the train station, then a 16 minute train ride, 20 minute metro ride and 10 minute walk. After all this, the 35 minute drive to Holland will feel like nothing!

It’s been hot, but not too intolerable. The house in the suburbs is relatively cool compared to the city.

Yesterday we spent the day in Alcala de Henares helping out at Operacion SOS again, and getting to know the couple who run the ministry out there. They are preparing for their trip to Mauritania. They are scheduled to depart on August 4, but may have to postpone it in order to file some paperwork that can’t be filed until August 2 and will probably take at least a week to go through. They’re praying for a miracle to be able to leave then, because if they leave even a day later, they could get hung up at the border for a few days as being a Muslim country, they have sabbath from Friday through Saturday and if any official government requests need to be made, they may have to wait there. . .

Mary Beth and I sorted through three huge garbage bags full of clothes that were donated from an elementary school lost and found. There were some nice things there! I think that kids and parents will be wondering what happened to some of the nice winter coats and sweaters when it gets cold again in December. Samuel worked to “clean up” their computer to be able to allow more memory. We also put price labels on items for the store. After that we went out for Chinese food and had a great time of vision sharing and story telling.

Early Friday morning a group of 8 people from a “sister” church in Amsterdam arrived at the house to stay here for a couple of days. Apparently they had purchased a 1970 VW bus shortly before the trip. Thankfully, they had also purchased travel insurance. The bus runs on alternative fuel, which is easy to find in most countries in Europe, except Spain. They had to use regular gas through Spain and were having a lot of problems with the bus for the last 300 kilometers or so. It’s max speed through the mountains was about 40 km/hr. Needless to say, their estimated arrival time of 8:30 pm on Thursday actually turned out to be 4:30 a.m. on Friday.

Later that morning, the guys took the bus to get alternative fuel at the nearest available place (on the other side of Madrid). But it didn’t make it. It died at the fuel station and was not to be recovered. The next 10 hours was spent contacting their insurance agency and arranging for a tow truck to pick up the bus to take it back to Holland, and arranging rental cars for their trip to Lisbon and back. They seemed to take it all in stride though, and we enjoyed the short time we were able to spend with this great group of people. We also gained several invitations to stay with them in Amsterdam when we finally go someday!

Today has been lazy. After church I watched CNN in English and an American show in Spanish. Had a nap. Researched stuff about the Winnebago tribe on the internet (I’m 1/16th Winnebago), and talked on the phone. We’ll probably watch a movie soon. It’s been a great sabbath day!

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