Wednesday

WOW! What a day. I started it off with a 6:15am hike to an old cemetery up a winding road, in the dark. There are a few places I don't like, hospitals, unless its for a baby, Walmart, ever, and cemeteries. My family had a stretch where we were together every year for a funeral. First for my mom, then my dad, then there were my grandmothers and a grandfather. These were some of the finest people I have ever known in my life. They taught me so much, were always there for me and gave birth to more of the finest people I've ever known. I know I'm biased, but I wouldn't trade my family for anything in the world. On top of me not liking cemeteries, I sure as hell don't like them in the dark. We finally arrived just as the sun was coming up, so we were able to read the headstones. They were all pretty recent, early 2000's up until just last month. One that caught our attention was of a Navajo lady, I can't pronounce or spell her name, that had lived to young age of 117 years old. Can you imagine what she saw as she went through her life? We wandered around and started finding headstones from 1920's and the 1930's. There were a lot of war veterans, from WWII, Vietnam and the current war in Iraq. The place seemed to be over run with native grasses and plants, so some of the markers were buried in plants so you couldn't see them. If I'm buried in the ground, I sure hope someone will come and at least uncover my headstone(plus drop off a fresh coke every once in awhile). We made it out to Tolaki and Chris and I started work on putting in a tub surround in the parsonage. It went well, but since we were only working half day, we were only able to replace the drywall and put up one section of the surround. I really have no idea what I'm doing, but Chris has a clue, so I do what I'm told. I feel like we are working pretty well together, I hope he feels the same. We came back to Rehoboth and had lunch with some of the Navajos and then headed out to Red Rock state park for a hike. This place in incredible. Here are some pictures, but you know the scoop, can't do the place justice. The first picture shows John checking out the map to see how far and which way to go. The rock behind him is common to what we saw throughout the hike. The second is more along the way. The third is of our destination. It's called church rock because it looks like church steeples. I don't see it, but hey, they didn't ask me. As you may remember, church rock church is one of the places we are working, this is where it got its name. The hike was really cool, lots of ups and downs and a total elevation change of 700 feet. I'm in terrible shape, but I actually surprised myself and did pretty good. There was one time when I was pretty winded, but we took a rest and I was ready to go. Thankfully we had water so I didn't pass out from dehydration. Don't worry Marcy, I put on lots of sunscreen so I wouldn't burn. If I hadn't, I would be a crispy critter right now. I'll include several more pictures at the bottom, but look at the one with the goats. These crazy bastards were walking on the smooth rock face and stood right on the edge. There wasn't anything to eat around there, so I don't know what there were doing there, but they are goats, who are you going to complain to? We made it to the base, or as close as we could and made it back safely. We finished the day with a little shopping, a great dinner and a church service at a local church that one of the ladies that has been working with us at Tolaki had invited us to. I'm going to save that story for another time because I am really tired and want to go to sleep. I'll write more Thursday.










Crazyass goats.