We continue to enjoy the seasonal changes that occur here in our new home. At this time of year the Jacaranda trees are in bloom. You can see a panoramic and some closeup views here. The panoramic view is a visual of almost the whole "View from the Terraza". You will have to come and visit to see the entire panorama from our terraza.
Other changes? We graduated from Spanish school three weeks ago. The locals think we speak very well, but we beg to differ. There are constantly words we need to use, but don't know. We think it is the fact that the school stresses grammatics and pronunciation, among other things, and that impresses them. If you know of anyone that wants to learn Spanish quickly and to speak well, we highly recommend Harvest Language Center.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Update on Thailand
This posting will be slightly different than the others, in that we just wanted to talk about Adam and Cindy in Thailand. All our postings to date have been primarily about what we have been up to. However, we saw what God was doing through Adam and Cindy with their work with orphans at Christmas and just wanted to share some of that with you because super things are happening there.
In our last post we showed some pictures of their houses that are being built for the orphans. Adam and Cindy currently have five, three girls and two boys, with differing stories about their backgrounds. Suffice it to say these five now have a loving and warm family environment in which they can grow to become model adults. Without this environment, who knows where they would end up. We have come to know and love these five kids in a very special way. In fact, we are "Opa" and "Nana" to them - how cool is that?
Since we were there, the walls have already gone up on the houses as you can see in these pictures. These pictures are several weeks old and probably by now the roofs are on. The work is progressing very rapidly, and it is anticipated that construction will be completed this summer. The plan is that each house, Adam and Cindy's as well as Sean and Prang's, will have five bedrooms with the idea of taking in ten orphans each. The houses are situated on approximately a half acre of land. We already know that there won't be a problem of filling the houses as Adam and Cindy already have five and live in a rented house! If you tell God you want to do something positive - look out!! Adam and Cindy have always impressed us by the fact that Adam gave up a lucrative computer scientist position in CA and Cindy a full-time teaching position in the San Diego school district to follow this call to Thailand.
At this point they have had the land for almost a year. House construction began last Fall by clearing and leveling the land and now building the houses. In a recent e-mail exchange with our kids in Thailand we found out that the land and houses have all, through God's providence, been paid for. However,the driveways, landscaping, including lawns, shrubbery and fencing, as well as necessary furnishing, appliances and garden tools are still needed. Adam and Cindy are like us, in that they love to give but hate to ask. Since we also don't like to ask we are simply saying that here is an opportunity to support an extremely worthwhile cause by helping out and providing the last items of the construction. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, you can do so by following the instructions at this link.
In our last post we showed some pictures of their houses that are being built for the orphans. Adam and Cindy currently have five, three girls and two boys, with differing stories about their backgrounds. Suffice it to say these five now have a loving and warm family environment in which they can grow to become model adults. Without this environment, who knows where they would end up. We have come to know and love these five kids in a very special way. In fact, we are "Opa" and "Nana" to them - how cool is that?
Since we were there, the walls have already gone up on the houses as you can see in these pictures. These pictures are several weeks old and probably by now the roofs are on. The work is progressing very rapidly, and it is anticipated that construction will be completed this summer. The plan is that each house, Adam and Cindy's as well as Sean and Prang's, will have five bedrooms with the idea of taking in ten orphans each. The houses are situated on approximately a half acre of land. We already know that there won't be a problem of filling the houses as Adam and Cindy already have five and live in a rented house! If you tell God you want to do something positive - look out!! Adam and Cindy have always impressed us by the fact that Adam gave up a lucrative computer scientist position in CA and Cindy a full-time teaching position in the San Diego school district to follow this call to Thailand.
At this point they have had the land for almost a year. House construction began last Fall by clearing and leveling the land and now building the houses. In a recent e-mail exchange with our kids in Thailand we found out that the land and houses have all, through God's providence, been paid for. However,the driveways, landscaping, including lawns, shrubbery and fencing, as well as necessary furnishing, appliances and garden tools are still needed. Adam and Cindy are like us, in that they love to give but hate to ask. Since we also don't like to ask we are simply saying that here is an opportunity to support an extremely worthwhile cause by helping out and providing the last items of the construction. If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, you can do so by following the instructions at this link.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
The "Miracle" of Christmas in Thailand
This posting will primarily consist of pictures. We say "miracle" because we could not have planned or pulled off something as perfect as this. It began with a thought last January, that with potential cheap airfares, we might have Christmas in Thailand with our whole family. First miracle was, after we laughed and figured it would never happen, we actually proceeded. Next miracle was Adam and Cindy said "sure", just before they got three new kids in the house. After this everyone adjusted their holiday schedules and said yes. This was followed by the airfare, because of Christmas, being double the "cheap" airfare but then God miraculously not only provided the additional amount but the entire airfare for ten of us round trip from LAX. Adam and Cindy then got three more kids but continued with "sure", stating that we could all stay in their house. The next miracle was that friends of Adam and Cindy's, Dave and Shirley, offered their house to provide some amount of relief by taking in Jason and Caryn and their two girls. These little miracles continued, but the final one was a real answer to prayer. For the last two months prior to leaving we had tried, in vain, to rent a Toyota Commuter van that would easily accommodate all eighteen of us plus some of our extended family in Thailand. All we could muster up was a minivan for seven people. When we got to the car rental place we only saw a Toyota Commuter van in the parking lot. Inside the gal said, "I am sorry, we have no minivans. All we have is the Commuter but we will let you have it at the price of the minivan". Was that a no-brainer or what? That was followed by the two most wonderful weeks together touring Chiang Mai together. And of course, the overarching miracle is that the whole Heine crowd from North America were able to see for themselves first hand what God is doing through Adam and Cindy on the other side of the world. A real education for them to see what it means to obey God and give up lucrative careers in CA and do what He has called them to do. How good is that? The God of miracles is alive and well and is still doing what He does best - taking care of His own!!
Here is the link to a small subset of the pictures we all took.
Here is the link to a small subset of the pictures we all took.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
New addition and Christmas is coming!
We have a new addition in our home. We just recently acquired a puppy. She is a Nordic Spitz and if you are like most people, it is a relatively unknown breed. However, we "just happen" to have a breeder here in our area. The dog, when full grown, will be medium size. They are often trained in search and rescue or conformation, and they are very smart. (Hopefully smart enough to figure out the housebreaking thing before we leave her with housesitters!) Our puppy's name is Hilde and we are enjoying her very much.
We also wanted to let you see what the beginning of December is like here in Ajijic so we have thrown in a couple of pictures of what is in our garden and how we are beginning to celebrate Christmas. Of course our Christmas this year will be with eighteen "Heine's" in Thailand. Ten of us are flying from Los Angeles and eight are already there. Everyone is really looking forward to it.
When Walt's sister, Margaret, and her husband Dan were here, all three hiked up to a shrine that has a beautiful view of "downtown" Ajijic, so we thought we would throw those in as well. The path up to the shrine has twelve stations of the cross and at Easter apparently they go up to the shrine with the person playing the role of Jesus carrying the cross up the hill to the station where Simon takes over. Apparently it is quite a ceremony that takes place the week before Easter and up through the resurrection. We are learning more about our new home each day.
You can find the pictures we are talking about here.
We also wanted to let you see what the beginning of December is like here in Ajijic so we have thrown in a couple of pictures of what is in our garden and how we are beginning to celebrate Christmas. Of course our Christmas this year will be with eighteen "Heine's" in Thailand. Ten of us are flying from Los Angeles and eight are already there. Everyone is really looking forward to it.
When Walt's sister, Margaret, and her husband Dan were here, all three hiked up to a shrine that has a beautiful view of "downtown" Ajijic, so we thought we would throw those in as well. The path up to the shrine has twelve stations of the cross and at Easter apparently they go up to the shrine with the person playing the role of Jesus carrying the cross up the hill to the station where Simon takes over. Apparently it is quite a ceremony that takes place the week before Easter and up through the resurrection. We are learning more about our new home each day.
You can find the pictures we are talking about here.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Our new home - before and after
Last week essentially everything in the house, except some blinds we have been waiting for for over four months, was finally finished. Although our camera died, a friend was willing to offer theirs so we could get current pictures of our new home. But as we emptied the last of the boxes we found our old digital camera and were able to use it to get the "after" pictures to compare to the "before" pictures we took two years ago. Our new camera is in Illinois on its way via the "expatriate back door route" and will be here after Thanksgiving ready for our trip to Thailand. After having things in boxes for almost two years, it has been a little like Christmas and it feels good to have all the boxes gone. Here are our before and after pictures. Besides the painting, we had all the doors and cabinets stripped and restained, new granite counters installed in the kitchen and bathrooms (as well as some beautiful copper sinks), and full walls of floor-to-ceiling shelves built in the den and the music room. When Walt's sister Marg and her husband Dan were here, they said that pictures don't really do the house justice. So when are you coming to visit?
Monday, November 5, 2007
Little update
A quick update on the last few weeks. Some people have noticed that we have not blogged for a while, and then Nancy's monkey question. We are still alive and totally enjoying life in Mexico. Here's a status update.
My sister, Margaret, and her husband, Dan, who live in Canada, visited us for a couple of weeks at the end of October. It was an absolutely wonderful time that we were able to spend with them. One unfortunate, or fortunate depending on your point of view, happened at the time they were here. The granite guy came and ripped out the granite, including kitchen sink, the day before they came and we didn't get our kitchen sink back the day after they left. So we had to eat out everyday - fortunate or unfortunate? We would have almost convinced them to move down except for their five kids and eleven grandkids in Canada.... guess we lost that one. We visited Tlaquepaque, an artisans section in Guadalajara. Here are a couple of pics.
We are also progressing well in our Spanish class. We just began Level 3 of the four level course. We will finish Level 3 before we leave for Thailand at Christmas and finish Level 4 in February. There are two other people in our class and then there was another level with four people in it. Our Mexican friends are amazed at how quickly we are learning Spanish and the fact that we speak with hardly an accent (that is assuming we remember the right vocabulary!). That is one of the things the language school stresses - phonetics and pronunciation. In fact the phonetics classes are taught by Mexicans, so I guess we will sound Guadalajaran. The other excellent thing about the school is that it was designed by missionaries for missionaries, so we are getting a lot of vocabulary that is not given in standard language schools. Here we are in class. There are many reasons we are taking Spanish, the primary being that we chose to live in Mexico and therefore it is incumbent on us to learn the language of our chosen country*. In our development you can get by without Spanish. As long as you only hire people who speak English, and never have to deal with the telephone or electric company! Down in the village, about 70% of the time you need Spanish. The villagers are generally pretty gracious about interpreting "granglish", the mangled gringo versions of Spanish. In Guadalajara, believe it or not, it is 100% Spanish, with not a whole lot of patience for those who don't speak it. We can understand the problem of not being able to learn a new language, but don't understand not bothering.....(*Coming from Cupertino, we have 32 years of experience with the flip-side of this issue)
Also in the last month we began our Bible exploration study. We know that this is one reason God brought us down here, to use the knowledge He has given us over the years to share with others. We are having a lot of fun and learning a lot ourselves. The folks in the class have very limited knowledge of what is in the Bible. So we are beginning with some very basic stuff and what we are learning is a lot of the things we take for granted as "common" knowledge. We are getting many challenging and thought provoking questions. So it is very exciting for all of us.
The house is "almost" done. (We hear that is a permanent condition) The only thing left are some roman shades that were promised to be installed at the end of July. (Turns out the order was never actually placed, but it is settled now, and we are hoping to have them next week) The cabinets and new granite were finished last week and they look gorgeous. We would have some pictures but our camera died a couple of weeks ago. It is in a camera shop in Guadalajara being checked out. And yes, "Habla inglés?" ' "¡No!". Like we said, Guadalajara is total Spanish. If they fix it we will take pictures and show the "before and after". If not, we will use the expatriot's approach to getting something down here - ship the item to someone in the US who is coming down here and have them bring it across the border. Until we get our camera back, you'll just need to imagine how the house looks. We are extremely pleased with all the work that was done.
My sister, Margaret, and her husband, Dan, who live in Canada, visited us for a couple of weeks at the end of October. It was an absolutely wonderful time that we were able to spend with them. One unfortunate, or fortunate depending on your point of view, happened at the time they were here. The granite guy came and ripped out the granite, including kitchen sink, the day before they came and we didn't get our kitchen sink back the day after they left. So we had to eat out everyday - fortunate or unfortunate? We would have almost convinced them to move down except for their five kids and eleven grandkids in Canada.... guess we lost that one. We visited Tlaquepaque, an artisans section in Guadalajara. Here are a couple of pics.
We are also progressing well in our Spanish class. We just began Level 3 of the four level course. We will finish Level 3 before we leave for Thailand at Christmas and finish Level 4 in February. There are two other people in our class and then there was another level with four people in it. Our Mexican friends are amazed at how quickly we are learning Spanish and the fact that we speak with hardly an accent (that is assuming we remember the right vocabulary!). That is one of the things the language school stresses - phonetics and pronunciation. In fact the phonetics classes are taught by Mexicans, so I guess we will sound Guadalajaran. The other excellent thing about the school is that it was designed by missionaries for missionaries, so we are getting a lot of vocabulary that is not given in standard language schools. Here we are in class. There are many reasons we are taking Spanish, the primary being that we chose to live in Mexico and therefore it is incumbent on us to learn the language of our chosen country*. In our development you can get by without Spanish. As long as you only hire people who speak English, and never have to deal with the telephone or electric company! Down in the village, about 70% of the time you need Spanish. The villagers are generally pretty gracious about interpreting "granglish", the mangled gringo versions of Spanish. In Guadalajara, believe it or not, it is 100% Spanish, with not a whole lot of patience for those who don't speak it. We can understand the problem of not being able to learn a new language, but don't understand not bothering.....(*Coming from Cupertino, we have 32 years of experience with the flip-side of this issue)
Also in the last month we began our Bible exploration study. We know that this is one reason God brought us down here, to use the knowledge He has given us over the years to share with others. We are having a lot of fun and learning a lot ourselves. The folks in the class have very limited knowledge of what is in the Bible. So we are beginning with some very basic stuff and what we are learning is a lot of the things we take for granted as "common" knowledge. We are getting many challenging and thought provoking questions. So it is very exciting for all of us.
The house is "almost" done. (We hear that is a permanent condition) The only thing left are some roman shades that were promised to be installed at the end of July. (Turns out the order was never actually placed, but it is settled now, and we are hoping to have them next week) The cabinets and new granite were finished last week and they look gorgeous. We would have some pictures but our camera died a couple of weeks ago. It is in a camera shop in Guadalajara being checked out. And yes, "Habla inglés?" ' "¡No!". Like we said, Guadalajara is total Spanish. If they fix it we will take pictures and show the "before and after". If not, we will use the expatriot's approach to getting something down here - ship the item to someone in the US who is coming down here and have them bring it across the border. Until we get our camera back, you'll just need to imagine how the house looks. We are extremely pleased with all the work that was done.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Dream of Lifetime, or a Bad Idea?
We have a dear friend whose brother owns a bed and breakfast in Tlaquepaque, an "old town" section of Guadalajara. We always take visitors there because he has a beautiful atrium filled with tiny monkeys, marmosets, to be specific. They are not more than 8 inches tall, with sideburns that stick out... Some of them are in cages either because they are blind, or because they have a tendency to pee on people, but most of them are just loose, climbing in the trees, and going in and out of the rooms. They never run away, because monkeys are not stupid, and they know they will get fed every day if they stick around, with an occasional marshmallow as a treat.
Those of you who know me at all, know I have a passion for monkeys, and have always talked (half jokingly) about getting one. I know all the reasons why this is a bad idea: monkeys smell, some get aggressive as they hit puberty, they bite, and in the US they are illegal to own. And yes, I have seen the killer monkey episode of "Dirty Jobs". Here in Mexico, you are "not supposed" to own them. More of a suggestion, like a one-way street sign....
Anyways, last week we went to visit the monkeys with Walt's sister Margaret and her husband Dan. The monkeys have never come too close to us before, but this time they crawled all over me. The babies were sure that my bracelet was good to eat, and they wanted to crawl into my purse. So I asked the young man who had just fed them, if they would sell one or two. He thought maybe, but said I'd need to ask the owner.
Yes, I did smell like monkey all day, and yes, one of them did get a little enthusiastic in tasting my shoulder. Still, my question is, is this possibly the dream of a lifetime, or just a very bad idea? I already know what Eddie would say....
Those of you who know me at all, know I have a passion for monkeys, and have always talked (half jokingly) about getting one. I know all the reasons why this is a bad idea: monkeys smell, some get aggressive as they hit puberty, they bite, and in the US they are illegal to own. And yes, I have seen the killer monkey episode of "Dirty Jobs". Here in Mexico, you are "not supposed" to own them. More of a suggestion, like a one-way street sign....
Anyways, last week we went to visit the monkeys with Walt's sister Margaret and her husband Dan. The monkeys have never come too close to us before, but this time they crawled all over me. The babies were sure that my bracelet was good to eat, and they wanted to crawl into my purse. So I asked the young man who had just fed them, if they would sell one or two. He thought maybe, but said I'd need to ask the owner.
Yes, I did smell like monkey all day, and yes, one of them did get a little enthusiastic in tasting my shoulder. Still, my question is, is this possibly the dream of a lifetime, or just a very bad idea? I already know what Eddie would say....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
