Big store, small town

With a large grocery section, clothing area, home decorations, pharmacy, restaurant, frozen yogurt shop and more; La Sirena (the Mermaid), is now the largest store in town. Thousands of people, including two friends and myself, headed over to the new store this past weekend to take advantage of all their sales and their large selection. Though it was hard to see everything through the masses of people crowding the isles I was happy to find that I can now purchase frozen green peas, cottage cheese, couscous, nice wheat bread and jasmine rice here in La Vega!

Lessons in Running

At the beginning of 2009 I started jogging in the mornings thanks to Nicole Davis.  She got me going on a Learn to Run schedule in which we did each of the following 3 times per week.
1. run 1min walk 2min * 7 times
2. run 1min walk 1min *10 times
3. run 2min walk 1min *6 times
4. run 3min walk 1min *5 times
5. run 4min walk 1min*4 times
6. run 5min walk 1min *4 times
7. run 6min walk 1min *3 times
8. run 8min walk 1min *3 times
9. run 10min walk 1min *2 times
10. run 5km with 10min run and 1min walk

I’m still working on #10 though, as I often give up sooner than I really need to, and settle for #9 or sometimes even #7. It’s hard to endure, especially when I focus on myself too much (my aches and pains, etc.). My spiritual life is like this too. When I focus on myself too much; my sacrifices, my successes, my loneliness, my needs, my wants, etc; I get so discouraged and ultimately settle for less. The following verse has been a good reminder when I’m struggling to keep going joyfully…. 
….. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1b-2)

Everybody wants to sell Jewelry

About two months ago I started experimenting with some new Fimo Jewelry designs but they didn’t exactly turn out like I wanted. Instead of just storing them away like I’ve done in the past I decided to make earrings and necklaces out of them using imitation silver.

 
When my buddy Ydekel (he’s so grown up now isn’t he!) asked if he could sell them for me I wasn’t sure how he’d do but to my surprise he’s a natural! He’s really good at convincing people they should buy twice as much as they originally picked out. He’s also really good at making sure people pay. (Almost everyone here buys things on credit, I don’t mean using a credit card, but taking the item and paying later. Often when people don’t come through on their payments the seller ends up loosing money instead of making money). But Idekel always asks the person what day they can pay on, he writes it down, and shows up at their door on that very day. It makes me laugh.

After seeing how well Ydekel did at selling jewelry one of my friends approached me to see if she could sell some stuff too. She and her husband are saving up to buy a small plot of land to build a house on so they’re willing to do just about anything to make a little extra money. She came over yesterday, picked out 100 bracelets, talked her twin nieces into selling them for her, and sold a bunch that very same day. She also talked me into helping her make and sell her own jewelry. I’m not really much of a business person, but it is fun trying and seeing other people make a profit too.

Everybody loves making earrings

During the past few months I’ve been able to teach a number of people how to make earrings; some of the school teachers, teenage girls, women from the church, and just recently the 5th graders that visit me every Saturday morning. And seriously, every single person reacted the same way after they made their first pair. They would look at their new earrings for a few seconds, gasp, and then excitedly exclaim how beautiful they were in a sort of high pitched tone. So fun!
Here’s a few pictures of my Saturday morning visitors and the earrings they made for their moms for Mothers Day.