The Adventures of Mike and Nate!!

Friday we spent the morning cleaning and unpacking. In the afternoon we walked uptown with Bill and Joan to exchange some dollars into pesos, make some keys and work on getting a Mexican cell phone. When we got back to the house we found that Nate's bedroom door was locked and shut. He claims he didn't do it and I guess it could have been locked already and the wind blew it shut. Usually this would not be a problem, you just stick a nail in and pop the lock open. Not so for us, all the interior doors are keyed locks and we have no keys. Bill tried opening it with a credit card but we just couldn't get it to work. Nate's room is on the second floor and all the windows have iron bars welded over them. Nate told me he had squeezed through the bars in the front yard so we decided to give it a try.


He was able to get everything through but his head. I always told him he had a fat head and now I have proof. It was a challenge getting him up to the bars and then through the bars to begin with and my ladder was to short for me to get enough grip on the bars to spread them. I told him he would slim down if we didn't feed him for a few days but he didn't want to wait.




I was trying to think of a way to spread the bars when I remembered the jack in the van. I really didn't want to call the fire department and tell them my kid got his head stuck breaking into his room.

The jack worked great and Nate was a free man. One thing I forgot to add was our cheering section. They are building a house down the street and the workers were just leaving to walk home as we were trying to un-stick Nate's head. They seemed to get a big kick out of the silly Americanos.


My adventure happened on Saturday. Some of the kids were going to climb the mountain behind CVE and I decided to tag along with my mountain bike. I stayed with them until I reached a road leading back to town and I decided to give it a try. It wasn't long until I started passing homesteads and each one had a dog or 2 or 5. I moved my dog spray to my pocket so I could get it quick if needed. It wasn't long and the gravel road turned to pavement and I saw the dog that I just knew was going to come after me. Sure enough he was up in a flash and the chase was on. I reached for my spray taking one hand off the handle bars. It was gone, it must have fallen out of my pocket on the rough gravel. I was still riding one handed and watching the dog fast approaching when I hit the speed bump. (There are speed bumps everywhere down here) I went airborne one handed and had just enough time to think to myself "this is going to hurt and then the dog is going to chew on me for awhile" I hit the road and it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think my bouncing down the road scared the dog because he stopped. Maybe he felt he had accomplished his goal by getting me to wipe out. Either way I was thankful I only had a few scrapes and bruises and no dog bites. I made it home without further incident. I think I may keep my riding closer to CVE for awhile.


You probably can't see the road rash on my arm and elbow but you might be able to see the asphalt on my shirt. I am very thankful I didn't need a trip to the ER which brings me to the last experience of the day.


Michael, one of the boys at CVE cut/punctured his heel while skateboarding. (It must have been the day for Michaels to get hurt) The wound was deep and tunnelled down towards the Achilles tendon. He was having a lot of pain and wouldn't flex or extend his foot. It was more than I could deal with and we decided to take him to the "ER." For all you guys back at BroMenn be thankful for American Medicine. We waited in a 10x10 room with another little boy and his family. He also had a laceration. There was lots of commotion behind the door and then we heard "it's a boy." Then the door opened and they took the other boy with the hand lac. Again there was lots of commotion and screaming as the kid got his stitches. This seemed to worry Michael. Finally, the door opened and they took us back. The lady and baby must have been moved but there was another woman in labor behind curtain #3. (They only have 3 curtains) We were behind curtain #1 on the same sheets as the kid before us and probably the person before him and so on. They were filthy with dirt and blood and didn't reach the bottom of the cart which was also filthy. The nurse injected lidocaine without cleaning the wound at all. She then wiped on some betadine, wiped up some blood that had dripped on the cart and then wiped the wound some more with the same piece of gauze. There was a young female Dr. probably a Resident, who just started suturing the wound. There were no sterile drapes and the suture was dragging on the bed and Michael's pants. Another Dr. came to observe her suturing and asked if the Achilles tendon was OK. (That made me feel a little better, at least I had thought of the tendon possibly being injured) She said it was fine and kept suturing although she never explored the wound or checked to see if he could flex and extend his foot. I decided that I will be going to the States if we need any medical care. We take so much for granted.

La Familia Zobrist

Getting Settled

Tuesday was the annual Christmas trip. We went to the Zoo in Hermosia and stopped at McDonald's for supper on the way home. It was a fun day to get to know the kids a little better. On the way home we were stopped at a check point by the military. A soldier boarded the bus and asked where we were going and where we had been. The kids took over and were joking around with him before he sent us on our way. It's common place for them but still a little scary for us new comers.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent cleaning the house and unpacking. It's starting to feel more like home. After lunch I road my bike back from CVE along the railroad tracks. It's a rough ride but it felt good to be back on the bike. I ride to CVE during the day and repair my tires and tubes at night. So far I have always gotten them to hold air. We met some of the neighbors and they are very friendly although communication is rough when Kali or Joan are not around. Below are some pictures of the house.

And our Garage - Dad and Scot if you see this we have a chamberlin door/gate opener it will probably need some work in March.

And our yard.

And the snake in our yard.

Actually, the snake was at the zoo, I just added it for some drama. So far we haven't had any encounters with any critters.

God has really blessed us with such a nice place to live. We have room for visitors.

La Familia Zobrist

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A much needed update (Part 2)

We arrived in Tucson on Friday evening in the cold and snow. We met Loren and Joan Knapp at their house and they took us out for supper at Pinicle Peaks. There is one rule at Pinicle Peaks and that is no ties. Nate was a law breaker with a little help for Loren and Joan. The "law" cut his tie off and hung it on the wall. It didn't really match his t-shirt anyway.

We met Bill and Joan on Saturday morning and headed to Nogales to met Joe and Denise Maller and the Midwest Food Bank truck. We unloaded a few things and left for the boarder. The crossing was uneventful but still made me nervous. We arrived at our house and unloaded by early afternoon. We ate at CVE and headed home to unpack. It was freezing. Our house had a few heaters but they were not working and we were short on gas for hot water. We had packed a small electric heater and did get enough warm water for a shower but it was a very cold night.

We went to church on Sunday morning and by the time it was over it had warmed up. We rode in the van to take some of the kids home from church and stopped to visit one of the boy's Grandmother in town. They were making tortillas in the yard over a wood fire and insisted we come in and eat. I had been feeling a bit sorry for myself because of the cold night we had and I didn't think we would have any hot water left when we got home. My feelings changed quickly when we entered the house. I didn't see a water heater at all, or a bathroom and shower for that matter, and I don't think they had any heat at all. It was a small 2 room house made of plywood and concrete floors which would get cold quickly when the sun went down. We had some bean soup and fresh handmade tortillas which were excellent. I felt guilty eating their food but I think she would have been offended if we hadn't. It was much easier to be thankful for the house we were in and yes we did have just enough hot water left for all of us to take a quick shower.

Susie and Lola after the tortillas and soup.

Monday morning Joe helped me stop the "gas man" and get the water heater going again. We left for Nogales and had no trouble at the border crossing into the US. We unloaded the truck at two warehouses and moved some of our belongings into storage to bring down later. We said goodbye to Caleb, Joe and Denise as they headed for Tucson and we headed for Mexico. We had the van loaded from floor to roof and didn't know if we would make it over without being searched. We were stopped at the last check point as the sun was setting through the tinted glass and the guard could see our load. He pulled us over and asked what we were doing. We told him we were a family moving down for a while and he waved us through. It was a relief to get most of our important belongings across. Once again God is faithful. I went to bed that night feeling much better about our situation but our next test was soon to come. I'll have to fill you in on this one later after some time has passed. We really, really appreciate your prayers.

La Familia Zobrist.

A much needed update.

Wow!!! We are way behind on updating our blog. Our last post had us moving to Congerville way back in November and now I am typing in Mexico. We didn't have internet access and it was hard to find places as well as time to log on. So with no more excuses we will try to catch up.

We stayed at Glen and Mardell Ott's house from November 15 to December 21. It was such a blessing to have a home to live in where we could still function as a family. We were able to experience a good taste of central Illinois weather before leaving for Mexico and the so called "warm weather." It is warm during the day but freezing at night, but more on that later. We had several good snows and a few ice storms before heading out. Zach and Nate got to go sledding and snow boarding and Susie and I got to drive in the ice and snow one last time (so we thought) but more on that later.

Caleb was baptized on December 21st for which we are very thankful. The weather was bad and kept many of our friends and family from coming but it was still a wonderful weekend. We are thankful we have such a merciful God and Savior!

We moved from Glen and Mardell's to the Nursing Home (sort of) on Dec 22nd. It was actually uncle Loren and aunt Joan's condo in Wallnut Crest but it's more fun to say we lived in the nursing home.

It was 4 degrees when we took our belongings to the Midwest Food Bank to put on the truck and we loaded the vans for Mexico in the cold, ice, snow and rain (I will miss a lot of things in central Illinois but not the weather)

We ate one last breakfast at the Busy Corner on Christmas Eve and thought we left the ice and snow in our rear view mirror.

By the time we reached Springfield it was just raining and there was no snow on the ground. By St. Louis the sun was shining. We drove as far as Oklahoma City before we stopped. We met a couple from Newe Mexico at breakfast the next morning who warned us that it had been snowing in the mountains for 2 days and that I-40 may be closed. We did run into some cold and freezing rain in the mountain pass into Albuquerque but we made it through fine. We stopped in Las Cruses New Mexico on Christmas night with just 200+ miles left to Tucson. It was very pleasant on friday morning in Las Cruses and I sat by the fountain outside the hotel in my t-shirt with a cup of coffee. It didn't stay that way. About half way to Tucson it got cold and windy and then the snow started. We drove through fog and snow the rest of the way.

Well, I still have more to write but it's late and we have a big day tomorrow and Blogger won't let me upload my pictures. I will try to get the rest of our adventures posted tomorrow night.

Keep us in your prayers.

Love,

La Familia Zobrist