Saturday, May 24, 2008

Bonjour,

Today there was a ladies’ meeting in Bingerville. Tomorrow is Mother’s

Day here. So, Becky Mach was hosting a special meeting for the ladies

from all of the different churches. Lenell and I had planned to go and

take the ladies from Belleville. Lenell was going to drive the Litsons’

vehicle. Joe was going to stay home with the boys. The mechanic was

supposed to come and put our vehicle back together today.

Lenell and I set out around 8:00. We went to Belleville and picked up

the ladies. Then, we headed toward Abidjan. We had gone about two

miles and were on our way up the first big hill when the vehicle came to

a sudden stop. We were able to get over on the side of the road. The

heat gage shot up quickly. The ladies from church wanted to know if we

were out of gas. We told them that we had plenty of fuel; there was

some other problem.

We called Joe. At first, we couldn’t get through on the cell phone. We

were able to get through after a few minutes. Joe left the boys with

Gladys who is staying with Lenell. The boys were both crying when he

left them. Bob Engelhart and Joe came to our rescue. Bob took me and

three of the ladies from church back to our house. Then, he went and

got Lenell and the other two ladies.

Joe stayed with the vehicle until Bob got back. Then, Joe went to find

a vehicle big enough to pull the broken-down vehicle to the mechanic.

Joe spent the day at the mechanic with the vehicle. Several things

happened simultaneously; so, there were several things that needed to be

replaced. They were not able to find all of the parts today. Some

places are closed on Saturdays.

The ladies wanted to go ahead and have a meeting since they were all

here. Three of the ladies were new ladies who have only been to church

a couple times. So, Lenell took them over to the Litsons’ house to show

them how to make greeting cards. I mixed up some brownies and worked on

a devotion. Then, the boys and I went over there as well. The ladies

enjoyed learning to make the cards. They seemed to enjoy the devotion

as well. They always enjoy the dessert! We gave them money to take a

taxi home since we couldn’t give them a ride.

The boys and I went home. We ate lunch and then took a nap. I tried to

start a load of laundry. Water went all over the floor.

Joe still wasn’t back yet; so, we went over to visit Lenell. The boys

played outside for awhile. Then, they played the piano for awhile.

Gilbert asked Lenell to play and sing with him. She played several

songs. Each time we would finish one song, Gilbert would ask, “What’s

next?”

Joe got back around 19:00 without the vehicle. He was tired and hungry.

Danny went to bed early. Gilbert was having all kinds of aches and

pains. He took some Tylenol. When that kicked in, he was ready for

bed too.

A demain,

Joe, Laura, Gilbert, and Danny