The Mayer Family

The reason you haven’t heard from us for a week is this: we started language school! It was a full, stressful, challenging week. The class I (Wendy) am in has been a little advanced for me and I have felt like I’m struggling to keep up, or sometimes keep my head above water! Our teachers speak in Spanish only and we are definitely learning, which is good.

We left the city of Granada this weekend and headed to another bigger city, Malaga, to visit the Reach team there. It was about a 1 ½ hour bus ride south of us. We enjoyed seeing the city, and seeing the Mediterranean Sea. We loved spending time with the Reach Team and were thrilled that we got to visit Craig & Stephanie, who are friends of ours in a town close to Malaga. They have two children close to Evan & Ellie’s ages, and they enjoyed playing together. We arrived back to Granada this evening, and are preparing for another grueling week of language study!

Christina & Evan- notice Evan lost a tooth this week!

Ellie took a special liking to Greg and always wanted to hold his hand while we were walking

Malaga

We went to church with the Reach team this morning and afterwards the church cooked everyone an awesome meal of Paella, salad & bread! This is the Paella being made.

And here's Christina explaining the identity of the unusual "critters" (seafood) in the Paella to Evan

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Our morning yesterday started like this:

Ellie accidentally fell off her chair at breakfast and her hand caught her cereal bowl on the way down. She landed on the floor with cereal and milk all over her hair, body and the floor. The only good thing was that she wasn’t hurt, and it was kind of funny thinking about it now.

After breakfast and family church, we headed out for a hike. We found a new favorite quiet green area way above the city. It was empty of people and gave a great view of the city… a great place for prayer.

awww...

Can you find Ellie? As Evan said, she looks like an ant!

We then hiked down a path called Cuesta de los Chinos close to the Alhambra. It was a very nice hike with running water at some spots. Evan & Ellie especially enjoyed watching the water.

After lunch we enjoyed some helado (ice cream)!

When we got back to our apartment, Evan & Ellie got to open another one of the gifts from the suitcase. Here they are anticipating...

Evan says "thank you so much for all the presents you gave us, especially the car, Phil, Twila, Andrew, Amanda & Jonathan! You're the best! Love, Evan"

Ellie says "YUM"!

-Wendy

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We were excited to have some more visitors! A group from RMM and Ohio stopped by for a quick visit yesterday and left to travel to southern Spain today. The group consisted of Wilbur & Shirley Miller (Wilbur is our regional director and Shirley in charge of member care), Paul, Grace & daughter Joelle Kurtz (Paul is the RMM global missions director), Wayne & Delores Yoder (from our home church, Shiloh) and Mike Simpson (on the RMM board). We enjoyed visiting with them and were very delighted with the very large suitcase of gifts they brought for us from our families! We appreciate very much their hard work in hauling that heavy suitcase on all their travels through Turkey and Spain! It has been fun to open the packages! We are planning to savor them, and are allowing Evan & Ellie to open one package each day! Thank you to each person in our family! We certainly feel loved!

Joelle, Grace & Paul

What only 3 hours of sleep and hauling lots of heavy luggage did to Wayne :)

Wilbur & Shirley

Evan eating a shawarma at one of our favorite places to eat

Our suitcase full of treats- muchas gracias to our dear family

Evan & Ellie opening one of the suitcase gifts today! They loved the bubbles and Evan was very excited about the fruit snacks!

Kevin is traveling with the group to Malaga (southern Spain) today, and is returning tomorrow by bus, while the rest of the group heads to Morocco. Today has been very lonely and depressing for me after enjoying our visitors.

I received a phone call this morning from the language school we are planning to attend saying that they have worked out the schedule and are ready for us to start on Monday! Kevin will go to class from 9:00-1:00 every day, and I will go from 3:00-7:00. I’m not looking forward to the stress and busyness, but I am definitely ready to learn the language! We have about a 15 minute walk to school. They wanted some paperwork filled out today, as well as payment, so Evan, Ellie and I walked over to the school to take care of business this afternoon. On the way back, we stopped by a fountain and sat on a bench for a rest while we fed the birds, much to Evan & Ellie’s delight. They got the biggest kick out of watching the birds peck at the bread. The bread would sometimes fly way into the air when they pecked and it made both Evan & Ellie giggle and giggle. Hearing their laughter makes my day.

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We have figured out how to post video clips! Here are two clips from last weeks Semana Santa Processions.

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This weekend we were excited to have the Spain Reach team come to visit! We had a really fun time showing them around Granada and just hanging out. Evan and Ellie absolutely loved having people to play with them! We especially enjoyed our worship time together this morning. It was refreshing and encouraging to worship with other believers.

Janell & Evan

Greg playing with Ellie and looking good pushing her pink stroller
We heard that Greg's mom reads our blog, so Ruth... the pictures of Greg are for you!

Ellie making friends with a puppy

Enjoying icecream after all our walking

Christina & Ellie

Greg snuggling with a blanket just after waking up this morning... Ruth this one is for you too!

- Wendy

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Our internet has been down on and off the last few days, so we haven't had a chance to update. We've been wanting to post some videos of last week's Semana Santa Processions, but have so far been unsucessful, so here are some pictures for now.

While this week has been hard in a lot of ways, something very good also happened this week! We thought we may have to travel 8 hours north to Burgos to apply for our residency cards since the church that gave us the invitation to come to Spain is from that area. We were advised to attempt applying for our residency cards here in Granada first. With our Spanish friend Jose’s help, we did that. It took several days of waiting for hours and hours in long lines at the police station and included lots of feelings of frustration, but on Wednesday we finally made it to the counter and our papers were accepted! We were all fingerprinted (even Ellie) and we have temporary residency numbers, and will return in about a month to pick up our residency cards. We are thrilled that we won’t have to make the trip to Burgos right now, although at some point (after we are more used to life here) we would like to travel north to meet this church that kindly helped us come to Spain.

Another exciting event this week was receiving our first postal mail at our apartment! Grandpa & Grandma Byler sent Easter cards for each of us, and the kids were thrilled to get some balloons!

Evan with his letter

Evan is excited!

Ellie "blowing up" her balloon

Evan & Ellie playing at a park not too far from where we live

-Wendy

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Yesterday was Good Friday. We read the crucifixion story as a family, saving the best part for Sunday… the resurrection! Then Kevin, Evan & I watched The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe. It was an awesome movie that we had seen several times before, but was especially meaningful for that day. Evan got really into listening to the story, and watching the movie. He seems to understand a lot for his age, or at least he asks good questions.

We are a little sad thinking of being alone for Easter Sunday tomorrow, when it is usually a full day spent with church activities and then with family eating and enjoying being together. We will miss being with each of you this year that we would have been with!

We have found a new spot that Evan and Ellie love to play! There is a window ledge outside our window that they fit right into. We can close the window and the iron bars hold them in. Ellie begs to sit there! I guess it’s like her own little porch. It also creates temporary silence in our house!

The view Evan & Ellie have from their "porch"

Ellie in her new ride! Her old stroller was falling apart from all of our long and bumpy walks, so it was time for a new one! She thinks it's pretty cool!

Some new graffiti "art" close to our apartment

-Wendy

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We hear it is not characteristic of Granada to have so much rain, even in the spring. It has been raining and raining. We have been trying to get our clothes dry, and not very successfully. Today we tried taking them out because the sun came out, but by the time we reached the terrace, it was raining again. So our house has been full of wet clothes and the air feels very moist.

Today we found the perfect spot for our special gift. Before we left for Spain, our family gave us a beautiful quilt/ wall hanging that my Mom (Wendy) had put together. Each of our siblings and parents (on Kevin’s side too) handmade a square. It is an incredible work of art and has been and will continue to be very meaningful to us. We hung it just inside our entry door. It will be very visible to all who come into our home, and we will feel loved every time we look at it! Thanks again to our dear family for this awesome gift, and for your love for us! A special thanks to Mom for thinking up the idea of such a meaningful gift! We miss you all and send our love!

It’s funny how we can live in such a big town, yet run into the same people over and over. Or my theory is that God runs us into them. I went to the grocery store today, and met a friend in the store, and then on the way home ran into someone else I knew. She cleaned rooms at the Pension we stayed in, and I’ve seen her on the street several times since we left there. We had a five minute or so conversation that mostly consisted of her talking with many hand motions and me nodding and smiling or sometimes saying I didn’t really understand. But she didn’t seem to mind, she just kept talking. I definitely understood that she was tired because she is pregnant and had her little boy with her who was not behaving very well. Even though I can’t communicate as well in Spanish as I’d like to, yet, I thank God for any opportunity to build a relationship with in people who He is working.

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Note: I am posting this a day late because our internet was down last night...

April 2, 2007
Last night we walked around town a bit looking for some of the processions that we knew were going on all evening. We didn’t find any, and it was cold and rainy, so we stopped for a drink and some tapas, and this is what we were served.

Notice the fish tail in it’s mouth… it was delicious!

Tonight we decided to take the bus as a family to a large Walmart Supercenter type store just outside of town to buy some items we need for our apartment. By the time we arrived at the bus stop, the roads were emptying and the buses were no longer running. Soon after that they closed down the streets for more processions. We decided to change our plans and went to Granada’s Burger King (for the first time) for supper. We experienced another first after that when we ordered Churros Con Chocolate for dessert at another restaurant. They were awesome!

As we walked home, we just happened to run right into a very long and large procession close to where we live. The person leading the procession was bared footed, and it was very cold and rainy! The procession was VERY long with two extremely large floats that were carried by a bunch of people walking underneath. They would walk for awhile, and then stop for a little. It was definitely an experience.

No, it’s not the KKK, although the costumes are creepily similar.

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We are starting off this month in Granada with cool rainy weather. However, later this week looks like it will be sunny and warmer. This week has been a busy one getting settled into our new apartment. It is a furnished apartment, so that has made the job a bit easier, and we haven’t had to buy much furniture. The big job has been getting stuff for the kitchen, since we brought next to nothing. This week we purchased sheets for our beds, towels, a microwave and stand, toaster, dishes, pots & pans, coffee maker and etc. I’ve been getting a lot of exercise walking to stores and hauling stuff home and the last part is steep uphill. I can’t say I’ve always felt happy with my arms loaded full on the last uphill climb, but I’m trying to think of it as my daily workout.

Some details about our new apartment…
It has two bedrooms, so Evan & Ellie share. The bathroom includes a bath/shower, toilet and bidet, which we have not yet used, and aren’t quite sure how to use. The living room/dining room area has a nice bookstand/cabinet that we are also using as our office desk. The kitchen is small with no dishwasher, but it does have an oven! (Over half of the apartments we looked at had no oven) The washing machine is in the kitchen, and there is no dryer. We were expecting that since NONE of the apartments we looked at had a dryer. There is a shared terrace/porch area up a flight of stairs where we can hang our clothes to dry. That terrace gives a nice view of the city and is especially beautiful at night.

Our living room/dining room/ office

Our kitchen/laundry room

Evan & Ellie's bedroom

Our bedroom

Our bathroom

The shared courtyard/entryway area. This is also the view from Evan & Ellie's bedroom window.

Last night we suddenly heard some very loud banging and figured out it was fireworks. So we all raced up the stairs to the terrace and had an (almost) front row seat to a great fireworks display. We are assuming it was the kickoff for Semana Santa (Holy week… the week before Easter). Semana Santa is hugely celebrated here, and we hear there are parades and processions all week long. A lot of businesses close down for the entire week. So we will definitely be checking out the festivities.

Our new address:
Prolongacion de Solares
30, 1 Izquierda
18009 Granada Espana

We also just got a cell phone. That number is (calling from the US) 00 34 678 88 03 01
We were told that any calls we receive from the US are free for us, however, it would be very advisable for your sake to check into your cost before calling! Also, we are six hours ahead of US Eastern Standard time, so if you call at 5:00 pm your time, it would be 11:00 pm here. We generally stay up until at least 11:00 or later.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for God to lead us to the apartment where he wanted us. We believe he has done that, and we are thanking him.

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