Boy, it has been awhile since I have made an entry. Ken is doing so much better than me. We got back to Orlando safely last Friday from Panama. The vacation at the front end was fun although my friend Lanita was sick the entire time and I guess will be for a couple of months. She has something called post viral chronic fatigue syndrome which is a big term for getting realllly down AFTER having a viral bout of anything. It takes her months before she can do much of anything. We felt so bad that here we were in this neat place and she spent all her time down in bed.

The last 5 days we were at a conference for over 50 translation organizations (who knew there were so many!). We interacted with some very interesting, smart people. My mantra to our group in private was "I am not worthy!" I just never had put much time in considering what my "worldview" was or how cultures are diverse or what obstacles there are in translation. I have been blithely walking through my life, focused on my own little world. Wow, was I challenged and the people that were at my discussion table were so gracious and patient. They took great amounts of time explaining missions history and cultural mistakes and current challenges to me. Most of them told us all these things in Spanish then one man translated to us. It was a huge answer to our prayers to be able to communicate. It was not the same at all discussion tables. At some, if you didn't speak Spanish then you could just sit there and be quiet. That is why I say this was a huge answer to OUR prayers.

I would attend another conference in a heartbeat, but I did promise our translator that the next time I saw him I would speak in HIS language so I will start Spanish training soon...like in 5 min. when I am done with this!

Sorry there are no pictures today. We have some but I am not sure I will post them. I did not ask any of the participants if they were in sensitive areas and would prefer to not have their pictures on my blog, so I will err on the safe side.

We are heading out on Wed. morning to be with my parents and sister's family for Thanksgiving. Friday we will go to Shelli's, Sunday to Chris', Monday to Rockford for the next round of Ken's doctoring. We hope to be back in Orlando by the first of Dec. If you are on this route we hope to see you.

Greetings from Panama

Well, we are in a country that doen't speak much english, and we are doing ok. We have another couple with us that speak fairly good spanish, so that helps. We have toured the locks , and watched 2 ships pass thru. They have "mules" that pull the ships thru to keep them from hitting the sides, and to go SLOW. We also took the train from Panama City to Colon, which runs along side the canal. Panama City is on the Pacific side and Colon is on the Atlantic side. Once there we toured around a bit in a car. We were glad we hired a driver, because the town was pretty nasty, and many of the streets were flooded. We drove thru a foot or more water numerous times. Then, when we got back to Panama City, our driver took us around to see some other sites. It was good to have someone that was familiar, and could speak pretty good english. More touring today, and then on Monday we head to another hotel outside the city to our conference. No pictures this time, as this is someone elses laptop, and I didn't bring the cords. We'll send some when we return on Friday.

Ken & Melody