Brownstown

Saturday we drove up to Lime Hall so that Wayne could wash the truck. Wayne was telling us that the people building the house close to his home wanted him to lay tile.  Normally for a house the size that they are building, the tile layer would get $100 for the job.  If you do not have a certificate, the builder will say you do not have a certificate so he would only pay Wayne $35.  I guess they do that quite often.  Wayne will work a full day and be lucky if they pay him $10.00.  It is pretty sad. We had decided to go to Brownstown to see Sister Alexander.  Wayne thought it would be faster to take the road from Lime Hall to Brownstown instead of going back to the main road and driving to Runaway Bay and up to Brownstown.  We had heard that the road was not that great but we decided to try it anyway.  The first part of the road was narrow with a lot of pot holes but when we hit the better road, it was a pleasant drive through the bush.  It is amazing to see all the small towns that are hidden up in the high country.  Most of them have their own little grocery store and a few churches.  We had a great visit with Sister Alexander.  She is our primary president and is very faithful.  She always manages to make it to church even though it is almost 1 hour away.    She told me that she was the first convert in Brownstown.  She works during the week so Saturday is the only day we can see her unless we want to drive home in the dark and we really don't like to do that.  We drove home going through Runaway Bay and decided to visit a few members before we headed home.  It was late when we finished so we thought that we would eat out before we went home but at the last minute we got a call from one of our sisters who is in the PEF program. She needed a white shirt for her first day of training at a resort.  She didn't have any money to buy a shirt nor did she have a way to pick one up.  When I got the call from this sister, we were in a local drug store to pick up some hand sanitizer before we went to eat and some chalk for the branch.  I asked one of the store clerks where I could pick up a white shirt like the school kids wear and she suggested Josephs.  It is in the same complex as our branch building so we hurried over there and bought the largest size they had because she is very big busted.  I really hope it fits her.  Clothes here are not too expensive.  We only paid $8.50 for the shirt.  We went back to the fast food place but their card reader was down and we didn't have enough cash so we just went home for the evening.

Today we left our condo at 9:00 to head down to the branch.  Brian likes to get there an hour early so that he can turn on the air before members start arriving.  We did not leave the branch until almost 3:30.  We decided to visit our old branch president and drop off his sons seminary certificate.  We took Shawn (our returned missionairy) with us.  We also made a trip up to Sister N's to drop off her shirt.  She is excited for her work experience.  She will be working in the kitchen and hopefully they will cover her taxi fare as it will be about an hour trip each way for her.  The Christmas season is busy here with all the vacationing visitors so  this is a great opportunity for her.  I hope they hire her on full time.  I hear it is a nice resort so I also hope they pay her a little.  If they hire her, she will not have to complete the hospitality schooling which would be a blessing for her since she would have to buy a lot of extra items for the school class.  With the work experience, she will get a certificate of graduation.  The only sad thing is that she has young children and the oldest daughter who is not that old herself will probably be the main caregiver since the dad drives a taxi and is never home.  Life is so tough here!!!!

A little patch of farmland that we saw on the way to Brownstown.  The white object  in the back by the bushes is a goat,

This is the house that is being built up by Wayne's home.  It has been fun to watch the progress.