My Friend Miss Cleonise

Her real name is Leolyn, but many people don't go by their real name here.  I call her Cleonise.  She let me bake my bread on her coals so I wouldn’t have to use up my gas.  She hoed our garden when we were out of town.  She is the one that showed us how to garden to begin with.  She’s given us numerous vegetables and fruits, as well as cocoa bean.  She came by just to check in and say hello.

She moved to Brazil and I cried.

Her three kids were our little buddies, and the buddies of many others as well.

This is the youngest.  You may remember her attempting to
chop a piece of wood in the chicken coop blog.

Group shot with all the kiddos that came to say goodbye

They said I was too tall to stand up in the picture with them so they gave me a chair to sit in!
The other woman is Auntie Barbara.  She's three months pregnant which means I get to see the baby.  Wahoo!  Cleonise said I'll have to take her place in helping with the birth.  I'm not too sure about that.

Cleonise with her niece and nephews (Auntie Barbara's other four kids).

They’re drinking coffee Brazilian style: little cups and lots of sugar.

We miss her and the kids terribly.  It's hard to make friends here with all the cultural differences but with us it was never difficult.  She's not one I will ever forget.