I interupt this long break...with a long message

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

It’s quite depressing to write half of a blog entry and then have your computer shut down, and poof…it’s gone.

Sooo…here is my second attempt to give you all a RSVOARLLU (Really Short Version of a Really Long Life Update), however I'm giving a fair warning that there is a 99.9% chance that this is going to be a RLLU (Really Long Life Update).

O where to begin...?

Thank God for antibiotics. They became my best friend after a week of being ill, and my life is back to normal! Well kind of.

I moved to Casa Nolan (my permanent residence) and the other volunteers moved to Miacatlan to take on their positions as caretakers for the younger pequenos. It was sad to see them leave, but when they get weekends off they come to Cuernavaca. In fact some of them came here this weekend and I got to hang out with them. We got delicious tortas (diced up chicken, lettuce, tomato, beans, cheese, and guacamole, yum) at a place owned by two brothers who were pequenos here years ago.

Best things about where I live:
1. Closer to the main house
2. Kitchen to cook in
3. Nicer bathroom
4. more space


The not-so-best things about where I live:
1. Since I have moved in, we have lost electricity 4 times.
2. No hot water at first (and this is after two weeks of freezing water for showers)
3. Constant "beep-beep-beep" of the central alarm system for the whole NPH property here...which is located by my bed-in my room.
4. No furniture (still living out of my suitcases)
5. I have killed 6 spiders, 4 of which have been in my bedroom and look identical to a Brown Recluse (I'm freaked out).

The house is split into two sides with an outdoor area in between. One side has my room which connects to a bathroom which connects to another bedroom which is where the former LIFE TEEN youth minister is living right now. She leaves on August 10th and then I am hoping to move to her room where I can have furniture and NO ALARM. The other side of the house has the kitchen (smallest kitchen I have ever seen) and a bathroom and bedroom. That bedroom is technically Danyel's, she is an employee here. She's American too, but she lives with her Mexican boyfriend. So once the old ym leaves, I will pretty much be here by myself. I really had thought that coming into this year of service I would be living with a community of volunteers, but apparently this isn't the case. I am already feeling lonely at times, but I think that this is a challenge God wants me to experience and learn from. After living in a building with a 124 other girls for 4 yrs, having a whole house to myself will take some getting used to.

I have had lots of meetings to learn more of the financial and administrative aspects of my job. It's all very confusing, complicated, and overwhelming. I'm not only having to adjust to the Mexican culture, but also to NPH's own culture. This organization has been around for over 50 yrs and has its own family, community, and traditions (way of running things) that I am just now learning about. I do not understand why they do things the way they do most of the time, but I am having to learn to just accept it.

Two weeks ago we took some of the kids to participate in the Mexican version of Best Buddies. They call it Unidos here. You are paired up with buddy (someone who is handicapped physically or mentally) and you do activities with them all day. I had quite an interesting character as my buddy. He was a 35 year old man, who looked older but acted much much younger. He is very intelligent and knows English and loves to speak it, so they partnered him with me. He was the biggest flirt. After telling him repeatedly that I cannot go out with him and that he cannot come to the orphanage to bring me tiramasu, AND that he cannot come to my house to download MSN messenger on my laptop so that he can contact me, he finally agreed to just enjoy our time as friends. I was able to get to know some of the boys better which is really good.

A couple boys made a deal with me that if I would teach them French they would help me with Spanish. So we were having lessons after dinner, and I hope to continue. Some of the boys don't take me seriously, and try to flirt with me. It's frustrating because although I am their youth minister now, as soon as they find out that I am 22 (only 4yrs older than many of them) they nudge each others' elbows and put on the charm.

I have also been playing a lot of basketball to get to know some more boys. I finally found my in with the girls last week. I started una clase de baile (dance class). It's not so much technical, as it is aerobic so that they have a chance to get some exercise. Unfortunately not all of them will participate, but a few of the girls really look forward to it, so I think its worth it.

I am also now starting an art program. I found out that there is a large donation given by some people specifically for an art program. There was a volunteer who had left in 2005 and she used to lead this program. I found all the supplies she left and went through them all. I organized them, and found some really nice art materials that have never even been used. If I don't run this program no one else will, and all these materials and money will go unused...and I just think that's dumb.

I have not been able to do much with LIFE TEEN yet because it's summer (they don't have LT in the summer) and my co-youth minister has been gone at LT Camp in Arizona with some of the kids. I've decided while he is gone that my project will be to go through the lockers of stuff in the LT office and make an inventory of all the materials. I am also going to be working on a project to get funding for Bibles for most of the kids. I think there are only two in the office?!

OH! And to all my TND peeps, I taught some boys Ultimate Jenga...let's just say it was a BIG HIT! I bit hard to explain in Spanish, but they got it and LOVED it. They were even takin it to the next level with ONE-handed push-ups.

Ok, well I know I am forgetting some things, but I think this is enough for now. You probably want to take a nap now.

mi amor a todos,
nat

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