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This blog entry has been constructing itself in my brain for weeks now. It’s amazing how sometimes you feel like you have so much time yet somehow the days just keep zipping past you without allowing you to accomplish what you had set out to do. It doesn’t matter how many minutes you try to save; the greedy day will find a way to use them up. When groups are here, it feels as if all of my minutes are gobbled up by the team members – I am constantly dictating what to do, where to go, how to sleep, what to eat, and (with a smile of course) responding to any other question one might come up with. When not directly with the team, I spend my alone time worried that they will find me in the confinement of my room. Now, granted, this is not bad all the time. In fact, I quite enjoying spending my time with most groups…but after going to all the same tourist places and answering the same questions over and over again, you begin to think that there must be better uses of your time. When groups aren’t here, most of my minutes are
spent recovering – catching up on emails, catching up on sleep, cleaning up, and getting ready for the next team. My mind is so happy to be relaxing and not worrying about anything that writing a blog entry does not sound like a good use of my time. Also, after receiving hardly any comments on my last entry, I begin to wonder if anyone is actually reading this or if it is for my enjoyment only…Anyways, to sum up my little rant, this is my excuse as to why it has now been more then 16 weeks now since my last entry.
June 1, 2011 marked the end of 21 weeks for Jess and I in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. After many suggestions from friends and family to continue updating you with the going-on’s of my trip here in Mexico, here I am. I was somewhat surprised by the number of people who have commented on my lack of writing and would like to take this time to thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and ramblings. It’s nice to know that you care
Since mid-February, we have seen 4 more work groups and 1 large medical
outreach. I have experienced bussing 6 hours to get to the Mexico City airport in order to visit home (Ottawa). I have pracically memorized the roads in Tlacolula as well as the route to get to the airport…and was able to do so without braving the drivers’ seat. I have nearly been in a car accident, hiked to a waterfall in Pluma Hidalgo, relaxed on the beach in Huatulco, been chased by a dog, been stuck in a blockade by prostestors, been called ‘Jessica’ more times then I can count because the kids think it’s funny, visited multiple prisons, started quilting, and done many other things that are a lot less interesting to write about. Seeing it all lay out on the page like that makes it seem like so much has happened, but being here and experiencing it, well, that’s just the way it is.
Considering everything that has happened in the past 3 months, it’s hard to find just one word that could sum it all up; but if I had to choose a word it would probably be…
Eye-opening
(I think that might be two words…but seeing as it’s 3 months worth of experiences,
I say we can let it pass.)
It feels like every day my eyes are being opened up to something new; on a basic human level as I am learning about the Mexican people and culture, but also on the spiritual level as I see God’s love demonstrated so clearly to these people. Let me give you a few examples:
Eye-opening experience 1 – I know this may seem fairly general, but being here has shown me how so many people can survive, and be
happy, with so little. I come from such a materialistic culture where we are constantly bombarded with ‘things that we need that will make us happy’ that it’s hard to imagine that, maybe, we would be happier if we had less. And, maybe, if we were able to give up some of what we have, the money that we saved on purchasing useless items can be used to buy someone here items that could save their life – like food, clothing, and medical care. Maybe, 7 year old Eric, who only came to the home a little over 2 months ago, would have been able to stay and be supported by his father and would
have grown up with more then one meal a day. Maybe, we wouldn’t have had to turn away people at the medical outreach because the demand for free medical care was too high. Point being is that no matter the circumstances, we survive.
Eye-opening experience 2 – In terms of people and culture, I am daily amazed at how silly the teachers are. Currently, the teachers are on strike. They believe that as we are one of the poorest and lowest educated states in Mexico, they should be paid more. The teachers have gone on strike every year for 30 years (I think) and have had a 17%!i(MISSING)ncrease in their pay since then. Right now they want another 20%!i(MISSING)ncrease because, well, they deserve it, right? Heck no! When the teachers are NOT on strike, our children are sent home all the time because their teacher didn’t show up, their teacher didn’t feel like teaching, their teacher said their hair was too long, the school put together an optional party-day, I could go on. It seems like the teacher really care about the welfare of our children (please note the sarcasm). So, instead of actually teacher, they strike because
they want more money. They bloke the roads and close down the grocery stores and movie theatres so that the whole economy suffers. Someone really needs to teach them a thing or two about how to not make the entire city angry and frustrated at their cause.
Eye-opening experience 3 – God is here. He is real and He is here. We have seen miracles like I could have never imagined. During the medical outreach in May, a blind person was made to see again, a lady with a tumour saw it disappear, the pain in Celina’s arm was instantly gone – all because of prayer. Although I am waiting to experience one of these miracles first hand, I have faith in what the other staff members here have experienced. I mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries about a girl being protected by angels and I have heard so many more stories since then. Before, God felt like a distant figure; now, He feels like an intimate presence.
Bible Verse of the Month(s)
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain. Philippians 2:12-16
God has made each person uniquely and for a unique purpose. You have been strategically placed wherever you are for a specific reason; but, as Rick Warren says in his book “purpose driven life”: It’s not about you. Some people are too busy worrying about what makes them happy to discover what God wants. BUT, when we are being selfish, we’re hindering God’s plan for our lives. Instead, you have to be joyful and remain faithful. God has a plan – It is imperative that you listen when He speaks to you and follow his direction for your life.
Highlights
Seeing as we have three months of activities to cover, I am going to break this up my month rather then day.
MARCH On the first weekend of March, Jess and I decided to go on our first get-away adventure and leave Oaxaca City. We joined Frank and Pauline, a couple from our church back in Ottawa that visits Oaxaca for two months every year, on a trip to Pluma Hidalgo – a mountain village 5 hours SW towards the coast. Now, when I say 5 hours I’m talking about time spent in a large urvan with 7 other people driving along treacherous mountain roads. The kind of roads that are hardly wide enough for one vehicle, let alone oncoming traffic, and where when you look out the window you are more often then not looking down the side of a cliff. As the crow flies it would only be about a 2 hour trip but, alas, there is no other way. We ended up stopping 3 times so various passengers could vomit (no, I was not one of them).
We spent two days in Pluma Hidalgo with a missionary couple who have made their lives there, Frank and Mary-Lou. To this day, I am still unsure what Frank does there but he keeps himself busy. He was also willing to take us up to see a small waterfall! Mary-Lou works with a quilting ministry and teaches women how to quilt while offering them stories about the bible. This is where I got my first taste of quilting and hand-quilted a hot pad. Although I think my little hot pad is beautiful, it is no where near as extravagant as what the ladies in Pluma can do!
Now, for those of you who have never been to a mountain village before, I feel like I need to give you a little picture of what life is like up there. Pluma Hidalgo is basically a town that was built into the side of a mountain. From most places you can look across the horizon and see the ocean in the distance, even though it is still an hour’s drive away. The houses are small and not extravagant, but the gardens are beautiful and exotic. And the people are just so kind. Jess and I were coerced into meeting up with the local youth girls to eat pizza and play games on our first night. I was really unsure of how the evening would go – recall that both Jess and I had very little Spanish at this point so that language barrier can put a damper on things – but the girls were so joyful we ended up having a lot of fun. The next night we were invited to their youth group at the church and probably sang “Come, now is the time to worship” for a half hour straight.
On the afternoon of the Sunday (we had left Oaxaca on Friday), Jess and I packed into a taxi with 2 other women, and headed to the beach! We thought it was time to treat ourselves to a vacation so had booked at a resort in Huatulco. I love resorts. This was my first time at a resort in any country and it was wonderful. We spent most of our time relaxing. We slept in, we ate whatever/whenever, we soaked in some sun, we swam in the ocean, we walked down the beach, we had a balcony overlooking the ocean, and the use of a swim-up bar, and could dress up every night….and it was wonderful.
Unfortunately, we had to go home. A) because our pocketbooks ran out of money; and B) I had to start preparing for our next group. The first North Park University team was volunteering on the base from March 13th until the 20th. They were a younger team and a really fun one to get to know and hang out with. They worked really hard and were able to accomplish a lot on the base while they were here. I know I really appreciated having them here.
To turn to the negative side of things, our Spanish teacher quit at the end of March, after about 5 or 6 weeks of lessons. She decided she was going to move up North and set us up with another Spanish teacher from her school. At first we (being myself, Jess and Jill who were all taking lessons) were saddened by this news, but after meeting the other Spanish teacher, we were happy. We all got along really well with Sylvia, our new Spanish teacher, and were really looking forward to how we would progress with her. She didn’t show up to week 2. We are now left without any Spanish lessons.
APRIL From April 9th to 16th a medical team from Park Community Church in Chicago was here. Jess and I both really enjoyed our time with this team. They seemed to have a bunch of excited energy that they passed on to everyone they came in contact with. They were EXTREMELY generous and just a really great group of people. The team ended up going to a mountain village, a few prisons, and Yagai in order to perform medical outreaches. I would have loved to join the team at these places but felt like I would have been in the way as I am not a doctor or a nurse, and I also do not speak any Spanish. If only I were to go back to school and get my nursing…
In other news, Jess and I were able to go home for 10 days from the 19th to 29th. Jess has a little-known talent for finding cheap tickets online. She tends to spend a lot of her spare time looking up plane tickets for family, friends, and us…and always seems to find great deals. Well, we both thought it would be nice to go home and visit our families for Easter, so we found some super cheap tickets and went for it! It was really nice to get back to Ottawa and see a lot of the people that I love. I would have to say the best part of being back in Ottawa was the food – Jess and I have daydreams about the food we miss from Canada. Korean, Thai, Sushi, Mom’s cooking..mmmmmmm…
MAY We had less then a week after getting back from Canada before volunteers started arriving for the Medical Outreach. The Outreach – which was a week long, free medical clinic for people of the community held at the mission base in Tlacolula – was from May 9th to 13th but the majority of the volunteers got here on the 5th. We were kept very busy getting ready for their arrival. And once the volunteer team and doctors were here, we were kept very busy preparing for the outreach. We set up huge tents over the basketball court that would be transformed into a medical center, and built doctor’s offices and stations underneath. We also draped cloth to divide the auditorium into three operating rooms for the eye surgeons and built dark cubicles for eye exams.
I spent most of the week floating between people that needed my assistance. Normally, my day went as follows: in the mornings I would help set up the snack room for doctors and volunteers, and then go help in the kitchen until lunch time. After lunch, so around 3:00, I would make my way to the eye center and help give out glasses. Apparently, wearing glasses and contacts for 10 years can make you an expert in reading prescriptions. On Thursday, I was given the opportunity to go into one of the operating rooms and watch as the surgeons worked on patients. It was amazing to see the extreme focus and precision that they had when working on patients. I enjoyed watching so much that I went back on Friday, only to have the American eye doctor ask if I wanted to perform a surgery myself. I thought he was kidding at first and responded with a joking “yeah”…which soon became an “are you serious?” I started by watching carefully and acting as surgical nurse – getting what the scrub nurse needed, cleaning tools, anything I could do without sterilizing my hands – and then I scrubbed in, and assisted in the surgical removal of a pterygium.
I had been given the bug. I had thought about nursing before as a career but now I wanted it more then ever. I itched to have those surgical scissors back in my hand, but at the same time didn’t trust myself completely nor do I have the dexterity to well represent the craft…hence nursing rather then doctor (nursing also requires a lot less school). I could not pull myself away to go help in other areas of the medical outreach and ended up working as a scrub nurse on numerous patients. The other nurse there, who was then working as MY assistant, said I had a natural ability.
In all, we saw over 1500 patients that week.
The next week, from May 17th until the 28th, the second North Park University team was volunteering on the base. This team was a little more difficult to handle. Jess and I were so tired as the last volunteers from the Medical Outreach did not leave until the 17th so we had very little opportunity to rest. It is hard to run a group when you are just so mentally and physically exhausted that my attitude towards this group being here was not the best. They were a great bunch of people and Jess and I really enjoyed hanging out with them on the tour days over the weekend, but during the week it was a little more of a challenge then we are used to. Maybe, we have just been blessed with really great groups thus far.
After this team left, which was also a lot longer then most groups, Jess and I finally had a weekend off. We took advantage of this free time and spent Saturday night in Oaxaca city, and then travelled to Hierve de Agua on Sunday – see my next post for more details of our little adventure!
Prayer Requests
1. We are going to be starting our own primary school at the mission next year, running grades 1 through 6. Currently, we have put in some extra rooms in the visitors center and will be using these as a temporary school until we have the funding to build the school its own building. We are going to need more funding to do so, as well as teachers to staff the school. However, if we have more staff on the base, we are going to need staff housing and will therefore need funding to build more staff housing. It’s a bit of a catch-22. Please pray for the teachers, the children, and the funding for buildings.
2. My Spanish is better but still lacking. I am very frustrated with the language barrier.
3. Our next group is from Chicago and will be arriving June 4th. Pray that their lives will be touched and their time spent here will go well.
4. Jess has been asked to teach music 2 times a week! She has started working on an agenda but may need some prayer support as this is her first time teaching.
5. Pray that the current teacher strike will wrap up soon.
6. We have learned that we may receive two infants that have been deserted at the hospital in Oaxaca. The children are both addicted to heroine and may have HIV. They are going to be a lot of work but, until they are adopted, they have no where else to go. Two of our houseparents may take care of the children on top of their current role.
Food for thought: “you are the light of the world” Matthew 5:14 - through you, people get to see what God is all about.
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Mom
non-member comment
Proud and blessed by what you have written
So good to hear your stories and experiences. I have gotten out of the practice of checking your blog but I'm glad that you are back. Love the pictures too. You would be the third generation of nurses in the familly and with the compassion and connection that you show and have with people I know you would be exceptional. Had lunch with Frank yesterday at our favourite restaurant, Pauline is in Korea with her Son and family.