Blogs from Miacatlán, Morelos, Mexico, North America

Monday was yet another reason for Mexcians not to go to work. It was Revolution Day. Actually Thursday was the real holiday, but everyone celebrates on Monday. Basically it’s a big sports day, similar to the US field day and no one works or goes to school. Don’t ask me why because I have no idea. Basically what we did was split the whole house into 12 different teams that each had a mixture of kids from Kinder all the way up to 8th graders. We them competed in various competitions. Some made sense and some were just amusing. One competition was to put two giant marshmallows in your mouth and make animals noises and have everyone guess. I’m not sure how that has anything to do with sports, but the kids liked it. We then ... read more

Sooo, the great Ryan Hyland rolled into town on Wednesday as he will about 6 times a year. Just to explain, you can all blame him for me being here. He was a CORE member in my LifeTeen program and then came down here to volunteer. He was here for about 4 years and he is such a Mexican (only in his heart as he is such a gringo on the outside) that he's lived in Mexico ever since. He was the one who invited my church down here to visit and then of course, I fell in love with this wonderful place and I am now living here. He lives in Puerto Vallarta and he comes back to visit all the time and do things with the older kids- he's a legend around here. Every ... read more

Preface to this blog- there is something wrong with the photo uploading mechanism of this blog so I'm having issues. I was only able to 18 up and I have probably 50 more. I'll get them up when I can. Well, I'm alive and by some kind of miracle the internet company actually came out here and fixed everything so we have permanent internet...so they say. So far so good. Lots of things have been happening as we gear up here for Mexican Independence Day. It's on Monday and we've been preparing all week. Learning dances, making decorations and decorating, and just getting all red, green, and white. Yesterday in the school they had a big party and a program in the school because the school is closed Monday and Tuesday in observance of this holiday. ... read more

Well yesterday school started and my schedule is all sorts of different. The school year is going to be more work for sure, but at the same time a little less time with the kids. Here’s what it looks like: 7:00 Arrive in the Section/Milpias Kids arrive 8:00 Kids Eat First Breakfast (this is when I eat) 8:15 Take the kids to school 8:30-10:30 Hacer Aseos (Do Chores)- this pretty much consists of wetting all of the floors in kinder and the patio outside upstairs and downstairs and then squeeging all of the water outside. Let me tell you this is some hard work and my hands are going to be so ugly when I come back from the blisters 10:30 Second Breakfast for the kids 11:00-12:30 Free time which I’m sure will always consist of ... read more

Hola todos! I'm just now catching up on some entries! Last weekend was the Anniversary of NPH. The first orphanage of the organization was here in Mexico and it was started by Father Wassen (who was from Arizona!) 54 years ago. It all started with one poor orphan boy who stole from the collection money at the church in Cuernavaca where Fr. Wassen served as priest. Father pulled him out of jail and took him into his home to take care of him. 54 years later, the home here in Mexico houses 800 orphans and now NPH is taking care of orphans in 8 other countries (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). All this kids from the home here were bused (including me) to Miacatlan on Friday afternoon. Then the festivities ... read more