Advertisement
Published: January 18th 2011
Someone at the home told me today that we all experience miracles each and every day. Most of the time we just don't realize it becuase we are so involved with our own lives and our own selves. Paige said that she was going to try to focus more on the little things that we experience every day that bring us closer to God. I think I'm going to make that one of my goals from now on as well. God is present all the time and the little things (like flowers blooming or the sun rising) are just as incredible as the big things.
With that said, Jess and I had a pretty incredible experience this weekend that is just too crazy not to share with you. It all started when we made our first attempt to go explore the city center in Oaxaca.
Saturday, January 15 - Jess and I hadn't been exploring in the city since we arrived and decided that today would be a good day to find the zocolo (city centro) that everyone keeps talking about. It's supposed to have a nice market and interesting culture and architecture to experience. As neither of us
At the restaurant
This was the view from our table at the restaurantare comfortable with driving around Oaxaca yet (in fact, I have yet to get behind a wheel) we knew we would have to take public transit. We were both a little nervous about this - Jess a little more then I as she knew she would be the one having to communicate as she is stronger in spanish - but got as much details as we could from the teenage girls who go into town a lot. The information we got was as follows: get on a bus or hail a taxi on he side of the highway in fron of the home, get off at the baseball stadium and walk about 30 minutes in who knows what direction OR get off at the yellow thing that you walk through, turn right and walk for a few blocks.
A little confused we caught the first bus that came by and were lucky enough to have seats - these are big coach buses and someone just walks around and takes your money. We passed the baseball stadium and decided to stay on the bus as long as possible. However, we felt like we had gone too far and hadn't seen
CRICKETS!!!
A little salty....but satisfying. eww, crunch. anything yellow yet so we got off. We walked in the direction that we thought the zocolo would be and were told that it would be about a 15 minute walk from where we were. We were finally able to catch a cab to bring us straight to the city center. Once there, we were able to tour around and take pictures. We also ate dinner there and thought we would get sometime cultural (not knowing exactly what we ordered). The food turned out to be various meats and fresh cheeses from the Oaxaca area, as well as...wait for it...crickets. Initially we thought the crickets were chilli peppers...until the chili peppers had legs, and faces. Being the crazy girls we are, we dared eachother to eat a few crickets. Once you get over that it looked like it was staring at you, it was actually rather salty! - not that I would ever choose to eat it again.
We wanted to get out before it was dark so we would be able to recognize where to go to catch the taxi home so tried to get our bill as quickly as possible. Well, people in Mexico definitely move a
The evening band
A band plays in the center of the zocolo only in the evenings. It's really neat. little slower than in Canada and it was getting a little dark before we left. Not knowing how to get back to the taxi's we asked the waiter where to go (thankfully he spoke a little english!). The waiter told to walk in one direction for 5 blocks and then turn right and go another 3 blocks. Well, we did that and we definitely were not anywhere near a communal taxi to Mitla (regular taxis are very expensive so if we caught a communal taxi it would be a flat rate close to the price of taking a bus). We then asked a different person where to go and he told us to continue going straight another 3 blocks and then 1 block right. Well, when we went the direction he told us and then saw prostitutes lining the road we determined we DEFINITELY should NOT be here. We turned down the next safest looking street and soon found ourselves back at the zocolo. Nervous and tired we asked a group of ladies if they knew where to go. The first one tried to point un back in the direction we came but another said "nonononono, not at night! (in
The end of the night
...before the real excitement began. spanish of course)" and then pointed her fingers and jess in the shape of a gun and said "robbers! It's not safe for white people!" Thank God we hadn't already been robbed. She then told us to go back to the street that the waiter told us to be on originally but walk
8 blocks NOT 5!!! And then cross a main road and look for red and white taxi cabs that are going towards Mitla or Tlacolula. At this point it had been about an hour of walking, it was very dark, and we wanted to be warm in our beds. At one point in this final stretch I commented to Jess "what I wouldn't do to see a friendly face." but that seemed very unlikely.
FINALLY, Jess and I made it (alive) to where we could catch a taxi, waited another 10 minutes and then found one that was going in our direction. He hoped in with one other lady and started driving. The taxi was then waved down by another woman coming out of a shopping center. The woman got into the front of the taxi and lo and behold, it was Chave (one of the women who work at the home)!!!!! As if she got into the exact same taxi we were in. Now, Chave doesn't speak ANY english but she recognized us and took care of us and made sure the taxi driver didn't try to rip us off. She showed us that we needed to get another taxi when we were in Tlacolula (which I'm sure we would have gotten confused about otherwise) and got us off at the right point to get back to the home. You can't see the orphanage from the highway so you have to ask the driver to just let you off on the side of the road. Thanks to Chave, we made it home safely.
I am very thankful that God was obviously protecting us that night. There are many instances when events could have gone a lot worse.
"The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:2
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0777s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Patrick
non-member comment
I guess every day is an adventure in Oaxaca!! The pictures are amazing, it's really cool to see such a vibrantly different culture, I can't imagine what it's like to try and get used to it and be able to feel at home. It's cool to see you settling in to the culture...but the food on the other hand...you may have some more convincing to do before I put a cricket in my mouth. God is definitely looking after you two!! I'm glad you made it home safely, especially since being in such a dangerous place. God is definitely present in everything we do, and it's good that you can see his presence in both the little things and the big miracles. Always remain faithful that God has a plan for each new day, and will ensure that he takes you through it. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" - Hebrews 11:1 (a timeless classic)