Busy Busy Busy!

---

So it has been a week and a half since I have blogged. Oops! I know, I am slacking. Please forgive me!

On the other hand, we have been incredibly busy the last little bit. I have been avidly working on getting the sponsorship information for the kids here updated. It is amazing how time consuming it is to get photos of 58 kids and get them all to fill out this little bio. Then I have to translate them all into English, format them, edit the pictures, make it into Oaxaca city to print them at Sam's, create a border and something to make it look pretty on the board and then finally get everything up! It took about 2 weeks with everything. BUT - as of today at 5:30, there is an updated sponsorship board for the children of Oaxaca. We have 11 children in critical need of sponsorship (meaning they need over 100$ in sponsorship per month), so if anyone is ever interested in getting some more information on these incredible kids, just let me know! That is what I specialize in here after all! Ill also add a couple of the photos of the kids so you can see some of the beautiful faces I am able to see every day. One of the biggest upsides of doing all that updating off the get go is that I was able to learn who all of the children were and interact with them some. With some of the younger kids, all it takes are a few pictures and some of your quality time and you have the foundation for a relationship. It is definitely harder getting to know some of the older kids - but that is a challenge I am wanting to take on! There are so many stories to learn and people to get to know - I am excited to continue picking up more and more Spanish so that is made a reality!

Leah and I took Estela out for tacos last Friday night which was a blast. We needed to get into Tlacoulula before groups came to scout out the restaurants and really just locate everything. So Estela came along as our guide. I made her a deal too, I would buy her dinner (which I would have anyways) but she had to speak with us in English. It is so good for her to practice her English as well - especially since she wants to study translation in University next year! Well, that lasted a little while and then slowly English became Spanglish and then started moving more and more to the Spanish side of things. Ah well. It is good practice for me! We ended up going to this little restaurant on the same street as the post office called Pacos. It was pretty tasty. We pretty much all had tacos - or alambre which is along the same lines only with peppers and melted cheese. Yum! Mexican food on its own is not all that spicy. It is all the toppings that you put on it. One of the things Estela made sure she told us was what Pico de Guillo means in English, which is Rooster beak. Doesn't that just sound appetizing? I'm glad it actually is!

Saturday morning, after feeling guilty about all the cheesy Mexican food, Leah and I took off for a run with Jill. She showed us one of the routes we can take to get some good exercise in. This is actually a gorgeous place to run. In the mornings it is still nice and cool and when the breeze picks up, it is just fantastic. One piece of advice - do be weary of the Mexican food! It does not feel so good still sitting in the stomach while you are trying to run. Ugh. haha
After the run, Janelle waved us back over to their place and she had made a special breakfast! I had been telling her about how we had made eggs Benedict on Christmas morning and that it was so delicious it was going to have to be a new Christmas tradition. Well, that got her craving eggs Benedict I guess because we had the delicious Mexican version of it. haha. Well, Casa Janelle version anyway. It was with biscuits and bacon. The bacon was fantastic! Yum.
I officially call last Saturday our good food day because not only did we have an amazing breakfast, we went for sushi for dinner! I have to say, globalization has its perks! It was no Hockey Sushi with the amazing all you can eat deal, but I did have my crab sushis. It made my heart (and stomach) so happy! To top a day of great food and exercise off, we spent the afternoon in the sun, reading and enjoying the fact it wasn't cold and snowy. Gotta love Mexico!

Sunday was an interesting day. It was parents day. The last Sunday of every month, the parents come to the home and spend time with their kids. Many of them end up going into Tlacolula for the afternoon. Others have their parents come to the home and have a picnic here and all spend some time together. It is amazing that after some of what these kids have gone through with their parents that they are still so excited to see them. The harder part it when some of the kid's parents just don't show up. Also there are a couple of kids who just don't have parents - or they are in prison and can not ever come. Others' parents have abandoned them here and taken off to start a new life. I can imagine for them, seeing the other kids' parents come and knowing yours never will would be so hard. What is even more amazing in that situation is how many of these kids have prayer requests for their parents - that they would get out of prison or that they would be well wherever they are. The sense of compassion these kids still have for their parents is astounding.
So, to make the difficult day a little less challenging, we took some of the teenage girls who did not have anyone show up to the Zocalo to hang out for a bit. We stopped at a coffee shop that seemed almost like a Oaxacan Starbucks! (Jill and Janelle keep joking about how they are going to show us all the spots that will make living here for the next year more manageable! haha) The city center is such a neat area. You could just spend hours there exploring and sitting and watching people. I love it. On the way home we stopped at McDonalds. Leah and I bypassed it, but it was hilarious walking into a McDonalds that looks just like the ones at home, but with the Oaxacan mountains in the background. Quite the contrast.

Monday and Tuesday we had more people arrive. Frank and Pauline arrived on Monday and the rest of the KBC team came in on Tuesday. I drove to the airport on Tuesday night. Frightening. Between the white knuckles and being forced to drive like a mexican when I got stuck and lost Ian at one of the lights, it was a challenging experience, but definitely a beneficial one. This is the first work team Leah and I have been here for, so it is great to see how things operate when there are more bodies around Casa Hogar. I know its definitely keeping Leah busy, thats for sure! One thing I have realized this week though is that my Spanish comprehension has gone way up! I have been working with Leah to find out some of the needs around the home - that different people have in terms of jobs. There is always a ton of cleaning to do and Chave, the lady responsible for the cleaning management, speaks really quick Spanish. So I am slowly getting the point to where I can roughly translate her instructions! This is a happy day! And I am able to carry on some basic conversations at this point. We are getting there! One month in, 11 to go! I will be bilingual by the time I go home! (and hopefully even sooner!)

Yesterday was another busy one. We went into the city center with Fabian and Carmen. Everyone here has been so thankful that Fabian is back because he just has this way with people and is able to make all the right connections and get things done so efficiently. He has been working with the lawyer to get our visas in order and we went to sign for them yesterday! They will take probably another week for processing, but I could not believe how fast everything went through! What an answer to prayer that was - especially after hearing some deportation horror stories. (It happened to Carmen a couple years ago! They treat you like criminals! Yikes!)
In addition to spending the morning out and about in the Zocalo, I was feeling pretty nasty with one of these warm weather cold things. Lame - and exhausting. It is going through the home right now. I now have Cuna duty on Tuesdays (which means I go into the nursery (cuna) during devotions those mornings) One of the little girls was really sick and I was holding her for a while. oops. Toast. Ah well. Marge has been rubbing Tiger Balm on my temples and giving me oil of oregano. Its actually working quite well. I feel so much better today than yesterday and, lets be honest, who can say no to a head message! Amazing! Anyways, I crashed for a while yesterday afternoon, which was quite nice. Then later in the evening, about 15 minutes before church, Maribel runs over to the visitors center where I had gone to grab my Bible and asks if I would play guitar and sing for church and that there was no one else to do it. AHH! I quickly recruited Leah's singing skills and off we went. Talk about being thrown into things! From what I gathered it went ok. We picked songs that the kids and staff would know in Spanish, but we know in English. It was kinda neat to have the whole room singing together but in two totally different languages. I guess its all the same to God - he understands it all which is so neat to think about. Language not even really part of it - its all the heart and where our praise is coming from and more importantly who we are directing it to.

Today was another full day. And just when I'm starting to think that I have a decent (not good, but decent) grasp on the Spanish thing, I go and make an error like I did today. On monday, wednesday and Friday, I pick up 5 of the kids at the private school. On Friday's they get out at 1:15. Mireya (one of the ladies on staff) knows the rotation so asked if I would pick up Florencio at the primary school in Tlacolula afterwards since he for some reason finished at 1:30 today while the others finished at 1. I said no problem of course. I knew roughly where the school was, so it should be fine. So the time comes to pick up the kids, and I took the Ranger into town. It is the pick up truck with the extended cab so you can sit 6. I knew we needed to fit 7, but the kids are small and I still didnt want to drive the big gray van into town. Well, I got the private school kids, got lost trying to get to the other school (thankfully Olga was able to give me directions. That girl is only 10, but man does she know her way around Tlacolula!) Finally we got back to the primary and saw Florencio, only to hve him tell us we needed to wait a few more minutes for Mireya. Oops! I didn't quite pick that up when she had explained it to me in the morning about going to the school - apparently she had a meeting so would be there WITH Florencio! So we fit 8 of us in the Ranger. The standard Ranger may I add. Shifting gears was fun! Does this mean I am becoming slightly Mexican? Fitting too many people into one car? I think we all became closer though. It was a bonding experience! haha.

Overall, it has been a good week and a half. Leaning more, feeling more comfortable, getting accustomed to having groups, had some great food, played jump rope with the girls, drove to the airport, got a cold - but hey! I'm not shoveling snow. Tomorrow we are going to Monte Alban. I am so excited to see the ruins - and learn the driving route! I'm sure after we bring a few teams the allure of it will wear off - but for now, I am going to go to bed excited for tomorrow's adventures.

Until next time!

---

Comments

[Step-mom]

Great entries Jess!
Wow! It is so much fun to read your blog, Jess! Dad and I hunched around the computer screen, picturing you telling the stories as we read! We laughed out loud a lot and are so happy that you are enjoying being there. Thanks for putting the time into sharing this amazing journey you're on with us! LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU TONS!