Whew! What A Week!

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Well the entry title says it all! I am officially exhausted! It has been quite the week.

The last time I updated, we had the KBC group arrive and at work here in the home. That was nice to have some familiar faces here - but also very busy! Leah is working as the groups coordinator, but while they are here, I am along for the ride in helping with their weekend touring and night time activity. This group was really good in terms of what they were doing at night because often they just did their group devotionals and headed to bed. But last weekend was definitely full - and fun!

Last Saturday we ventured over to Monte Alban which is one of the largest and most well preserved Zapotec ruins in the area (or at least the one with the most tourist activity) Ian and Elaine were extremely helpful and offered to take another vehicle and let me follow him with the team so I could learn the driving route to Monte Alban and around the city. So 8am Saturday morning (yes, I know - 8am on Saturday - I said yuck too) we were up and on our way. We scarfed down some breakfast and piled into the two cars. I think last Saturday was my driving test day from Ian and here's why: We had to get Celia Rubi to class at one of the Universities downtown for 10. She is studying to be a doctor and is extremely smart - but if she is late for class they won't let her in. By the time we had filled the truck and the Urvan up, it was about 9:25 - which meant we had 35 minutes to get all the way across the city to her school. Ahh! The last thing Ian said to me as he hopped back in the Ranger and I went to get into the van with the team was that I had to pick it up because we were on a time schedule. Welcome to Mexican driving 101. I did alright I think. I didn't hit anything, no one puked, we didn't get lost, and I only stalled the Urvan twice all day - which is pretty good considering the mountains and the traffic that we drove over/through. I did however loose Ian at one point and had to place some serious catch-up. I have never been so thankful that the Ranger has a big tent on the back of it before! Its helps in the needle-in-a-haystack esque car search.

We made it up to Monte Alban by about 11 and headed in to go check out the ruins. They were incredible! It is amazing to think of how the Zapotec people got all the stones to the top of the mountain to build these tombs and pyramid-like structures. And then you stop to think about what they used them for - and that can get a little creepy. After studying some ancient indigenous traditions, you know that some of the structures were used for sacrifices to their gods - which often included human sacrifices. Its strange to think of how many people would have been put to death on top of those structures. And then you head into the museum and see a full skeleton! I don't know if I had ever seen one in person before. I had gone to the tombs of Egypt exhibit at the NAC when it had come to town, but the mummies were all covered - it was more than just real bones. It was kinda creepy. But in another case to the left of the mummy were all the pots and cooking tools and real items that these people would have used in their daily lives. That was neat.

After Monte Alban we headed back down the mountain and over to the newly opened birthing center in Oaxaca. YWAM is the principal founding organization for the center which is going to have midwives and dulas working there to aid Oaxacan women and missionary women in the birthing process. It was such a neat center - they had done a great job getting everything set up. One thing I dont know if they thought through completely was the location - you have to drive down the most bumpy, pot-hole filled, speed bumped road I have ever been down. And this is Mexico, so that is saying something. Its a wonder the baby doesn't pop out on the way to the center! All jokes aside, it is neat to see so many different areas of ministry in the city and how God is able to use the many diverse and unique skills of individuals with receptive hearts to do His work and share His love.

After the birthing center we headed back into the city center to let the team explore the Zocalo for a bit. This was the second half of my driving test. Man are those streets narrow! And dont even get me started on the parking spots! For starters, I am driving vehicles much larger that ever ventured in Canada, pack them full of 12 people and reduce the size of the streets by about half and thats about the challenge I face driving in the city center. I also backed into the tiniest parking spot of life. I had several Mexicans honking at the white girl trying to back into this parking spot - but hey - they can shove it! I will take my time thank you very much.

Leah and I decided that sitting at the coffee shop and enjoying Frappachinos sounded like a much better idea than walking around the Zocalo that day, so that's exactly what we did. Grabbed a table, indulged in cold, sweet, slushy, delicious coffee and whip cream and braces ourselves for the multitude of merchants who would soon approach our table. What we weren't expecting was a guy to come up and ask to take our picture. He looked normal, we had heard stories of people wanting to take a picture of you with your camera and then ask for money. So we were unsure. He first asked if we spoke Spanish - to which I said I spoke a little. He then asked if he could take a picture. I couldn't quite understand at first, so I asked if he wanted us to take a picture of him. He said no and said he wanted our picture. To which I clarified by said "los dos?" gesturing to Leah and I. He nodded, so I proceeded to ask why. He looked at me slightly defeated and said "because you are beautiful. But if you don't want to, its ok." Awww! He must have had a camera on his phone in his pocket or something. We said no because we were still a bit weirded out - but it was definitely another one of those funny/awkward moments to remember.

After the Zocalo, we headed back to that delicious restaurant in El Tule (by the big tree) and had dinner. Yum. Fajitas. With full bellies, sore feet and heavy eyelids, we all headed back to the home. What a day!

Sunday was much more low key (well anything would be after a Saturday like that!) Church, Valentine's day party meeting (I'm on the Valentine's Day committee - yeah - I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow) and another trip to the Zocalo to watch the Superbowl! We found a restaurant with a big screen and an empty table. Jackpot! So we sat down, ordered our pizza, wings and diet coke (gotta love the no beer rule, eh?) and watched the Packers kick some butt. I figured with a couple really amazing friends at home being the football fans they are, it was the least I could do to watch the game and animatedly cheer for the Packers! It was a fun night though, good company, a good game, cold diet coke and decent pizza.

The week proved to be a busy one. Monday, the elementary kids didn't have school for some random Mexican holiday - who knows - it could just be that the teachers didn't feel like showing up haha. Anyways, I had a bunch of them over and we made some cards for their sponsors. I had a little craft table going - sparkly glue and all. At night, the team took over for the house parents and watched the kids for a bit. Sandy, one of the ladies from the KBC team brought all the stuff to do manicures/pedicures for the girls. So naturally, Leah and I took full advantage. Who doesn't love a good foot massage!

On a less relaxing note, Keila, one of the young moms at the home got taken in to the hospital on Tuesday. She was misdiagnosed with kidney stones on Monday and it turns out that her appendix burst. They ended up doing surgery on Tuesday and along with the ruptured appendix, they removed 3 bags of infection. Over the next couple days, a few more bags were filled with more infection seeping out of the incision. Thursday around lunch time I got a call from Janelle asking if I would feel comfortable driving into Oaxaca to the hospital with a couple of the teenage girls as a surprise for Keila to lift her spirits. Janelle had been sleeping at the hospital with her to keep her company and to act as her nurse. Jill had also been spending the days there helping out as well. But Keila was pretty anxious to have some more company and get back to the home. It definitely lifted her spirits to see the girls - and it even encouraged her to do quite the walking trip through the hospital hallways! (It gave her a chance for some private chat time) She was released from hospital on Friday afternoon so she is home! She is looking better and better everyday, but is still weak and still excreting some infection from her incision - so there is a definite need for continued prayer there. But we are thankful that she is alive and on the upswing.

To head in reverse a day - I have not talked about the Wednesday prison adventure to the Ixcotel prison in Oaxaca. Leah and I decided to accompany some of the men from KBC as they went to the prison with Enrique, one of the Oaxacan missionaries who does outreach with the home. Leah and I have been wanting to go in and see the prison ministry, but have been a little leery of going on our own, primarily because of the language barrier. With some more English speakers around, we felt this was the perfect time to go. So Wednesday right after dish duty (oh yeah - I'm a dish team CAPTAIN now. Someone explain to me how that happened???) I changed out of my black clothing and left my hoodie at home and headed over to the prison. There were a few clearance measures that had to be taken - including a pat down - thankfully done by a woman - and we were on our way into Mexican prison. I have never seen the inside of a functioning prison before so it was a little intimidating to say the least. Couple that with being a both a visible and extreme gender minority and that intimidating thing stuck for a little while. You know that feeling when you can tell there are eyes on you? Yeah. That was pretty constant for about 2.5 hours. We walked though the courtyard and headed into this area that had a covered roof and men sitting working on constructing soccer balls. We soon discovered that this room was used for the church. We were brought plastic lawn chairs to sit on, which were certainly the chairs of honour. Most of the men sat on old plastic or tin crates with a blanket on top it to attempt to make it a bit more comfortable. By the time everyone had gathered, there were about 60-70 inmates there. Enrique said his greeting and mentioned that he had some visitors who had come to share (like the guys in there hadn't picked up on that already!) and with that, the worship started. They brought out a guitar and started singing worship songs - none of which I understood - but there was definitely a lot of gusto behind them. After the singing came the sharing. They had a "translator" of you could call him that. His name is Charlie and he is an inmate there. He was trying his best to translate, but was having a lot of difficulty. I don't know if the message of what each of the group members was trying to say was accurately conveyed, but I'm trusting that the Spirit was there and the overall tone was relayed.
I ended up sharing. Wasn't expecting to do that, but Enrique kept looking over and asking for people to share words of encouragement or testimonios. I ended up just sharing my favourite verses - Romans 8:38-39. I read them in English and then one of the inmates read them again in Spanish. I used a bit of my Spanglish to try to help Charlie out and said a couple of sentences after the verses then quickly took my seat again. Johnathan and Enrique finished things up and then we spent some time chatting with the inmates who brought us coffee and bread. I have never been so scared of a cup of coffee in my life! Thankfully we did not get sick. Phew! It was a bit overwhelming talking with the inmates. They were really friendly guys - I think Leah and I were just hoping that a least one of our English speaking buddies would stick a little closer as back up! One of the guys, I believe his name was Omar, spent a bit of time talking with me. He was an interesting one. Had a tear drop tattoo on his face and kept insisting that I meet some of his friends on Puerto Escondito (I am planning to go there - I think I might bypass meeting his friends - what do ya think - good idea?) He and one of the other guys were noticing my earrings and then proceeded to show me their tattoos. He rolled up his sleeve and showed me a big flower tattooed on his forearm with "Jessica" written above it. And yes, at this point he did know my name was Jessica. Yikes! Between that and being told we look like Barbies, it was time to go I think! haha.
On the whole it was a really neat experience. As we were leaving, we found out that Charla, the founder of FFHM actually paid to have that part of the prison covered with a roof so that they could have services in there. And I am sure that the men in the prison must take some criticism for trying to reform their "bad boy" way of life - but it is incredible to see God alive in the prison and touching and transforming lives. I'm going to work on building up my Spanish vocabulary before I head back, but it is an incredible ministry and I am interested to see how it keeps progressing.

Friday Leah and I made our first solo trip to the airport to drop off the team. That was an early morning! We came home and crashed for a bit and took it a bit easy on Friday. Talk about exhausted! The rest of the weekend has been fairly low-key. We went into town with Ian and Elaine yesterday - had brunch in the Zocalo (mmm...bacon!) and then went to the grocery store to grab some supplies for our Saturday night potluck! (I have quite the exciting social life, eh) Leah and I ended up creating make-shift cheesy garlic bread to go along side Janelle's pasta dish. It was delish if i do say so myself! And then we made mini-ice cream sandwiches which we enjoyed while playing rummy and euchre. It was a good night!

Today was another typical Sunday - church and Tlacolula market for fruit. Mmm...strawberries! Its funny how prone we are to falling into routines no matter where we are or what our surroundings may be. Now if only I can pick a day and make updating this blog a routine. haha.
Anyways - until next time!

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Photos

Oaxaca!
From the top of Monte Alban

Sunset
This is taken from our staircase - such beautiful sunsets!

Superbowl!
At the Superbowl with Jill and Janelle