Advertisement
Published: March 2nd 2011
I have to say, it is hard to believe it is March 1. At times it feels like I just got here, and at other times it feels like I have been here for a while now. Everything here seems to be falling into more and more of a routine. Devotions at 8, tasks in the morning, snack, work, lunch, pick up the kids, go to the post office, translate, avoid Spanish homework, end up doing Spanish homework and then depending on the night, the evening activities kick in. Following that, Leah and I sit down, enjoy some fake Oreos and watch an episode of How I Met You Mother on my ever aging laptop before crawling into our bunk beds (which we continually hit our heads on) and passing out for the evening. Sounds fun eh?
Every so often though, we get something a little out of the ordinary. Valentines Day was one of those special days. Here they call it "Dia del Amor y la Amistad" or the Day of Love and Affection. I think that has a much nicer ring to it than Valentines day! Well, Carmen (she is the little boys house mother, or better known
Centerpiecs and Jello
In true Mexican fashion!as Marry Poppins - she works wonders with those boys) absolutely loves Valentines day. She loves wearing pink and hearts and love and everything about the day. So, naturally, she was set to lead the party committee for el Dia del Amor y la Amistad. I was added to that committee, which meant I got to help with decorating, setting up games and other fun activities. I have to say, it was probably the best Valentines Day I have ever celebrated! I spent all morning working with Jill and Leah to decorate the main eating area. We strung 3 long strands of red balloons (yes, there were probably close to 99 up there hehe) and then began moving the tables which are about as heavy as lead sleds. We covered them all with white table cloths and then made a V-line for Carmen's apartment to help her finish the centerpieces. By the time we were done, it looked like Cupid has thrown up all over the sala - and it was absolutely awesome. One of the other things Carmen had done was make a list of everyone at the mission - kids, staff, visitors, everyone. She passed one name out
Cartas
The string of Valentines Day cards to each person and we all made cards for that person. So when decorating, we also strung a long rope for everyone to hang up their cards.
Lunch was fantastic. I love party days! We had burgers, fries, strawberry floats (they were pink!) and in true Mexican fashion, jello. But not just any jello - it was heart shaped and covered with this weird chocolate sauce. Weird, slimy and esthetically pleasing. The room looked great. By the time the kids all got home, we all sat down and enjoyed our meal together. Then we played some games, which I ended up organizing. I don't really know how that happened - but it ended up being hilarious. We used some of the extra balloons and made the kids do some pretty funny racing games involving said balloons. It was a good time. After the games, we all exchanged cards. I found out I had the cutest Valentine of all time! His name is Luis, he is 3 and precious. He got one of the older boys to write in the card for him, but he glued the sparkly flowers on the red paper all by himself. Adorable. Overall, it was a
Janelle and I
Taken by Celina. That girl is going to be a photographer! fantastic day.
The rest of the week was filled with lots of prep work - getting ready for the next team to come. I have also been working on getting the website info updated for the kids in Oaxaca. I discovered the other day that there were pictures of kids that were no longer interned here at the home or the ones that were still here, their photos were about 3 years old. Oops! So that has been a good project to work on.
Oh - lets not forget about the riots in Oaxaca! I'm sure many of you heard by now, but there were riots in the city center. I guess the president was in town and the public school teachers are not too find of him. He is in support of the private school system, which public teachers feel is taking even more away from their already underfunded/underpaid positions. Sound familiar? Not the public/private debacle, but the teachers strike, kids missing school, yadda yadda yadda. It almost felt like I was back in Ottawa again, only a bit more violent. Anyways, the violence lasted all of 1 day (Tuesday) and by Thursday we were headed back
in to Oaxaca city again. Tuesday was a bit crazy though. I would not have wanted to be in the Zocalo. There were things being thrown and lots of people up in arms and ready for some serious violence to start. One of the University girls who goes to school down town was told to run from the school until she could get on the bus. Its a pretty decent run - and she took their advice with good stride.
Anyways, all is safe now. And with a successful trip in and out of Oaxaca city on Thursday, Leah and I are now the proud holders of some FM3 visas! Woo! Look who's not going to get deported. Me. If you could see me right now, I would be doing a little "no deportation" dance. It was a good day. Very successful.
The other thing I have been doing on Thursdays lately is Spanish class. Our teacher has been coming every week and I think it is actually helping. I have been able to learn some new words and phrases and how to use past tense. That is going to come in extremely handy! My vocabulary is slowly increasing,
but I know I have a long way to go for sure. My language tests were certainly put to the test this last week - but more on that in a minute.
On Saturday, we had our second group arrive. It was a group of 5 university students from Colombia Bible College in BC and their leader who has been down here every year for the last 5 or 6. He is definitely well received at the home - and rightly so - he was a great team leader and a fun guy to have around for the week! We picked them up at the airport and brought them back to the home so they could eat and rest up a bit. Then we went to El Tule to take them to the big tree and back to that delicious restaurant. (That restaurant is why we like El Tule so much - the tree is not that exciting after the first time, but the food is fantastic every time!) Oh, lets not forget how we got to El Tule though. Yeah. This was the day I became a bus driver. There is this white bus that the mission has
that is well older than I am. It rattles the dash so much that sometimes the headlights turn off by themselves. I have to say the one fun part though was getting to swing that big handle to let everyone out! Ohh the challenges I have faced while down here. Lots more to add to the resume. Can drive big cars/buses and shuttle people - Check!
On Sunday, we ducked out of church after the music and headed into the market. We sent the team off exploring for a few hours, bought some pineapple (I was starving and it looked delicious!) and headed back to the church. We were gone for well over an hour, and there was still a good 45 minutes of the sermon left. Sounds a little different that church at home, doesn't it. After lunch, we took the team out to Yagul which is another ruin site which is actually very close to the home. It is not nearly as big and grandiose as Monte Alban, but the one cool thing about Yagul was there are no boundaries. You are able to walk on, touch and go inside the ruins. It was a very neat experience.
There was also a little hiking trail you can take to head over to where their ceremonial baths were taken. The tub was nothing fantastic, but the view was. We were essentially on the top of a mountain looking out over the valley with the sun hitting it just right. Beautiful.
The week with the team here was very productive. They dove right into working on prepping the soccer field which will hopefully be on the property soon, and then the next big task was to start sifting the sand for the volleyball court. That is a massive job!!! Do not underestimate how time consuming and exhausting sifting sand can be. Friday we ended up cutting down a couple big trees, which was definitely entertaining. We had a couple French couples here - one of whom had been here for a month, the other were their friends. They were fantastic. Well, the friends, though only here for a week, definitely made themselves useful. Eves used to be an arborist, so had lots of experience cutting down trees. So at 68 years old, he showed us all how to take down a big tree. I didn't actually get to see
the tree fall, but I still have a new respect for the phrase "Timber!" I was there to help with clean up and let me just say, there was a lot of tree. It kinds reminded me of the hedge removing party we had last summer - it was just missing the burgers and beer!
Well, that pretty much sums up the work for the week, now on to the funny language story. On Monday evening, the team wanted to go to see the prison ministry with Enrique. Since they were planning on going to the Tanvet prison, which is literally across the street, Leah and I decided to go along as well. Little did I know I would end up having to try translating from English to Spanish in the prison. Ahh...that was amusing. I am getting pretty good and understanding Spanish and being able to give a brief sum up in English, but the other way around - ummm...negatory. That was an interesting experience. Thankfully Mexicans are very gracious. It was another neat experience - definitely less intimidating that the Oaxaca prison - no Barbie comments this time. I did, however, have a video game flash back.
My Valentine :)
Little Luis. Cute eh? To anyone who used to play Yoshi's story for N64, remember when you would beat a level and the Yoshis would sing all off key and terrible? Well thats what the music sounded like in the prison. I hadnt heard a guitar that out of tune until this last weekend in the zocalo when a man came up looking for money playing his two stringed classical guitar - it had the top and bottom string, and they were both the same size. Effective. And slightly hilarious.
The other neat thing we did while the team was here was to head out to Yagai where the church is doing some ministry. I have now seen the new meaning of a one room school house - or in this case, a one lean-two school house. Most of the buildings were constructed with the thin tin walls and roof. There was no electricity. The church brought a generator so they could power a single light bulb so they could have the service once it got dark. We were able to go and play with the kids in the community a bit. The team brought some beach balls and a jump rope. We
made some games and played with them until they got everything ready to serve some bread and rice drink and have a little outreach service. It is neat to see how many kids come out and actually stay for the program and hear a mini message about who God is. Many of the families are now making it out to the church on Sundays. They are running a shuttle bus (yes, the rickety old bus I drove the previous weekend) and get the people there to continue to minister there. In addition to bringing a hot drink and bread, the back of the bus is filled with vegetables and the people are welcome to come and take what they need for food. It is really neat to see that people who have next to nothing judging by American or Canadian standards are ready to go out and share what they do have, recognizing that there are those even more less fortunate than they are. If you think about it, that's what a community really should be doing - caring for each other, giving our time, our food, our electricity to those who are are the bottom and helping build them
The Tule Tree
Finally got a picture in the day time up. The hardest part of that that I struggle with is parting with my things. I am willing to get out there and help, but I know I need to soften my grip on my material things and realize that there are people who could use a first sweater more than I could use my blue one too, not just my black one. Perspective is good, now the test is coming through actions.
On Friday night, we celebrated the XV anos de Heidi. In Mexico, a girls 15th birthday is like the sweet 16 at home - only much bigger. For some girls, their 15th birthday party is bigger than their wedding - or so I have been told. After doing some tree clean up on Friday, I headed over to hang some purple decorations and help get the place ready to celebrate with Heidi. The home bought her a beautiful purple dress, had a delicious meal with Karaoke, dancing, cake and even a gift presentation time. It was a neat evening, and I have never been so thankful to eat at the kids table! Alondra came and sat down at our table. She is the house mother in
the nursery, so looks after 4 young boys and certainly has her hands full. We placed one of the boys between each of the adults, and conveniently enough, non of them liked the kabobs we were served for dinner. SCORE! More for us! They were delicious and after waiting for ages to actually get the food, I was glad to have Tavo's extra. haha. It was a good night. Full of smiles, laughs, embarrassing Spanish karaoke and cake!
The other big weekend activity was parents day on Sunday. Since again, there were many kids who's parents did not come, Frank and Pauline decided to take them into town to go for ice cream. So 16 of us piled in the other bus and headed to town. (Thankfully I wasn't driving this time!) It was a fun afternoon. I ended up trying a fresas con crema which was basically frozen strawberries with a creamy milk in them. It was tasty, but so sweet! I kinda like how so many things here are so similar to at home, but its got a little twist. It livens things up for sure!
Leah and I are heading off on a mini vacation
this weekend. We are finally getting down to the beach. Its hard to believe that on Sunday, we will have been here for a full 2 months! Like I said right off the bat, at times its flying and then I look back and realize how long its been since I've seen my family and close friends at home. Yikes! Well 2 months in, 10 to go - and many more exciting activities and memories made along the way.
Until next time!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.049s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0693s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
