April and May

---

Alright. It is time to bite the bullet. It is getting something started that often seems to be the hardest thing. That is definitely true about this blog entry. I have been putting it off and putting it off because I know it will take so long to update you all on all the amazing things that have been happening down here in the last 2 months. But there is this darn Catch 22 happening where the longer I wait to update, the more I have to write about. Darn time and passing by so quickly!

Things here have been progressing. A lot of changes have happened in the last couple of months. I’m sure as I write this out and have the experiences of the last couple months in text, I will realize how much we really are accomplishing here. I am going to echo Leah’s sentiment and say that most of the time here you don’t realize the grandeur of the things you are getting done until you reflect upon it. That being said, there were a couple of times in these last two months where I ABSOLUTELY realized the grandeur of what was happening here – or rather the greatness of God – but we will get to that.
So here I sit in my room with Leah across from me - fully equipped with internet, power and water in our house. (This has certainly not been the case for the entire month). And while I compile my life for the last two months into a couple thousand words for you all, I am listening to the newest Coldplay song! I have to say, YouTube is becoming one of my best friends down here. It is keeping me connected. Between YouTube and my BBC news homepage, occasionally I have an idea about what is going on in the world outside of my Tlacolula bubble. There are many times though that I am quite enjoying the Tlacolula bubble. So much of what is going on in the world is just depressing. It is really nice to not have the latest disasters and hate crimes and global violence splashed in our faces constantly. We face enough of that hearing our kid’s stories, dealing with crazy parents and people who we are interacting with at the home. Ok, not so much the hate crimes, but the craziness and screwed-up-ness are certainly there. Yeah, I don’t know if screwed-up-ness is really a word, but we are going to blame the fact that my brain is continually working in two languages on any bad grammar, spelling mistakes or just plain bad English found in this entry. You have been warned.

APRIL

So enough with the ramble, let’s get to what’s been going on the last little while. April brought a lot of joy to Leah and I. We were blessed with a fantastic team from Park Community Church in Chicago and then got to go home for 10 days! How can life get much better than that, eh? The Park team was amazing. We had heard from the people at the base that Park teams always are, and this team certainly proved them all right! The team consisted of 12 people, however only 11 made it initially. There were some visa and airport issues with one of the team members, which kept us all pretty entertained for the first three days of the trip wondering if he would make it. He arrived on Tuesday – half-way through the team’s trip. We had heard this team had brought a lot of equipment because they were planning on doing a medical outreach in a mountain village, in two of the prisons and in Yagai – a squatter’s village just outside of Tlacolula. Well, they certainly brought lots of stuff! 21 bags of stuff to be exact. It was incredible! A lot of the bags were full of medicines, vitamins, toothbrushes and medical equipment to use in the outreaches. The other bags were full of gifts for the home, for the children and yes, even for us the staff! Leah and I got a new Brita filter! Mmmm…Brita water. The Brita has this amazing way of getting the metallic taste out of our well water. I am in love.

This team was a blast to be around. Many of the people were around Leah’s and my age, so we found we had a lot in common with them. Many had done a lot of travelling, so we were able to swap stories, learn from each other and share experiences. And on top of that, they had an incredible willingness to serve! The entire team spent their first day (and night for that matter) in a mountain village. The construction team was working with the villagers to construct a big fish tank essentially. It was being designed so that the people in the village would be able to raise fish to both eat and to sell. It conquered both giving a man a fish and teaching him how to fish all in one! It was exciting to hear about sustainable development initiatives like that that are taking place in communities so close to here. They are the types of programs that do not take money and constant monitoring to keep up – but are downright helpful to the community. From a development student’s perspective, it was very cool. The medical team, as I mentioned, was able to minister in 4 different places seeing hundreds of patients and giving away hundreds of medications. They had a couple neat days in the prisons where they were able to meet and treat some of the children’s parents. Jill and Janelle each spent one day translating in each of the prisons – I know they found those days really interesting. Eventually I too will get to that point with my Spanish so I can translate and be even more useful down here! Overall, it was great to meet some new friends from Chicago. One day we will have to get up there for a visit!

Two days after the Park team left, Leah and I were packing our bags and embarking on our overnight bus adventure to Mexico City to catch our flight home! We got to the bus station at around 10pm only to find ourselves in the midst of a massive line. We soon after discovered that we could upgrade, take the luxury bus for an extra $20 and skip the line – not to mention have our own fancy waiting lounge and luggage check. We went for it. We got on the bus at 11:59pm and found ourselves in the midst of these massive chairs which reclined most of the way back, had a foot rest that came up, a built-in TV in each chair and blankets and pillows! Whew! This was luxury Mexican travel I tell ya! I have never been on a bus like that at home that’s for sure! The only tiny problem I encountered was that I could not fall asleep for the life of me! So being my father’s daughter, I decided the best way to put myself to sleep would be to turn on a movie. (Dad, don’t deny it. I can’t remember the last time you stayed awake through a whole movie hehe) So, I watched How To Train Your Dragon dubbed in Spanish. I really missed the funny Viking accent though. Gerald Butler is just not done justice in Spanish. But then again, I was only really awake another 20 mintues, so I didn’t miss too much. I’m my father’s daughter indeed!

Six hours later, Leah and I were in Mexico City roaming around the bus station trying to find the taxi stand. As soon as we saw the big “seguro” signs all over the walls, we knew we were headed to the right place. Seguro means safe, which when in Mexico City was right up our alleys! $110 pesos later, we were at our gate, clearing security and making a v-line for the Starbucks in the Mexico City airport! What a couple of spoiled guerros we are, eh? Guilty. Oops.

From there we flew to Washington DC, which is where we cleared customs and then parted ways for our final destinations. I will give my two cents to anyone travelling in the US at all – Avoid Dulles International Airport like your life depends on it. I have been through there twice now and it is complete and utter chaos. Always. The first time we completely missed our plane, and this time I ended up sprinting down 2 entire terminals to try to catch mine on time. Thankfully there was a delay. But if anyone knows me and how much I sweat, I was drenched. I hadn’t eaten in about…oh 16 hours, had slept on a bus the night before, was carrying a massive backpack and was drenched. Yeah. I have positive feelings about that airport! Not! Anyways – on to more important things.

The last flight was smooth. An hour delayed, but smooth. I sat next to an older lady whose granddaughter had spent a semester abroad in Oaxaca. What a small world. I’m so used to people having no idea where I’m talking about, let alone figuring out how to spell it! So I liked this lady. I shared some Oaxacan chocolate with her before trying to catch about 20 minutes of sleep. And then I was in Boston – being met at the baggage claim by my mom who was very happy to see me safe and sound! We made the 3 hour journey home, stopped for some good American food (including macaroni and cheese and corn bread – gotta love Boston Market!) It was nice to be in the states visiting my mom. We did some shopping, some relaxing and some eating. There was something so refreshing about not seeing a single corn tortilla for 10 days!

On the Saturday morning, my mom and I were greeted with snow as we got up to drive to Watertown to meet my dad. Yup. Snow. I definitely did not have clothing with me for that type of weather! It was just cruel. There I was in my little pleather bomber jacket and scarf wiping down the car as fast as humanly possible. Gotta love the Berkshires!

I got in to Ottawa at around noon on the Saturday and was greeted by a rush of hugs, paws and piddle. Oh how I missed my family and pets. It was so good to see everyone. It was weird because while here it felt like I had been away from home for so long, but once back in Ottawa it was like everything just picked right back up where it left off. Once people discovered my cell was still active, that was chirping consistently for the next 4 days, my late night conversations with my family around the kitchen table picked right back up where they left off (wine and all!), music practice, church on Sunday, worship in English, taking to dogs to the park, Easter egg hunt, bootcamp with Kristie, late night convos with las tres amigas, sushi - life was normal again for those 4 days. It was great. And then it was done. It went by way too fast, but I am so thankful that I was able to spend those couple days at home.

Before heading back to Tlacolula we had to drive back to Boston. Continently enough, the Special Hockey International Tournament was in Boston – the cheapest city for me to fly in and out of! I know it has nothing to do with what is going on in Mexico, but I am so thankful for the Condors and the amazing things that team have been able to accomplish! It was so great that the kids were able to play and take active part (and even win a couple games) in a tournament like that. Go Condors!
My dad took me to the airport in Boston for my early morning flight. Amidst lots of tears, we said another good-bye. At least this one wasn’t as crazy and rushed as the last one. Walking down that ramp to my gate was hard, yet again. I really miss my family. But something was different this time. I knew what I was going back to. Mexico was not this big, intimidating place any more fully equipped with an infinite number of unknowns. I had a little home I was going back to. I had a bed whose frame was made personally for me. I had roommates. I had friends – both English and Spanish speaking friends. And after a Facebook chat with Janelle while I was home, I had a new purpose and an added job here – I am going to be teaching music when we start the primary school on the base in September. Leah and I had a summer packed full of groups. I had lots of work – and a new computer to do it all on (not by choice – I had “hard drive failure” while I was at home. Excellent.) Amidst the tears, I was ready to take on the next 8 months and follow through with my New Year’s Resolution to thrive here in Mexico.

MAY

By the time Leah and I got back to Oaxaca, it was practically May, so I am just going to start our time back in Oaxaca as a new month with new fresh experiences. We were warmly greeted at the bus stop by Ricardo, Alfredo and Zuriel who were likely thrilled that they got to be out and about till nearly midnight to come get us I’m sure. It was nice to have the warm reception though. It added to that whole feeling liked and accepted by people here.

The first Sunday back was Children’s Day – which we celebrated by going to the pools for church. It was a blast! In true Mexican fashion, we brought the sound system with us to church and we did some worship to kick the morning off and make sure we were all still remember God amidst our day of clowns, messy chocolate games and swimming. It was a blast. I will make sure to include a couple pictures. I guess after having been here for a couple months, the kids and the staff at the home are feeling comfortable calling me out for things. I have blessed the food a couple times at meal time, get called up at prayer meeting and even got brought up to participate in one of the messy games. Carmen and I had to race. We have to dip our faces in these bowls of chocolate sauce in order to pull out one of five candies that were in there. Little did we know at that point, four more groups of people would be challenging each other right after us. I have never been so thankful to go first for a messy game in my life! Haha.

A few short days later, we were gearing up for the massive medical outreach that we were hosting at the base from the 9th-13th of May. We had several groups of people arriving at various times from various places to help share their gifts, ability and time with those in our community in great need. We were scheduled to have an entire team of doctors come from Georgia. About 3 weeks before the outreach, all but 2 of those doctors cancelled. With all the time and money we had put into publicity, we were a bit at a loss for what we were going to do. We had people planning to come to the outreach from mountain communities up to 8 hours away as they had heard we were going to be able to do some eye surgeries – something that is so costly to many of the people here it is downright unattainable, so they lose their sight instead. There was a lot of prayer happening leading up to this outreach – and like the awesome God He is, He provided.

On Thursday, our first visitors arrived – in three instalments. Leah had made up a comprehensive schedule so that she and I were not making ohh, about 6 trips to the airport and the first pick-up at 7:40 that Thursday morning was one of the ones we were not in charge of. Well, as it turns out, we walked into devotions and saw the one responsible for the pick-up sitting there! Ahh! We ran out of the auditorium in the middle of devotions, I grabbed my licence and a set of keys and we tore out of the base to start the 45 minute drive to the airport. Oops! Thankfully Laura and Luci were very gracious and understanding. By Sunday night, we had 26 visitors on the base. We had 2 MDs from Baja, one from Juxloaca, an eye-doctor from Georgia and his wife who was a scrub nurse and fantastic, 2 dentists from Baja, a dental hygienist from LA and more to come! We had a team of people devoted to prayer, people designated to help in the kitchen and others around to help with intake of patients, taking blood pressure and helping man the pharmacy. The team from LA had participated in a few of these medical outreaches before, as had Heber, one of the doctors from the Baja Mission. I know we were thankful to have some people around who knew what these things looked like and were able to help us get everything set up.

By Monday morning, we had a big tent over the basketball court in front of the home where we would be doing all the general medical stuff. It kinda looked like the circus had come to town. However, they had built stations for patients to sit down with the doctors and even consultation rooms made out of cement bricks to provide privacy for giving shots and performing examinations. There were tables to handle the influx of people and a pharmacy and prayer room at the back. (I was parked at the pharmacy all week – so I got very well acquainted with that part of the tent!) A new wall had been put in the basement of the visitor’s center and that had been turned into the dental area. Then, right at the home itself, we had an entire eye set-up. We were able to rent some equipment and construct other areas – like a dark room where we could perform eye examinations. There were three sections in the auditorium devoted for eyes. The first was the examination area, the second the prep-room and the final was the operating room essentially. Over the course of the week, we went from not knowing if we would be able to perform any eye surgeries because we did not know if we were going to have any doctors to perform them to doing well over 30 surgeries and having 5 eye doctors donate their time and effort for the people of our community. It was incredible to see it all come together. I had the opportunity to stay in the OR for a couple of the carnocidad surgeries and a cataract surgery as well. I talked with one man from right in Tlacolula as he waited patiently at the end of the operating table for his wife who was receiving cataract surgery. You could tell he was nervous for her, but at the same time, he was so incredibly thankful. His wife had had cataracts in both of her eyes and was unable to see. The doctors were able to remove the cataract in one of her eyes so that her vision would be at least partially restored. He could not tell me enough times how faithful God was and how thankful he was for his wife. As they were finishing up with her surgery, one of the other doctors went up to talk with him. He asked them if there was any way he would be able to meet with a surgeon as well as he was losing the vision in his eyes due to his carnocidads. I do not know what the word for that is in English, but a carnocidad is essentially a skin-flap that starts growing on the eye itself. It is almost the eye’s defence mechanism against dust and all the debris that flies around the air here. Within minutes, we were able to tell this man that we would be able to treat him and that tomorrow another surgeon would come who could perform his surgery. I bumped into this man on the Friday, the last day the outreach. He was walking back down the property with his wife, each with matching eye-patches. He was still able to see me though and he stopped me to tell me that the surgery went well and how blessed they were. His wife was going to be able to see again and he knew that once that eye patch came off, he would be able to see without the daily visible reminder that he was losing his vision as the skin grew further and further over his eye.

While we had stories like this where people were helped and healed, we had many instances where there was nothing we were going to be able to do to restore these various individuals. Diabetes is a huge issue down here – and it is almost entirely diet related. One of the horrible side effects is loss of vision. We had the unfortunate task of breaking the news to several people that their sight would not be restored and that they were in fact blind – or definitely heading in that direction. They could prolong their vision by not drinking any more Coca-Cola. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is true! People here drink it like water and it is horrible for their health. Janelle, Lance and I prayed for one woman who had just been told she would not see again out of her right eye. She was sobbing. We prayed with her in English, and even though she did not understand what we were saying, the presence of God was there in that tiny, dark, make-shift exam room. Over the course of the couple minutes of prayer, she stopped crying and told us that she was at peace. She could not explain it, but she had a calm and a knowing that things were out of her hands, but ok. She hugged us countless times and then left with her husband. I do not know if I would have responded like that had I just been told I would never see again out of one of my eyes. There is no other explanation for it other than the peace and grace of God.

Allow me to pre-cursor the next thing I want to talk about by telling you all how much of a cynic I tend to be when it comes to the weird parts of faith, spirituality and Christianity. You see all the time on TV these evangelists who are about healing people in the name of the Lord. These old ladies come to their services (with TV camera of course) and just get right on up out of their wheel chairs and start not only walking but dancing in the church. You see individuals and pastors getting rich by claiming they can heal. And people believe them. I have seen close people in my life get caught up in this supernatural power that elements of Christianity say that we can call upon. They rely on these healing powers and claim to have had prophetic words or speak in tongues about the restoration that is about to happen. I have seen this part of Christianity cause more hurt than help. I have never seen if work constructively and had frankly written it off. My only experience with tongues was downright frightening and I was perfectly content never having to confront those things in my personal walk with God. I was good where I was. Other people could believe that stuff, but I was fine being cynical. Apparently He had different plans and I found myself challenged in entirely new ways.

There were miracles and healings on the base over the course of that week. Things I never dreamed of encountering. Things that I did not believe really happened in our world today. Certainly not in the world I was so closely associated with. We had a man whose sight was restored. He had had his eye exam with Lance, who declared him absent of vision. The surgeries we could offer would do no good for him, but he encouraged him to go to the prayer tent because we would like to pray for him. Over the course of the next 2 hours, our pastors and team members from LA prayed with this man and gradually over the course of these 2 hours, his sight was restored. At first it was shadows, then general colours, and then after one prayer, he opened his eyes and looked at our pastor Habakuk and exclaimed “Oh, are you the pastor? You have curly hair!” By the time this man left, he was able to read.

We also had a woman with a visible tumour in her side. We were unfortunately not doing any surgeries other than the basic procedures for the eyes, so there was nothing we could do to help her other than give her a referral and some pain killers (that was my job as I filled prescriptions, gave instructions and translated in the ‘farmacia’ all week! I also learned how to give some intramuscular shots and got to stand in on some examinations. What a great learning experience though; and a blessing – to fill hundreds of prescriptions and be able to tell mothers, fathers, workers, old ladies alike that their medicine was ‘gratis’ or free!) Anyways, this woman, after praying with our pastors, decided she was going to go use the washroom before making the trip back to her home. So over she went. Before she left, she felt the need to come back up and speak with us again – why you ask? Because in the time it took her to go to the bathroom, her tumour disappeared. Gone. She met with the doctors again and they could find no trace of it. Janelle and I were discussing some of this stuff one of the evenings as the week was drawing to a close. I was talking to her about how I could feel God confronting me on some of this stuff. I could feel the cynicism in me wanting to take over, but could not deny the things that were happening over the course of this week. She was saying something about how the people here have nothing. We were serving people who could not afford to go home in-between meeting with our doctors so they slept on the cement basketball court over night. People who are wasting away due to parasites and losing their vision because they living in such dirty, windy and dusty conditions that their eyes are overcompensating and skin is growing over. They have no choice. They have to rely on God. And in this place, away from video cameras, away from western media, away from televangelists buying Bentley’s off people’s gullibility, God was and is at work in powerful, mysterious and marvellous ways.

There are so many more stories I could share, but then I feel like I could be writing for the next week or so. As it is, I have been working on this entry for several days now. I am going to do my best to remember everything – but I know time will take some of my memories away, which is sad. One thing I know I will take with me is the challenge and the conviction I personally felt over the course of the week. I felt like I was being challenged by the Bug Guy upstairs as to why I limited his strength and power. The thing I couldn’t get out of my head was “Why do you put me in a box? Why do you limit me that way?” Those questions are ones that I cannot answer right now – and I think I will be working on that answer for a while. I think a lot of it is fear – and scepticism, which may take a while to work though. But life is a journey and a learning and growing process, right? So here we go!

We got to meet some pretty incredible people through the medical outreach and had a blast playing games and going into the city with them. It is so neat now having friends in various places around Mexico and all over the states as well. I have a lot more places I am going to have to visit now!
So, by the time everyone had gone home from the medical outreach, it was Tuesday the 17th, which was conveniently the day our next group arrived! It was another group from North Park University here on their mission trip which was the kick-off to their summer vacation. They were definitely ready for vacation. I was thankful they helped work on our pipes behind our house though. Our house had turned into a beach in the month of May. First it was the leaky sink. We would come home and have to mop out tons of water. And then one day, it was all gone. We came to discover that our reserves were extremely low and there was a big leak on the base. Turns out it was from our house. The pond behind our house on the one Sunday morning kinda gave that away. So they shut off our water for 3 days. Completely. Waaahhh! This was at the exact same time that our antenna had been struck by lightning and blown off the roof. No internet. No water. What is this? Time to become a real missionary or something? We are so spoiled here. And after feeling extremely dirty for those couple days, I will not take it for granted!
During the last couple weeks of May, I continued to work on my update cards for our kids. I spent hours getting these things just right to send off to the sponsors only to have them not be able to print! This is my challenge for this week. I will give you the outcome in the June blog – but we are not quite there yet.
I guess I will finish this blog off by reiterating my love for the kids here. We have 57 kids here from the worst backgrounds imaginable. Despite the ups and downs that we experience with the kids (and believe me, there are some definite ups and downs) I am reassured daily that I am in the right place being here and that I love our kids! May was a hard month. The teachers have been on strike, which is doing nothing for their already sub-par education. Oaxaca as a state has the lowest test scores in the country and yet the teachers want more money. Here at the home, we are getting all geared up for the school that we will be starting for the primary kids in September. Carmen has been doing all of their testing and over the course of testing the 25 kids, discovered that only 2 of them (grades 1-5) know their complete ABCs. That is not a good sign. We have a lot of work to do! I am excited about starting my teaching role. Excited and nervous. On the tough days, I will just remind myself that I do love these kids and music is its own language, right? It has to power to transcend my still lacking Spanish skills? I have my work cut out for me in the next couple months!

Well, I believe this is where I will leave things for now. I think I have successfully updated you on the big things that have happened. Some of the details I’m sure have fallen through the cracks, but that is what memories and realtime conversations are for! So if you have made it this far, I commend you. If not, I don’t blame you. This is one long entry.

Until next time…

---

Photos

Baseball
Janelle and Lina enjoying the game

At the pools
Reina and Vicky having some good mother-daughter time at the pools

Veronica
All decked out for Children's Day

Carolina
Loving the face paint!

Payosos
They love the clowns!

3-2-1 Go!
The messy chocolate game

And the winner is...
Not me. I just had the chocolate face to show that I was a good sport!

Colsultorio
Dr. Nubia in her consult station - she saw over 550 patients alone!

Farmacia
My work station for the week

Eb and Luz
Showing her all the cool medical equipment

Lovely Leah
And creepy Eb in the background! haha

New Friends
Nubia, Sam and Heber

Que lo mierdas!
Fidel loving his birthday cake

Comments

[aunt mel]

wow jess! I can't tell you how many times I have come looking for your blog! I have missed your stories and your commentary on your very exciting life. Thank you for sharing. I will have to read it several times to get the full impact, but on first reading, all I can say is WOW! I love the look on your face in picutres...you are so content and joyful. In spite of the hardships (compared to your North American lifestyle) that you are living with. I too was moved by your telling of the medical intervention and the way God has moved in so many of their lives....you are in an exciting time of your life....soak it all up as much as you can! I won't fill this up with all our news here but will send you a fb message. love you jess...and give leah a hug from us too!