Pluma, Huatulco and the rest of March

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I know I say this every time - but where has the time gone? I seem to keep adding a week between entries each time. I am going to make it my resolution not to go more than a month without updating. That is just too long! I've been meaning to update for about the last two weeks - and well every time I mean to - something comes up. Whether its playing cards and building better relationships with Jill and Janelle, using Skype which finally works now that we've moved into the University girls house, or let's be honest, watching some "How I Met Your Mother" then passing out, the hour and a bit it takes to type this all up just seemed to keep disappearing! Oops. Well, now I am getting my butt in gear and am going to try to remember everything that has happened in the last month. Its ok - I made myself notes. So here we go:

Pluma/Huatulco Trip
Well the month started off with a great couple days away from the mission. Leah and I decided that we were going to take advantage of the time at the beginning of the month when there were no groups here to explore the state of Oaxaca a little bit. Plus, Frank and Pauline were planning a trip to visit Frank and MaryLou (another missionary couple down here) in Pluma Hidalgo. They visit them every year, so were well accustomed with the route to get there and were able to help us find the van station to get there and back. So after dropping the CBC team off on the Saturday, we stopped in the Zocalo, made our way to the van station and picked up our tickets. Since we were booking our tickets 6 days in advance, we got to pick which seats we wanted - which was fantastic for my motion sickness. None of these stuck in the back, overheating and wanting to hurl my guts out feelings. Ideal.

So the following Friday, we got all packed up, chartered a taxi into town and made our way back to the van station to catch our 11am van. The vans that you take reminded me a bit of the tro-tros that we used for travel in Ghana - only a bit smaller scale. It was about a 15 passenger van that you took over the windy-est roads I have ever encountered! We took off and about a hour and a half into the 6 hour trip, we started climbing the mountains. That was when the roller coaster started. I was sitting in the front for the first little while and I must say it was intimidating. The driver was just zipping around the sharp corners as I sit there, looking out over a cliff with no shoulders as we climb - ahh maybe 10,000m up! We were up there that’s for sure!
We had a little pit-stop about halfway through the trip where we ate roadside quesadillas and I had my first experience with a toilet that flushes by tossing a bucket of water down it. No, these two events did not happen simultaneously. There was some adequate hand sanitizer usage in the middle. Within a few minutes, we were back on the road again. Ideally, we would not have stopped again until we got to Pluma. In reality - we stopped 3 more times to give people the change to vomit. I wasn't kidding. These roads were really twisted. However, three hours and three pukers later (I wasn't one of them! Gotta love Gravol!) we were in Pluma. Pluma is a small town located right up in the mountains in the state of Oaxaca. It is about 45 minutes from the coast - and you can actually see the brim of the ocean from Frank and MaryLou's house. You can also pretty much see the city center from their house – talk about small town! From where we were dropped off with the van, it was about a 5 minute walk down the road to the Casa Rosa (or pink house).

Now one thing we discovered very quickly while at Casa Rosa was how lucky we are here at the mission! They did not have drinkable water by any means – we had to boil it before using – and well if the jugs ran out right before bed, you were kinda out of luck. Also, at the home here, we are allowed to flush our toilet paper – something that doesn’t happen in many places here in Mexico. There, not so much. So there was the constant having to remind myself every time I used the washroom. The last thing was the food. The food we had in Pluma was pretty delicious, don’t get me wrong. We even made our own fresh juice and everything! (Oh, we also had pizza on the Friday night delivered by a guy named Willy – yeah, that’s right – I had Willy’s pizza in Mexico. For some reason, it didn’t quite live up to that at home. Strange. Now back to the juice) When making the guava juice, we used the fresh fruit from their garden. Now we had to cut the fruit up so that it would blend, but there was a small and very important middle step. After you cut the guava in half, stare at it for a while to make sure no WORMS come out. Yup. And a few times they did. That was a fun glass of juice to drink down I will tell you. Ahhh, we are so spoiled here at the home! Mind you, now that I think about it, they probably have to check the fruit here too before using it. I’m going to stop this thought process right now. I feel that may be the healthier option.

We arrived in Pluma on Friday just in time to meet all the young ladies in the area who come to Frank and MaryLou’s place once a month to play games and fellowship. It was actually a really good night. We played some serious Jenga, had pizza, coke, popcorn and shared some laughter and broken conversation. One of the girls, Ruth, was very outspoken. She was great to have there because she knew some words in English and would work with us to have fairly decent conversations. The girls ended up inviting us out to their youth group the following evening which was an interesting event. It was mostly just music; however there was one keyboard and a mic. The guy who played the keyboard liked adding the canned drum beat, which could have been very doable; however he chose the setting where there was a baseline as well. Not so conducive for all the worship songs they were trying to sing. It was an interesting evening, that’s for sure.

Pluma itself is an interesting town. It is situated right in the mountains, so everything is on a very steep slope. Anytime you wanted to get anywhere, you ended up climbing quite the hill. The overall feel of the area kinda reminded me of Alton Bay in New Hampshire, oddly enough – only much much more poverty stricken. Pluma itself is renound for its coffee production. On the Satruday, Frank took us out in the morning to go check out one of the coffee fincas or plantations. It is not prime season anymore, so the plantation wasn’t in operation, but it was definitely neat to walk through and see how/where they do the sifting, drying and transporting.
After we visited the finca, we took a walk down the mountain a ways to go check out big waterfall. Well, it wasn’t huge, just really tall. I believe Frank said it was over 100 meters, which I feel is pretty impressive. It was very beautiful and gave Leah and I some good photo opportunities.

After the waterfall adventure, we headed back up the mountain and made our way to Magdalena’s house, as she had invited us over. She was one of the young ladies we had met the night before and she also took part in MaryLou’s quilting ministry that she leads in Pluma. While at her house, she showed us some beautiful hand quilted and embroidered purses, pot holders and even a big quilt. It is amazing to think of all the work they put into these! MaryLou had us try out some quilting while we were there. Leah and I are now the proud hand-quilters of some hot pats for pots or for sore muscles (if you microwave it) I still need to fill mine with rice and sew it shut, but Leah’s is done and looks fantastic!

On Sunday, Leah and I were beach bound! We got up, had some breakfast, were going to go to church until they discovered that church was not meeting that Sunday – so much for that 5 minute walk to town. On that walk, however, we did discover that social services were set up in the town center granting social security to those in need. One gentleman that Frank and MaryLou knew has been badly handicapped and is now living in a wheel chair. Talk about the most inconvenient place to live in a wheel chair! The entire town is built on a mountain. Well, he was in the process of applying for social security, so we all walked over to his house to help him get up the hill and back down again so that he could file his claim. As Frank said, there was a reason the church was closed that morning. God wanted us out being the church and being there for those in need.

After that adventure, we grabbed our bags, hopped in a shared taxi and made our way down to Huatulco for our three days at the beach! Three taxis later and we were at the entrance to Hotel Barcelo Huatulco checking in and ready to enjoy a little sand, sun, food and nice glass of wine! When we got to our room, we discovered that we kinda hit the jackpot! We had an ocean view room on the 5th floor and had a crystal clear view of the bay. Huatulco has an interesting coast line – it is made up of a bunch of little bays and there are hotels, condos, villas and ports set up all around it. Leah and I quickly changed out of our smelly, sweaty travel clothes (those taxis were hot! And the beach towns are much more humid) and into our swimsuits ready to put our feet in the water and then enjoy some good food! We soon discovered that the burgers were delicious. Not to sound like a pig, but I definitely had one every day for lunch. They just didn’t get old! We later went to go check out the pool for a bit and ended up meeting a group of people from Winnipeg who were down on a two week vacation. It was a group of about 5 couples and they instantly reminded me of Aunt Mel, Uncle Paul and their friends! (only not nearly as cool – don’t you worry) We ended up chatting with them for quite a while. They had a real interest in what we were doing down here at the home. We chatted with them a few times over the course of our stay. They left a day before we did and ended up leaving us with some extra toiletries and a bit of cash which helped us get home. How nice is that, eh? They were great.

Anyways, when we returned to our room a little while later we had a lovely surprise! There was a welcome basket waiting for us full of fruit and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket accompanied by a letter “Mrs. Perkins” on the front. (Someone please remind me when I got married? Haha – ah well. Lost in translation perhaps) Turns out because we booked online, we got new special blue bracelets that gave us some discounts on extra services, the beautiful room we had and the welcome gift. Score! We hit up the buffet for dinner that night and then crashed. It was so nice to starfish in a bed again! I miss my double bed at home.

The following days were filled with relaxing, playing in the crazy waves, eating and getting dressed up for dinner. It was great! It was a wonderful couple days away – only to be finished off by another crazy van ride through the mountains back to Oaxaca. Worth it.

Life back in Oaxaca
Upon getting back, things fell pretty quickly into routine again – only with one difference – the kids were telling me I looked dark! Gotta love the beach tan! I got all caught up on sponsorship on Thursday and then Friday was spent deep cleaning the visitor’s center in time for the group to arrive that Sunday. I had a bit of help from Celina and Luis on Friday with the laundry. Who’d a thunk that hanging laundry would bring so much joy? I have to say though, their help made laundry fun for me too. They are just too darn cute!

Saturday was moving day for Leah and I. We are finally out of the visitor’s center! Woo! We moved in to the University girls’ house and are now sharing a room here. There are 8 of us living here, but we have 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, a living room with a TV and DVD player – it feels more like a house! Not to mention, there is a lot more activity, which has actually been really nice. It is giving us a chance to get to know the girls a bit. We moved in on a Saturday, which meant our first night in the new place was relatively quiet. The girls all had youth group – so Leah and I made ourselves at home. We cooked dinner, plopped ourselves on the couch and turned on a movie. It was so nice! That is until a rat scurried in under the door and ran across the house. Yikes! Did we make the right choice to move?

On Sunday morning, we were up early and airport bound to pick up the group from North Park University in Chicago. They were excellent! Had a ton on energy! They had a red-eye flight, after which we went right to church for the worship (we gave them the option to just go home and rest and they wanted to go – troopers I tell ya!) Afterwards, we took them back to rest for about an hour, after which they got the run down on the home, some food and then we were on our way to start touring! We took them to the Tlacolula market, which is always fun. It is really neat to watch people’s expressions as they experience the market for the first time. This trip to the market, I made the mistake of trying these weird food things that I thought was chocolate. Oh I could not have been more wrong. It ended up being this fruit that they put lime juice and chilli power on too – and here I was thinking they were murdering my chocolate ball! It made for a good ice breaker with the team though. I passed it around and let everyone have a taste test. Hilarious. We did a big taco feed in town for dinner that night as well. Always a highlight  We bumped into Yolanda, Reina and Fidencio on our way into to town to get tacos and discovered that we were all going to the same restaurant. However, I think the sheer size of the group might have intimidated them. They ended up sitting at a separate table and chatting there. Teenagers.

It was great having a young and energetic team here that week because it just so happened that the primary didn’t end up having school for 3 of the 5 days that week. 3 of the students that came with the team are studying to be teachers and I think about 4 of them spoke Spanish pretty well – so handy! They were able to build some good relationships with the kids and helped the staff out a lot too.

One of the other things I liked about having an energetic team was they liked to do things at night! On Tuesday, we took an adventure to Mitla to get deep fried bananas which are then covered with condensed milk, chocolate, strawberry jam and sprinkles. Delish! Definitely a cultural experience.

Wednesday Leah and I went with about half of the group back to the big prison in Oaxaca. It was a very different experience the second time around. For starters, we met in a small room that was a good ways into the prison – we got to see more of what the environment there looks like away from the main hallway. This time there were only a hand full of people there. The leader of the bible study or pastor figure gave his testimony. He has had a pretty crazy life. He worked in the police force for 18 years and had worked himself very high up. With his position came the influence of the drug industry and because of his many contacts he back a very important individual in the drug trade. He ended up leaving the police a while later and working for the mafia. Before he was arrested, he started having a change of heart and was trying to get out of it. In fact, 4 days before he was arrested, he had a dream something like that was going to happen. The truth of it is, prison is the safest place for him right now and his family on the outside has all been relocated. It is amazing to see God working in people though and to see the influence ad the ministry he has with the other men in the prison now.
After the prison visit, we stopped at a little place on the side of the road for time delicious Tlayudas. I have heard this restaurant is one of Enrique’s favourites, and I can see why. If any of you make it down to visit, I will make sure to take you out for Tlayudas. Yum.

That weekend was a full one too. Friday night Leah and I made a point of having a movie night with our new roommates. We made cupcakes and bought coke and all watched a cheesy chick flick together. I had asked the girls earlier in the week if they would be interested and they said sure. I figured they were just being polite, but then through the week they kept asking me and reminding me about our movie night on Friday. I was excited that they were getting so excited about it. It was definitely good for bonding with the girls. Maribel actually speaks really good English. We have agreed that she will speak to me in English and I can respond in Spanish – that way we can both practice our language skills and hopefully take them to the next level. Rubi is getting pretty good at reading subtitles too. She likes the TV series that Leah and I are addicted to watching. Building the relationships with the girls is certainly helping make this new house feel like a home.

Saturday was our big touring day with the group. It was a fun day. They are a good group of people. We checked out some of the famous churches with our new missionary friends Ben and Amy who met up with us in the Zocalo, then grabbed coffee, watched the Mad Hatter mime for a bit and enjoyed the busy atmosphere. It was an exhausting day, but a good one. Sunday morning came way too fast though. We had to leave for the airport at 4am! Gah. Needless to say, we didn’t make it to church that day. We got home, crashed and then made a big breakfast.

Last week was a short one. Monday was a holiday, so the kids were all off. We all kinda took it easy and enjoyed the time off. Through the rest of the week, I continued with some more letter translating and profile updating for the kids for the rest of the week and made sure to keep myself busy. Also, on Wednesday, Leah and I started working with Elaine to make our very own quilts! Look at all the skills I am going to be coming home with! It is exciting.

This past weekend was productive as well. Since I got my hair butchered in Tlacolula a couple weeks ago, I got it fixed at a shop near the zocalo on Saturday. Then Leah and I went and made sure to enjoy the environment of the city for a while. It is busier now that it was when we first arrived. Tourist time has come! I love it!

Sunday was a rough one at church. It was parent’s day and as a sermon theme we were talking about the role of God as a loving heavenly father. It was a really emotional morning with a lot of tears. For me, it really put into perspective how many broken lives and families are here in the home and in the church community. There was so much sincere pain and loss in the eyes of many of the children and mothers, it was impossible not to have it break your heart. One of the kids that I have grown pretty attached to was having a really hard time. His mother has been really flakey this year and according to Jill is runner up for the suckiest mom ever. His sister, who is also at the home, was just holding him, hugging him and comforting him, while clearly heartbroken herself. It was so painful to see, but it really put things here into perspective again. These kids are broken. They have been so deeply hurt or disappointed by the people that are supposed to be their entire support system. It is truly amazing that they are as good as they are. It has been good to get to know more of the kids on a deeper level. It is pretty hard to get close to and of the teenage kids because of the language barrier along side the age/attitude factor – but I’m working on it. I absolutely love the little ones here though. Tavo and Fidel are such cute little munchkins and Izar is my little buddy. Izar is Jake’s age and has a great smile – maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to him. Anyways, there is certainly great work being done here with these kids. It is not ideal for them by any means. The emotional issues these kids have to sort out are unbelievable. Thankfully, they are in an environment where they have a community of people who love them and want to see them succeed in every area of their lives. I am blessed to be part of that community and am looking forward to seeing what each day brings – even on those days when I am feeling a little homesick.


Well, that pretty much sums up the last month! I have to get better at making these things more frequent so I don’t end up writing a University length paper every time. Kudos to you if you made it this far!

Until next time!

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Photos

Casa Rosa
Frank and MaryLou's house and garden

Beautiful Quilt
This is one of the hand stitched quilts Magdalena made up

Huatulco
This was the view from our balcony!

Gotta love booking online!
Our welcome basket

Comments

[Roger Nairne]

Hey girls
Hey Jess and Lee, Its the first time I read your blog and was always wondering what you girls were up to and how you were doing it. I am very happy for you to be able to bring the kind of joy you both bring with your warm smiles and kind hearts to the people your helping and to those you meet along the way.We miss your presence and vocals at church back here at home but know your sharing it with those in greater need. I must say I am proud of you both for taking up such a task and am so very glad to hear your doing great at it. The people of oaxca are very lucky to have you......just let them know .......We want you back! God bless you both! Your favorite church buddy Roger

[Laura (from North Park)]

Hola...
Hey there! I was looking up info on "Yagai" and I find you! =D I love the week I spent there and I'm missing every bit of it! Thank you (and Leah) for everything. I'll keep onpraying for you so may God keep on blessing you and using you in such an awesome way. Love in Christ, Laura