Day 59 (7/31/11): Los últimos días en México

Well I haven’t written in my journal or on my blog in about 20 days so I think it’s time I update it. I originally said I would write on my blog every day, but these last few weeks have been so busy that I just either haven’t had the time or the will power to write. For my future memories, I’m going to go back and write journal entries for all of the events I can remember. Today I need to write about what happened at Las Aguilas Church because it was our final day there and it was a big deal.
Today was the last day of Las Aguilas Church VBS and it was a long day for sure. The past few days we have been helping out with VBS from 10am to 1:30pm and then playing soccer for about 2 hours after that. By the time we get home we’re pretty tired, but we can’t resist the urge to play cards together until about midnight because we want to enjoy our final days together. Today was similar to the other days of VBS except today was Sunday and we had a church service as well.
I woke up today around 8:45 and got ready for my last day in Las Aguilas Church. This was a crazy thought to think about because it felt like we just got here a few weeks ago. I dressed in black athletic wear today and in an odd way I felt like I was preparing for a funeral or some sad event. While I am happy to get home and enjoy my own culture again, see my family, and my friends, I am very sad to leave such great people here. After only two months and only visiting a few times in Las Aguilas, I’ve made some close friends here.
After we arrived at VBS it was a pretty standard day as we helped out with the games session from the start of the day to the end. Usually we end VBS by having singing time at the end of the day so we helped out with that by doing the motions to songs like “Father Abraham” in front of the kids. Throughout the week I’ve been dancing a like a robot during this song and so today I had a small fan group that kept saying “Move like a robot, move like a robot!”. It was fun to entertain the kids with my weird moves and I’m glad they enjoyed it. I kept trying to get them to move along with me but they just wanted to watch. It’s things like this and later when a kid hugged me and said “No te vayas!” (“Don’t go!”) that makes it so hard to leave the people here.





Later after VBS was finished, Kay took us out to a local restaurant called “El Porton” and I got to eat pollo de adobado (my favorite dish here) and sopa de fidello (my favorite soup here) for the last time. We left around 4pm and got back to the church around 15 minutes later. Around 4:30pm they started the service and pretty soon I got to see my first and only baptism while I’ve been here. I took a video of the baptism and I’m glad I’ll be able to remember this really cool event from my time here. I hope that a lot of the jovenes in the church here and in Huehuetoca follow this example in the future.

After the baptism the preacher spoke about having humility and what it takes to live a life with humility. When this was over we cleared the room for our going away party. Once everything was set up they let people back in to the room and once everyone was situated the pastor said a few words about us interns. He talked about what a blessing it was to have us here and said that he hoped we could all come back soon. Then he prayed for us all in front of the whole congregation individually while lifting up our individual requests. Following his prayer we were each given time to stand up and say something to everyone as our last speech.
For my farewell speech I said that I came from the South of the US, which is known for being hospitable. I said that I thought I knew hospitality, but that here in Mexico I’ve learned how to be even more hospitable from the people I’ve met. I finished off by saying that many Mexicans are very friendly and that God would bless them all. I almost cried through much of this but I was able to hold back the tears. I felt glad to be able to share my feelings with everyone and I enjoy making speeches so this was a nice way to say goodbye to many of the people. Following our speeches they cut up the cake and we started eating while enjoying the company of our friends.
While people ate each of us interns were given a large personalized card with our names on them and with people’s farewells written inside. This was really special as this will help me remember the people here and remember how much they cared for us. Once we got our cards, we talked with the friends we had met and took pictures with everyone. I felt like a celebrity as one person after another asked me to write them a note or give them my information for Facebook so we could stay in touch. Once again I was hugged repeatedly by my friends and with sad eyes many of them said their goodbyes.


Finally the night came to a close and we walked out of the room after many hugs and many wishes of wellbeing. Once we got back to the house we played cards as usual and enjoyed our time together for one of our last days in Mexico.

Day 40 (7/11/11)

Today we headed down to Las Aguilas so we could stay with the Carpenters for our upcoming vacation and visit to D.F. (center of Mexico City) tomorrow. Other than our trip down to Las Aguilas, not much happened today except that I felt sick this morning (and I think it was because of the tacos I ate last night).
I woke up in the middle of the night before I began today with an upset stomach around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep until about 5am. I was supposed to workout with Andrew in the morning, but I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t get a lot of sleep so I rested instead. Throughout the rest of the day my sickness faded and when we left for Las Aguilas around 3:30pm I felt alright. The trip we took down to Las Aguilas was relatively harmless except that the bus ride to Izcalli was the worst we’ve had so far. I think we’ve learned that we need to wait for a certain brand of buses because this bus driver charged us too much and he drove really slowly throughout the majority of the trip. He was also smoking which I didn’t think was very professional.
Eventually we got to Izcalli though and from there we had a good trip over to Steve and Kay’s house. Once I walked in and saw the dining table, I noticed it was decorated with nice china plates and tableware. I later found out that we were having a meal with the future pastor of the Las Aguilas church and then the Carpenters were going to have a meeting with the leaders of the church. For dinner we had some of Kay’s homemade lasagna which was probably the best lasagna I’ve ever had. After dinner we interns and Noah played with Ruben’s daughter and watched Veggie Tales in Spanish. When the meeting was done, the church leaders left and we played cards for a while (as we usually do). I called my Dad (since I didn’t call him yesterday), and I finally was able to call it a night.

Day 39 (7/10/11)

Today we went with Juan and his family into central Huehuetoca, which is about a 20 minute drive from Urbi. Once we got there they went on a shopping spree for us and bought us all sorts of random foods from street vendors. The highlight of today is that I tried tacos de cabeza (head or in this case brain of the cow) and tacos de ojos (eyes of the cow) while out on the town. I also taught the jovenes class again and this time I had more time to prepare than last time.
I woke up today and went outside to help with setup of the church tent. Setup went well and after everything was ready we waited for more people to come. The Hancocks still aren’t back from vacation so today we were in charge of the church service yet again. Today we had a relatively large crowd show up and I think the worship time went well. Following worship I went up with the jovenes and began my lesson on Exodus 2. In the middle of this chapter, Moses finds an Egyptian beating a Hebrew up and kills him. Moses hides the body, but Pharaoh finds out and tries to kill him. Moses then fleas from Pharaoh and finds himself in the land of Midian. I connected this with how we try to hide our sins a lot of times but eventually someone finds out and we run from our sins. I then told them how we can have our sins forgiven and that God is the only one who can completely wipe away our sins.
After the lesson and church ended, we played a game of basketball with the men of the church. From there I went back to Lina’s place and after a while Andrew came over. From Lina’s, Andrew and I went up to Tonya’s tienda and talked for a while with Tonya, her son Alejandro, and her husband Ruben. We told Ruben that we were going to D.F. on Tuesday and he gave us his number in case any problems happened (he’s a police officer in the city). After we were done talking we walked back down the road to see if we could visit Juan and Nancy and ask them about advertising for our upcoming VBS. To our surprise, they showed up a few minutes after we had walked in front of their road and told us to jump in.
I had no idea what they were planning on doing so I said, “We’re going to border?” and they laughed and said yes. Eventually I figured out we were going to Huehuetoca, but they still didn’t tell us what we were going to be doing there. After about 15 minutes of driving, we arrived in a taco joint down the road from the center of Huehuetoca. Here I decided it would be a good idea to try out tacos de cabeza and tacos de ojos. These were both pretty much flavorless and squishy. The eyes didn’t look like eyes, but they were a little sticky and I don’t think they agreed with my stomach very well. Following our first stop here we set off on the road again for another adventure in Huehuetoca.
Juan parked the car on the side of the road and we all got out to walk up and down the sidewalk. Street vendors lined the sidewalk and were constantly trying to sell their foods. Juan was buying whatever we wanted for us so I said I would like to try some flan. I don’t like flan in the US so I didn’t expect to like it here, and not surprisingly I didn’t. I handed the flan over to Andrew after about 5 bites and asked him to finish it off for me. Later we walked into the zocalo and were able to see the main government and church buildings. Before we left the center of town, we met a vendor who gave us a free sample of etole, which is corn on the cob on a stick covered with mayonnaise, cheese, salt and chili pepper. I tried this as well and it was quite gross. Following all of this we drove up the road a ways and found a place on the side of the road that sold gorditas. Andrew wanted one so Juan bought him a gordita and then we returned back to Urbi.
I feel very loved by Juan and his family after tonight. They went out of their way to show us their town and treat us to their favorite foods. The people here are like that, and that’s one thing I really appreciate about Mexico.

Day 38 (7/9/11)

Today I went to the birthday party of Ivan (Lina’s nephew) and met more of Lina’s family. We also taught another jovenes class in Huehuetoca and a basketball class in Las Aguilas.
Recently I’ve been having some issues with using the restroom that I’ve tried to fix by eating more fiber. If you look below you’ll be able to see what I ate with my breakfast at the Carpenter’s house before we left for our basketball class. We arrived a little late to our class this morning (as is usual) and started off with a group stretch session. After that and some drills we played another full court game and then ended the class. Following all this I finally was able to use the restroom which was nice (funny how this is the opposite problem from what I had when I first got here).
After we left Las Aguilas it was a smooth trip up to Huehuetoca. For some reason though, the bus was extremely packed on the way up the highway. We were travelling around 2pm, which is not a high traffic time, but there were a lot of travelers on the bus. When I say extremely packed I mean they cram as many people as possible on the bus and we had to stand up the whole trip. Eventually we got to Huehuetoca though and soon were back in our homes.
In a short while we were back at the mission house and getting ready for our class with the jovenes. For some reason only one joven showed up today, but we still had fun anyway. Today we taught about Moses in Exodus 2 and how he killed an Egyptian man that was hitting the Hebrew slaves. Pharaoh found out about this and tried to kill Moses, and we tied this in with how we sin many times and try to hide what we did. In many cases though, others know what we did and we talked about how we obtain forgiveness for our sins.
Following this class I went back to my place where I met Lina’s brother and his wife. We talked for a little while and then went over to Lulu’s house for Ivan’s party. We were kind of early so we talked with Lulu and Giovanni and they served me a light dinner. Once the party started more of Ivan’s family came in and eventually we were served arroz con leche (rice with milk) which is a warm tasty drink with rice, sugar, and milk. After a while they cut the cake (which was really good) and then we decided to go out for tacos.
The tacos we ate were near the stand where we bought the chicken al carbon a few Sundays ago. I had tacos de pastor and tacos de suadero which were both pretty good. I also ate one taco of tripa (intestines) which wasn’t that great. While we were eating I got to know Alejandro (Ruben’s older brother) who is a college student at a local tech school in Izcalli. It was nice to talk with someone my age and we talked about the differences in businesses in the States and Mexico. He told me his full name so that I could look him up on Facebook, but I still haven’t been able to find him. I’ll talk with him soon to see if I’m spelling it wrong.
After we ate we went back to the house and I was glad to enjoy yet another Mexican birthday fiesta for the second day in a row. My life is going to be really boring once I get back to the States!

Day 37 (7/8/11): Un mes in México

Today marks the first full month we’ve been here in Mexico and I feel that we celebrated accordingly during a birthday fiesta in Las Aguilas. Before the birthday party not much happened except we taught one of our last basketball classes in Las Aguilas and talked to locals in Urbi.
Yesterday Andrew and I decided not to workout this morning so I slept in a little. After I got myself ready and ate breakfast (Lina made me a huge omelet), Andrew was at the door and wanted to hang out. We had to leave for Atizapan (the neighborhood where Las Aguilas church is at) around 2:30pm so that we could get there before 4pm for our basketball class. Before then I wanted to go get my hair trimmed and stop at a few of the tiendas to check in on my friends. So I invited Andrew along and we were off to a house with a hair salon inside. Once I got to the hair salon the guy said I would have to wait for a while so I decided to walk up the street a little further to a few of the tiendas.
At the tienda that’s owned by Lina’s sister, Andrew and I asked if they had ever had someone come from Urbi and tell them to shut down their business. (If you read yesterday’s journal you’ll see that someone from Urbi came to our mission house and told us that we couldn’t meet in the house anymore for church purposes) Lulu, who is another of Lina’s sisters and also has a business in her home, was also in the tienda. Both of them told us that we can do whatever we want inside our house. They said that once you’re inside your house they can’t control what you do. This was good news to hear as we were kind of apprehensive about the future of the church in the house.
After we talked with Lulu and Tonya we headed up the street a few houses to Elli’s place. Here we were invited inside and told to sit down. We talked with Elli for about an hour or so about her home country (Uruguay) and how she wound up here. She told us how the meals in Uruguay usually have meat in them or some type of pasta. She also explained the differences between the Spanish language in her country and Mexico. Once we looked at the time we realized we only had 40 minutes before we needed to catch the convey (I found out what I thought were microbuses are actually called conveys) to the bus stop. We left Elli and I told the hair stylist that I would have to come in another time as I passed by his place.
Later we left for Atizapan and we had an easy ride down. The bus was pretty packed though so we had to stand up for most of the ride. Once we arrived in Izcalli we took a taxi ride with Manny as usual and before long we had arrived in Las Aguilas with one minute to spare before our basketball camp began. Once we arrived we found out that later that evening there would be a birthday party for every joven in the church that had a birthday in July. This was good news as we hadn’t been to a real Mexican birthday party yet (only the parties thrown for Casey and Terri).
Our basketball class went well and we had an ok turnout for it. There were fewer kids that attended this time, but we still had fun with the kids that we’ve come to know the past two classes. We didn’t do any drills today but instead just played a full court game with them. Before the class was over it started raining a little bit so we ended early. Pretty soon it was raining really hard so we were glad we ended the class early so the kids could get home in time.
Following the class there was a little bit of free time, and then we had a surprise party for the three jovenes with birthdays in July. Pretty much all of the jovenes of Las Aguilas church came to the party (about 15 in total) and then we four interns were there also. Noah, an intern with Steve and Kay who just got here 4 days ago, was also at the party.
The party was lots of fun as we played 2 different icebreaker games to help us get to know one another better as well as a weird game and a fun game. The weird game was that someone stood in the middle and told a story in Spanish while the rest of us listened. If the person said “Quien” or “Quienes” (Who or whom), everyone had to stand up; if they said “no”, everyone had to sit down. The person who stood up or sat down last had to go in the middle and then tell their own story about something that happened to them. This was the weird game.
The fun game we played was one person stood in the middle and said “Yo soy un cartero y yo traigo cartas por todas las personas que traigan…” and then they said a piece of clothing or some hair color. The people with the piece of clothing on that they said had to stand up and switch chairs. The person that was the last standing was the one in the middle. This was fun because we learned new words in Spanish and it was always funny to watch how people fought over their seats. I almost got knocked out of my seat by one of the girls during the game and a bunch of people laughed.
After the games we ate some good home cooked Mexican food. While we ate, all the guys sat at one table and all the girls at another. I wanted some chips that the girls had at their table so I acted like I was going to sit with them. Once I had sat down they offered me their chips. I snatched them up and ran to the guys table like a hero. The girls didn’t think that was too funny though so I went back and sat down with them as the only guy brave enough to bridge the gap. I learned while I was there that “Macho Alfa” means “top guy you’re interested in” and “Embra Alfa” means “top girl you’re interested in”. After we were done eating we had some cake and soon it was time to end the party. After the party for Nallele, Alvaro, and Adrian ended, I mopped the floor (using a squeegee and rag wrapped around it) and then walked outside the church gates to look for our ride.
When I walked outside a few Mexicans were across the road talking and a one of them started walking towards me. At this point it was dark outside so I had my guard up when I was on the street. As the man walked towards me he said “Good night” and I walked back in to the church gate and closed it. He walked up to the gate and made a gesture like he wanted a drink. I couldn’t understand him so I just kept walking and asked Joy if she could see what he wanted. She called one of the men who lives above the church down and he began talking with the man outside. After they were done talking I asked what he had wanted and he said the other man was a drunk looking for money.
Not long after that Steve arrived to take us home and the drunk man started talking with Steve as well. Steve gave him some money and told me later he was the garbage guy for the church. Before we left I was asked to take a picture with one of the girls and later another girl told me I was her Macho Alfa. She said this pretty jokingly so I said I needed a “propina” or tip if I was going to be anyone’s Macho Alfa. Nallele responded that my tip would be her phone number and we all laughed. We three guys then left for Steve’s place and we finished the night off by playing one round of Euchre. I’ve learned a lot in this quick month we’ve been here in Mexico. I hope to remember the people here and keep these connections I’ve made well into the future.

Day 36 (7/7/11)

Today we taught our last English class to the niños, ate dinner with Noah and his family, and were told by an Urbi staff member that we weren’t allowed to use the mission house as a meeting place anymore. Today was a busy day for sure. Oh I also went to the nearby Walmart to buy groceries and I went to my first McDonald’s in Mexico (pics below).
Like yesterday, we woke up and exercised (I forgot how to spell that word just now – either I’m tired or I’m beginning to forget English) in the morning until about 11am. After this we went our separate ways to get ready for the day. Before I left for the mission house, Luigi came in and told me we were going to Walmart so I could buy my groceries. I couldn’t refuse (cuz I needed groceries) and we were in a taxi soon enough. At this Walmart I found most of what I needed except for my cranberry juice. After we were done shopping I said we should eat at McDonald’s and I bought Luigi lunch. This was a cool McDonald’s because it has 2 stories and looks modern inside. After we got our food we headed back to Urbi where I had just enough time to leave for the mission house.
I met up with Andrew at the mission house around 1:30pm for our English class with the niños. While we were in the mission house getting everything ready, a lady came up and wanted to talk with us. At first she was talking in Spanish, but later she began speaking in moderately good English. She told us she was from Urbi and had received complaints from people on our street about our weekly meetings. She said that people in the street were angry with us for the parties we have been having and that we need to stop all meetings inside the house.
Then she explained that the houses here are solely for living and people aren’t supposed to have businesses or anything like that in them. Lastly, she offered a meeting spot and advertising help for our English classes. The spot we could use is in the Urbi office and she said we would simply need to contact her to get it reserved. At first I was taken aback that people had complained about us, but then I remembered that during one of our most recent fiestas we had been kicking balls up and down the street and a few of them hit the cars of our neighbors. Andrew and I told the lady we understood what she was trying to say and I thanked her for letting us know. After she had left we decided to focus on the English class and to worry about this issue later.
In a little while kids started arriving for the English class and pretty soon we had a room full of kids hungry to learn our language. Some of the niños in the class know a lot more than the jovenes of the class we had yesterday, and so this class was a little easier to teach. Again I handed out jolly ranchers to the kids who remembered something in English and again they enjoyed it. After our class had ended, Noah (man involved with our church) came to pick us up in his car and take us to his place for lunch with his family.
As is pretty much always the case, Andrew and I were warmly welcomed in to Noah’s house and told to sit down. Pretty soon they brought out chicken covered with a peanut sauce and noodles. This was a good meal and afterward we watched a soccer match between Mexico and Germany. Mexico won the match (and I admit it was a pretty exciting game), which was the first time they had ever beaten Germany. After we finished watching the game I figured we would leave, but soon we were just talking and before we knew it the sun had set outside. Then Noah’s wife said she wanted to go get some pan (sweets) for us to have with some coffee in just a bit.
At this time I figured we would be dropped off as they went to get their sweets but they said we were coming back afterward. We had been at their house for about 3 or 4 hours by now but they were fine with us staying there and talking with them. After they had bought some pan for me (which they wouldn’t let me pay for) and their family, we went back to their place to enjoy some evening coffee and sweets. This was a nice treat to enjoy this time with the family and talk with them about random things in Mexico.
Eventually we were ready to go and Noah took us back to our homes. It’s crazy how long of times we spend with people here, but I think it’s a lot less crazy now than it was when I first got here. I think I’ve learned to be patient and simply to enjoy the people around me. I’m glad we were able to spend some time with our fellow church members today, and I hope we can do the same thing with more people soon.

Day 35 (7/6/11)

Today I was given a Spanish book as a gift from a nice Mexican woman I’ve met here in Urbi. This is pretty cool because I barely know her and she was willing to talk to me and help me learn Spanish.
This day started out with our regular workout routine. We woke up around 9am and were done with our workout by 10:45. Following this I went back and had some breakfast for a while and got ready for the day. We had nothing to do all day except teach an English class later on around 6pm for the jovenes. Since I had a lot of free time, I decided to visit Tonya (Lina’s sister who owns a tienda) and Elli.
During my visit with Tonya I talked with her about their store and how things were going. We also talked about where I’m from and other things in the US. After we were done talking I bought some chips and a drink from their store and walked up the road a few houses to Elli’s shop. Elli runs what’s called a jarcería, which is a cleaning supplies shop. When I walked over she quickly invited me in and soon we were talking like we were old friends. During my visit with Elli we talked about random things in the house like outlets, electric cable plugs, and she told me how they build the houses in the Urbi village. During our conversation I wrote down words that I didn’t understand and got her to explain them to me. She was very patient and I enjoyed our talk.
Elli is from Uruguay so she has a different accent than most of the people here. She also talks really loudly so sometimes I wanted to move a little farther away so her voice wouldn’t be so loud. Anyway, I wound up telling her that I wanted to read a book in Spanish and she responded that she had a book for me. I can’t believe how generous the people are here sometimes, because before I knew it she had put a book in my hands and told me it was mine. I asked her if she was sure about giving me the book and then she asked me to spell my name for her. She took out a pen and wrote in Spanish “To Zach with care” in the front of the book and handed back to me. I was very happy to receive this gift as I don’t receive gifts even from my oldest friends that often. The book is called “Retrato en Sepia” by Isabel Allende. I hope to start reading it soon.
Following my visit with Elli I regressed back to my home where I stayed for a little while. From there I went over to the mission house so we could start preparing for the English class at 6. For our English class with the jovenes we had about 6 students show up which was nice (our previous week we only had one show up). We played games with them and taught them some basic phrases in English like “My name is” and “How are you?”. I brought some Jolly Ranchers from the US and I decided to give them out to the kids when they were able to remember an English word after one of our games. They seemed to like this a lot so I’m glad I brought the candies along. During one of our games I told them I liked to sing so they told me to sing. I promised I would sing at the end of the class if they were good, and at the end of the class they demanded I sang. I couldn’t think of what to sing so I just sang the chorus of “Poker Face”. They laughed and liked that (Lady Gaga is pretty popular here) so I felt I had done a good job.
After we had finished our English class, we were thinking our night was over. So we were surprised when a few adults from the church showed up and asked if we knew there was a Bible study tonight. The past two Wednesdays we had a party or something else going on so we had never been to a Bible study like this. After a while the Bible study started and the adults were talking about Romans 8. The passage at the end of the chapter talks about how nothing can separate us from God. They had a good discussion and after it was over Andrew and I locked up the house.
After we locked up, we headed over to Juan and Nancy’s house because they had invited us to eat dinner with them. At this point it was pretty late for dinner (around 9:30pm), but we ate anyway. While we were eating we also played Halo with Juan’s two sons and that was fun. I stayed over at their house until about 11:30pm and then I said I needed to leave because I was tired. I’m glad I got to enjoy this day with the Mexican people and I’ve learned a lot about their hospitality. Hopefully I can take some of that back with me to the States.