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.

Day 34 (7/5/11)

Today we taught our last planned English sessions in Las Aguilas and then returned to Huehuetoca. During the day we walked over to a Mega store (like a mall and a grocery store next to each other) and ate lunch. Later Andrew and I got to watch as kids swam in the dirty water of the small runoff reservoir here in Urbi.
The first English session we taught today had less than our usual bunch of kids (I think they thought we had ended our classes), and those kids showed up 40 minutes late. Anyway, we taught them the lesson we had planned out for today and hoped that they would learn something new. After this first session we headed out to eat lunch by walking about a mile down to a local grocery store/mall called Mega. Here we ate a restaurant called En Cima and got big drinks of Limonada (see below) that looked like they were alcoholic. They weren’t it turns out and I enjoyed my meal there.

We then returned to the girl’s apartment where we hung out for a while as we waited for our next English session to begin. At our next English session we had a lot less kids show up than usual. Usually we have around 30 kids for this afternoon session, but today we had only 9. I’m guessing all the other kids just didn’t know about our session today or they just thought we had cancelled it. Anyway, Andrew and I left an hour early around 5pm so that we could get back up to Huehuetoca and beat traffic.
When we got back to Huehuetoca (our trip in the taxi, bus, and micro was good) we saw people swimming in the runoff water reservoir in Urbi which was surprising. One girl was fully clothed and so we walked up to her group of friends and asked why she was in the water. They replied they had dared her to and so she had to do it. I don’t know what kind of friends they are, but I wouldn’t have done that for a dare. After this not much happened today, although I may be starting something new here in Lina’s house for the workers that come to eat in her kitchen. I had the idea tonight to start teaching a little English to the workers to make their meal more worthwhile or entertaining.
Maybe I’m on to something or maybe not. I’ll try it out over the next few days and see how it goes.

Day 33 (7/4/11)

It’s Independence Day! For America that is. Here in Mexico there is no celebration…unless if you’re an estadounidense (person from US) like we are. And celebrate we did. We had burgers, hot dogs, cupcakes with American flags, and apple pie. Later today we went to a movie theater called CinépolisVIP which had recliners in the theater and waiters to bring you food. Today was a fun day.
Last night we played cards until 2am, so today was not a good day to wake up early. Nevertheless, I’ve gotten used to waking up around 9:30 so that’s when I woke up. I drank coffee for the first time in quite a while today and I had quite a bit of energy after that. Once lunch rolled around we had a wonderful 4th of July feast in true American style. Check out the picture and you’ll see what I mean.


Following this feast we played Dork yet again, and this time for about 3 hours. Earlier we had decided to go see the new Transformers movie so we had to stop playing Dork around 6:40pm to leave for the movie theater. The movie theater that we went to is called Cinépolis, but Steve wanted us to experience their top of the line CinépolisVIP version which is shown in pictures below. As you can see, this movie theater is for the wealthier people in Mexico as it includes recliners and waiters who will take your order while you’re in the movie.





After the movie was over (it wasn’t awesome, but it was ok) we went back to the Carpenter’s house, but in a more scenic route than what we came. Steve wanted to take us on a very narrow and steep road so we could see what it’s like. On many occasions I thought we were going to hit something on the side of us, but Steve maneuvered quite well all the way down the hill without any problems. We got back to the house around 11pm and there wasn’t going to be any card playing tonight. Everyone was pretty tired and ready for bed. Before we headed up to bed though we planned out the English classes that are going on tomorrow. I was glad to be done with planning because I was pretty tired as well. Goodnight America! Happy birthday!

Day 32 (7/3/11): Voy a enseñar las jovenes

Today I got to teach the jovenes by myself during church and later we left Huehuetoca to go to Las Aguilas church service for the first time. Teaching the jovenes was pretty cool and seeing a different type of church service was also pretty neat. Also, it’s hard to believe but this day starts the one-month countdown until we leave Mexico.
I woke up today in Huehuetoca and was ready for church to begin. Today Andrew and I were filling in for the host missionaries here, so I was excited to be a leader. I got over to the normal church site to find Juan (a fellow church member) already setting up. Andrew and I joined in and soon we had everything ready to go for the church service. Generally church starts around 11:45 or so, but today we started right at 11:30am. The girl interns were riding with the Carpenters to meet us at Huehuetoca and from there we were going down to attend a Las Aguilas service so I kind of wanted to wait until they arrived to start. But Juan wanted to start so I said I felt we should pray before we began worship.
I didn’t know this before I said it, but I basically volunteered myself to pray for the service when I made the suggestion. So after I said this everyone looked at me and pretty soon I was on my feet praying in Spanish in front of the few people that were there at that time. After this we started worship and people began filling in the seats as they usually do. Eventually the girls and Carpenters arrived and we continued to worship. Following our worship time we prayed over the young kids and then they started walking toward the mission house. After the prayer Juan looked at me and asked if I was going to be teaching the jovenes. At this point I knew there had been a miscommunication somewhere because I had no idea they were expecting me to teach today.
Anyway, I said I would teach the jovenes and together the young ones and I walked up to the mission house. There were 4 jovenes present for the class and none of them had attended our class yesterday. I asked them what they usually do during this time and they told me they had a lesson and then played Wii after. So I started thinking about what I would talk about with them and eventually asked how a person obtains salvation. Just like yesterday, the first response had something to do with doing good deeds. From there I went in to Romans 10:9, which clearly says how one receives salvation.
After I had explained how to receive salvation I had them flip over to James 3, which is one of my favorite passages. This passage talks about controlling the tongue and how difficult it can be. In the end I related this all back to salvation because without a pure heart you can’t have a pure tongue. Before we started to play Wii, I challenged them to read their Bibles every day and told them I would ask what they had read about at the next class. I felt very good about the lesson today and was glad I was able to teach it. I hope that God moves in the lives of these youngsters so that they will make the decision to receive true salvation.
Following the church service in Huehuetoca, Andrew and I loaded my things in Steve’s car and we all headed south on the freeway to eat lunch. For lunch we stopped at a place called Sanborns, which is a nice restaurant with a pretty cheap menu. I ordered some pork tacos and they tasted like BBQ. It was really good and I think that’s been some of the best food I’ve had in a restaurant while I’ve been here. After we ate we left for Las Aguilas and at this point it was pouring rain. Sometimes it rains really hard here, and it was so hard that we could barely see out of the windshield. Steve is a really good driver though so it didn’t really affect him.
At Las Aguilas we found out that they have an hour long Sunday school session from 4-5pm and then the service is after that. Andrew and I went in to the jovenes class and then after went to the main service. In the main service we were introduced to the congregation and we received a warm welcome. Following worship, Steve gave a message about Paul and when he wrote his letter to the Philippians. After the message we went home with the Carpenters and played cards until quite late.
They taught us a game called Dork here and it is quite addicting. We played that and a little bit of Euchre until about 2am. At this point we decided we were all too tired to play and now we’re getting ready for tomorrow (Independence Day!).

Day 31 (7/2/11)

Today has been a long day. We started out with our second basketball class of the weekend in the morning in Las Aguilas and finished our day teaching a class for the jóvenes in Huehuetoca.
Today I woke up in Steve and Kay’s house to Steve asking me to test the water in our upstairs shower (they’ve been having trouble getting hot water up there as I experienced the last time I was there). When I got in the shower it was hot and Steve told me they were going to keep a little hot water running downstairs to make sure it kept flowing upstairs. This turned out to be bad since this stole away from the water pressure in the shower. Eventually they turned off the water downstairs and so I was able to shower for a few minutes with hot water. I took caution during this time to only get soap on a few parts of my body and then wash them off real fast under the water. This turned out to be a good idea because pretty soon all the water in the shower cut off and I was left standing there waiting for it to come back on.
Needless to say, that was the end of my shower in their house and so I got ready and we left for our trip back down to Las Aguilas. This basketball class today had less jóvenes there, but we had more niños that filled in their spots. Just like yesterday, we began the class with casual shooting around and then got into more drills. Following the drills we played another game of basketball (which the kids really enjoyed) and we went over our time limit just like yesterday. After we were all done we went upstairs to find Manny waiting for us in his taxi (which was odd because no one had called him to come get us). We got in with him though and soon we were off to Izcalli.
From Izcalli everything was great on our way back home (except the bus was slow as usual – I’m learning to be more patient and flexible here). When we got back to the micro stop in Huehuetoca to take us back to our homes, we took the micro that didn’t go through our neighborhood but just passed it. So when we passed the neighborhood we had to do a little walking to make our way back to our houses (which isn’t a bad thing, we just got a little more exercise).
We got back home around 2:20pm and had about an hour and half before we were going to get ready for our time with the jóvenes here. Andrew joined me for lunch (his family wasn’t home yet) and I enjoyed some of the peanut butter I had bought last night on my first PB&J sandwich in Mexico. After we ate lunch I took my first real shower of the day and left Lina’s place for the mission house.
For today’s lesson, Andrew and I decided on playing Wii with the jóvenes for a while and then going into why it’s important to read the Bible. We chose this topic because Casey had told us before he left that the kids here just don’t know the Bible that well. I think that this is definitely one of the biggest problems here in Mexico is that they don’t know what the Bible says about anything. So we began our class and the two kids that came were having fun. Eventually one of them asked if we were going to read the Bible today and so we started our study.
Our original plan, like I mentioned before, was to go through some verses in the Bible and explain to the guys why it’s important to read your Bible and study the Word of God. Before this we asked a few questions of them and somehow one of the kids said that we were saved through our good works and deeds for God. At this point we saw that we needed to deal with this response and change our original plan. So we read through scriptures in Romans, Matthew, Ephesians, and 2 Corinthians about what it meant to be saved. Through our readings we showed the kids that we’re not saved through our good works but solely by God’s grace and believing that Jesus is the Son of God and deciding to follow Him.
This was really exciting being able to share the Gospel with the kids here and at the same time sad to find out that they thought we’re saved through good works. This to me shows that there is still a lot of work to be done here in this community and I look forward to continuing to follow God here. Once we were done with the class we said our goodbyes and we each went home. I’m excited for church tomorrow (I can’t really remember the last time I was excited for church in the States), and can’t wait to help lead the service. Tomorrow also marks the one-month countdown until we return to the States (which I’m happy and sad about).

Day 30 (7/1/11)

Today Andrew and I went down to Las Aguilas for our second basketball camp there. Later today the Carpenters took us out to eat at T.G.I. Friday’s. They had techno playing the whole time we were there and I took a few pictures of the place.
I woke up today around 9am and it wasn’t raining outside! (It had rained the whole day yesterday) So I was able to go out and workout with Andrew. Following our workout we went our separate ways to get ready for our trip to Las Aguilas. I ate some lunch and got ready because at 2:30 we were meeting up at the microbus stop. Once we got on the microbus we had a fairly easy ride to the bus stop and a fairly easy ride in the bus down to Izcalli. Manny was waiting for us in Izcalli and we took a ride in his taxi over to Las Aguilas.
We arrived at Las Aguilas with a few minutes to spare until our class started. To our surprise, there were already 3 girls playing basketball when we got to the court. Pretty soon there were quite a few other kids showing up and we began to shoot around and just let them do what they wanted. After 30 minutes or so we started the camp with some drills for dribbling, passing, and shooting. Following our drills we had a real game of basketball. It was a pretty long game and we wound up going over our ending time of 6pm by about 40 minutes. There were about 15 kids there today and they all seemed to have fun.
After we were finished with the camp we reminded the kids that tomorrow we’re having our second class from 10-12pm. We then left with Steve Carpenter, who took us by Home Depot to pick some supplies for hanging up a clothes hanging rod in his closets. Everything in Home Depot seemed more expensive than it is in the US, which was surprising to us. After this quick trip we went home to pick up Kay because we decided we wanted to go out to eat (we’ve been living with our Mexican families for almost 2 weeks straight now so we haven’t done much eating out). I also bought a tamale from a guy walking down the street for 10 pesos before we left. It was good, but I still haven’t found one that was as good as the ones I ate in Juarez last March. (The quest for the perfect tamale continues!)
Soon we left for a local mall here where we wound up eating at T.G.I. Friday’s (what a coincidence, since today is Friday). This restaurant was kind of like a club atmosphere as they were playing techno music the whole time we were there and the design of the place was pretty sleek. I took some pictures below of the color changing bar (I think it was changing colors with the beat) and the door to the bathroom (I thought it looked cool). I ordered arrachera steak (which I think is a specialty here) and it was pretty good.

During our time here, Kay and I went downstairs to a local grocery store called “Superama”. This chain of stores can be best compared to Publix back in the states. It was really nice inside and I finally found the peanut butter and fruit cleaner that I’ve been looking for recently.
Once we were done at T.G.I. Friday’s, we headed back to the casa and I pretty much immediately went to bed. It’s tiring being here since we’re trying to learn the language and adjust to the high altitude. Tomorrow we’re hosting our second part of our basketball class and running a class in Huehuetoca (so I need my rest).

Day 29 (6/30/11)

Today it rained and didn’t stop. We are in the rainy season here, and there are a lot of puddles in the streets now because the rain hasn’t let up. The only major thing Andrew and I did today was to teach an English class for 3 niños. We're teaching this class because the missionaries left today for vacation and so we're in charge of all the classes this next week and half in Urbi.
I woke up today with the expectation of going outside to workout with Andrew. It was raining quite heavily and didn’t show signs of stopping so I stayed in bed for a while. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I was not going to be working out this morning as the rain continued. After a while I went downstairs to eat some breakfast and get ready for the day. Lina wasn’t in the house so I tried to keep myself occupied until she returned.
Eventually Lina returned with Luigi and we ate lunch together. We had gorditas for lunch and they were really good! Following this I left the house around 1pm to go help teach English to the young niños. Andrew and I were going to meet up before the class to work on our plan and figure out what we were doing. Andrew didn’t show up until about 1:20 so in the meantime I read my Bible. Recently I’ve been reading in 1 John, and it is a very challenging book. The reason is because it talks about living our lives in purity. If we aren’t striving to live like Jesus then we aren’t with God. This book lays down the law pretty much and I’m finding it is a good challenge to live by in my daily walk of faith. I just finished 1 John today and will start 2 John soon.
Anyway, Andrew showed up and eventually 2pm came around. We then started our English class and read the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to our students. Afterward we played Go Fish with English phrases for cards and this was lots of fun for the students. Once we were done we said goodbye to the students and went our separate ways. Once I got back I ate dinner with Lina, Luigi, and a few workers. I got to talk to the workers and learn more Spanish as well as eat some good food. Following dinner Luigi and I watched a movie and now I’m ready for bed. It’s still raining! Maybe tomorrow it will stop.

Day 28 (6/29/11)

Today Andrew and I visited a Mexican supermarket in central Huehuetoca called “Bodega Aurrera”. Later I ate at the house of Lina’s other sister, who also runs a cocina economica. Finally we finished off the day by having an English class for some niñas and then a surprise birthday party for Casey.
I woke up today around 9am to get ready for workouts at 9:30 with Andrew. During our workout it started raining so I left to go back inside a little early (don’t want to get sick!). After the workout Lina volunteered to cook some eggs for me and I was very grateful for her doing that. Even though she only cooked 4 eggs for me, I could barely finish them as they tasted different than what I’m used to and I was still not cooled off from my workout. Nevertheless, I finished my breakfast and then relaxed for a little while.
The internet wasn’t working last night so I took a few minutes to get on the internet during this time and update my blog. Following this I took a shower and by the time I got ready it was around 1:30pm. I went downstairs to find Luigi writing down a shopping list and Lina getting ready to leave. I asked if I could go with Luigi and he said it would be fine. I then asked if we could talk with Andrew and we headed over to his house before leaving for the supermarket. Andrew wanted to go buy some things at the market so he came along with us.
We got on the microbus to take us to the supermarket and pretty soon we were arrived at Bodega Aurrera. As I walked inside this supermarket I was reminded of Sam’s Club. This is because the ceiling is quite high and they stack boxes of stored product above all of the shelves. I had only 2 or 3 things to buy walking into the store, and I only walked out with 1 of them. The 3 things I would have liked were apples, iodine liquid (fruit cleaner), and peanut butter. Surprisingly, they only had the apples there. Apparently not a lot of Mexicans eat peanut butter, because the only jars I could find were quite small and very expensive. Also, apparently Mexicans don’t clean their fruit like the missionaries do with iodine. I may try to clean mine with just water, but I really would rather not (just in case).
Following our quick shopping experience in a Mexican supermarket, we got back to Urbi in a micro and Andrew went home. By this point Luigi and I were pretty hungry so we decided to go eat at Lina’s sister’s kitchen. Lina’s sister basically has a small restaurant setup in the front of her house and it looks quite nice. I was able to eat a nice thin steak while I was there and some soup with beef.



After we were done eating, Luigi and I headed over to Lina’s other sister’s place to buy some soap. I bought some chips that were “Adobado” flavored (it’s a certain pepper flavor similar to BBQ) and they were pretty good.
After this I went over to the mission house where Andrew, Casey, and I taught English to a few niñas. Everything went well and pretty soon the class was over. As the class ended we heard someone playing guitar outside and singing a song in Spanish. I looked out the door and saw people carrying cakes and one of the church members playing his guitar while singing to Casey. The surprise party had begun!


When the surprise party got into full swing it was similar to the one we had about a week ago for Casey’s wife, Terri. Today’s surprise party was filled with food, laughs, and I learned a new gesture that means “give me a bribe”. Not sure if I’ll ever use that, but I’ll know what it means if someone else does it to me! Also, they have a tradition here of biting the cake if it’s your birthday. Casey bit the cake and they shoved his face in it as he did (as tradition dictates). It was really funny to watch and I took a few pictures to remember it. As the party died down we were reminded that Casey and his family are leaving tomorrow for vacation for about a week and a half. Andrew and I said our goodbyes to them as they left and wished them a happy trip to see their family. Andrew and I prayed before going our separate ways and talked about the plan for this upcoming weekend. We’re going to be busy this weekend as all the responsibilities of the Hancock’s now falls on us. Pray that we’ll do a good job with everything!

Day 27 (6/28/11)

Today Andrew and I went back down to Las Aguilas to help teach two more sessions of the English class. This time we were more prepared for our trip and didn’t get lost like last time. We also had a team debrief session in between the two sessions of class.
I woke up today around 7:45am and did not want to get out of bed. The past few days I’ve been sleeping in till about 9:30am and yesterday we climbed the big hill so I’m a little sore from that. Those two things combined made me a little less happy to get out of bed and start my day. Following a quick breakfast and getting ready, I went out to meet Andrew so we could catch a ride in a microbus over to the camion stop. Before we left Andrew had to go pick up a bag for Casey from the mission house so I waited for him outside. Once he came back we waited for a micro. After about 10 minutes one rolled up and we hopped on for the camion stop.
One week from today we hopped on a micro similar to this one on the same route we were travelling today. One week from today we thought we were on the wrong micro and hopped off after arriving at an outside road. Today we knew better and stayed in the micro all the way to the camion stop. At the camion stop it took us a while to get the bus we wanted, but eventually the right bus pulled up and we hopped on. This ride down to Izcalli was very quick compared to the last few I’ve had so that was nice. This time I also knew where we were and didn’t have to ask other passengers if I was supposed to get off soon.
After we got off the camion, we walked over to Casey’s house to give him his bag and get a taxi ride with Manny. Once we arrived though we found that Manny was not coming to pick us up and that Casey was going to take us over to Las Aguilas. This was nice because we only had to pay for the toll stops on the road that we took instead of the 190 pesos that it takes to have Manny take us over. We soon arrived in Las Aguilas and were teaching English to about 5 Mexican students. Following this first session, we all returned to the girl’s apartment and had spaghetti for lunch.


Following our lunch we had a team debrief session where we talked about how the mission trip was going so far. This was nice to be able to have this time to share our feelings with one another while also learning what we could pray about for each other. After about an hour and a half, we had finished our team debrief and ended by praying for one another. We left the apartment and returned back to the church for our second English class of the day. This second class went well, but since there were so many kids there it was hard to keep them all paying attention to what was being taught.
When there was about 15 minutes left in the class we went outside to play soccer with the students and I think this was a good way to end our session. In a little while we finished the game and began our return trip back to Izcalli. This time Manny took us back and we were able to talk with him and work on our Spanish. Once we arrived back with Casey we talked for a while and he gave us a sheet with example questions to use for our language routes. He invited us to stay for dinner, but we decided to head out before it got dark.
On the way back to the bus stop on the highway, Andrew and I had a hard time finding a good stop to get on a camion. Every camion would just pass right on by the bus stop we originally stopped at, and so we just stood there while a dozen or so busses passed by. After about 7 minutes of waiting, we decided to walk down to another stop and see if the busses would stop there. This next stop looked more promising, but it turned out to not be a major stop either. This process continued until finally, after about 30 minutes or so of walking and waiting, we arrived at a major stop where the big busses were stopping.
At this main stop we waited at the front of the stop for about 10 minutes and still no major busses were stopping there. Eventually I said we should move a bit further down the stop and it turned out that that’s where the busses usually go. As each bus passed we squinted to see if the sign on the front said “Sta. Theresa” or “Jorrobas”. These are the names of the routes that would take us back to our homes in Huehuetoca. In about 5 minutes a bus with the right sign pulled up and we hopped on. Last time we rode the camion we missed our stop, but this time we couldn’t find where the busses stopped.
Anyway, from there on we didn’t have any problems with getting back to the Urbi. We got back to the main road in Huehuetoca, we took the micro back in to Urbi, and we got back into our homes. This trip back was considerably longer than the one to Izcalli earlier this morning. I think in total it took us about 1.5 to 2 hours to get back today. Hopefully next time we’ll know where to go and get back without any delays!
At home I was able to enjoy another Mexican meal from Lina and talk a little with a few of the workers she cooks for at night. This has been yet another long day and I have workouts in the morning so I’m going to be pretty soon.

Day 26 (6/27/11): ¡Vamos a subir el cerro!

For my 20th day in Mexico (it’s crazy how quickly time has passed) we climbed the large hill that overlooks the Urbi village where Andrew and I are currently living. This was fun yet exhausting due to the high altitude here. Also I started my language route, we toured the local school in the Urbi, and helped babysit the little niños while the women of the church had a Bible study.
I woke up a little later today just like I did last Monday because I stayed up late last night updating my blog and taking care of some other things from my life in the States (like email). Once I got up I found out from Lina that Andrew had come by to see if I wanted to work out. I walked outside after eating a light breakfast to ask him what we had to do for the day. He replied that we only had to help out with the women’s Bible study later at 4pm. I asked if he would be ok with climbing the large hill today and he agreed it would be fun to do.
I returned to Lina’s house and told her I would like to start talking with different people in the community today so I could keep learning the language. Lina (who knows quite a few people here in the village) was very happy to hear this and couldn’t wait to take me to one of her friends that worked a local tienda. So after I got ready, Lina and I left for our first stop at a cleaning supplies shop owned by a woman named Elli. Elli is from Uruguay and definitely has a different accent than the people here. After asking if I would be able to come by in the future to talk with her and learn the language, she replied “Whenever you want” (in Spanish of course). This was nice to know as I am looking forward to learning to understand different accents in Spanish.
Following our visit with Elli, Lina and I walked two houses down to visit with her sister that runs a small convenience store. As was the case with Elli, I was greeted nicely and was told that I could come by to talk in the future with Lina’s sister and whoever else was there. After talking for a while, Lina decided to leave me with her sister and her son to talk for a bit. I told them that we were planning on climbing the nearby hill today and her son, Ruben, said that he would like to come along. I was ok with this and asked him if he had climbed the hill before. He said that he had and pretty soon we were leaving the store to get Andrew for our climb.
Upon our arrival at Andrew’s house, we had to wait for him to get ready for the hike. Andrew also invited Christian (the son of the couple he’s living with) to climb with us and soon he was ready to go as well. From there we set off on our adventure up the hill, and pretty soon we were outside of the Urbi and into the surrounding countryside. After a little while outside of Urbi, we turned back to see what kind of view there was. Simply after a short while of walking, we were pretty amazed to see a lot of the houses below us. This first elevated picture isn’t even close to what we were going to see following our hike up the hill though.



After a while of hiking up the hill we had to start taking breaks to let our legs rest. These short rest breaks also provided a good time to take pictures, so I continued to take pictures periodically as we climbed the hill. As was the case with the pyramids we climbed this past Friday, it got harder to climb the higher we got. This was true not only due to the higher altitude but also due to the steeper hillside.






It took the four of us about 1 hour to get to the top of the hillside after our walking, and we looked down on God’s creation below. What we saw was a beautiful countryside with mountains in the background.



Also I forgot to mention that on the top of this hill there is a cross. Supposedly the Mexicans put crosses on tops of hills so that evil spirits will be scared away from the land below the cross. Since we’re on a mission trip, this made for a cool spot for pictures. After we enjoyed the view and took a bunch of pictures, I opened up my electronic Bible on my phone and read a short passage of scripture in Spanish. I read from Matthew 5 (or Mateo 5), which is the “Sermon on the Mount”. I thought this was fitting since we were on a mountainside pretty much. After reading this passage I prayed a little bit and we decided to begin our descent.




On the way down we moved slowly on the steep parts and had no problems getting back to flatter land. Climbing this hill reminded me of the one I climbed in El Paso (see picture below) before we went on our mission trip to Juarez last year. The difference was that this hill in Huehuetoca was much easier to climb down and we didn’t get stuck up there until nightfall like I did in El Paso.

Eventually we made it back into the Urbi village and I was ready to get some lunch. Before we headed back though, Ruben said we could go explore the Urbi school real quick so we decided to join him.
The school ground we explored was their primary school. We met a custodian there who was kind enough to let us in and show us around for a bit. The school is very simple and has an open feel to it (I took some pictures below). We were told by the custodian that one side is for morning school and the other was for afternoon school. I took a few pictures of some classrooms and one class that was outside for recess. After we took our short tour, we thanked the custodian and headed back to our homes for lunch.




After I ate a nice lunch I headed over to the mission house to help babysit the women’s children while they had a Bible study. I arrived around 4:45 (the Bible study was supposed to start at 4pm), but there were only two women so far and it hadn’t started yet. Soon a few more ladies showed up and so Andrew and I helped take care of their kids. These kids are quite rambunctious and don’t really listen to what you ask them to do. It was hard to let them have fun without letting them go places or do things that their parents probably wouldn’t want them to do. Nevertheless, no one got hurt or died or anything like that so I’d say Andrew and I did a good job.
Following our babysitting time, Andrew and I practiced basketball and talked for a while until it started raining. At this point we both went back to our homes to rest for tomorrow. When I arrived, I told Lina I was hungry and she started cooking sincronizadas for me. These are small quesadilla type things with ham and cheese in the middle of them. They’re simple and pretty good tasting. Anyway, that’s how I spent my 20th day in Mexico. I’m glad I got to start my language route today, and I look forward to building these relationships during my time here.

Day 25 (6/26/11)

Today we had church, we put up the basketball nets in the Urbi park, and we ate some freshly cooked Mexican chicken from a local tienda.
For today’s church service we returned to singing with a recording for the worship time. I feel like I’m starting to memorize some of the words to the songs which is nice. I can also understand most of what each song means so I can worship God in a different language now which is really cool. The thing that is neat to realize is that God can understand me no matter what language I speak in. One of the songs we sang today had some really fast parts to it where you had to speak quickly to say the lyrics. I was able to get most of the lyrics out quick enough, but I still need to work on how quickly I can speak.
Following worship we had our normal Bible study time, but this time the lesson was led by one of the more elderly men in the church. In his talk he and his wife challenged the rest of the church members to be more active in their walk with Christ. I wasn’t able to understand all of what they said, but one part that stuck out to me the most was when the wife said “This isn’t a social club” and “We’re in a war. We are soldiers and a family”. She was quite emphatic as she said these things, and I think the rest of the church members felt what she said. I agree with her on this point and feel that most Americans (and Christians in general) need to be reminded of this fact that we’re not just a social club to come hang out at. Anyway, that was the best part about church today.
After church was over us interns and a few other guys played a game or two of basketball on the nearby court. Before we played a game we had to put up the nets on the goals though because there aren’t any on the courts here. Once that was done we played our games and then packed up the tent we use for the worship place. After all this was done it started raining all of a sudden and so we hurried back to Lina’s house. For lunch Lina wanted to get chicken so Luigi, Andrew, and I walked back to the far road which has some local tiendas on it.
This chicken is cooked “al carbon” which means it’s cooked on a grill with wood underneath (or at least I think that’s what it means). We bought the chicken and a few other things for our meal here and headed back to the casa. By this time though the rain had picked up heavily and was really pouring down so we decided to take a taxi. I paid for the taxi and we went inside to enjoy our meal. I really liked the chicken and hope to eat more of it soon. Apparently they only make it every Saturday and Sunday though. Following this not much else happened except for us watching a movie in Spanish and I called both of my parents. Soon I’ll be starting my 20th day here in Mexico. How crazy I’ve been here that long already!

Day 23 (6/24/11): Los Pirámides

Today was a fun, exhausting, and expensive day. We journeyed to the huge pyramids of Teotihuacan, I bought a bunch of gifts and souvenirs, and we ate in a cave. What more could you ask for in a day?
This morning I woke up to wait for my ride to take Andrew and me to the pyramids. The Hancock family (I’ve included a picture of them below) wanted to take all of us interns out to the pyramids since we had a free day today and sightseeing provides a good break. The Hancock’s arrived in our neighborhood with the girl interns around 10am. Once we loaded up we were on our way to a fun-filled day of adventure! (that sounds corny haha).

Our trip over to Teotihuacan was fairly short (it took us about an hour to an hour and a half to get over there). Once we arrived we were instantly bombarded by vendors trying to sell us homemade souvenirs for cheap. We were told that most of these items were more pricy than the other items we could buy later, so we had to politely respond “No gracias” or just ignore them. (If you look closely in some of my pictures you’ll be able to spot the vendors on the paths we walked) Not only were we greeted by these aggressive vendors, we also were able to see a performance by a local indigenous group where they swung from a pole and played music for us. I thought this was pretty cool, and a good start to the rest of our sightseeing.

After we had checked in at the first gate, we began our walk down the “Avenue of the Dead” (Calzada de los Muertos), which is the main ancient road that connects all of the pyramids and the rest of the ancient Aztec structures. When we began this first part of the Avenue, we were able to climb a small pyramid and look over to see where we would eventually walk later today. On this first pyramid I was able to see some examples of Aztec decoration and architecture. I really liked the lion heads and other heads that they created. While climbing to the top of this first pyramid we were also given a taste of what was to come as far as steps go. Each set of stairs leading up to the tops of the pyramids was very steep and there were a lot of them. In many cases you could walk to about a foot from the edge and still not see the stairs. Check out the pictures and you may be able to see what I mean.





Following our exploration of this first pyramid, we continued our walk down the Avenue for a few kilometers to the biggest pyramid that the Aztecs created, known as the “Pyramid of the Sun”. On our way to this pyramid we passed through what looked to be a small village with stairwells on each side and remnants of homes. Also to pass through this area we had to climb multiple sets of stairs so we got some good exercise. Finally after a bit of walking and sightseeing, we arrived at one of the most amazing structures I’ve ever seen. After a few minutes of taking pictures and getting our group together, we started the journey up the Pyramid of the Sun.




This hike up the tall pyramid was not for the weak. A few of the stair cases felt like they were going straight up and it would be better to rock wall climb on the side instead. Each set of stairs took a bit of energy out of us and we took short breaks following each set. During our breaks we looked out over the land and saw the people below get smaller and smaller. Once we ready we continued up the next stair case, and as we got higher it got harder to climb. A few of us had to use the hand rails, but I decided to be a rebel and not use them on my way up or down. After about 15 minutes or so we had reached the top of the pyramid and looked down to observe the land below us.





Once we were at the very top we walked around for a while, took pictures, and I acted like I was climbing up the side of the pyramid (which was not the smartest thing to do, but I wanted to say that I had climbed the pyramid). I also recorded a short video of the top of the pyramid so I could remember what it was like to be up there. I really would not want to be up there on a windy day, cuz losing your balance and falling from that height would not be very enjoyable. It really amazes me how huge these structures are and that people living during 100 AD were able to create such things. After our time up on the top, we started the journey back down the pyramid to flat land.




Everybody got back down the pyramid safely, and we continued our walk through the ruins of the ancient Aztec city. We stopped to take a few more pictures here and there, but eventually we arrived at the first row of tiendas (stores) where we decided to shop. At first I was just walking around and looking at the different items people had for sale, but eventually I decided to buy some things. Corbin, Casey Hancock’s son, and I went around to each store and bartered for the items I found most desirable. Since some of these items are gifts I’m not going to go into what I bought during this shopping spree. Let’s just say I spent more than what I wanted in total, but I got a good deal on everything I bought. After this stop at the stores we decided to go eat, as it was nearly 2pm now.
For our lunch the Hancock’s took us to a nearby favorite of theirs known as “La Gruta” (The Cave). As you can probably guess, the reason the restaurant is called The Cave is because it’s in a cave! We walked down into the cave (more stairs!) and were greeted by a friendly staff as we were shown to our table. A quick side note – I haven’t seen many white people here in Mexico but since we were in a touristy spot today we say a lot of white people which was weird. Anyway, after a while we were served our drinks and given menus. I decided to do something I’ve never done before and eat rabbit. Once I got my meal it tasted pretty good, but it was difficult to eat because there are a lot of small bones that you have to watch out for. After we were finished with our meals we returned to the pyramids for our last climb of the day.




When we got back to the ruins it was around 4pm, and it nearly always rains here around this time now. (If you remember, we are here during the rainy season and so that means it rains almost every day) As we walked back into the ruins everything was fine until we got back onto the main road that led to the last pyramid (“Pyramid of the Moon”). Pretty much as soon as we stepped on that road we started feeling raindrops, and as we continued to walk toward the pyramid the rain got more and more heavy. Though we were fairly drenched with rain, we continued to walk forward out of stubbornness to finish the full walk down the Avenue of the Dead. Eventually we reached this last pyramid, which I admit is my favorite of them all.



It’s sad that I wasn’t able to get very good pictures of this last pyramid due to the rain, but I like it the most because of its higher level of complexity than the other pyramids. We hurriedly climbed to the top and as we did so the rain got worse. At the top we took a few pictures and enjoyed the scenery the best we could, but then resolved to make the return trip to get out of the rain. When it rains here it gets quite a bit colder so if you’re not careful you could get sick from staying out in the rain too long.
Eventually we got back with our group (after going to the wrong spot and waiting for about 10 minutes for someone to pick us up) and we finished our stay at the pyramids. From there Casey drove us interns back to our home in the Urbi village and we were able to share our stories with our families.
I decided to head back with Andrew to visit with his host family for a while and I wound up eating tamales with them as well as watching Transformers in Spanish. It’s kind of crazy here, but if you’re not careful you could spend a whole day with a family in their home and not even realize it. That’s just the way time is here. Anyway, following watching the movie with them, I came back to my home and I was ready for sleep. This has been a long day for sure, but I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of it. Can’t wait for the next adventure Mexico has in store for me!