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.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
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!
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.
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.
Monday, June 27, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
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!
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!
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!
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