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.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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!
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.
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.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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.
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!
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!).
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!).
Saturday, July 2, 2011
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).
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).
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).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)