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.
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