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.
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