Day 22 (6/23/11)

Today started out with a bang. It rained a lot last night and didn’t ease up much. As I walked into the kitchen this morning I could tell that much of the floor was covered with water from a leak in the ceiling. Following our cleanup of this incident I later went to help teach an English class, got to see my first mariachi band, and later watched The Lord of the Rings in Spanish.
When I walked into the kitchen I could see there was a lot of water on the floor. Soon I could see that water had spread from the kitchen to the dining room and even as far as the living room. I walked up the stairs and told Lina that there was a lot of water on the first floor. I was supposed to be meeting Andrew for workouts at 10am, but I figured I better stay and help clean up. Luigi jumped on the roof of the kitchen (where the leak had started) and began to sweep water off the roof. The reason the water had accumulated on the roof is because there isn’t a very good drainage system to get the water off the roof. All they have is a small pipe that apparently is clogged up. After a short while of us trying to clean up the water, Andrew walked in and began to help.



Once we had swept a good majority of the water out of the house, Andrew, Luigi, and I left to do some exercising. Today running was a good bit easier, but the rest of the workouts we did were harder. I hope to continue to workout like this so that by the time we get back I’ll be much stronger at a lower elevation. Following our workout, Luigi and I were asked to go buy some ham at a local tienda. What I thought she meant was to go the local tienda I knew of which was only a few blocks away. Turns out I was mistaken and we wound up walking for close to a mile to get to our destination. Remember the road that Andrew and I had walked back from when we had gotten lost? Well that’s the road Luigi and I walked to today.
When we got back to the house I made myself a sandwich and we ate some lunch. After this we rested for a while and then left to help out with an English class for the niños at 2pm. For this English class Andrew and I were asked to lead it with Teri’s help. The lesson was pretty simple as we went over numbers and the days of the week. We also played a game of Go Fish with actions in English as the cards. After this class was over Andrew and I went back to Lina’s for a movie night. Tonight we watched both the first and second movies of The Lord of the Rings. These movies were pirated and both in Spanish so it was an interesting experience trying to understand them.
After eating dinner with the workers we watched the last of the second movie and then went our separate ways. Today has been good, and tomorrow we get to go on a trip to the pyramids!

Day 21 (6/22/11)

First day that Andrew and I started exercising. I also got to talk with some local workers that eat at Lina’s house each week. That’s about all that happened today.
Andrew and I met up around 10am to run, do pull ups, pushups, and other body weight exercises. Then we went up to the local tienda and bought some eggs (which were quite cheap cuz we got 32 for 36 pesos). Once we were done with this we both went back to Lina’s place and ate lunch. After this Andrew left and I waited in Lina’s house for 4pm to roll around.
At around 4:30 I left to help clean up the mission house with Casey and to help him prepare for his English class later at 6pm. Only a couple of people showed up for the English class so I helped out with by reading some phrases in English and in Spanish to them. After we were done with this I returned to Lina’s house to eat dinner. When I arrived there were about 5 other Mexicans there that were eating the food Lina had prepared.
It was nice to be able to talk with the guys there and to find out about where they work within the Urbi village. I think they were talking about me while I was sitting there, but it doesn’t matter. Hopefully soon people won’t be able to do that and I’ll be able to understand what they’re saying.

Day 20 (6/21/11): Quisimos a viajarnos por el campo

This has been a long day! Today I rode on my second camion, but this time it was just me and Andrew and I was without Lina. Turns out I’m not an expert yet at riding the bus and we wound up missing our stop on the way back to Huehuetoca.
Today Andrew and I met outside for the micro (pronounced meecro) at around 8:15am. We were beginning our first journey down to Las Aguilas, and we needed to be there to help teach an English class at 10am. Not long after we had waited at the corner of the street, a micro came up and Andrew and I got in. Everything was going good until a little ways down the road the micro made a different turn than the one I had ridden in a few days ago. I began to get nervous and at the next intersection I told the driver to stop and let us out. After this we decided to walk back up the street and eventually we found our way back to the main street that leads into the Urbi village that we are living in. At this point a taxi pulled up behind us and we decided to go ahead and just take a taxi up to the camion stop.
Once we got up to the camion bus stop, we were just in time for the next camion and hopped on. Before we got on I made sure that the bus was heading the right way by asking the driver if he was headed to “LaFord” (or the Ford Manufacturing Plant). As the bus started to go we both sat down and got ready for a bumpy ride. As we got closer to our stop, I continually asked other passengers if we were close to the Ford stop. Thankfully some passengers were nice enough to help me out and let me know if we were getting close. Eventually we arrived after about a 30 minute trip in the camion and got off. From the bus stop we walked two blocks in Izcalli until we got to Casey’s house.
Once at Casey’s house we took a taxi with their trusted driver, Manny. This part of our trip was nice as we got to talk with Manny and enjoy his high quality driving (he’s not a “cafre” – that’s what they call the crazy drivers here). After a short ride with Manny we finally reached our destination of Las Aguilas. It’s pretty crazy to me how our commute was close to 2 hours to arrive there, but this experience today really showed me firsthand what many Mexican citizens have to go through every day just to get to work.
Following our arrival at Las Aguilas we started our second day of English class that we’ve taught this summer. As was the case last week, only a few kids came to the 10am class. This was nice as we could practice our lesson with a smaller crowd before moving on to more kids later in the afternoon. I think this second day of English classes worked quite well, and this is thanks to Kylee coming up with creative ways of teaching the kids. Once we finished this session around noon, Andrew, Kylee, and I went back to their apartment to eat some lunch and talk before the next session at 4pm.
The next session at 4pm came around and what a difference there was in attendance! We had only 3 or 4 girls in the first session, but this second session had close to the 30 kids. When you get that many kids in a room it gets loud and things can get out of hand. The sad thing is that Andrew and I had to leave an hour early so we left only Kylee with them from 5-6. Why did we leave early? Well, we had a surprise birthday fiesta to go to for Terri. This birthday party was in Huehuetoca so we had to repeat all of our travelling we had done earlier – this time in reverse.
From Las Aguilas, Manny drove us back to the camion stop in Izcalli. From there we got our camion that would take us back up the highway to Huehuetoca. Everything was going well until we got closer to our stop in Huehuetoca. While looking at landmarks and all as well as signs, I never say a sign on the side of the road that clearly said Huehuetoca on it so I didn’t get off the bus. There’s a large hill that is a good landmark for where we live now and so I was looking at it. As it started to pass by I knew there was a problem and walked up to the bus driver. When I asked where the stop for Huehuetoca was, he replied “Detras” (or behind).
At this point I asked him to let us off and we wound up in what looked like the middle of nowhere. The stop for Huehuetoca was at least 2 miles behind us now and so I didn’t have any recollection of where we were save the hill in the background. I decided to call Casey and we started walking towards the first main road that ran parallel to the highway. Casey didn’t answer, so I walked up to a tienda (shop) and asked the lady where the main avenue was. She pointed in the opposite direction from where the bus had brought us and we decided to walk towards that way.
To make a long story short, we started walking and got a great view of the countryside next to the Urbi where we live. Eventually we came upon the very same intersection where we had gotten out of the micro earlier that morning and we knew we were next to the Urbi. From there we decided we were close enough to walk back to the mission house and so we walked the next mile or so all the way back. Once we arrived to the party we were able to share our story with the partygoers and eventually sit down and relax. We had a great time at the party and finished the night off by playing “Never Have I Ever” in Spanish.
This has been a long and exciting day so it’s time for bed. I know now how to take a camion and not get lost, but then again getting lost was kinda fun too.

Day 19 (6/20/11)

I rode my first camion (big public transportation bus) today with Lina. We went shopping at Sam’s Club and then came back to Huehuetoca to help out with a women’s Bible study workshop led by Kay.
Today I got up at about 10am. This is quite late compared to the time I usually get up here in Mexico. After eating breakfast and getting ready, Lina, Luigi, and I left to catch a microbus. We took this to the intersection crossing the highway and then we hopped on board a camion. This camion was rickety and not a very comfortable ride. The camion was also much slower getting to Izcalli (the place where Sam’s Club is and where Casey lives) than driving by car. The good thing is it only costs 15 pesos (~1.4 dollars) to ride the bus for about a 35 minute trip.
Once we arrived to Izcalli, we walked about 2 blocks and finally arrived at Casey’s house. After a little while Casey drove us all over to Sam’s Club and we stocked up on groceries for the next 2 weeks or so. I bought a bunch of oatmeal, bread, yogurt, and juice that will hopefully last me the rest of my time here. Following our trip to the store we loaded up Casey’s car and headed back up to Huehuetoca.
The next commitment in our schedule was that of helping out with a women’s Bible workshop that Kay was leading here in Huehuetoca. While Kay was teaching the women, we four interns and Casey took the women’s kids outside to play with them. We had fun playing corn hole with them and I played with some of them while they put together their model Transformer cars. Eventually we ended the class and I went back to hang out with my host family. Not much else happened besides eating an interesting dinner with Luigi and Lina.
The first soup that Lina served me was a little spicy and made out of little pasta noodles called fideo. After this I was served two cooked beef patties with one covered in a green tomato salsa. Both of these were pretty good, but I didn’t really care for the green tomato salsa. Time for bed now. Good night!

Day 18 (6/19/11): Dia del Padre

Today I played my first game of soccer with the Mexicans (and scored my first goal ever!), I was able to enjoy a Father’s Day fiesta with the church, and I called my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day.
I woke up today to Lina cooking me eggs with ham. I enjoy eggs quite a bit so this was nice to be reminded of what my diet used to be like in America. Following breakfast and my first shower in my host’s home, I left for the nearby park to help set up for the church service. Last week I got my first taste of what it’s like to set up for the church so I knew what to expect going in to today. Following the setup we started the service with some worship. Today worship was different though because Casey and his daughter led the service.
Following worship, Casey prayed over the niños and they left for their classes in the mission house. After they left, the adult Bible study began. Today’s topic was service, and from what I could understand of it, the members of the church were talking about what it means to be a servant. I’ve been following along conversations like this the best I can up to this point, with a hope of soon being able to understand all of what’s being said. Soon I hope to be fairly conversant with everyone, and I feel I’m making progress at this. After the Bible study ended, we got to help set up for the Father’s Day party!
This was my second party here in Mexico, and just like the first one, this party was very long and was quite fun. Once we had finished eating we started a game of soccer on a nearby basketball/soccer court. I don’t play soccer all that often (pretty much never in fact), but today I decided to play. To my surprise I had a lot of fun playing soccer with the Mexicans and I even scored multiple times. My first goal ever came about 30 minutes after we started playing, and later I scored multiple other times. Check out the video of a small glimpse of what a Mexican party is like.






After our game I had a break to go use the internet, and so I uploaded my other most recent blogs and called my dad. It was nice to talk to my dad today and wish him a happy Father’s Day. We talked for about 8 minutes about things going on back at home and I told him about my experiences thus far here. Once we were done I went back to the church meeting spot and then I left with Lina. I was introduced to her son, Luigi, and he and I watched “Just Go with It” in Spanish. After this we ate dinner and I talked with Lina a while about what I like to cook and what my life is like back home.
I’ve learned a ton of Spanish recently and it’s hard for me to remember it all. I hope to continue to learn more though, and I look forward to building more relationships here for the work of God.

Day 17 (6/18/11): Tengo miedo de la noche

Today’s highlight: I move in with my Mexican host for the summer and we go out after dark into the city (I admit I was pretty nervous about this).
This day started off with us (Andrew and I) arriving 30 minutes late to our second basketball clinic at Las Aguilas. There were already a good number of kids in the court playing basketball when we arrived, unlike yesterday when it took a long time for anyone to show up. We taught a few kids how to shoot and how to pass, but eventually we all just joined in on a big basketball game with everyone there. The game was over around noon and Andrew and I left with Casey for his house.
At Casey’s house Andrew and I ate lunch and I took a quick shower (there was still no hot water at Steve and Kay’s house this morning). After our lunch we loaded up both of the Hancock’s cars and left for Huehuetoca. Once we arrived at Huehuetoca we unloaded the cars and then waited for 4pm to roll around so we could start the bible study with the young kids of the church. 4pm came and went and there were still no kids to be seen. At around 5pm Casey decided to call it quits on the bible study and Andrew and I were taken to our respective houses that we’ll be living in for the next two weeks.
Andrew is staying with Ricardo and Claudia, which is the family that I stayed with last weekend for one night. In a way I somewhat envy Andrew as I know Ricardo and Claudia are both great people and wonderful hosts. At the same time though, I was excited to live with someone new this time and see what another family would be like. After we dropped Andrew off and I said goodbye, Casey and I headed over to Lina’s house. Lina is a divorced single mom and has one child that lives with her. For her job she runs what they call a “cocina economica”, which is basically just a small in-home restaurant business. She’ll cook dinner for people every Monday through Friday at a discount from what her clients would usually pay elsewhere.
After Casey and she talked for quite a while (this is about 40 minutes or so), Lina put on a movie for me and said she had to get my room ready for me. Once this was done she said she was hungry and wanted to go out to get a bite to eat. I didn’t think about this as we left, but it was getting dark outside and I had been warned not to travel after dark. I figured Lina knew what she was doing though so I went along with her without giving it a second thought.
To get to the restaurant we had to take what they call a “microbus”, which is a small van that has enough room for about 12 passengers. This was my first time on one of these so I was a little apprehensive as to what it would be like. The driver of the first microbus drove very quickly and so I was a little scared. We eventually got to our first stop where we had to get on another microbus that would take us to the center of Huehuetoca. At this point I was getting a little more nervous as I found out we were going to the center of the city at night.
I think it was then on our second microbus that I started to pray to God for protection for us. Remember that this was all new to me so I had no idea what to expect as far as safety goes. My nervousness kept on but eventually we arrived at our destination. The restaurant we went to was called “Tom Hamburguesas”. Lina wanted me to eat their hamburgers because I had mentioned I like hamburgers for dinner earlier. Once we got inside I felt everyone’s eyes on me as we were led to an available seat. Of course the seat in the middle of the restaurant, where everyone could see us, is where we sat. At this point I got a little more nervous because sitting right in front of us were two Mexicans in their late teens drinking beer and looking at me and laughing.
At this point I just wanted to eat my food quickly and get out of this place where they were playing loud Mexican music, smoking cigarettes, and drinking a lot of beer. (When I say a lot of beer, I mean some of the people there had liter-sized glasses full of beer for just one person!) The hamburger that I ordered eventually came out and I woofed it down. It was quite good, but I didn’t want to stick around to enjoy it. Lina and I talked while we were eating and soon we were leaving the place.
On the trip back we wanted to take a taxi so walked down the dark road to find one. During this time I was very apprehensive as all around me where people that stared at me and the sidewalk was not well lit. Once we finally did find a taxi, there was a problem with how much money the driver wanted. Lina said it was too much and decided to walk to another taxi stop. So we started walking down dark sidewalks and it seemed like we had walked a few miles (it was probably only about a half mile) before we finally arrived at a taxi stop.
During this time Lina took my arm and walked close to me as we made our way down the dark roads. This was comforting, and I thank God that we arrived safely to the taxi stop. At the stop we hailed a taxi driver and he and his son (it’s Father’s Day tomorrow!) drove us back to our Urbi. The driver was very good and we ended up making it safely back to my new home. I’m quite tired now and I think I hope to never walk around at night like this again. I guess it’s possible to do it without getting robbed or hurt, but I would prefer to not risk it. It’s been fun getting to know Lina thus far and learn how to communicate with her. I look forward to talking with her more.

Day 16 (6/17/11)

Highlight of today: our first basketball clinic of the summer at Las Aguilas and my first visit to a pandería! Before I talk about that though I would like to go through what we did leading up to those things. First we woke up and went to our last Spanish class of the summer with Elli (so sad!). At this last class we reviewed some difficult material on using the past tense and the some differences between “por” and “para”. We finished the class by watching the remaining part of “La Misma Luna”. Once we were done we said goodbye to Elli and headed out to visit Joy with the girls. (The two girls on our mission trip are staying with a local woman named Joy).
Once we arrived at Joy’s place it was about 1:45pm so we decided to go out to eat for a light lunch before we had to come back for our basketball clinic. Joy suggested a place called California and we agreed that would be a good place to go. We went out to eat and found that California has a wide selection of food from American dinner, Mexican dinner all the way to American breakfast. It was kind of like an IHOP, but in Mexico. When we finished this meal we drove back to Las Aguilas with just enough time to be a few minutes early to our first basketball session.
The basketball session was supposed to start at 4pm, so we were ready at 4 to see at least a few niños trickle in. To our dismay there were no kids coming in to the clinic even as late as 4:30. Now we had been told that things start a little later here than is usual in the US, so we were still patient and figured the kids were on their way. After 4:45 though, I began to lose hope. Sooner or later my Mexican friend and I saw a few kids walking down the road in front of the church and my friend took the initiative to invite them in. At around 5:20 or so we had around 7 other kids there to play with us and we decided to play a game of “basket” as they call basketball here.
Following our game we hung out with the kids and I even saw a few of them wrestling nearby. I took this opportunity to show them that I wrestled for 4 years in high school (which was fun) and then we started climbing a tree nearby. Once all of this was said and done, the Carpenters asked us to leave with them for dinner. Joy and the girls also came with us and before we knew it we were at a small restaurant in the bottom of a woman’s house. There in the restaurant they served us a soup full of chicken broth, lettuce, and some other corn derivative. I didn’t like it very much but everyone else at the table gobbled it up. Perhaps they have different taste than I do since they live in the northern US, or maybe I just don’t like soup.
After we were done eating Steve and Kay took us guys out to a pandería called “La Era” (it’s like a bakery in the US). At this pandería they sell a ton of great looking sweets, and I couldn’t help but buy some of them. Usually I’m pretty healthy in what I eat so I don’t buy a lot of sweets. Since I’m here in Mexico I made an exception to my healthiness. When the bill was written up for all that I had bought, it came up to be around $15 in sweets. I wanted to buy more, but it would have cost too much and I probably couldn’t have eaten it all.




After this trip, Andrew and I went back with the Carpenters for our last night with them before we leave for our Mexican hosts for two weeks. The Carpenters don’t have any hot water by the way, so I’m not taking a shower even though I’m quite dirty. I don’t like having no hot water, but that’s kind of what I expected here. Anyway, tomorrow will be fun. ¡Buenas noches!