Saturday, October 30, 2010

Every Friday Sed, Angel, and about four other men go out and preach in some of the unreached villages and in some of the established churches that are a couple hours away from the village. They leave Friday at about four and don't come home until Monday morning. Because like six of the men are gone, it was a lot quieter than normal this morning. There were only seven of us at "breakfast" this morning, Nichole let the younger girls sleep in because its Saturday. After we did the little bit of clean up that was there, Dassi and I did our laundry. Poor Dassi did all the scrubbing. It was cold and there is only cold water so I'm sure her hands were freezing. We finished our laundry just after the first kids showed up for children's church.

Saturday is the day we have children's church. The kids from the churches closer to the village all come out and spend about half of the day here. They started showing up at around 10:30 or 11, so we didn't get started until 11:30. First we sang some songs. I actually remembered some of them from the last time I was here. When they were finished singing Dassi and I attempted to teach them Cast your Burdens. It was very unique. Nichole then read them a story from the Bible and they colored some pictures. Aldo, Dassi's godson, came to children's church this morning and Dassi was glad to finally get to see him, but for half the morning he acted like he was scared of her and he wouldn't talk to her. It wasn't until after lunch before they served the cake that he warmed up to her. He is so cute. All of the kids didn't end up leaving until about 3:15.

I can't believe that I have been here for almost a week already! In a sense it seems like I never left like I've been here for forever, but then it seems like I just got here. Well, I guess that's all for now. Dios le bendiga!

Friday, October 29, 2010

It rained all night last night and this morning when we got up it was still raining. Normally we get up at around 6:15 to listen to the Bible on tape, in spanish, and drink coffee, but because it was storming this morning no one got up until about 8. Poor Das didn't get the info so she got up at 6. I didn't get up until about 7 we then sat in the kitchen drinking hot coffee and trying to stay warm. When we were coming out of the kitchen with Nichole we saw a dead scorpion on the walkway. Nichole said that after it hasn't rained in awhile and then it rains really hard like it did last night that that's normally when the scorpions and turantilas come out. That totally creeped me out, but so far we haven't seen any more.

Last night Julia fell on the stairs to her room, and this morning she was having contractions so we had to take an unexpected trip to the clinic. When we were waiting for Julia to get done Dassi and I sat in the waiting room with Malissa. We had to wait for awhile so I entertained Malissa with my phone and helped her color with my pen. She isn't scared of me anymore; she loves me. The doctor said that Julia would be fine, but they thought that her placenta might be starting to detach. Because they couldn't give Julia a sonogram at the government clinic, we had to go to a hospital in one of the bigger towns. In the end everything ended up being ok. Julia and the baby are fine she just has to take it easy for a couple days.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Well, I must say the shots weren't half as bad as I expected, and though I have been getting tired a little more than more lately, I managed to survive. Everything has been pretty relaxed. The weather has been nice and dry until today, the day we decided to do laundry of course.

Today Nichole and Dassi went into town to run some errands and take one of Nichole's patients, sister Banita, to get a tomografia. I stayed home and did school with Jasmine and Sed. Luckily Jasmine and I finished our school by lunch time, unlike the other day when we didn't finish until around 3 in the afternoon. After lunch and clean up we shucked some dried corn for making tortillas. While we were shucking corn, Rojo, a fourteen year old boy who lives in the village, professed his love for me to Jasmine and Sofia, one of the sisters, it was very humorous. When Sofia told him that Jasmine had told me he got embarrassed even though he was joking. Jasmine told him he could go work for my dad for seven years, like Joseph in the bible, he changed his mind real fast. Even though it was a complete joke, they teased him about it all afternoon. It was really funny. When Jasmine left to play, Sofia and another one of the sisters attempted to help us with spanish and Dassi and I attempted to teach them some English words. They also tried to teach us some of their native indian language. Even though I'm sure I sounded like a complete idiot and they were all laughing at me, I had fun.

Tonight we went to a church service for the first time since we have been here. We rode to the church service in the back of the blue truck with about ten other people, not as crowded as it usually is. It was a very bumpy ride. Melissa, a little girl who lives in the village, actually managed to fall asleep. Because I was holding her when she fell asleep and I kept her from falling of the seat, she wanted to hold my hand on the way home, it was really sweet. It was pouring rain when we got home. After eating a nice hot dinner and getting a shower, I am heading to bed. Buenas noches!

We Made It!!

Although Dassi didn't get to come with me on the second half of the flight, our trip went incredibly well. I had a few problems filling out the visa form on the second flight, they gave me one in spanish, after about 30 minutes of sitting there looking like a complete idiot the man sitting next to me translated it for me. Because my flight came in 2 hours before Dassis, I had time to just relax and get caught up with Nichole before our bumpy ride back to the village. On our way home we stopped at a road side restaurant for a delicious dinner of real Mexican tacos. I was really tired so on the way home I fell asleep for awhile leaving Dassi to answer all of Jason's questions. Because of the bumpy roads my sleep didn't last very long so when we got to the village and unloaded all of our stuff I didn't have any trouble falling right to sleep.

So far our day has been very relaxed. Nichole wanted us to get some rest so we slept in until about 9 this morning. When we woke up it was really cold, but now it is almost hot. The weather is crazy. It's not very muddy right now which is nice. Since we were here last, they made several improvements to the village there are now two showers, a sick by the bathrooms, and several new dorms. The kitchen they were working on when we were here last time is also finished and much nicer then the old one. Everything also seems to be a lot cleaner.

They now have several goats, three adorable kittens, and Jasmine has a puppy named Bella. When we were here last December they had a dog named Soldier, but he ran away so they got Bella. This morning one of the goats followed Jasmine and Marie, a girl they took in of the streets, up to the kitchen. It was quite humorous. Marie lives in the room that we are staying in, she is 9 years old.

This evening Dassi and I are going to get our Hepatitis A and B and Influenza shots. I'm sure that getting these vaccinations is a great idea and all, but I really hate shots. It's great getting to see some of the people i know again. Unfortunately I can't talk to them yet. I'm so excited about this trip I still can't believe that its actually happening. I really am getting to live my dreams!!

I'm going to Mexico!!!!!

I'm so excited! I never thought that I would be allowed to go to Mexico for TWO months and without my parents. I'm totally ecstatic for the first time in my long life I will be traveling by plane. Last night Dassi and I purchased our plane tickets. Unfortunately we were not able to get the same flight all the way to Mexico City; however, we will be flying out of Nashville together. Our flight leaves at 12:55PM and we get to Houston, TX at about 3. At 3:45 I continue on to Mexico City while poor Dassi has to wait another two hours before her flight leaves. When I arrive in Mexico City at 6PM I will have to wait for Das for about two hours. Luckily Jason and Nichole will be there when my flight comes in so I won't have to wait for her alone. Her flight is scheduled to come in at 8PM. The timing of this trip is perfect because Nichole is recovering from Typhoid and is still weak so our help will be very much appreciated.

Well thats all I have for now I will try to keep you posted. Oh and I'm just going to warn you now that I'm not a very good writer, but you probably figured that out already. :)