Things have been hectic

We have been trying to keep up with church and associated activities, school and the associated homework. We also were squeezing in some time to visit a bit with my cousins who were vacationing here. Hectic fits the last couple weeks or so to a “T” and will also fit next week as well.

School has been going great and going fast. We have one more class on Wednesday next week and then we are done! Six weeks gone by in a flash. We are speaking more confidently than ever and understanding more than ever as others speak to us. We just need to keep practicing what we have learned, and we have learned a lot. Tons of new words!! Verbs and how to use them. Weird little conversational things. Amazing how things can come together with the right teacher!! We are so thankful for Javier!!

Church has been good, pastor and Emilia got back from their visit to Alberta Canada safe and sound. They REALLY enjoyed the time there, even though it was snowy and cold. It’s so cute to see pictures of them standing in snow, all bundled up against the weather…a problem they don’t face here!! Last Wednesday evening during the prayer service they had put together a slide show for the congregation and it was great to see their trip!! They visited several churches, WMPL Canada and the Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute. They were completely blessed by their time there, and they in turn blessed us all by sharing the adventure with us.

My cousin Donna and her son Tim visited Mazatlan this past week too and it was a blast having them here. They stayed at Torres, a really nice resort at the north end of the beach and also at La Siesta an older hotel at the far south end of the beach. They also spent a couple of nights in La Casa Irey, not as classy as a resort, but the proprietors are pretty nice.

We did take our day off and go up to El Quelite and to La Cruz. El Quelite is a really pretty, very tiny pueblo just north of here on the free highway and Donna LOVES to take pictures so it was a match made in heaven! The houses there are all brightly painted, have lovely flower gardens and broad front porches, very picturesque. The plaza next to the church is very shaded and tropical and the trees there are filled with song birds so it’s just fun to stand there and listen to the music they make!!

We then continued up to La Cruz so they could see where we lived before and to have them meet Tom and Lidia and the girls who joined us for a nice lunch at Comida Mary’s, one of Ralph’s favorite spots to eat in La Cruz. We also spent a little time at the main plaza and then when out to Playa Ceuta and also visited the turtle refuge while we were out there. They have completed their new main building now and have begun moving their exhibits into it. It’s nice to see them improving this in anticipation of more tourism, but right now I think the lady that works there has one of the loneliest jobs! But she likes it and she’s very good about explaining all they do.

One afternoon after school Tim, Donna and I took the bus down to the market and bought some swordfish and a kilo of shrimp and Tim cooked a fabulous seafood dinner and served it with a plate full of mangoes, avocados and jicama! What a treat to have such a yummy meal served right in our own home!! He’s a great cook and is famous at home for his pickled asparagus, salsa, relishes and more.

We had ordered a coffee table from a furniture factory that Carmen had recommended and they called to tell us it was ready so after we dropped my cousins off at the airport we dashed out to get our new table. Everything from this shop is completely handcrafted, yet inexpensive. Not sure how they do that but the table is beautiful!!

Between the airport and the factory are many, many acres of mango orchards too…the promise of good things to come in a couple of weeks!

This coming week brings us Dia de los Ninos on Monday (a day dedicated to kids with parades and special parties to celebrate them), followed by Dia de Trabajo on Tuesday which is a day off for most workers, then our last day of school on Wednesday and Thursday brings La Santa Cruz, in which construction workers are blessed and they decorate their work sites with flowers. Then Mother’s Day is celebrated here on May 10. Our church workers meeting will be held on Tuesday May 1st at the church building in El Salto. Thursday and/or Friday we hope to nail down specifics of volunteering at Hogar de los Ninos and Cuidad de los Ninos. I’ll write more on all of this later!!

Thanks for your prayers!!!

Viejos estudiantes

Okay, we are considered old at school. We are older than all the students and most of the teachers. That being said even old dogs can learn new tricks and we are LEARNING! We have a great teacher, Javier, who really pushes us to not just speak but to read and write as well so that it sticks with us as we go along. He’s giving us all the connections that we’ve needed for the thousands of words we already knew, we just didn’t understand how to string them all together properly. We’ve even learned the Mexican alphabet…certainly helps to sound out new words and hear words when others speak when you know how the letters SOUND. Whew! We were beginning to think we’d never get it. Plus Javier’s now staying an extra half hour each class session to help us catch up with the other two students since we started late. What a guy.

We do have a long way to go still, but we are getting more confident with each session. We were even able to have brief conversations with Lidia’s mom when she visited even though we’d never met her before. Usually new people are harder for us to understand because we aren’t used to their cadence and patterns of speaking. But we understood a lot of what she was saying and could speak with her pretty well too. We’ve been speaking more confidently with the people at church too. Amazing. We may just get this yet!!

Thanks so much for your prayers for us as we sought the right school…we are thankful that you all hang in with us and are faithful to keep us in prayer. Bless you.

On the bus

I think Paul Simon had a song a few years ago: it’s all happening at the zoo. Well, I’ve got news for him…it’s all happening on the bus.

Any given day you have a new experience on riding the bus here. We have had people selling all kinds of things, pirated CDs and DVDs, many different kinds of food, fruit and sweets. Chocolate is a biggie though I can’t see it in the heat…you’d think it would get all melty and weird. Then we had the sweet little girls, two of them, all dressed up in white dresses who were riding along with their mom. They struck up conversations with us and as they departed gave us each a kiss on the cheek. One evening a full grown man got on board with his guitar, not unusual, however as soon as we got rolling he burst into song. Loud, off-key song. He sang two or three numbers as we rolled along, then took a break and tried to get donations for his performance. No takers, so thankfully he sat out the rest of the ride silently. Then we had the little guy, about four, who got on with his mom and took a seat right in front of us. He then turned around and burst into song…at the top of his voice. His mom tried to hush him up, but he wasn’t having it. He sang on for miles! The guy with the metal filigree cross taller and wider than him. The lady with the large wheelie cooler full of who knows what.

Then there are the drivers themselves, all of them nice to us thus far. But there’s one who’s entire bus is drenched in a bright pink ad for some beauty service. Can’t help but think he takes a ribbing from his peers on that one. One guy had his girlfriend on the bus with him and she rode in the seat behind him, hugging on his neck for several stops and then when she was ready to depart paused to give him a rather long kiss goodbye. Had most people chuckling. There’s the guy with a couple of rows of plush seats, like out of someone’s Honda. Standard issue are molded plastic seats, so catching this bus and finding those seats free is like a bonus. There’s the guy who’s bus is SO clean and graffiti free that you wonder how on earth he does it. There’s also a guy with a little steering wheel complete with a suicide knob. Think those have been illegal for years in the states, haven’t they? Some of the drivers have Jesus and/or Our Lady of Guadalupe all over the bus, some just stickers or laminated cards, but some are really elaborate, large statues or portraits. Lots of rosaries. Lots of diamond tufted leather/vinyl accessories, custom leather covers for the gear shift. Custom coin carriers. Their own boom boxes so they can play their tunes as they drive, and share them with all the passengers. One guy even has a small black and white TV to catch his telenovellas!! They have their own fans so they can keep cool…nope the average city bus is NOT air conditioned. Only the large green tourist buses in the Golden Zone are air conditioned, and for that you pay double to ride.

Since the drivers pretty much know one another, they will on occasion stop in the middle of their routes for a quick visit, blocking the street in both directions while they have their little chat. Even had one ride where the drivers were obviously angry at one another, and they were passing each other and cutting each other off on the narrow city streets, trying to rob fares from each other…that was a little on the wild side. There are also drivers who will stop to pick you up even though the bus is full. So you stand, holding on to the railing above your head until a seat opens up. Sometimes a gentleman will give up his seat for a lady or someone older (sometimes I qualify in both categories), but most times not…you just have to wait your turn. Luckily for us it usually clears out pretty well about five stops down the line, so we don’t have to stand for long. Gives your muscles a workout though!!

All in all, a lot of entertainment and transportation to boot, all for just four and a half pesos per person, each way!! Come on down, we’ll take you along for the ride.