Bolivia vs. Mexico: A Visual Comparison

Copacabana, Lake Titicaca Bolivia vs. Mexico City.
They both have amazing history and character. I have so many steeple pictures it's hard to chose.
But these two have the same sky!

Young girls in both countries doing dances of their history with
bright colored beautiful dresses.

 

 

It's strange how similar these two entryways are. The top photo is my personal favorite.

Doors! Oh the beautiful doors! The one on the right is my chosen winner. But both countries have such unique styles.

Women use whatever skills they have to make money.
A lot of the time it means making hats or sweaters to sell.

Morning flowers bright and fare, make me stop from rising the stair.
Make me focus my camera and sigh a breath, for the beauty in these flowers goes beyond trouble or wealth.
It's worth it to stop for a shot like this, to search for the small and intricate bliss.

Outdoor markets with red tarps. The markets are fun and it's
private business so I really like supporting them.
Sometimes you get a deal, mostly on fresh fruits and veggies.

Mount Ilimani in Lapaz vs. Smoggy McSmoggerson in Mexico City.
Smog ruins everything. Only white top mountain and there's smog messin up my shot.
Bolivia definately wins this one! I have a special place in my heart for that mountain that
I woke up to every morning out my window in Lapaz.

 

Dangerous and ghetto fair rides. See previous blog post.

Beautiful historic buildings.
Government building in Lapaz vs. Palace Museum of the Arts building in
Centro Historico Mexico City. Mexico wins this one for me.

 

My girl playing in front of beautiful churches with all of their character and charm. Lucky girl she is.

Temples. OLD temples. Bolivia's Tiahuanaco pre-Incan ruins vs. Teotihuacan
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan

Wall art expressing their love for their country and the struggles from their history.

 

Volkswagen beatles. They sure do take nice pictures don't they?

 

Casa Hogar: A Place For Girls



 

Here I tried to have them sit for a picture. This was my first day.

This particular Tuesday as I was walking to volunteer I decided to walk down the street where I live and walk through the Tuesday outdoor market. There are vegetables and fruit for sale a bit cheaper than in the grocery stores. I bought my girls a bunch of bananas. See, I found out early on that two year old girls don't care if I spent time working on a scheduled lesson or planned a game to go with that lesson, they were going to make their own way to play...until I learned to bring food for them. They sit and listen to a story much better if their mouths and fists are full of cookies. After I bought my fruit for them, which some weeks are little cookies or crackers, I walked down the cobblestone street to the hogar. An hogar (pronounced oh-gar) from what I understand is a place for care of children who's parents cannot afford for them to be home. While the parents work during the week they send their babies to an hogar to care for them and get them to school instead of leaving them home alone or bringing them to work with them. This one is a girl's home. When Doug volunteered in Argentina, he worked with a boy's home. My girls here stay all week. The boys in Santiago Del Estero where Doug volunteered were not allowed to leave. These girls then go home on the weekends to their families. I have 3-5 little ones. Ranging from 2-4 years old. When we first moved here my intent was to volunteer at an orphanage so I could hold babies and be more of a nurse type volunteer. Never did I think I would be an English teacher. We walked to an orphanage in Coyoacan and asked if they would take me as a volunteer but they said if I was staying less than a year they would not accept me. They wanted continuity with their very young orphans. And I respected that. They pointed us in the direction of a Catholic church where across the street there was an hogar. They said it was an orphanage. But I later found it not to be so. I was disappointed at first but then I quickly realized that these little ones needed just as much love, and I had love to give. We knocked on the tall clunky orange door with an over sized knocker. A nun came to the door and we asked for information about volunteering. She invited us in and walked through the vaulted ceiling entry way to the courtyard and into a room to get a woman named Sofia. Sofia came walking to us, still standing at the entrance and I then asked the questions (in Spanish) that Doug and I had been practicing for blocks. I told her that I wanted something to do while my daughter was in school between 8 and 2:30 and wondered if they would allow me to volunteer. She said that the problem was that most of their girls were in school at that time. But she had 3-5 two year olds that could use some caring for. Sofia said, "Do you speak English? We need an English teacher for the littlest ones, can you do that?" I replied, "Yes, of course." She then questioned, "Where are you from?" When I told her, "From the United States." She hmmm-ed, "That's good enough." Ha! Apparently England was her first choice. Lol. She asked for a copy of my passport and a reference letter from someone. Luckily a coworker of Doug said she'd write one for me. And it was very thoughtful and kind of her to do so. Even though when I brought my 'credentials' with me to give to Sofia she didn't even look at them, just asked what days I'd like to come. YAY! So I started the next Monday and when I got there all of the girls had the day off of school or something because it was a see of black haired beauties all interested in the light haired giant woman who was there. Sofia called the littles over and they all respectfully came and kissed me one by one on my cheek. I was their Maestra (teacher), that's how I was introduced and that's how they were (AT TWO!) expected to honor and respect me! Wow. I fell in love with them all but in particular (as I've written in the past) with Lupita. She is feisty and naughty. She requires a lot of attention and love. But she does it in a way that draws me to her. Sofia gave us a table in the courtyard and I tried to talk with just the littles but the big girls were too excited to leave us to it so they chose this opportunity to share how much English they knew. They also asked me a million questions in Spanish that sometimes I couldn't understand. They just talked so fast. I got through a book and an a game. But my wonderful color coded, perfectly organized plan for the day was just thrown out the window and then we played and ran and giggled. Now, I show up a couple times a week, chose an overview of a lesson plan and we play. I've spoken a ton of Spanish with them and they actually understand me. I teach them to wash their hands and be nice to each other. On Tuesday Nati kicked Fernanda in the chin uppercut style and I made them sit there while pantomiming why kicking is bad (because I didn't know it in spanish) and after a couple of minutes Nati apologized. :) They are my girls. It's fun, it's exhausting but it's a great out for me and taking care of 3 crazy two year olds just might be training me for adoption. I may end up with a baby or 2 kids. So I'm just happy to have the opportunity to make these girls feel loved and give them some much needed attention.


This was last week. With my regular 3. They laugh so hard at me! :)

I would ask for prayer as all of my littles have severe colds

or infections and they are still struggling with nits/lice.

They seem to have new infections each week and even though

they are happy and fun while I'm there they are so sick.

 I think this is why I keep getting sick.

So please pray that they can get better. 







Senses of Coyoacan

The Five Senses of Our Village

Touch
     Metro and bus handles are the worst! We touch them every day. if you read my previous post about the metro system then you know sometimes you hold on really tight. You don't often see anything dirty or feel a foreign stickiness but the germs you can't see are the grossest ones right!? We have been sick on and off for the last three weeks but I think it's more from the hogar that I visit. The little people there are full of snot and coughs. As I write this MY little person is coughing up a lung. We are feeling that the colds have left me and Doug, but it's holding onto poor Sally.
     Our feet feel quite a bit as we walk. We walk everywhere. They feel the unevenness of the sidewalks as we climb over the giant tree roots that have lifted the sidewalk concrete right off of their foundations and left a sea of sharp ups and downs in our path. We hop over animal droppings and instruct sally to watch out! Some harder things to pass; we step around sleeping homeless people or walk past the poor who beg for money as they hold their tiny dirty children.
     We cross traffic as if we are having a psychopathic manic moment, "stop, go, walk, RUN here comes a taxi!" they have little care for pedestrians. We feel the cheeks of the people we are introduced to as we air kiss their right side. I get to hug the 2 year old girls that I teach English phrases to at the hogar that I visit three times a week. They are in the in-between baby chubs and skinny toddler stage so they are beautifully squishable. They also often wear layered clothing as the breeze is chilly and the sun is hot, and like I said before they are still all sick (and have been, now that I think about it, since I started to volunteer in the first week in October) so they dress a little heavier. I have been trying to teach hand hygiene to them so they get better. Speaking of a germ fest the hogar is so dirty! I've asked if I could scrub the counters or toilets but they say "no, we have someone who does that." As I think to myself, what do they actually clean? Ok, now that you're thinking about germs...lets talk about taste. Sorry.

Taste
     One of our guilty pleasures here are mini gorditas that are sold under an orange tarp on the side of the busy street near us. They are stuffed with a crumbly cheese, cilantro, green or red salsa, onions and the ingredient of your choice between black bean, potatoes or chicharone. Chicharone is shredded pork, salty and full of flavor. We usually get the pork. The cost $6 pesos each. We stand in front of their little portable fry kitchen and watch them roll the dough by taking a small amount from a bucket and flattening into a two inch pancake and they throw it into the oil. Once it's fried they cut it open from the top to make a pocket and fill it to your liking. Typing that sentence took longer than it takes them to stuff it. They are so so fast. They have salsa you can put on top or an onion mixture too. It's such a nice little snack, or if we stayed long enough we could keep eating and make a meal out of it. Once they see your plate is empty they ask you, "what else?". They also serve bottled drinks with a straw. I don't like to use the straw because it looks like they reuse them after washing them. Blukkk.
     There is a taste that I will never understand or get accustomed to...hotdogs. These people love salchichas (hotdogs). At the deli section instead of an array of cheeses or cold salads they have 50 different brands of pale pink floppy hotdogs. It's so disgusting. We have however, bought Johnson's all beef hotdogs, which are a nice taste of home.
     There are a lot of kiosks ranging from fried pig skins to sweet churros (a doughnut tasting tube that they fill with different flavors ie: Nutella, jelly, or sweet cream). One of the more interesting carts is the fresh fruit ones, but it's not just yummy fruit, oh no, they will saturate your big clear cup of sweetness with chili powder. Chili powder. Or hot sauce and lime. Strange. We did try the jicama with sugar and chili yesterday in Puebla but it was too weird for metro get it. We just bought the mixed fruit. Delicious by the way. Cantaloupe, papaya, watermelon and pineapple. So sweet.
We have an abundance of tortillas in Mexico. We choose to buy ours from the grocery store and the flour ones taste so much better than the healthy corn counterpart. And the corn fall apart so you have to use more for your taco. They do make yummy chips though. Which takes us to sound.

Sound
     We live on a one way street and if we walk up the street we pass a small tortilla maker that squeaks so loud. I'm not sure if it's a business scheme in addition to their very small sign or if they just can't afford some WD40. Lol. She puts the corn tortillas in a ball on the turning belt and the squeaker machine flattens the dough and lightly cooks it. We didn't particularly like her recipe but we did buy half a kilo once, for like .50 cents. Cheapola.
Just two houses down on the corner there is the unmistaken sound of roosters. Very verbal roosters. They never got the memo about cock-a-doodle-doing at sunrise. These guys are like chihuahuas that freak out every time they hear someone walk by. Problem is they are on a very busy foot traffic road. So they make noise a lot.
     A few times a week we also have the pleasure of listening to two very loud recordings as they pass through our neighborhood. One is a tamale guy who rides his bike around with a huge metal pot on a trailer. He sets his handheld cd player on repeat attached to a megaphone. It is so annoying and monotone, yet recognizable for his repeat customers I suppose. "Rico tamales! Calientito tamales!" (Delicious tamales, warm tamales!) Most of the time he rides down our street at 10:00pm and we just can't muster up the courage to try or we are just not hungry. The other recording is a young girl's voice, also set on repeat and played from a megaphone strapped to the top of a rusty old Chevy truck. I can't repeat the recording because I absolutely cannot understand the recording. But it is loud! They are apparently asking to buy your old mattresses, radios, tvs or other appliances.
Another sound is our door bell, or buzzer. We have a small white button, like most houses in our city, that visitors can buzz for us to come open the door. The water company uses it and when Doug doesn't have keys he buzzes it. It is not a nice sound when I'm still sound asleep at noon. What?! I don't have a job, can't a girl just rest whilst living in Mexico? Ahhh. What a life I have.

Smell
     The roosters also give off an aroma of a small chicken farm. Sometimes I think they butcher them right in their driveway and let them poop all over their courtyard from the way their home smells. I'm happy we don't live next door. . We close our doors and windows at night for safety and sometimes when we open the door to take Sally to school in the mornings we have a whiff of a Cow pasture. I have to investigate this more. I don't know why it's like this. Maybe it corresponds with garbage days or something. Oh, now garbage trucks and garbagemen that is a sight.
     On a more pleasant note, as you can imagine living in Mexico with all of the tacos and the cilantro and salsas it smells amazing as you stroll down the street. The aroma of fresh baked bread and doughnuts in the morning overflowing out of the many bakeries. When we walk to town or to get sally from school we pass a tortas (a warm sandwich) restaurant. They cook near the the front door behind a large window so as we walk by we not only smell the grilled vegetables and meats fills the air but we can see the juiciness of the cheese covered, avocado filled sandwiches. Yum, now I want to walk down and get one.

Sight
     When you walk the streets of Coyoacan you can see a guy pushing a barrel on wheels and it is full of garbage. At first I thought he was homeless but I've now seen many of these guys around. This guy near our house in particular collects the small plastic bags from outside of the houses one by one. If they look promising he opens them and sorts them according to plastic, glass, true 'garbage', or keep-able items. There are many large black garbage bags hanging from the barrel on wheels and this is where the items are sorted and thrown. Then after it's full he has to PUSH this heavy barrel of trash to the respectable trash dump sights. It is a messy and heavy job. There are real garbage trucks that stop by once a week and there are guys hanging off of the back or sitting in the back of the truck. They are dirty and wet. They hoot and holler at women as they drive or walk by. When they are collecting the trash they also sift through the trash and will collect things like recyclables or stuffed animals in one case. The whole front of this one truck had a sea of stuffed toys attached to the top, similar to the truck in Toy Story 3 only it's on top and not the grill. Lol. We pay $10 pesos for each trash pick up whether it's the independent guys or the city truck. So maybe all that pushing is worth it for those who collect alone because they get to keep most of the payment for themselves.
     Another thing that I've loved to see are small business everywhere. Houses and entry ways are transformed into beauty salons, jello stores, bird house sales, convenient stores, public restrooms, restaurants, dry cleaners, croche shops etc. the list is endless. They really take pride in their work and their location. They keep their stations clean, their entry ways pleasing and their food stations spick and span. I love seeing them work so hard for small businesses. Like the ladies who came up to us selling sparkly gemmed hair clips yesterday in Puebla. Their basket of shiny beautiful clips was their job. They, unlike some vendors, weren't going to sit in a stationary store and wait for the customers to come to them, they were going to interrupt our cookies and iced tea at the park side cafe to see if it would be something we'd buy. Which we did. A little pink peacock clip for Sally. I don't mind the interruptions if it's something pretty. There is only so many times you can say a polite 'no' to the painted wooden fruit picks or the lady with the fried lime flavored grasshoppers or the little toys or pens or gum. Oh my goodness, everyone tries to sell you gum. Lol.
     As you've probably seen is the aray of colors that the city is. The houses and the flower pots and the restaurants all have a way of expressing themselves through color. Bright blues and pinks, colors that Americans would cringe at, I remember we tried to paint the base of our house in Cambrige this electric blue and when we got it on the house it was like WHOA! But our honest neighbor politely said, 'you aren't going to keep that color are you?'. Haha. Aparently it was even brighter from across the street. But here, it is completely exceptable to paint your house three electric colors or just one and have beautiful bright colored flowers climbing up your wall to accent your home. I love it. It's one of the things that I love to photograph.

We live in a colorful, lively city. There are always surprises and plenty of reasons to be happy with the life I have. And occasionally I am blessed with extra money to give to these sweet people on the side of the cracked sidewalk with their sleeping babies laying in their laps. We will never be short of stories or experiences here.

Day of the Dead

Growing up our family was pretty cautious about what we did for Halloween if anything. We went to Fall festivals and local churches for hayrides and games for candy. Because it was 'safer' and we knew that the candy wouldn't have poison or needles in it. We got candy at school and in the evening after begging my super
conservative parents if we could go out trick-or-treating. We were sometimes told yes and quickly made up costumes from scratch and left the house with a pillow case in hand. The boys would go as bums with coffee grounds on their face and a hobo stick and I, the only girl, would be an angel or something light hearted. I remember one year I took a Styrofoam cup and tied a wire to it and colored it pink with a marker and that was my pig nose and made myself into a pig with the help of a pink sweat suit I had just received for my birthday. How sad. We just believed that Halloween was an 'evil' holiday for ghosts,goblins and witches. My parents just didn't want our little minds to be exposed to these concepts and open our minds to evil things. Now, as a child I knew I was being protected from the gore and scariness but I wasn't thinking about the negativity of it all at the time. I just wanted the 2 pounds of candy that would fill my pillowcase and later sort through and organize it all according to chocolate content or pure sugar. The older I got the more I understood that it's a fun night and there really was little harm to us in our suburban neighborhood with our friends or our parents at our side. Since I've had Sally I've been nothing less than ecstatic to get her fancied up on Halloween every year. I've loved getting more and more creative. We don't watch icky shows or movies, she understands that there is a little innocent child behind any scary mask and she's grown to like spiders and witches. That being said we move to Mexico and they just blow our flippin Halloween out of the water!! They not only celebrate 'Halloween' on the 31st of October (well at least in Sally's school they did), they celebrate Dia Del Muerto (Day of the Dead) on November 1 and then keep celebrating through the 4th. They get off of school and work, they decorate their houses, streets, stores and parks. It's a time to honor and remember and pray for the people they've lost in their families. They spend time singing and eating in grave yards with family and friends. They make special breads to eat and place on alters. The alters are everywhere; with incense burning, they have fruits, some are candied, the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased, pictures and fresh flowers in pots and some plucked from the stem and hand placed in rows around the offerings. The flowers are mostly marigolds pink and yellow. During this celebration and reflection of the dead there are a lot of skeletons around. Some were climbing trees.  

Some were decorated

with costumes of sorts and the best of all were the living corps brides in the plaza. They were painted white with their spines painted on and cobwebs drawn on with flowers painted on their eyes, which is how they used to bury the dead. They had very
ornate costumes and hair. It was fascinating how they took so much time do get all dolled up for such a different kind of celebration. Not
just a costume, but a costume with a meaning. The music in the plaza was wonderful, an opera-like singer was singing a song backed by a brass band as the corps brides slowly moved into different poses for pictures. We ate 'pan del muerto' bread of the dead, yummy sweet bread with sugar on top and cream cheese in the middle. There were beautiful drawings on the sidewalks with materials such as beans and colored rice and grains to create an art piece. It was very remarkable. I understand that this day may not be normal for the USA but for here it is tradition going back thousands of years and they take it serious. It's not about the scare or the sorcery or witches. It's about family, walk around with the ones closest to you and spend time remembering ones lost. It actually moved me. It wasn't creepy, it wasn't gross. It was tradition. These people are family and community centered. It was very cool to see the elderly come out just to see the festivities. The church doors were open, the stores were all open late, the plazas were all decorated and the vendors were enjoying the crowds. We had a great time trying to understand all the meanings and traditions. Like I said, this wasn't just a one day thing. It's 4 days of just sitting and walking around the plaza with friends. So we went back for 2 of the days. The first day I let sally wear her costume and went all crazy on the make up. She was already pretty pale in comparison to the the other kids so I skipped the white face paint, but I think she looked pretty cute. We have to realize that it's not for scare factor, it's not superstition, it's a tradition.

Fiesta Mexicana!

Sally has always been a fun, silly little girl. She also has always attracted other fun, silly little girls. In Washington it was Jordyn, Sabina and Samiya, in Minnesota it was Trena, and in Mexico it is a little girl named Tamara. Tamara is SO silly. I first met her at ballet, not knowing that Sally knew her from school. They started out the ballet class as normal little ballerinas dancing and floating like butterflies but about 5 minutes into it they were giggling, tickling and blowing on each others faces. Not the pristine, proper activity for a poised ballerina. Me and Tamara's mom were laughing so hard but yet trying to show the girls a straight, scolding face. 'Stop it' I mouthed. Finally after their noses were touching and they were giggling so hard and not listening I had to pull Sally out of the class and whisper 'sweet nothings' and a warning and then she was a little bit better. We then talked about where the girls go to school and realized they are in the same class. At the end of the ballet class I said, "Sally, you can't do that in ballet." She replied, "But this is what we do in school!" Oh my word, needless to say I was a little worried for their school teacher. Poor woman. Oh, that brings me back to the first day of school. I asked Sally how her first day was and was she good. She replied with, "Well, I was a teeeeeeny, tiiiiiiny bit naughty. Me and my FRIEND (Tamara) pulled a little boys hair." And Doug added, "Well at least she wasn't doing it alone." *Sigh. Anyways, Sally and Tami are the best of friends now. It's been 4 weeks of class and she loves her to pieces! Last weekend Tamara invited Sally to a Little Mermaid 4th Birthday Party. I told Sally that there would be pinata there. She was so excited. We arrived via bus, which always takes a bit longer to get anywhere as opposed to driving your car from point A to point B. On this particular bus (as we were already 1 hour late for a party that was scheduled from 10am to 3pm!! Whoa) our bus driver decided to stop for a pit stop. This hadn't happened up until now on all the crazy buses we've ridden on. He put her in park, jumped out and ran across the 4 lane road and vanished behind a parked truck. I was like what is going on. Sure enough he came running back after buying a bottle of water. I guess he deserved a break. Crazy. So we got to the party at 11. It was in a yard with a trampoline, 5 blow up jumpy things and a big playground for the 15 kids who were there. It was a mad-house. Music playing loudly, Color station and a pinata. Just like I thought. This pinata was a 4 ft tall figure of Ariel. The kids played for another hour after we got there as the parents sat around tables and talked. I sat with a couple who spoke some English but I ended up speaking more Spanish/Spanglish with them than they did English. Which eventually gave me a headache. We had lunch together, various options for taco fillings and beans and rice of course. All of the other kids eat this stuff but not Sally. She does not like beans. She'll eat the rice and veggies, but not the tacos or beans. So I gave her a tortilla and cucumbers and rice. All the while her eyes are wide watching the bouncy houses to make sure they're not goin anywhere. Hehe. After lunch they all colored and played with bubbles for an hour then they announced that it was time for the pinata. They get in a line and each kid holds a bag for their winnings and sing a little ditty during each kid's turn.

Spanish:
Dale, dale, dale.
No pierdas el tino.
Porque si lo pierdes.
Pierdes el camino.
Ya le diste una.
Ya le diste dos.
Ya le diste tres.
Y tu tiempo se acabó.

English:
Hit it, hit it, hit it.
Don’t lose your aim.
Because if you lose it.
You lose the way.
You hit it once.
You hit it twice.
You hit it three times.
And your time is up.



There is a rope attached to a pulley and a guy raising and dropping it so the pinata isn't all busted up in the first hit by the bigger kids. It was quite a sight to watch them beat the snot out of poor Ariel. She eventually succumbed to the beating and spewed out her innards of toys, balls and candy. Poor little Sally just stood there and took whatever candy fell at her feet. LOL. All the other kids know that you have to fight for your prizes. There were balls and bracelets and candy of all sorts. And she got 4 starburst candies. :) And she was happy! But there I was with my competitive side and I ran over and grabbed her hand to drag her to other prizes. There was a girl with 2 balls and I almost took from her when it rolled out of her over stuffed bag of goodies. We did end up finding a tiny bracelt which she was content with. Makes me feel like a good mom that my kid didn't throw a punch to get an over abundance of goodies. But it made me feel like a mean human to even think about stealing a ball for my kid. Well, I didn't actually do it. So after the pinata they played again and then the cake came out.They were cupcakes decorated as Ariel. So cute. Tasted gross. I don't understand these peoples takes on cake and hotdogs. Both discusting. I don't get it. But Sally did eat part of one cupcake. There was also jello shots, I mean jello cups for dessert. They love jello. There is actually a jello stand on our way to take Sally to school every morning. I love their senes of small buisnesses here. There was a guy walking up and down stopped traffic selling tiny hammers yesterday. lol. More power to ya buddy. Anyways, aside from my tangent, we had such a great time at the party, which was similar to our birthday parties but with more Latina Flava and less flava in the cakes.



Fair Quality Fairs

From the view of a 3 year old if you say "We are going to a fair" they get excited. Things go through their minds like "rides, food, clowns, prizes" They never think about what we as parents churn over, "are the rides safe, are all of the bolts tight, will she get sick from too much junk food, not to mention how much is this gunna cost me..." (Ok, this is making me sound like an overprotective Mother so I'll make the list short). Well, when we lived in MD we saw a traveling fair in the parking lot of the mall we went to almost daily. I am not a fan of traveling fairs and my previous sentence states. I think they are just accidents waiting to happen. We drove in and out of that parking lot 3 different days before her incessant begging turned my "No" into a "Yes" and she got to go on 2 rides; a little roller coaster with a chain to buckle her (phew) and the dino-tilt-a-whirl (which I went on with her). I was more scared than she was! That was it, she was hooked. She loves the 'rickety rides', because she doesn't know they are rickety. I love fair rides and roller coasters don't get me wrong, I grew up going to Valley Fair and rode everything. But those rides were stationary and up to code, with the occasional minor break down. But these traveling fairs just don't even look safe. The stories on the news of kids flying... oh man I can't even finish the statement. And now I've come to find out these American rides don't even compare to the scrap metal, high flyin, shaky screw, wire showing contraptions we've seen here in Mexico! Our church is close to a large park with a 'stationary scrap metal' fair, no less nerve racking. But I let her go on rides that go in a circle and not up in the air. She loves it. Boring and a waste of money but cheap enough fun for her. Last week we were told by our Internet cafe guy that there was a celebration of San Lucas on the Street San Lucas during the weekend. There would be food vendors and a fair. A traveling fair. Ooo goodie. We ventured out on Saturday night to the festivities. It was a fun cultural experience. We walked to the side street that had vendors on each side of the road. Breads, Tacos, Gorditas (fried tacos), Corn with lime juice and chiles, Corn dogs (that tasted nasty) and french fries, potatoes and a few others. It was more or less a block of street. Some people had their gates open and were selling goods or serving food from their courtyards, one had a sign up for you to use their 'bathroom' for 4 pesos. Of course Sally used this opportunity to have to pee. So we payed the nice people, walked through their narrow outdoor hallway past an apartment and we were directed to a tool shed looking thing, it was dark and musty and had junk in it including a sideways treadmill (always a great place for that) and there was a toilet, no flusher, no seat and shaky. Ok, here we go. Sally DO NOT TOUCH THE SEAT. She balanced while holding onto me and then we left (without flushing, I later remembered a bucket of water next to the toilet that was probably to flush, oh well). We washed our hands from a trickling pipe in the courtyard. It was an experience. My friend in D.C. would have rather walked the mile to the nearest Starbucks than to go in that bathroom. But eh, nothin a little soap can't tackle. We then proceeded down the street of vendors. We bought some adorable canvas paintings for Sally's room. With the vendors we noticed common theme, egg shells with paper mashay on one end. I finally asked what they were for and a lady said they are for smashing someone else's head and then proceeded to smash one on Sally. It was filled with confetti! Sally loved it so we bought 10 of them and smashed them on each other throughout the night. We watched a big band play in the San Lucas Catholic Church and then got some food. We ate the Corn with Chile and lime with cheese on top. We also sat at a small table and at some street tacos. Yum. We went back to hear the band who were all playing on a stage outside of the church now. Then once it was good and dark we went to the adjacent street to where the fair was. Or more, the recycled trashy rides that used be fair rides were. These things were hilarious. So ghetto. And Sally wanted to go on every ride. They are about $1.10 for each ride. She went on 4 I think. She had fun but I was all freaked out when she got on the little kid roller coaster that had no seat belt. It was slow enough that I wasn't nervous once it started. The last ride she went on was a princess train and near the end of it Doug cracked up at the fact the the first car of the train was connected by a wire going up to the light pole in the center of the track. The wire was taped up and shorted every once in a while. Lol. We smashed a few more eggs and laughed a lot. We stopped at the Internet cafe and found out his hard drive was almost done and he was happy, we told the guy we had gone to the festivities and that we enjoyed it. Even the rickety rides. 

Casa Hogar

Lupita, Mariana, Adriana, Fernanda, Natalia, Wendy

It was fun meeting the girls I'm going to work with yesterday. They are fun energetic kids. Three 2 year olds, an almost 4 year old and her baby sister Adriana 1 yr. It was kind of chaotic yesterday, just trying to keep them all at a table to learn so we just ran around and played on their ghetto slide. We were pretending to be animals and played Ring-Around-The-Rosie (which I hate singing thanks to my 7th grade science teacher who told me the meaning of the song). But they loved it. Today I brought crayons and coloring pages for them to color. But when I got there ALL of the kids from 2-13 wanted to color. So I included them for a while and spoke a lot of spanish with them. I taught some English words to the figures in the Color books too. I sang to them a spanish worship song that I know and they loved it. I did take a lot of pictures today but per the discretion of my husband the fact that I don't have permission from the parents I'll just post one. Of the class. :) They are really warming up to me. Today Lupita ran to me and Mariana cried and held onto me when I was leaving. The baby kept me running today and we just read a couple of books again today and I spilled water on the desks for them to splash in. We washed our hands a lot to encourage hiegene. They are very dirty kids so if I can at least teach them at daycare to wash their hands and face that'll make me feel good. They all seem to have the same runny nose and some have coughs. So this is a good step for them. Mostly we just run up and down the slide and sing. But it's fun and I am happy. More information on the girls home to follow!

Bumpy Rides and Personal Space

Like the pictures have shown we live in a nice busy town, pretty quiet and with cobblestone streets. It is a big 'village' yet we can walk to most places like grocery stores and restaurants but occasionally you need to take a bus. We take a bus to wal-mart and church.

There are 2 kinds of buses and both cost little to nothing, 2-3 pesos. 13.10 pesos/$1, today anyways. Electric buses that are connected to a wire hanging above and they have to stay in the bus lane which minimizes the craziness. The bus drivers are all different, some crazy and some smooth drivers. There are bus stops for the electric buses and the regular buses will stop there too but they will stop anywhere if you just throw out your hand. When you get on you pay your coins and sit down, if there's a seat. If not, you stand and hope the driver is good with his shifting and stopping. You stand holding a bar above your head with your waist right in someones face trying to hold on tight. Last week we were standing belly to belly with other travelers as the bus was packed above capacity and the driver slammed on his breaks. You just about fall over. My shoulder, one particular time, was pulled in an uncomfortable direction because the bus driver slammed on the breaks. I've learn to hold onto the back of the seats rather than the bar above my head for the protection of my shoulders. Another trip we were standing squished to the front of the bus and the back of my knee was literally on the stick shift and there were 4 people between me and a Man standing on the last step with the front door open because it couldn't close and he was just holding on tight through the bumps and everything. It made me nervous when we turned left on the highway and traffic was coming and he was all exposed to the traffic. Men will give up their seats to elderly or women with children. But if I'm without Sally it's maybe 50% of the time they'll give up their seat for me. If you get on a bus and there is a window seat open the person sitting on the isle just moves their legs for you to just 'climb' over. Maybe for fear of losing their seat? We are used to traveling via bus as we live very close to two main busy roads and take it a few times a week. You have to learn the destinations so you don't get on a wrong one and end up lost. Doug got on a bus a couple of weeks ago that turned halfway to his destination and thought, ''Hmm, this could be interesting!'' I later got on the same bus and called him at work to see where his ended up because I think I made the same mistake. It took us just to the next stop down on the Metro system. No big deal.

OH! Let's talk about the Metro system! These people are crazy when it comes to getting on the train. They don't care about capacity. If a train pulls up to the platform and is full, the doors will open and maybe 2 people push their way out, 5 people will push their way in like they are gunna fit if they just suck it in! I wasn't about ready to push into that love fest so we waited for the next train. That one too, packed! So the third one to come was packed and Doug was like let's go! We pushed and then like 7 people pushed behind us and we were in there so tight that I could feel the short chubby guy's heart beat next to me against my arm that was protecting my chest from his face. Then I was so uncomfortable, hot and out of breath in the human heater of a train that I turned around... bad idea. I then felt that his lower belly region was now up under my butt, moving forward as the train sped through tunnel bumping and swaying. SO socially and physically uncomfortable and violating. I just kept looking up at Doug mouthing ''I am being violated right now. I don't like this. I really don't like this.'' Luckily shortly there after a seat became available and I was able to sit down and have my own space with my butt firmly placed on a seat. Sigh. Oh it's bringing back bad feelings. I think that's enough for today. All I know is I'm not traveling from that platform during morning rush hour again, if I can help it.

Am I really safe? Or is it a false feeling?

Since we moved to Mexico City I have been cautious as one should be, I've opened the taxi doors from the inside to check that I can in fact escape if need be. I've held my bags close and in front of me. I've held Sally's hand and been careful about where we walk and who we walk near. I'm just being safe. I've prayed a lot and have had people praying for us. We, like I said in previous posts, feel very safe and blessed in the location where we are housed. Although, today we got a little shaken. Or to correct, I got a little shaken. We took our usual route up to Wal-mart for groceries and a new computer for Doug as his hard drive went out last night. :( Just as we perchased the new expensive necessity we walked out into the parking lot where someone was calling hey! Do you speak English. He had kind of a crazy weird accent and I didn't know if he was a joke or what. But he fast walked towards us and was slightly out of breath and nervously speaking. He aparently is a student studying in the state of Morelos (where Doug will be researching). He was from Austin Texas and was in Mexico to learn spanish and was just coming into Mexico City for some reason. So along with his story he tells us he had just been robbed! He took a taxi from a shady Metro/Bus stop and the Taxi cabi had him put all of his belongings, a backpack of sorts, in the trunk and then put him in the back seat. Well, when they got to his stop (which I'm guessing was near or at wal-mart) the guy opened the door for him to get out, he got out and then got back in and he drove away with the kids clothes, camera and everything that was in his backpack in the trunk! So rediculous. So he asked us for some pesos which we had little of after our big purchases. We did give him what we had left but he said, "give me your email, I'll get you your money back as soon as I can call my dad." We weren't really ready to give out our info to this kid so we just said keep it. Bummer. All of this right infront of our nose, in a company cab car we've taken lots of times. I guess it pays to travel with the two of us, and always keep our valuables on our lap. But I do believe that the holy spirit travels with us too and he is protecting us and we are so thankful for that.

Into the mexican swing of things

Her classroom at her new school.

She is the one in the bright pink socks and different dress.

Thinking about eating the grasshopper

We have been taking it easy. Learning our bus and subway system. Going to markets and finding the cheapest and exploring our village. We love it here. Doug says this is his favorite place he's ever lived. It's proving to be one of my favorites too although I'm easy to please. I love our house and it's location. We just learned yesterday that we live across the street from a doctor's office, which is something we needed for Sally. She has to have a preschool physical and we've had a hard time making an appointment at the clinic we found last week. When I asked how much it would cost the lady doctor said, 'When she is sick and you bring her here, then you can pay me for that. You don't have to pay for this.' :)Very sweet neighbor. She speaks English too. We have been taking the bus west on the busy road that we live near to go to wal-mart at least 3 times a week. I am not a big wal-mart supporter, but now that we're here and are living on little-to-no money, it's almost do or die of starvation. Sally's school supply list was expensive too so wal-mart helped us safe a lot. We are still waiting for her uniform to come. That we had to order from the school. It's really a whole wardrobe. Dress, sweater, white polo, white t-shirt, jogging pants, shorts and jacket and art apron. I decided to take her to the gym just down the street 2 weeks ago to check out their baby ballet program and we did a trial class which sally LOVED. She'll get that uniform on Saturday. All of this with money we don't really have but she's so sweet and we needed to find friends too so I think it's worth it. The city we just moved here from in Maryland, ballet cost $30-$40 per lesson. Here it's $7.50! The uniform was like $50 for everything. Anyways, I don't want to bore you with money, it's just amazing how much cheaper things are here. These are people who live in a world of thousands or hundreds, where in the US we are more in the tens to hundreds for daily items. For instance, our milk here cost 47 pesos, which is like $3.90. So they are used to seeing big numbers. Like a car is over a million pesos. To me I'm like Jeeesh that's a lot. But they are used to it. Doug did start working more this week. He had a conference on Monday and Tuesday all day and Sally has school from 8-230, so I've clean our little house and gone to the grocery store. We don't have internet yet so I'm just hanging out until I get my reference letter from one of Doug's co-workers and then I have to wait for word back from the orphanage. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I really need to get better at spanish. I practiced a little on Monday with the cleaning lady that cleans our common areas. She doesn't speak English so I have to really speak spanish. None of this spanglish that I've been practicing. lol. We had some of the other scholars come down to Coyoacan on Saturday. We walked in the plaza and went out to lunch. It was fun. While we were eating a woman selling fried grasshoppers walked by calling out 'grasshoppers' in spanish. So I asked Sally if she wanted to try one. She was leary at first but then she tried one after our friend Levi Bridges (check out his amazing blog) tried one. She liked them! They were lime flavored and fried. She ate about 10 of them. I tried a teeeny weeeeny bite but the thought of eating it got the best of me. I couldn't eat the whole thing. Sally saw that mine had eyes and said, "Mmm, yours has eyes, yummy!" Then ate it. lol. We ventured to church on Sunday by ourselves on the bus. It was a quick ride, we did fine. After church we went to the park nearby with fair rides and a huge kid park. It was really warm and sunny. We are getting to know our surroundings and find our way. It's a nice village and we are happy. Thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers for safety.

...Hello Blessings

We left MN Tuesday morning. The plane rides were quick and Sally is a wonderful traveler. She had a great attitude and watched Brave on the second flight to distract her for a while. Doug had a migraine and was sick on the airplane so I needed Sally to be distracted since I was the one keeping her still. We arrived around 3pm and got all our bags this time. All 4 suitcases. Phew. Good thing for those carts. Our Taxi took us to our Hotel, Holiday Inn Coyoacan. So nice, just like America. Then after a quick nap we got a taxi to take us to 2 apartments. The first one had a perfect location, quiet, children everywhere playing soccer in the ally and a little 6 year old neighbor girl who literally screamed 'mama! Una niña!' Mama a girl a girl! The house had 2 rooms, no laundry, no rugs, tile floors, small courtyard. It was nice. But the second one was amazing! It was the same price, newly rennovated, looks like ikea, seriously. And it's safe; Dead bolted street door, then deadbolted front door that is only to be opened with a key, not a lever. So sally can't get out, open it or sleepwalk out of it. (She doesn't sleepwalk but as you can imagine I've come up with scenarios in my head of ways that I could lose my daughter in Mexico). The house has 2 bedrooms. 2 bathrooms, outdoor laundry room, back porch so I can grow vegetables and the landlord is a christian. We told him we wanted it right away and moved in the next day. Rolando (the landlord) brought Doug around the town to show him where things are and Doug asked him about churches. He said he'd bring us to his churches. Which he did. The first was a conservative baptist church with all of those songs we learn in my hymnal growing up. And the second was a mega church with songs that Doug knew from living in Argentina. Both were great experiences for us and Sally. The kids program was bigger and more organized at the mega church but both were worth it. We also have found a school for Sally and today was her first day. It's right around the corner from our house and she will be there from 8 to 230 everyday! I don't know what I'm going to do with all of my free mommy time. I miss her already. The school is expensive but it's close to home and safe. So it's worth going into some debt. I just can't believe it's such a long day for such a little one. The first week on the way home from the church our landlord took us around our town and drove past an orphanage (he didn't know I was looking) and it happens to be right down the same street that we live on. It's about 8 blocks but hey, it's closer than from MN. Yay! I'm excited to go there and apply to volunteer. Doug will walk with me tomorrow I hope. Blessings upon blessings. And as I wrote on my mom's fb last week, "all of the prayers that you people are praying are being answered exactly as we need, exactly. Thank you!" We have found a safe neighborhood, a nice house, a safe school for sally, a place with a garden I can grow to save money, internet cafe and grocery right around the corner... etc. God is good, always was, always will be. To him be the glory and praise.

Good Bye Cambridge...

I knew this time would go quickly here in MN! We are moving out of a house for the second time in 2 months. This time has been a little smoother since we left most of our things in the garage in boxes and only moved in the absolute essentials to our small home in Cambridge for the 5 weeks we've been living in our home. We worked so hard on our house and made some changes for the better. I repainted and reupholstered the kitchen bench in a blue and white striped fabric, we layed new carpet in 2 rooms and put a fresh coat of paint on some needed walls and Doug did a lot of odd jobs and yard work too. It all looks great. We are currently still praying for the perfect renter, who at this point still has not surfaced. Is it too much to ask for a clean, middle aged responsible couple with no pets for $1100 a month. I think it's not, but aparently it is. ;) Since in Cambridge we have had a lot of time to see our friends and definately spend time with our families. I had a few great photoshoots and made some extra cash doing that. Praise God for that gift. I love doing photography.  Just celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday. It was a nice relaxing day. If we had been in Mexico City we would have had an amazing party! It's the weekend of celebration for their independence and the Plaza's were very decorated and packed with music and food. Would have been fun! Maybe next year for my Birthday we can go back and I'll have a 30th to remember! Winding down here in MN we have some loose ends tomorrow but then Tuesday we'll be off! We will be flying out in the morning bright and early, have a layover in Atlanta and then will be visiting our possible apartment in Mexico City by the afternoon. I hope it's the one because it's going to be a looong day! Please be praying for our early morning travels with sleepy Sally. We'd also love prayer for the road ahead; particularily our apartment search, a safe neighborhood, a church, friends, a market close to our home and health. Thank you so much for your support and continuing friendship through our adventures. We'll keep you posted with stories and pictures!

Mexican Revolution Monument



Today Doug and I went out to the plaza across from the hotel. On the weekends it turns into a market. We did finally go get cell phones and we walked through the market. There was a clown doing some tricks and we accidentally walked right through his stage area of the side walk and he yelled out in English, "Hello Friends. How are you. My name is Jacki Chan." We just kept walking away laughing while the audience surrounding him was laughing. We bought some fun little trinkettes and then walked to a taco stand for lunch. It was yummy! Then we walked down the street to a gait looking thing. When we got closer it was a lot taller and bigger than we thought. It was the Mexican Revolution Monument and Museum. We went up to the observation deck for $40 pesos a piece. We could see all around the city. Then we went down to the museum and read about the building. It was meant to be a huge government palace but there were numerous obsticals in building so they redesigned what would have been the dome of the palace and made it a gateway. There is a park surrounding the dome and a fountain to play in. Sally will love playing in it. It's a lot bigger than the tiny fountain we used to play through in Silver Spring. Fun little afternoon. Click here for some more info on the plaza. http://www.mexicocity-guide.com/attractions/revolution.htm

House hunting

An entry way of a La Condesa home. So cute.

A Plaza in Coyoacan

We had a meeting on Friday after orientation was done with some ladies from an NGO that Doug will be working with here in Mexico City. We discussed many things including a place for us to live. There are two neighborhoods that were recommended for us. La Condesa and Coyoacan. La Condesa is located in the lowest lying part of Mexico City. As you may or may not know, Mexico City was built on top of a lake that has been filled in. So the ground can shift over time, especially in Condesa. Also the earthquakes are felt more in this part of the city. It's a beautiful area with parks and cafes and A LOT of 'For Rent' signs. Not all of these are on a website so the best way was to just walk. On Saturday we met a couple from the orientation that had already found an apartment in Condesa and they offered to walk around with us. We did this for 4 hours while chatting. There were many signs but we just took pictures of their info and had to get back to the apartment to call or email them. We have yet to buy phones here. It's expensive and we just have to find the right place to get a sim card or totally new phones. We stopped for a rest at a new pizza place in the neighborhood with a brickoven. It was yummy. Our pizza was a crust with cheese and garlic, no sauce and proschuto on top. Interesting but good. So Condesa really appealed to me for lots of reasons including a single woman from the program who has a 14 month old girl who lives close for playdates with sally, a girl's orphanage right across the street from our friend's place, local markets and it's quiet...but it's above our price range. The two that are in our price range is a studio apartment or a one bedroom. After our 4 hour walk around La Condesa we decided to brave the underground Metro to Coyoacan. To get to the stairs down to the Metro you had to walk through a packed plaza with kiosks of all sorts. A tent city like area with people, food, cell phones, clothes you name it. We passed through one isle where a teenage girl was on her laptop surfing facebook. It made the world seem so small to me. Like this girl in the middle of a shanty market, on her wi-fi surfing facebook. Hmm. The Metro was 6 pesos for the both of us to ride one way, this is about 40 cents in $US. Crazy cheap. We arrived at Coyoacan pretty quickly acutally. This trip we've been only taking taxis that have to sit in traffic. We didn't realize that the metro would fly like that! Of course it worried me a little being down under a sinking city in a train car flying 60mph with the windows open from the top. Ah! But like I said, we arrived quickly and unscathed. lol. The first impression I got of Coyoacon was dirty and much more poluted air than up in Codesa. But after we crossed over the highway and got into the village it stole my heart! Cobble stone roads leading to parks. Allie ways of all different color stucco homes with metal baloconies overlooking the streets, plants and flower boxes in every window. It was SO quiet you could hear your own breath. Quite a contrast from the center of the city wher our hotel is. We saw a lot of people coming from different directions all semi dressed up and walking with family and friends. They seemed to be heading towards a park with a large gate. Music was playing and there was food cooking. It was as if the whole community was meeting for a weekend fiesta. I wonder if it happens all the time? :) What a great place to live. It was like the Latino Truman show. Lol. We continued to walk around and found only a couple of for Rent signs. We were exhauted from walking all day and decided to call it quits. We got back on the Metro toward the centro historia. When we came out of the Metro we realized it was right across a park from our hotel. How easy! But the park that was quiet the day before was now a vibrant market with music, food, games and clothing to buy. We stopped and bought a water and walked out the other side to our hotel. We were just to tired to walk through and soak in everything. We rested for a half an hour or so, skyped with Sally and our family then went to a movie. What a long Saturday. Still no decisions yet on the house for us but we'll find it. Today is Sunday. The sky is finally blue and we are going to venture out into the city to see what's open. We are ready to go home and see our girl but until then I think some shopping is in order. hehe.

Orientation week

Tuesday morning 2:15am the alarm went off. Randy (Father in law) picked us up to go to the airport. God bless his soul. We got to the MSP airport at 3:15am for our 6:30am flight per travel advisory advice when traveling international...and what do ya know the airport won't let you go through security until 4am. Weird. I went to bed with a stuffy nose the night before but I thought that it was my terrible MN allergies. It wasn't. That 2 hours in the morning from the time I woke up to the time we settled in at the MSP airport I was getting worse and worse. AND the stinkin coffee places didn't open unil 6 so we waited. Leave it to wonderful MN Caribou to take care of me. I got to the counter and the guys could see and hear how crappy I felt. They squeezed a fresh lemon for me into a cup, added hot water and I added honey and didn't even charge me. We boarded the plane and I got a box of kleenex from the stuardess. Thank you Delta. We had a lay over in Atlanta before traveling to Mexico City. We got some breakfast and got right on the next plane. I could feel my head starting to pound and the hot cold flashes. You all know how uncomfortable airplanes are especially if you're sick. I think I slept for maybe an hour. When we got to Mexico City we had no trouble going through immigration. But when we got to baggage claim Doug got my suitcase but not our large bag with our clothes to leave in Mexico (which also had all of his clothes). We did locate it in Atlanta. That was better news than if it had made it to Mexico City and we couldn't find it. They sent it to our hotel the next afternoon. We took at taxi to our hotel, Fiesta Inn in Centro Historia. Very nice. Great service. It's right above a mall with a Starbucks, Subway and McDonalds. Lol. The Mexican people love American Culture. Actually today I saw a billboard of One Tree Hill from the WB. There are Burger Kings everywhere and The Home Depot, Office depot, Costco, walmart and many other American companies. As soon as we checked into the hotel I pretty much crashed. Doug walked to a pharmacy to get me some medicine because at this point I had a full blown fever. They had bottles of water in our room for $34 pesos. Because you don't want to drink the water. I slept while Doug went downstairs to the meet and greet for all of the Fulbrighters. The next morning I still had a fever but felt a little better so I went down for breakfast. They had a chef at an omlette station and the buffet was typical Mexican food. Chicken with peppers, sweet breads, potatoes, tortillas, different freshed squeezed juices and then also some American stuff too like waffles and cereal. I couldn't eat much, still felt woozy. The elevation here is around 7500 feet, it's enough that you have to drink a lot of water and take it easy for a while just because it makes you dizzy. The hotel accomodations are so nice. The conference rooms were right next to the dining room. I went into the welcome and introductions session with Doug then had to leave because of my unbelievable amount of snot. lol. Sorry, but it was true. I went up to the room and blogged on my Amandakeillor.blogspot.com site and then Doug came and got me for lunch. That night Doug had the opportunity to go to the American Embassy to meet the Emassador. Sadly the spouses didn't get an invitation. I finally felt ok at 8pm so I went down to the mall area and ate a Pastor Quesadilla. It's pork in a tortilla sandwich and you but salsa on it. Yummo. He had a nice time at the Embassy. He said one of the Fulbrighters fainted while the Embassador was talking. She was apparently too warm. Thursday I was feeling a lot better, still stuffed up but not bad. We had an early breakfast because we had an early departure for the Teotihuacan Ruins via bus. It was a bumpy ride but the bus was comfy. We had fun laughing with the other kids. The ruins were huge! I couldn't believe the magnitude. We had been to some temples in bolivia but these were amazing. 2 large temples, the Temple of the Sun, and of the moon. We climbed to the top of the Temple of the sun. http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/teotihuacan has the history and myths behind the Temples. It was my first outing from the Hotel and wow, what an exhausting day. We decided after talking to the kids on the bus that we should all go out salsa dancing later that night. Which we did and we were SO exhausted. Totally worth going to though! Right outside of the Salsa club there was a large plaza that had many meriochi band that hounded you for money for a song. We had them sing for us. Way cool. Doug and I went home alone which made me a little nervous but we had no issues. The next morning we all went to a government building and saw some amazing wall paintings and then went to the Templo Mayor Museum. This is a museum in the center of the city next to temple ruins that some electritions discovered in 1978. It's still being uncovered and items (intact) are still being pulled from the ground. It's amazing. A temple so large that they'll never find it all as the government buildings and palaces have been built right on top of most of the ruins. Then we celebrated together back at the hotel dining room with a traditional Mexican Feast again. Only this time it was all out! So fun!

Her Eyes. I'll Never Forget...

Her eyes. I'll never forget her eyes. Dark, lonely and helpless. This is the image I remember from the day my church showed a video of children in Africa who were dying because they couldn't get vaccines. That day I was sure that I was meant to GO. I didn't know where, when or how but I was going to go. I was 13. When I was 19 I got married, 23 when I became a nurse and 25 when I had a daughter. With each big change in my life I found a little more clarity of my mission. I knew that I wanted to be a nurse somewhere. With children somewhere. However at the end of nursing school in 2006 I lost my twin boys to prematurity at birth. With this pain and grief process my career focus changed from wanting to care for children to caring for adults. Slowly I healed from my loss and once again thought of serving in an orphanage somewhere someday. God had given me dreams of Thialand and I thought maybe that was my path. As the years of our marriage passed Doug didn't know where he fit in my mission. I now had a nursing license and could go anywhere yet he was working for a software company, in an office, with a degree in buisness administration. It was a great job with great people but where was that leading him as far as serving on a bigger scale. He used to say, 'what significant things can I do for people in developing countries with my degree, teach them to build buisness etc..?" That just wasn't a passion. He needed something with passion. Then he was given this amazing opportunity to go to law school. I was reluctant to move across the country but could see it in his excitement that he was finding something with purpose. With his amazing heart, wit and determination he got through law school with bounds of respect and support of many teachers and the Dean of the law school. He was given an opportunity to do research in Bolivia his first year in law school, and I think it was then that he found his mission. Youth in detention. His passion stemmed from his previous work with youth in Argentina nearly 10 years before. See how God works? So precise, so perfectly fit into His design. When we were in D.C. we had planned to move into apartments in one city but it fell through and they said they had another apartment in Silver Spring. I didn't have a job as a nurse there. But I found a hospital on the internet, applied and got the job the next day. Less than one mile from the apartment. AND that first summer we went to Bolivia. When we arrived home to our apartment complex we started communicating with our neighbors more and found relationships with many who were FROM Bolivia. We think this world is small and we live by chance, but Oh how God knows all of it's workings. We lived in an 80% hispanic complex and didn't know. I spoke spanish at work with my patients. I was being refined. For what? For this. I'm now writing from a desk in a hotel in Mexico City. Embarking on an adventure with my husband, a Fulbright Scholar and research grant recipient. We will live here for 9 months, learning the culture, researching juviniles in detentions. And what will I do? Work in an orphanage Lord willing. I don't have anything lined up yet. But I'm here. Lord, I am here. Friends, your prayers can help. I just need a place. How exciting it is!! My life actually makes sense. Crazy right?! If you had asked me 6 years ago what I thought of my life, I would have told you...
I don't want my life, God has forgotten me. Tragedy happened to me and I no longer could see anything good possibly coming from my life. I was asked to quit nursing school because of my losses. I was depressed and didn't see how God could use me. But today, today I am ready. Today I am redeemed. Sitting in a city I know nothing about...with my husband a unified mission. To serve God with our hearts. Share it with you. And be who we were always meant to be, missionaries.

ISAIAH 1:17

 "Learn to do good. Seek justice. Arrest oppressors. Defend orphans. Plead the case of widows." 

ISAIAH 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"