Buenas stias from sunny, warm (right now anyway) Mexico. It is a beautiful sunny day today and we are all taking full advantage of it. Esther, Aubrey and Elena are all doing our men's laundry. Of course doing laundry is a bit more involved then we have it at home. First they place the clothes one item at a time in the sink, wet it with water from a barrel, sprinkle soap powder on it and using a scrub brush and wash board sink they rub and scrub the clothes till all the stains are out and then they dunk the clothes in a large basin of water filled with downy fabric softener. Once that is done they place each clothing article, one at a time through a hand wringer to wring the water out as much as possible and then it is time to place the clothes into the dryer….which means hanging them up onto one of the 20 or so clothes lines with tiny plastic "mexican" clothespins. (Joy you would have the time of your life doin this :) )
The girls have been working on doing the guys laundry for about 2 hours now and have started on their own. Because it rains off and on a lot here it is important to do your laundry while it is nice and sunny outside otherwise it can be days before your clothes are totally dry.
Today is Thursday which is their day of "fast". They fast from sun up till 6 pm and use today to pray while they work. They usually only drink coffee or water until 6 pm. I know many of you are probably wondering how the "Mexican coffee" is affecting me since I am so "sensitive" to caffeine. Honestly, the coffee is so watered down that it has not seemed to affect me that much. Now…the large amount of sugar in it might if I drank too much but so far so good. :)
The guys are all working around here today. Asher is laying brick on their little "kitchen addition" while Eric is repairing electrical parts on different electrical stuff they have around here that is broken. I know that may sound funny because I said they do not have "electricity" around here, but they do have solar power and once the sun tops the mountain they have plenty watts of power.
Danny and Joel are running rough long boards through a wood planer run by a generator. Dossie is teaching Jason and Nicole's daughter Jasmine her 4th grade school. Dossie is a great teacher and patiently keeps Jasmine focused. Jasmine is a mover and a goer like her mama so sitting still for a long period of time can be a real challenge but she is doing very well.
I am sitting outside in the sun at the top of one of their little hills on their driveway looking over some of the most beautiful green mountains of jungle that I have ever seen. It is so beautiful here and so peaceful. Looking down at the road below you will see an occasional person walking carrying a machete in their hands or hear and old engine popping and grinding climbing up one of the many hills.
I wanted to tell you a bit about our day yesterday, Wed. It was quite full and driving thru traffic made it quite exciting. First I should tell you about the vehicle we took. It is Nicoles little red Ford Ranger extended cab (sorta extended). Yesterday morning all 8 of us plus Jasmine, her brother Sed and 3 of the mexican folks piled into the little red ford truck. That makes a total of 13 people in a truck meant for no more then 5. Nicole, Dossie, and I piled into the front cab part while everyone else wanted to ride in the back of the truck. Whew…what a ride they had.
We drove first to the hardware store in a small town about 8 miles away , maybe it was more like 15 miles, anyway we all got out and using the hardware store's internet we began blogging right form inside the truck. It was great! I loved it. While we were blogging inside the truck two young girls came out bringing us hot chocolate and freshly made raspberry filled white cake. It was a delicious treat and a delightful blessing. The girls were the hardware owner's daughters and Nicole said that the hardware man has always been so good to her and Jason ever since he found out that they reach out to the poor street people of Mexico. The hardware store owner's wife lived on the street when she was a small girl and she knows what it is like to have nowhere to live and nothing to eat. They are both very rich now and have much but they give away a lot to help the poor.
After we finished blogging we left Asher, Eric, and Sed (Jason and Niole's son) there and the 3 mexican folks and c the rest of us continued on our journey to the next big town where they have a Mexican "Wal-mart". This is where we did our grocery shopping and got mexican money (pesos) out of the Atm machine there in the store. We shopped for about an hour and a half and got a lot of vegetables and beans and rice and candy for Children's Church on Saturday. We also stopped off at a doctors beautiful, amazing mexican house where we got given a nice mattress and bunk bed frame. We also received a huge bag of used clothing from the doctor's wife. She is a beautiful person with a very giving heart. The house next door had a large orange tree filled with oranges so Jasmine and I walked over to look at the tree. While we were there the servant of that house asked what we wanted. Jasmine told him, "Some oranges please". He asked the owner and the owner came out and seeing us, smiled broadly and said, "Of course, you may have all you want." He asked the servant to climb up on the roof and get us many oranges as we wanted. Just then it was time to go so he quickly gave us a box of what he had picked. It was the perfect amount for each of us to have one orange a piece. I saved mine for later and this morning I saw little Louise carrying it around and then eating it later. That made me glad.
After Wal- mart we went to a local little outdoor mexican place and for only 1 american dollar we each received a bottle of coke, and a plate of tostados with beans and shredded cabbage and a fried potato filled flour thing. We also hot a tamale and a burrito on the same plate. It was covered in a green salsa or a red salsa. She also gave us extra picante that was out of this world delicious! Whew…I was very full and only drank a third of my coke. :) Our last stop was at the paper shop below the hardware guy's mansion. We bought large different color poster board and ribbon to do an art project with the kids for children's church on Saturday. Please pray for that as there will be about 75 poor mexican kids who will come for it. I am excited. I bought a volleyball for us to play "clothes line" volley ball using our clothesline instead of a net. I think it will be a lot of fun. Nicole also bought a ping pong table for the little kids that she found for just 4. 50 american dollars. It came with the net and a ball and 2 paddles. I played Dossie a game of it last night and she beat me by one point….I tried to take the loss graciously but it was not too easy…especially since I lost in front of many of the kids. :)
The ride home was hilarious. Picture if you will a small truck bed loaded down with about 50 bags of groceries, a twin mattress, a bunk bed frame, a huge black garbage bag full of clothes and Danny, Joel, Esther, Aubrey and Elena all crammed against the sides of the truck bed. While in the front seat sat Dossie, Nicole, with Jasmine in between them and me on the tiny jump seat in the back with everyone's back pack's and computers and personal grocery items loaded around me. What a trip. The road was being repaired and with no stop sins or traffic signals it made driving CRAZY!!!! We almost ran into trucks or cars 3 different times but thanks to Nicole's amazing driving ability we did not wreck once…praise God!!!
When we arrived home 8 house later we unladed all the stuff and brought it to the kitchen. Then we waited for dinner to be served. It was hotdogs and cut up tomato. Yum yum. I was so tired that I went to bed around 8:30 and got up at 6 this morning. I do feel rested…just a bit hungry for some reason…:)
I will close for now as the kids want me to play my guitar…Sed's guitar. I have been teaching him guitar lessons each day and he is doing well. We love you all and are very grateful for all your prayers. God bless you!!
Will try to blog again soon. Oh…you can look up Jason and Nicole's website and learn more about where I am staying at : thevillageglobal.org
Love,
Mala
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