Queretaro Driving Manuevers

People say that the drivers in Queretaro drive way worse than the drivers in Mexico City. Hmmm, population 1 million vs. population 20+million? But I think it's true.

Here are some of my favorite driving manuevers that I've seen pulled by Queretanos:

• Wrong way on a one-way street (I'M even guilty of this one! But hey, in a residential neighborhood with wide streets, it's dumb to have the streets only go one way...)
• "Bypassing" stop lights - this is my favorite that the busses do, there is a stop light by my house where the busses kind of edge a little ways into a parking lot entrance so they can avoid stopping at the red light - it's like they're exiting the parking lot!
• Left turn from the right hand lane - This is a favorite of the busses. I honestly think I see it every day.
• "White line? What white line?" - traffic lanes in QRO are very similar to those in the U.S. However, here, those dashed white lines mean absolutely nothing. A street that is two lanes in one direction can soon turn into 3 or 4 lanes - if you can squeeze by without taking off someone's side mirror, it's all good.
• U-Turn on a red light - self explanatory.
• "I put my hand out the window, so it's legal" - you can get from one side of the road to another very quickly if you just stick your arm out the window and go for it. Ignore the horns beeping to the "tune" of an offensive saying...
• And my favorite: Left hand turn from the right hand lane on a red light - yes, I have actually seen it happen!

I have never been in an accident here in QRO yet. It is an interesting experience though to see these lovely driving manuevers on a daily basis.

I still say that Queretaro has nothing on Tegucigalpa Honduras. They have the manuever that I call: "50 mph down-hill on a two lane highway through a residential area, passing someone on a blind curve." But, that is how two guys got killed in front of my house a few years ago... And in QRO, if you DO get in a wreck, it's handled similar to in the U.S. In Tegus, if someone gets hurt in a wreck, you better run and hide or you'll never see the outside of a Central American prison again.

So, now do you have a little bit more respect for those poor vehicles that carry Californian plates? Happy driving!!

Discipling

These are the lovely young ladies that I have been meeting with regularly over the past few months - Lila, Ana, and Lluvia (Lluvia works in the ministry also, she was with us during this picture, she is a good friend of mine). Unfortunately, the picture didn't turn out too well, but you get the idea.

Lila is 20 and works in the mornings and goes to school in the evenings, leaving... well, not much time for other things. But we meet when we can to discuss what is going on with her, and for prayer.

Ana is 25 and moved to Queretaro in August looking for a job. But, God had other plans for her, and she now attends the School of Evangelism at Horizonte. It will be a hard but good year for her I think!

And I meet with Lluvia once a week for a Bible study - I need to have someone who can pray for me and build me up too!

Super Super Heroes - Part 1

Before we get started, I just wanted to mention that I DID post the very few pictures that I took in Oregon on my blog - the one in spanish, in case you want to see them, you can click here...

In youth group, we are doing a really cool series - super heroes of the Bible! Every week, we have a fictional superhero who comes to youth group, and then the study on the real superhero from the Bible. We have had two weeks of the study so far: "Spiderman" - Samuel (the topic was serving God and others), and "La Mole" (don't know what his name is in english, it's the rock guy from Fantastic 4) - David (the topic was "a heart that seeks the Lord.") Each week, Spiderman (a.k.a. Dani) will introduce the fictional hero of the week, here he is with La Mole (a.k.a. Shultz).

Both weeks so far we have made videos of the hero from the movie, and they are really funny! This past week, with La Mole, we paid a city bus driver to pretend to run into Mole in front of the university! There were a lot of angy drivers backed up behind the bus but it was hilarious! (In Fantastic 4, Mole stops a firetruck, so we had him stop a bus...)

The teens have been really excited to come to youth group (I think the funny videos helped draw them in...), and have remembered what the topic of the real superhero was each week. I asked some of the high school girls what we learned about the previous week, and after saying "spiderman," they all remembered that we learned about Samuel and being willing to serve God in whatever capacity He asks!

I think this will be a great series, and we have some really creative people on the youth group staff to make the lessons memorable!

More to come next week: How is BatMan relavant to someone in the Bible? :-)

Before Oregon...

Here, I'll let the pictures more or less talk for themselves... Here's the events of the week before I left for Oregon:

Water-night at youth group, above we are playng American football with waterballoons.

The past month, we did "Dive Deeper" as the theme for youth group - diving deeper into a relationship with the Lord. So, as a way to help the teens remember that concept, we set up the pool at church, and everyone (who wanted to) got to jump in!

Horizonte School of Evangelizm

I went to Bernal (a BIG rock/small mountain outside of QRO) with the school of evanglism students for a team building activity - we all climbed Bernal with one foot tied to the foot of another person!

Success! At the top of Bernal!!

So, that was a packed week before leaving to visit my parents in Oregon!

Ana and Diana

I have about a half a jillion pictures that I could post on this blog today, but I'm not going to - that will have to wait until maybe friday or so once I am in Oregon and somewhat rested!

We'll start with the best first:
Sunday evening, I went to the Centro with Ana for crepes. (I seem to be going for crepes a lot lately!!) Here's the long version of Ana's story that she told me... Ana moved to QRO the middle of August to find a job in industrial engeneiring (QRO is the place to come to find that kind of job!), and was living with a lady from her home town who had also moved to QRO and wanted to rent a room to her. After about a month of job searching, Ana was getting sick of hearing that all the companies want a man, not a cute little 25 year old girl. Her money ran out, and she didn't know how she would pay the lady she lived with rent for that month. The lady said that if she couldn't pay, she'd have to leave in 2 days. Ana is from the state of Mexico, so it's not like her parents can drive across town to come get her and her things and take her to their home. Ana's time at this house in QRO had been anything but pleasant, but she was super unsure about what to do, only having 2 days to find a place to go! During her evening devotions, Ana read a passage in Proverbs that says "I will deliver you out of the house of the woman of strange words, who has forgotten her pact with God and abandoned the man of her youth. In her house there is death." Woah. Out of the blue, a friend who Ana didn't know was still living in QRO called her up and asked her if she wanted to move in with her! So she packed her things and went that very day! Right after that (like a matter of days) Ana took a part time job at some telemarketing company to earn a little money while looking for that industrial eneneiring job. Somehow the Lord spoke to her and told her that she needed to enroll in the Horizonte school of evangelizm at my church (Ana has been attending our chcurch since she came here). So, 3 days before school started, she enrolled. During the first week of classes, Julian and Whitney were getting desperate about finding a young lady to live in their spare bedroom and help with house cleaning and taking care of their girls. They met Ana. Ana needs a part time, super flexible hours job. So she is moving in with them in like a week!

Now to this past saturday night... Ana went home from youth group tired and needing to finish her homework. She came home to find her roommate drunk (which NEVER happens with thie girl). The roommate had just broken up with her boyfriend, and was really sad and decided to bring home a bunch of alcohol to help her forget about everything. Ana talked with her for a little bit, then turned on some worship music while doing her homework (which was for school of evangelism, where the text book is the Bible). Her roommate commented on how the music made her feel better, and Ana read to her out of the Bible what she was studying for school. Her roommate hinted around that she would really like a Bible. On Monday, I brought a Bible to Ana that we have at the cafe for just such and occaision. Her roommate was really excited and wants to start reading a book about Jesus (one of the gospels)!

This is the second roommate that Ana has shared the Lord with - a few weeks ago, she brought another girl who also rented a room from the not-so-pleasant lady to church, and we gave her a Bible, and she really enjoyed coming to church, but her work schedule hasn't permitted her to come back.

Ok, I know this is rediculously long...

Diana, Alma, Aixa, and Pablo have been coming to the cafe for several months, and have become good friends of mine. Diana is a Christian. She met the others at their university, as they are in the same major. Aixa and Pablo are a couple who plans to get married in the near future. Alma is extremely interested in the Bible, and "religious things." As many times as Diana has asked her if she wants to become a Christian, she hesitates, and decides no.

Yesterday, Diana came into the cafe, almost in tears, but happy. She said that that day, Aixa decided to begin a relationship with the Lord!!! VERY exciting!! But, Diana is moving to Monterrey in about 2 months, in fact she left for there today for two weeks. So she is concerned that no one will be there to help Aixa grow in her faith, and to keep working with Alma and Pablo. That's where I come in, she said. I will be here (unfortunately will be gone for a week). I talked with Diana about a study that we have here that explains what the Bible is, why we read it, who God is, who Jesus is, what salvation is, and why we need salvation in Christ. Diana thinks that both Aixa and Alma may be interested in doing that study with me (and probably Lluvia).

Today, Alma, Aixa, and Pablo came into the cafe. Lluvia immediately invited them to the 3-part marriage seminar that will be starting at Horizonte this week. Aixa and Pablo are very interested in attending, AND, we found out that Aixa lives in the neighborhood right across the street from Horizonte! They (Alma, Aixa, and Pablo) also invited me to go to Toluca with them for the day (about 2.5 hours away) because there is a place by there where it snows, and the girls have never seen snow... I hope I can go, I think it would be a good way to get to know them better, because I really just know them from hanging out at the cafe.

So, this was a long and possibly confusing, but I have a really hard time expressing my thoughts in an understandable manner... heehee

Next up, PICTURES from last saturday's wet and crazy youth group, and from today's adventure to Bernal with the school of evangelism students.

Independence Day - Part 2

PICNIC!!

Saturday, after sleeping in until 10am (some of the church staff slept until after 12!!), the church staff headed out to the town of Tlacote, where Edith lives. We brought all the leftovers from the Friday night party at church - three flavors of tamales (including my favorite - sweet tamales with pineapple!!), quesadillas, tostadas, and 10 gallons of "agua" - pineapple and horcahta (we had 20 gallons in total the night before, wow!)

After a good big meal and a game of 3 on 3 basketball, Martin headed up some picnic games.
Recognize this? -
This time, we threw wet sponges, and it was supposedly at the birthday people! Justin and Edtih both had their birthdays on September 16, so that was another reason for the party. But, seeing as Edith is a woman, and turning 58, they decided to give her a break and let her pick someone else to get sponges thrown at them in her place, so we didn't get to throw them at Edith, but at JP insead.

We also had a water relay game in which my jeans got completely soaked, and american football with water balloons!!

Here is the whole group of independence day picnickers:
Justin and Edith with their birthday cakes (Justin turned 30!!)
And Justing after his "mordida" (every birthday person has to take a bite out of their cake, and 99% of the time, someone smashes your face in the cake while you take a bite. However, after 58 birthdays, Edith has learned how to bite her cake and avoid getting her face smashed in it... I was really looking forward to seeing that...!)
It was a beautiful day for a picnic... until about 7pm when a cold wind started blowing and we frantically threw everything in the house and left for QRO, but enroute, we got in a torrential downpour - couldn't even see past the car in front of us on the highway. But we made it home safely - still wet from the water games, and then from the rain - but safe and happy!

Independence Day, Part 1

So, September 16th is Mexican independence day, and we at Horizonte took the opportunity to have an outreach event on the night of the 15th (which is when everyone starts celebrating). We held a traditional Mexican carnival, complete with lots of games, piñatas, and a TON of FOOD!

We did have a little glitch though... Here's me in the kitchen about an hour before the event started:
Yeah, you know you have problems when you are in the kitchen, under the roof, and are getting rained on! We had a small waterfall of water coming in the wall behind the stage in the auditorium too...

Here's the enterance to the church, with Schultz attempting to unclog a drain: (you can't really tell that there's a step up where the pillars are...)

We had a smaller turn-out than we had hoped, but it was still great!

Here are Justin, Lluvia, Nadia, and Adiel in their Mexican garb (wow, can you tell who is the gringo?):

Me, Micaiah, Whitney, and Nadia looking cute!

So we decided to have a "throw a pie at a member of the pastoral staff" area, not knowing if people would pay money to do that. We sold tickets for 5 pesos (like 50 cents of $), and they sold like hot cakes!! (we are raising money to buy a drum set for the church - we have been borrowing one for a long time, but now have to give it back)

I personally think that this picture of me throwing a pie at JP is priceless... especially since, after I posed for the picture, I totally cheated and ran up to smash the pie in his face! It was a big scandal because it was the rule that you HAD to stand behind a certain line to throw... heehee! He deserved it!

Schultz after getting pied - look, he's a reverse Michail Gorbechev... white spot on dark head instead of dark spot on white head!

Soon it was my turn...

JP, Schultz, Kike, Joanna, and Dani all ganged up on me and got me good.

Here is Mauricio giving "el grito" which is a long string of one person saying "Viva Miguel Hidalgo!" and the crowd says "VIVA!" "Viva Ignacio Zaragoza!" "VIVA!" Viva Morelos!" "VIVA!" and "Viva Mexico!" "VIVA!!" There are a lot of names that they go through. It is in rememberance of the people who had a part in the Independence of Mexico.

And several guys in costume prancing around on stage.

So, that was Independence Night for me this year, it was a blast! And I ate wonderful home-cooked food, including corn on the cob covered in mayonaise, grated cheese, chile, and lime - very traditional, tostadas, arroz con leche, taquitos, and jello.

Next to come - pictures of the PICNIC of Independence Day!!

Board Meetings?

I have heard many people call church board meetings, "bored meetings." This is not the case for us! It seems that every week, apart from hearing a brief from each person who is in charge of a ministry, we end up telling funny stories too! We have an amazing group of, well, young people who make up the church staff of Iglesia Horizonte. It's been a huge blessing to work with them!
The Horizonte church staff with the ministries that each person leads in italics: (back row, L to R) Sara - school of evangelism (also high school girls leader, and office help, production), Lluvia (Global Grounds, and university girls leader), Justin - Global Grounds university ministry (university guys leader), Me (Global Grounds, university girls leader, cleaning/projects), Nadia (junior high girls leader, cleaning/projects, nursrey/preschool ministry), Jean Paul (university guys leader, projects/construction, production, school of evangelism), Mayte - Sunday morning produccion (marriage counseling, family ministries, school of evangelism), Martin - senior pastor (school of evangelism), and Edith - family ministries (office help, community groups, womens' ministries, school of evangelism), (front row) Julian - community groups (young couples' ministry, office help, junior high boys leader, school of evangelism), Adiel - youth pastor (projects/construction, production, school of evangelism), (Gerardo - Adiel & Nadia's son), and Juan - projects and construction (junior high boys leader, production). Wow!

There are lots of other people who help out a lot with various ministries at Horizonte, but those of us who meet weekly are full-time.

Did I mention that our church staff is a barrel of monkeys?!

Staff meeting gone ary

THIS Close...

Well folks, it looks like this is as good as it gets:

Circumstances didn't allow that I go to the Chivas v. Gallos game tonight in QRO... Chivas (of Guadalajara, my FAVORITE soccer team, with my FAVORITE player OSWALDO SANCHEZ) were in QUERETARO tonite to play the QRO Gallos.

Here's the whole story... I found out like 2 months ago that Chivas were coming to QRO today. I got together with Rubén and Job from church (also avid Chivas fans) to see about all of us going. So the plan was in action. But, Saturday, they both said they didn't have money to go (we hadn't gotten tickets yet). I wanted to cry. I can't just go to the stadium by myself for a game... So that was that. Then, this morning while working at church, I mentioned to Alex (Rubén's brother) that Oswaldo Sanchez was only a few short kilometros away from church right then. He said, oh yeah, Rubén went to the hotel where the Chivas were staying last night to meet them. WHAT!?!?!?! And he didn't tell me!?!?!?! He ended up going to the game tonight too - some friend had pity on the poor guy and paid for his ticket. I watched the game on tv at a taco restaurant. :-( They tied. That's okay though, a tie is good because it makes for a better chance of Gallos staying in the big league so maybe Chivas will return here next year...

Horizonte

Here is a lovely picture of all the adults and young people (missing the majority of the kids who were in class still) last sunday! I am guessing there are about 200 people in the picture... I know we have 180 chairs (I set help them up every saturday!), and they were all full so some staff members stood during the service... then we add some kids who left class for the picture...

And we're all decked out in the sanctuary for Independence Day - This Saturday the 16th of September. Actually, the celebrating starts Friday night. I will be at Horizonte, we are having a carnival, along with various traditional Mexican games, and costumes. We hope to leave there by 2am! Then Saturday is picnic day - most families gather together to eat the left-overs of the previous day's feast. I'll be at Edith's house (a Horizonte staff member) with the rest of the church staff and their families.

La Pachanga

Wow, the past few days have been a blur of lots and lots of stuff going on! After recovering from the little friends that were swimming around in my stomache, I dove into normal life... which just keeps getting busier every week! In July, when we had short-term-team followed by youth camp followed by another short-term-team, I remember thinking that when all that was over I'd have lots of time to relax. But that just never happened... I LOVE what I do though, so even if it is sometimes exhausting, I still enjoy!!

Last night may possibly have been one of my favorite days ever. Now, I DON'T make a habit of riding around with a car full of boys, so yesterday was an exception, and besides, Ana was going to come but ended up not...
So, me, JP, Schultz, Dani, and Aron all went over to JP's house to watch a movie. It was the one about a lady who got kidnapped and miraculously reaches some random kid's cell phone by re-assembling a broken phone in the room she's locked in... Not sure what went wrong here, but the movie kind of turned like that dumb TV show "Mystery Science Theater" (not even sure that's what it's really called!) where two puppets make funny comments while watching movies. The movie really isn't a funny one, but there were times when we were just dying laughing because of all the crazy comments. It was so bad, in fact, that Alex, Polla, and Sayuri came over about 15 minutes into the movie, and decided to leave because they thought we were too over-the-top!

After the movie finished, we wanted to go downtown. It started raining. No one had hardly any money. But we went and walked around, soaking wet in the Centro, got stuffed churros (about 50 cents each), pizza and pop, and stood outside the pizza booth (you can't enter the building, you just walk up to the window and order you pizza slice and go sit in some plaza or something) eating and making up ridiculous dance moves to the Mariachi music that was playing in the pizza booth. The few other people who were actually out in the rain walked by pointing and laughing. We proceeded to the car and woke up one of JP's neighbors (hey, it was only like 11pm!) from singing too loud in the car (ok, "singing" is a stretch, more like screeching).

And now, I am procrastinating. I have to finish translating another chapter of small-group material to take to church with me at 8:30 tomorrow morning, plus I need to get stuff ready for my english class and my spanish class (I am going back to school!!), and here I am writing this dumb journal entry. heehee!

We Have a President!!

I'm pretty sure the Mexican presidential election this year took even longer to decide who is the president than the US presidential elections in 2004. Since July 2, it has been up in the air. I think it was Sept. 5 that they actually pronounced a for-sure winner. Felipe Calderon will become the next president of Mexico in December.
He beat Lopez Obrador (pictured below) by... 2000 votes! TWO THOUSAND VOTES. Millions of Mexicans voted (even some who died years ago voted... hmm) I don't even think that CAN happen in the US, with electoral college and stuff. Anyways, it probably wasn't a perfectly fair election, but I would've voted for Calderon, and not this guy:
So Calderon will succeed Fox:

Yay, elections are over, and we didn't have riots in Queretaro. Of course, most of this state supports the PAN, the political party of Calderon, so the only demonstrations that I heard of here were in favor of Calderon. In other parts of the country things are a bit ugly at times because of unsatified citizens.

In other news, it looks like I will be going to a Guadalajara CHIVAS v. Queretaro Gallos Blancos soccer game this wednesday!!! It's my first EVER professional soccer game, and my very favorite team (Chivas!) with my very favorite player (Oswaldo Sanchez, the goalie of Chivas and the Mexican national team) are playing in MY city!! Yay!

Sick. Mnah.

Ok, I am now passing through my first non-self-induced stomache sickness since being in Mexico. Self-induced?!? Well, the other two times I've been stomache sick was because I ate things like: choriqueso (greasiest food you can possibly eat), pork tacos, two bowls of beans, a liter of strawberry juice, and a chocolate drink all in one meal. When you eat like that, you're just asking to be sick! (Now, I realize that, and have refrained from eating like that!)

So, I've had a bacterial infection twice before (strangely, both times involved travel between Honduras and El Salvador...), so I know the symptoms, which I will spare you from reading. I knew monday night that after slurping down a few limes with baking soda and I still didn't feel better, that I had a bacterial infection. I am now on meds, so hopefully by tomorrow I'll at least feel better.

Another post with no pictures (what, do you want a picture of me looking pathetically sick? heehee!), but I just haven't been taking many lately. Everything is back to "normal" for me, so I haven't been carrying around my camera, but hopefully later this week I'll get something on here for you all...

Help! Brain is on Fire....

Ok, translation is HARD. A week ago, Edith (a church staff member in charge of small groups) gave me a chapter of a book in english to translate so we can use it for small groups at church. No problem... I thought. I took the chapter that same day to work on with my my friend JP, so he could help me make the translation make more sense in spanish. An HOUR later, we had done about one page. There were 10 pages to translate. So I went to church later in the week to work on the rest of it - by myself, as working with someone else (for me) is about as productive and calming as letting my mom teach me how to drive a stick shift (in other words, it's unproductive and frustrating!) I finished in 3 hours. But wow, 4 hours of sitting at my computer typing and THINKING in two different languages. You should've seen the amount of Diet Coke I went through...

So now, I am on the next chapter in the book. One chapter a week! It's getting a bit easier, but I left my dictionary at home. BUT, a new Italian Coffee Company (Mexican equivalent of Starbucks) opened near my house, so I figured taking my computer there and enjoying a nice Moka FriOreo Frape could help. It did.

Translating. I think that has to be the thing that I am LEAST accostomed to of living here. But, it's a good learning experience (I hope you read this, Kristen!!)

Ok, off to teach english class! (which is probably the second thing that I am least accostomed to here...) No, I'm not complaining about living in QRO or about my job or culture, just some things are harder than I'd like! But it's all good!! :-)

Monsoon Season?

That's a pretty good description of this week in Queretaro. Wet. The following pictures were taken a week ago at my house:
Here, we see my street, about 15 minutes after the really hard rain and hail had stopped. It rained really hard (with marble-sized hail) for only about 7 or 8 minutes, and the streets clogged up, water was pouring in our front door (you think I'm kidding, but it really was pouring in! The wind blew the rain directly at our door and windows in the front of the house, and the geniouses who built the house left gaps in the door and window frames so the water comes right in if hit at the right angle). Gaby was gone, so me and the kids got out a bunch of towels to try to keep the water from getting the rugs wet. I was about ready to start getting all valuables onto the table, beds, counters, and any other surface that is high enough to not flood. But thankfully the rain died down before it came to that.

We have two cute yellow parikeets at my house, and we put them in the backyard (under a roof) during the day. About 3 minutes into the rain/marble-sized hail, we remembered that the birds were still outside! I donned my only hooded jacket to go outside, and the kids warned that I had better cover my head with something hard because of the hail. So I used a plastic plate cover (the kind of thing you cover a plate of food with to go in the microwave) on my head under my hood. Should've gotten a picture of THAT! But the picture above is my jacket upon returninig to the house after seriously like 8 seconds outside, and some of that was under the roof!

Friday night, I went to Lila's house at about 10pm. We were going to go out to a cafe, but she didn't feel like it, so I thankfully went to her home. At about 11pm, we were finishing eating dinner, and I was about to say that I should get to bed. All of a sudden, there was a huge blast of thunder/lightening, the electricity blinked, and rain like I've never seen before started falling. After about half an hour of that, I doubted that I'd be going home that night, so I prepared to stay at Lila's house. But her brother thought maybe we could make it home, so we tried. The first few blocks were alright, but we got to one intersection, and the water was litterally flowing like a river down the street. Lila plowed through, and I was afraid the current would take the car with it! I had my hand down at the bottom of the door to feel when the water entered the car, which, miraculously, it never did. At one point, we saw water actually entering homes. My neighborhood was hard to drive through, but the houses didn't flood. (Gaby's house flooded a little over a foot deep 3 years ago!) The next day, I was going to work at the church, and a took a bus, and we went through a puddle so deep that the water entered the bus!! I also walked past somo houses where ladies were sweeping water out of their homes. Actually, that big puddle in the road is still there today (48 hours later). I should've taken a picture of that...

But such is life in Queretaro.

Also, my foot is feeling a lot better. Not perfect, but it doesn't hurt to walk, I am just resting it as much as possible. (The therapist who I went to saw me in high heel shoes at church today and just about had a fit...) oops.

Not So Fast...

You can't always be doing stuff non-stop without ever taking a break. One of my friends recently learned that after having major headaches and went to the doctor to hear that he was in way bad health from lack of sleep and nutrition, at only age 25. I was glad it wasn't me - I am in good health. So this past week, I've been having back pains pretty frequently, and just this morning decided to possibly look into going to a doctor lady at our church who specializes in bones and also gives massages. Well, I ended up going to her TODAY. But not for my back. I was walking from church to lunch and my right foot started hurting. At first it was just a little pain and I felt that it would surely go away if I could just shake it off. I ate lunch, and when it was time to walk back to youth group, my foot really hurt. Ironically, I was with JP - the same guy who had recently had health problems - and a few of us have really been getting frustrated with him for no taking care of himself, and not telling anyone when he has headaches. So I continued walking - can't miss youth group, of course - and my foot got so bad that I had to stop. JP asked about my foot, and was frustrated that I didn't say anything sooner. We kept walking, and finally, a couple blocks away from youth group, I felt like someone shoved a knife into my foot. We called Norma, the doctor from church, and went to her clinic, where she looked over my feet, scolded me walking too much, and proceeded to give me an ultra-sound massage. I didn't end up going to youth group, which was especially sad since it was free taco night, and I went home with instructions to stay off my foot all night, and Sunday too.

So I THINK sometimes that I am indespensable, that I MUST continue doing stuff that I do no matter what, but God has some interesting ways of making me rest. This would be one of those.

APRYL!!!!!!

Apryl came from the States to visit for about 10 days! Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Bowling! With Checo, me, Apryl, Brisa, Leslie, Dani, and Javier


Apryl and I at the arches in Queretaro

We also had the opportunity to go to the state of Oaxaca to visit the little girl who is Apryl's sponsor child:

Apryl with Pedro, Margarito, and Elia. Elia is Apryl's sponsor daughter, and the two boys are Elia's brothers.


Elia and friends making faces for the camera!


Apryl with Elia's family.

We also said goodbye to Rebecca last week. She was here for 7 weeks.

The party included Karaoke...

Javier, JC, and Chalio busting out a song


Chelo, Sarai, Rebecca, and me

Alex, Rebecca, Jean Paul, and me.

It was great to have Apryl here for a while, and sad to see Rebecca leave... That pretty much sums up my last couple of weeks!

Unsatisfied

I had an interesting conversation last night with some friends about my country and their country. It all started because we (Alex, Ruben, and JP) were watching a movie and then got to talking about movies that we want to see, and I mentioned the movie that is coming up about September 11. That got us talking about the United States, and the love/hate relationship that Mexicans have with the country. I can always come up with a bajillion things that I don't like about my country (of course there are lots of things that I DO like too!), and they can think up a bajillion reasons why the U.S. is way better than Mexico. I tend to disagree. And then I was given the harsh truth about why I like to live in Mexico so much and they don't. In the U.S. everyone (supposedly) has everything they need. I had everything I needed plus more when I lived there, so I won't disagree that my physical needs were met. In Mexico, people don't have everything they need. I mentioned that "half the population of the City of Queretaro is definitely not poor," and they laughed. They said that I just see the outside of people here - all my friends here have decent homes, a good deal of nice clothes, and can go do stuff like see movies, go out to dinner, etc. But that's because everyone spends all their money on STUFF. If you have money here, you spend it. Immediately. You buy a bigger TV, new clothes, take your family out to Italianni's Restaurant, etc. I like Mexico because the culture here is more focused on people then on time and efficiency. My friends say that I can enjoy Mexico so much because I am not in debt, I have savings, and I also have everything I need to live. I live comfortably. They HAVE THINGS, but don't have money. I went to Alex and Ruben's family's home last night, and it is nice. Anyone in the States would say that those guys live comfortably. They have a nice home, their mom has a car, they have nice clothes, and are able to go do stuff that costs money. Looking at how I lived at my parents' house, I had all the same stuff (plus my OWN car!!). But I had resources for in case something bad happened - in case a parent or myself got really sick, in case something happened to our home (flook, earthquake, etc.), in case we got robbed - if we needed money fast, we could get it. I still have that security here. I have seen how the family that I live with here does not have that security. It comes time to pay inscription for the kids' school, and we eat rice and hot dogs for the month. Then that makes me need to take a decision - should I just GIVE the family more money (I pay rent and stuff every month...)? I can. But is that wise?? I feel bad because Gaby knows that I have money in savings, that I will be okay if an emergency comes up.

I think I liked it better when I thought that everyone who has a nice home and a car is not poor. I remember having almost this same conversation with Suyapa in Honduras last December. I was telling her how I think they do really well for themselves - they have really fixed up their old home nicely, they now have a car, all three boys are either in higher education, or have graduated from university... She laughed. She said it's just because I can't see how they really are financially, and THEY aren't too bad off compared to most of the people in our neighborhood.

I almost feel guilty for coming from a nice middle-class family in the States, and for not having to worry (much) about finances. I think that we all hate things about our own countries and cultures, and always think that someone elses' is better. But I am glad that I'm here in this country, and ultimately, I am glad that I come from Oregon and grew up how I grew up. I know that God has a purpose for putting everyone in their respective locations.

So that was my little lesson in Mexican culture for the day.

A Week in Pictures

First, here is a picture of a bunch of people who came to Yetzi's birthday party. Yezti is Martin and Mayte's daughter, shi is the girl toward the right in the black sweater.

Another team from North Point Community Church in Atlanta came to Queretaro to work with Horizonte. This was a team of 9 adults who came to help us start a small group program at Horizonte and build a new stage. We had a weekend conference at church to kick-off the small group program.

Martin teaching at the conference

What kind of conference is this?!? A fun game to start things off... !

Guys from North Point doing a skit about small groups

The NPCC team also started work on a new stage for Horizonte

Here, Ruben, John, and Geremy are cutting wood for the stage

The stage almost complete (except for putting the carpet on)

The North Point ladies - Sue, Merriam, and Lacey.

Wednesday night, we had a goodbye party for Kristen and Lauren. They had been here two months, and left Thursday.

Me, Leslie, Rebecca, and Kristen at the goodbye party for Kristen and Lauren

Kristen, me, and Alma Rosa

Fany, Kristen, Alma, Lila, me, and Lauren

Leaving the party - Lila, Lauren, Rebecca, JP, Kristen, Dani, and me