'Tis Been Awhile

Apparently I've been busy. On January 9th another intern named Heather arrived. She will be here for three months and hails from a town of 100 in southern Ontario named Eagle. She attends Emanuel Bible College and graduates in April with a missions degree. Afterwards she will move on over to the great city of Calgary to attend Canadian Theological Seminary therefore becoming my neigbor as they share one of AUC's floors.

We share a room. Its going well. We climbed the Sun and Moon pyramids together yesterday. That was bonding! Its a tough climb up those.

As most of you know, I went to Cuernavaca for six days in there. I worked with four people from the Vermillion Alliance Church, painting the school and dining room of a "Casa Hogar". A Casa Hogar is a home for orphans, but also for abused and neglected children. I went there in November for a day with my cell church as well. The kids are amazing and it blew me away what joy they had despite all they have had to overcome in their short lives. The workers there are all volunteers, commenting that they do it simply because they are Christians and that even without an income, God has never let them go hungry. They do many things to make money for the home as well as depending on other's support as there is no government funding in Mexico even if it is the government who has given them most of the kids. I definantly cried upon leaving. God has put on my heart a few of those children to keep praying for.

Well I am sure I will be a bit more regular in writing now...maybe :)

My Day So Far

Alright so my alarm goes off at 6:50, I decide its okay for me to sleep some more so I set it again for 7:15. At 7 my cell phone starts telling me its time to wake up over on my desk as I had set it the night before to make sure I actually got out of bed. I get up, shut it off, crawl back under my warm covers and wait for the 7:15 alarm. By that time I had to go to the bathroom anyway so I got up, grabbed my towels and headed down the metal staircase to the back of the house where the bathroom I use is. After a few minutes I decided it was too cold to shower, that I didn't smell yet and would wait until after I got back home. Went back upstairs, carefully, so as to not awake the sleeping Chihuahua, who can be very loud. Got ready for the day and decided to see what I could grab quickly for breakfast. I went into the kitchen and found the sweet bread my sister had boughten the night before from the man that rides his bike around calling out "eelllll paaaan!" (the bread). I found a doughnut, my favorite of course and ate quickly before heading out the door.

Out on the street I did my usual prayer for safety during travel then headed towards the park to cut through it to the street on the other side. I caught the micro at the corner and paid my fair. I even found a nice seat next to a friendly looking older woman and sat down for the quick journey to the metro station. As the road that goes near the metro is extremely slow in the morning due to the amount of traffic, the micro driver couldn't pull over to the curb where they normally do to let out passangers to the brown line. So I went ahead and asked for him to let me step off (in other words please be aware I'm getting off and don't step on the gas). Walking towards the station I was proud of myself for asking as awhile ago I probably would have just waited until the driver stopped even if it meant a longer walk after. So I take the metro to Centro Medico, transfer to the puke green line (seriously its the color of bile) and went to Etiopia. I went up the stairs to the surfice and started looking for the restuarant VIPS as that was were I was to meet my mentore, however there was no VIPS, but a CALIFORNIA so I went there and texted my tutor about the change. Its important to note I didn't learn how to text until I came here. My tutor phoned back to say she thought it was to be 10:30, not 9:30 that we were going to meet. So I waited for an hour, luckily I had brought a book with me.

My tutored showed, apologized profusely and then went on with our lesson. At 10 to 12 we stopped to discuss tomorrow and then walked to the metro together. We parted ways there and I got onto one of the all women cars at that station as the train was quite full. Got off at Centro Medico to transfer back to the brown line. I managed to get a seat on the train, next to a kind looking older gentlemen. As I sat staring at the spot on the floor where the first floor board was missing and wondered how many more layers there were to go before seeing the tracks below when the power went out. Thankful that it was at a station and not in a tunnel, I then noticed the graffiti on the walls and wondered how people manage to do it without others seeing them. The power came back on and off we went. The same thing happened at the next station and then the next. At the fourth station an announcement was made, which I didn't understand, but it reminded me to look up the word for awake as there have been times when I have wanted to use it. On we went, but at the next station everyone started to get off, the man next to me must have noticed the confused look on my face so he motioned for me to get off too and said everyone had too. Obviously the train was having issues. So we all got off and waited for the next train which was about thirty seconds behind. I managed to get a seat again, thanks to the skills Heather Hahn taught me about getting to safe places on a train when its crowed.

Upon getting to Pantitlan I walked towards the corner where I catch my micro to my house, a bus that was painted with a canadian flag drove by and I wondered why the owner choose canada in particular. I got on the micro, paid my fare and asked the driver to let me off the street by the park. I cut through the park where there were a lot of children who had obviously just gotten out of school and went home, passing by our community's big guadalupe statue. Opened the door to my house where Cobi greeted me and demanded to be picked up. Got into the shower and was just about to rinse when the water ran out because this area is short on water as it is and my sister had already thrown in a load in the washing machine. She came running back to apologize and switched the switch to the reserve tank that sits on the roof for times like these.

So it hit me today... I live in Mexico City and it's become my life.

The Adventures of the Chihuahua

You can't live in Mexico and not have a chihuahua as a pet. Well you can actually. Many people do in fact. But I personally have the privelage of a Chihuahua in the house and therefore believe its the only way to live. His name is Cobi... or Kobi... I'm not sure how they spell it. He is what I believe my brother would describe as "special needs". Not in mental capacity, although that is quesitoned from time to time, but more in the emotional relm. He really enjoys absolutely everyone who is a room paying attention to him, or feeding him. If you don't notice him, he will come and claw at your hand until you pet him and then move onto the next person or claw again if he's set his sites on you.

I caught him eating lipstick in the back room one day. He had red all over his mouth.

I found him eating a spool of thread yesterday.

He took a hair tie out of my sister's hair cause he wanted to play with it.

He burrows under the blankets on the bed because he gets cold easily. If you happen to be under that blanket too, watch your toes because if they move too much and disturb him, he'll let you know.

One night he decided I shouldn't sit on my sister's bed. He defended it really well.

He wears baby t-shirts from Acapulco. He has two to choose from, a red one and a white one.

If you offend him, usually by laughing at him, he stares you down until you say "perdon" (sorry). Seriously.

Once I was making him jump to get a treat and he smashed his head into the table. Later that night well playing fetch he jumped at me and slammed my head into the wall. Coincidence? I think not.

Yep its quite the experience living with a Chihuahua. Its bonding time for me and my new family as we laugh over his antics or wonder about his sanity. I think Dogs truly are man's best friend, but also a gift from God to put a little joy in peoples lives.

We have a bird too by the way. It sings in the mornings.