mexico---fast forward to now

so thanksgiving just past, and december is almost here, which means it’s been about 3 months since we first arrived here in penasco.  my goal was to keep a daily journal of all our adventures, but since that didn’t work out, i am summarizing the past few months into a very condensed version (well, i consider it condensed).  so lets see…

…after the first week of living in fear, confusion and anxiety, we really began to adapt to our new home.  we met friends, who speak English!  of course, they are Americans and all over the age of 49, but without them, i don’t know if we’d still be here.  they welcomed us, encouraged us and fed us (many times!).  tab (a pastor at a church down here) and his wife ellen have taken the duty of being our Mexican parents, and what a difference they’ve truly made.  they helped us get connected with many other people and organizations in town (family of god church, the larry large foundation, good news club, vida joven…aka young life,  the local food bank, penasco fellowship…) 

…with the good news club we helped feed over 200 people one Saturday afternoon, most of them being children.  the children listened to bible stories and sang songs and then eagerly waited in line for a hot dog and some cookies.  there were about 35 moms there who also waited in line for a bag of food filled with rice, beans and macaroni.  it’s pretty crazy seeing several girls between the ages of 14-18 waiting in the “mom line”.  you look at their young innocent looking faces, and then to the precious child in their arms and you know they’ve already experienced way too much life. 

…dustin got to speak to a youth group (penasco fellowship) on one of our first Saturday night’s here.  speaking in a different language to a group of teenagers who’ve grown up in a completely different culture is quite a challenge, but he did a great job.  the translator helped quite a bit too.  and tomorrow he is preaching in “big” church at family of god, twice!  i’m pretty excited for him.

…with a different church (family of god) we helped with a neighborhood water day.  water day is a day of lots of hair cutting, a giant slip-n-slide, shampoo, and hundreds of dogs.  we went to the barrios (the poorer areas of town where the streets are all dirt and the houses are made out of scraps of whatever).  once there we offered free hair cuts while another church

in town did skits, singing, and puppet shows for the kids.  i’ve only cut dustin’s hair before, but apparently that qualified me to be a hair cutter for the day.  i lost track of how many little boys i gave hair cuts to, but by the end my hand was tingling all over from holding the clippers for so long.

the little boys were so cute!  i now want one (hehe).  then, dozens of kids played on the giant slip-n-slide.  we had shampoo available, which the kids loved, so it kind of turned into a great big shower. 

…with the larry large foundation we helped deliver baby baskets to the new moms at the hospital.  there are about 80 new babies born every month, which is about 5 babies a day.  now that may not sound like that many, but the town is only about 45000 people.  either way, there’s lots of babies around.  so we went into the hospital and went and got baby baskets for 3 new moms.  when we entered the hospital room we realized that the sick are kept in the same room as the new moms and their brand new babies.  there are about 5 beds in each room, and all the beds were full.  the babies were perfect, beautiful babies.  almost all deliveries are done by c-section because there are not enough doctors.  so they have to schedule all the births in order to be able to help everyone.  and then the moms are usually sent home within 24 hours, and many are sent back to a little shack with a dirt floor and no power.  but the babies obviously adapt to the tough lifestyle very quickly. 

…we’ve met several families in our short time here, and we’re constantly meeting more people in need.  so far we’ve been able to build 4 houses.  2 in October and 2 in November.  

in October christ’s church of the valley came out and built houses for two great families.  it was fun having ccv here because we got to see some friends too.  a few people from ccv came in November and built another house for a family of 5, one being a 1 ½ month old little baby.  gold canyon

 church, from apache junction also came down in November and built a double wide for a family of 8.  7 kids in this family! the groups that have come down have been so very generous and worked so hard to give these families a fresh start.  the families from October have already put more work into their houses, taking pride in their new house and really making it their home.  the list of families needing houses is continuously growing.  i want to help all of them, right now…  weekends when groups are here are always fun.  on the last night we do a fiesta and invite all the families we’ve helped out for dinner.  it gives the volunteers a chance to see and get to know all the families we’ve helped and the families can get to know one another as well.  we have some local people come out and make carne asada and the band from young life plays music.  it’s just a really neat time for the Mexicans and Americans to hang out together. 

...we've also had a little bit of time to have fun down here.  the beach is only about 10 minutes away, and taking a stroll down it in the evenings definitely helps us to relax after a hard days work.  and we love the cheap tacos that we can eat while sitting in old port looking out at the water.  the sun is always out, the days are warm and the sunset’s are beautiful!  it’s my kind of place here.  and we’ve had visitors too!  joe and nicole and the girls came down for a fun day at the beach, and to see us 

course.  i loved having them here and i had so much fun playing with the girls in the water.  then, just a few days later my mom and jim came down.  what a great week!  we did more hanging out on the beach and enjoyed a lot of good Mexican food. 

…that’s the gist of what’s been going on down here.  we use to have a pack of wild dogs that tormented us every night, but they’re not too bad anymore.  i’ve found a tarantula, a scorpion about the size of my hand, and a rattlesnake about an inch from my foot.  other than those little encounters, and one tiny run-in with the police,  it’s been a great adventure so far.