Transitions and settling in!

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing great. I'm doing quite well myself...it is my first descanso (rest/time off) since I started working so I'm having a weekend of lazy times, which seems appropriate considering the relentless rain here in Cuernavaca. We volunteers get every other weekend off. 

Two weekends ago was graduation in Miacatlan and in Cuernavaca and it was such an exciting and busy time for NPH. The Monday after graduation was moving day- the high school graduates moved out (most went to Miacatlan to complete their two years of family service being caregivers to the young kids) and the big, bad middle school graduates have moved into the house here in Cuernavaca where they're now the little guys all over again. 

Last weekend was the new kids' first weekend in the city so my fellow volunteers, encargados (caregivers), and I took them in two groups of 25 kids to tour the city. While some of the kids are very familiar with Cuernavaca, many haven't 

travelled much outside of the house at Miacatlan. This was great for me as well because although I've started to explore Cuernavaca some, I am still a little fuzzy on my directions. We went to the market, the centro (aka the zocalo), Cortes' palace (a museum), and la fayuca (the cheap market I definitely can find on my own).

Tucked inside one of the small streets of shopping is the chapel where NPH started. NPH began in 1954 when a Catholic priest from Arizona who was commissioned to that tiny chapel was brought to the jail to testify against a small boy who was arrested for stealing money from the offering place. Father Wasson spoke to the little boy and found out he was taking the money because he didn't have money for food and he was an orphan. Father Wasson decided to adopt the boy and care for him as he would a son. What started out with one little child quickly multiplied into 8, then 12, then hundreds. Although Father Wasson passed away in 2006, NPH continues to provide love and support for thousands of orphans and abandoned children in nine different countries.

Long story short, this guy was legit and started a very special family. It was fun to visit the church with the kids.

Here's a picture of our group from Sunday on the steps of the chapel where NPH started

As for this week, it has been busy! Monday we took alllll the kids to a "natural water park" called Las Estacas. It was very chill and relaxing. I learned that NPH excursions are all day affairs- left at 7:30 am and got back at 6:30 at night! Whew! I went swimming a bit and hung out with the kids all day. We played lots of Monopoly Deal, a card game I found in Spanish at Wal Mart.

On Tuesday I finally started my morning job in the scholarship office. I will work there 8:30-1:30 every morning. I was really looking forward to it, however, due to some unforeseen computer-sabotaging mishaps, it was rather stressful! This week has been spent trying to recover important documents and trying to work through the mounds of work that had stacked up in the transition time. In all honesty, besides for the computer problems, I really enjoy it. I was working on scholarship substitutions and letter translating all week. It is good to finally get started so I can establish my routine.

After work, I grab lunch in the comedor and by two the kids come down and we serve them. I'm still enjoying the food for the most part. I have a break between 3 and 6 so this week I went to Wal Mart several times to run errands and print photos during that time. 6-8 pm is activity time. This week I played soccer (lots of girls vs. not many guys, funny times) and cards with the kids on the days that it was rainy (3/4 days). 

I'm starting to get into the groove of things and really enjoy life here. I think it should only get better the better I get to know my fellow volunteers, the employees, and most of all, the kids. I am brainstorming special activities to do with the girls...I've been having lots of inspiration, so I hope I'm able to carry some of my ideas out! Let me know if you think of any really special things I could do for our group of high school girls. 

Side bar: I'm getting a kick of hanging out with high schoolers. They are really funny and make me roll my eyes a lot. The girls are in love with Justin Beiber and even I get Enrique's "Cuando Me Enamoro" song stuck in my head way more frequently than I should. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DO8GsIYfhQ ...enjoy)

Okay, I gotta run! Tonight is NPH-Mexico's national director's daughter's quincenera party...only the social event of the century. Despite being on descanso I will have to go down and make an appearance for this...and hopefully enjoy good food.

I send my love up your way!!

Hot hot heat and fresh piglets!

This morning we drove down to Miacatlan where all the magic happens. Aka, this is the more ginormous NPH-Mexico home where all of 600 sweet munchkins eat, sleep, play, and learn. It is a mini-universe. Actually, it is a former sugar cane plantation which was converted in the 1950s. Today we had our volunteer orientation and were taken on a tour of the entire place. This was really fun and helpful since I didn't really know where anything was when I came last week for a Padrinos (godparent/sponsorship office) project and for graduation.

Some highlights of the tour were the comedor, where former military cooks make thousands of tortillas every day, among other foods, the fish ponds where the tilapia grow, all the sheep/goats (a hybrid mix because they want lean meat and don't need goat milk or sheep fur), lotssssss of pigs (including the 'death row' of pigs who are about to be turned into dinner and moms with their little piggies who were so fresh they were born today!), the multichanchas aka the basketball/soccer court, the swimming pool, the medical clinic, the 2 chapels and lots of other places I know I'm forgetting.

Since I will be living and working in Cuernavaca, it is fun but a little bittersweet to come to Miacatlan and know I will only get to see life here only once in a while. I will try to make excuses to come down for my job as much as I can. I'm pumped because I was already given a project in which I'll need to come down and make cards with the kinders with their little handprints on it to send to their godparents. Also, it is a bummer to have to separate from my new volunteer buddies that I've been spending all my time with the past 2.5 weeks...3 of them will be staying to work in Miacatlan where as Edith and I will head back to Cuernavaca tomorrow afternoon after playing with the chicos section! This weekend I officially start work as a caregiver- can't wait to learn about what all that entails and spend more time with my co-volunteers, the encargados, employees, and especially the kids!

The random freakouts I felt the first couple days after getting here have subsided and I've decided this will be a great (although probably a pretty difficult) year. Woohoo!

P.S.- I forgot to explain the 'Hot hot heat' part. Miacatlan, although just about an hour south of Cuernavaca, is at a much lower elevation and has an entirely different climate that can only be described as hot as Hades. That is a little exaggeration but it sure is hot and humid here, there's really no escape from the heat! One good reason to go back to Cuernavaca tomorrow!

Alive and kickin'

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've been pretty busy and also a bit incapacitated computer-wise because my laptop charger broke...eek. I may be able to buy a new one tomorrow but I've been macless for almost a week. The end of last week and this past weekend was a very special time at NPH-Mexico, we had graduations! Even though I have only known these kids for around two weeks (and barely know the youngest ones at all), I couldn't help feeling so proud for all that the graduates have accomplished! I don't have time for more than a short post right now, but hopefully soon I will have time to dedicate entire posts to detailing Mexican hair do's and don'ts, on how I am determined to become a pool shark, and how hard it is to fathom the concept of abandoning a child.

What has maybe struck me the most in the past several days is human resilience. I see it in these kids, they have been dealt hands in life I wouldn't wish on anyone, but in general they are some of the sweetest, funniest, most giving people I've met. I am amazed by their resilience. Even if they have lots of problems common to any teenagers, it is awesome to me the problems most of them don't have, if that makes any sense. Mostly, I have been grateful they are now in a safe place and that they have so many opportunities if they continue working hard.

On a different note, if you were wondering about the food here, today's lunch was a winner- albondigas (meatballs)! Tomorrow we're going to celebrate the last day of Spanish school by eating at KFC- a big treat...I'm kinda dreading how expensive it will be, haha!

That's all I got for now, gabacha out!

Happy 4th of July desde Mexico :)

Hey everyone! Happy Fourth of July! I hope everybody has enjoyed the festivities of the day, Mexico could care less about their northern neighbor's day of independence. We (8 other American volunteers and I, plus a volunteer from Argentina) decided we would make a Wal Mart run this morning after mass with the kids to pick up all the necessities for our 4th of July cookout. We borrowed a tiny little grill and cooked cheeseburgers and hot dogs and listened to some Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Kei$ha in the house. It was a nice little fiesta before what I am sure will be another busy week!

Well, this first week was like three weeks (anyone else like The Jerk?). It was pretty long, filled with meeting a million people, going to ehh 20 hours of Spanish classes, and training for my new job. The first couple days were exciting but also kind of like a slap in the face when I realized that I am actually here, and will be here for an entire year. Feelings of "ahh what have I gotten myself into?" have been fairly balanced out by realizations how amazing this coming year has the potential of being. 

I have resolved to remember that I am here to love the kids, and I want to spend as much time with them as possible. Several sweet and welcoming gestures from many of the high schoolers have really touched me this week- many have invited me to eat with them, asked me to go ahead of them in line for lunch/dinner, offered to help me carry the huge water jug for our house, invited me to play sports with them, and one boy even worked for a solid 10 minutes to machete open a coconut just so I could try a cup of fresh coconut milk. As intimidating and unapproachable teenagers can seem at times, I have been grateful to have met many that are going out of their way to be kind to me. I'm finding my go-to topics of discussion with them are food, school, music, sports, tv and movies, the World Cup, and el amor with the girls haha. I am hoping to learn all their names asap, but it's hard when there are ~75 girls and ~75 boys. 

For the sake of keeping this puppy relatively short (I'd like to write a little more often in shorter posts, but our internet was extremely unreliable this past week with the rain from the hurricane) I'll just outline my average day so far so A. you can know what I've been up to and B. you know when you can (hopefully) find me online to skype or fb chat. It'd be one-sided if I only told you about my life and didn't get a clue as to what's going on with you...not to mention not fair!! 

Here's my average weekday for last week and this coming week...it will change soon:

~7 am or 7:30 am-> wake up and get ready

8 am-> leave to catch the bus to language school

9 am-11 am-> grammar class with my teacher Martha (a little on the crazy side but nice) with 2 other students, a teacher from the US and a really nice woman from Holland who works with the deaf for Wycliffe Bible translators

11 am-1 pm-> conversation class with Luis(?) with a group of 3 teachers from the US, my Dutch friend Bernadet, a Catholic priest, and I...we read stories/books out loud and talk about them...yep. I do better when I get coffee in between the sections. I am probably the least 'eager beaver' of all of them, but it is not a bad time. Everyone in the class but Bernadet and I go off on excursions every afternoon and keep asking me why I can't come...I have work, derrr. haha.

1 pm-2 pm-> take the bus back to NPH

2 pm-2:30-> grab lunch at the dining hall. I really like the food so far!

2:30 or 3:30-5:30-> training for working in the sponsorship office. This involves translating letters the kids write to their godparents (sponsors) and mailing the letters to the correct Friends of the Orphan region offices in the US and Canada.

5:30-6:30-> CHILLAX

6:30-8 pm-> activity time! All the kids have to get out of their dorms and participate in an activity. Last week I went to running club once, played card games, and watched the boys play in a soccer tournament on the cancha de futbol. I hope to go to running club again this week, play volleyball, and play guitar with the musically oriented kids. I think it would be cool to try to get to know different groups of kids by doing a different activity every day.

8-9 pm-> dinner in the cafeteria with the kids.

9 pm onward -> do any language school hw when I have it (I thought I was done with hw!?), CHILLAX, read, go to bed early as possible!

Other highlights of the week:

-Lifeteen, or the kids' youth group on Wednesday night was a really fun time. Two boys played guitar and we sang worship songs, all songs I know and love, just their Spanish versions. We (the new volunteers) introduced ourselves and the kids went around in a circle and introduced themselves to us.

-I bought a cheapo cell phone at the mall Plaza Cuernavaca on Friday. This was the first time I went somewhere besides NPH or language school.

-We went out Friday night for one of the volunteer's despedida (goodbye) so I experienced Cuernavaca nightlife...we were given a free pizza, went to a tiny bar with a live band that played the type of Mexican music some people might find annoying, but not me of course, and ended up at a hilarious dance club that had overweight guys dancing on poles...they played reggaeton there so it was my favorite.

-I bought Season 1 of Glee and and a movie at la fayuca, aka Cuernavaca's version of Polvos Azules (in Lima) aka the black market, oops.

I keep trying to upload some pictures but it's rejecting my attempts! I'll try again later.

I'll finish up by sharing the verse that has popped up multiple times when I've been reading the past couple of days: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show us that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. -2 Corinthians 4:7  I've decided God uses the most interesting packaging to deliver His love to those who need it. Sure, I've felt far away from the people I'm used to "getting my love from" but God has shown me that He can work through just about anyone to remind me I'm never alone! It's also cool that He would also consider living in this self-proclaimed 'sometimes spastic' jar if it means that when something great happens, it's obviously His doing and not mine. Sweet. 

Love you!! and Happy Birthday, USA!