vida en México!

ok wow.

It has been a whole week and I haven’t updated. This is too overwhelming! So much has happened and I want to write about everything…pero no puedo porque no tengo bastante tiempo. I am going to write a mini diary…

My family here is more than I could have every hoped for. They have honestly welcomed me into their home as another hija. I have two sisters, Teri and Mari. Teri has a little boy named Enrique and we also have a cousin who lives with us, Erik.

(this is Enrique!)

Disclaimer: I am going to write sometimes in Spanish b/c it just comes out.

Lunes:

Today was my first day of classes! I am taking “Culture and Civilization” and “Lititure”. Before I came I thought I would be staying for 6 weeks because I wanted to take an extra grammer class but after being here for only a day I realized that it is actually better to jump right into my classes, plus I will save money.

My classes seem like they are going to be a bit hard for me. Let’s be honest, Emily doesn’t really speak Espanol that well, but I am excited for the challenge. I am in classes with mostly Native speakers and I know that there will be many frustrating days ahead of me.

Everyone here is very welcoming! After classes all the new students had a potluck dinner—each of the host mom’s brought a dish and we had dancing and lots of food!

Entonces,después del almuerzo mis amigos y fuimos al Centro para andar alrededor y experimentar un poco de Cuernavaca! Me gusta Cuernavaca mucho mucho mucho!

The people here have stolen my heart already...

Martes:

After school, my roommate Zoe and I decided to go to la galeria (it is like a mall) and buy a cell phone to have to call taxis and call our madre. We went with our cousin, Erik, and our little nephew, Enrique. We have had so much fun with our family!

Zoe, our madre, and I went to Zara and picked out clothes to try on and put on a little fashion show in the dressing room, although the clothes there are muy caro we wanted to try them on anyway!

some of the great fresh food we having been enjoying :)

Miércoles:

Fuimos a un orfanato con un grupo de estudiantes. (we went to an orphanage after school today)
The name of the orphage is NPH: Nuestros Pequeños Hermonos in a little pueblo a cera de Cuernavaca, Miacatlan.

This facility houses about 1,000 children ranging in age from new born to 18 yrs old (I believe) The facility is way over 100 acres and they have their own farm full of pigs and chickens and fish ponds, they harvest their own grain to make tortillas, and they have tons of fruit trees. The manure from the pigs is used for food for the Tilapia fish. The Tilapia fish ponds are found at the top of a hill and every 6 weeks they are ready to eat. In order to water their gardens they open up the fish ponds and the water that is full of nutrients b/c of the fish is used to fertilize the garden. Perfect picture of the circle of life

The guys at the orphanage are responsible for all the harvesting and it gives them a great opportunity to learn how to provide and work hard.

We bought soccer balls and lots of piñatas to take with us to play with the kids. We first got a tour of the orphanage and then spend about an hour hanging out with the kids. They were so full of life and personality!

Words really can’t explain, but this orphanage was absolutely amazing. The vision of the founder to establish a place where the children there would call each other family, where they would learn how to serve because they have been served, where they would go to school, where they would learn a trade, where they would be loved…

Our tour guide explained that many of the kids there were left in boxes at the front door. He told us that they had two visiting days each year where, if the children did have any family that on those days the families could come and see them. He began to explain that those days are the hardest. He said that early early in the morning all the kids line up at the gate of the facility. They all sit down and wait. Wait for their name to be called over the microphone. Wait to hear that their dad or their mom or their aunt or uncle has come to see them. But he said that most kids don’t get a visitor and then he said for weeks the kids come to him with endless questions of why their Dad or Mom doesnt want them and he has no sufficient answers…

There is a garbage dump about 15 minutes from the orphanage facility. The orphanage started a program to go and pick up children who live in the garbage dump to come and receive food and go to school. At the end of the day the kids are dropped by off at the dump to be with their families because they have to help their families earn a living as well. As of right now about 115 kids are picked up every day.

I will never forget this experience. Please pray with me for the kids at NPH and for the families who live at the Garbage dump in Milpillas.

Go here for more information:
http://www.nph.org/?page=homes/home.php&lang=en&org=4

Jueves:

Class is pretty difficult, and today was kinda frustrating. We are reading stories and about every other word I underline b/c I have never seen it before. I am going to have to do a lot of studying…

But after class we (Amanda, Zoe, and I) went to salsa dance lessons! Great way to break a sweat and release stress :)

I absolutely LOVED salsa class! It was so so much fun! Every tues and thur at 5 o’clock you can find me at “Amor de Salsa” dance lessons!

After salsa we went to good ole’ starbuck for internet access and to study for our test tomorrow. We ended up seeing the director of our school, Letecia, and we joined her for doughnuts after studying :)

(p.s. this is what we taught enrique to do!)

Viernes:

Ahhh its Friday!

After classs today we came home and ate a wonderful lunch and then headed to take a nap. We haven’t slept much lately and today we woke up early to study more for our test, so a siesta was much needed.

After we woke up we colored our madre’s hair. yep. We are her new hairdressers! It was so fun!

Sábado:

Today Zoe went on an excursion to Pueble, a city about an hr away.

I am staying in Cuernavaca to relax and hang out with my family. Today is my host sister, Teri’s, birthday and we are having a big celebration tonight!

This morning I went to the fresh food market to pick up some of Teri’s favorite food. Let’s just say the ‘grocery store’ here is much much different. I loved all the fresh vegetables and fruit! There were so so many! But then when we reached the meat section I became slightly light headed….I don’t know if I will be going back to the market but it was definitely a fun experience.

(me and enrique in the taxi after the trip to the mercado!)

hasta luego!