fresh fruit!

¡Ola! I´m back from Ahuatitla, safe and sound only by the grace of God. We had a lot of trouble with our vehicles on the way down. I´ll try to give you a few of the highlights of my time there. It took us over 8 hours to get there, and I discovered on the way that my perceptions of Mexico were very wrong. I thought the whole place was flat desert! On the contrary, it´s the most beautiful country I have ever seen! We drove through mountains for hours; tropical mountains where the air is fresh, the plants are greener than fresh parsley and it is gorgeously warm. In Ahuatitla, I was surprised to find that I wasn´t bothered as much by the poverty as I thought I would be. Everyone has a house, even though it may be made of sticks. But the people are so friendly - there were several times when I found myself enjoying the hospitality of people I couldn´t even speak with. Kids would bring me into their homes, sit me down, and get me something to drink. Of course, I probably looked like a lost sheep the whole time, because I rarely knew what exactly was going on or where they were taking me. :)

The church there is amazing. I know both Ruth and I, as well as the people from Atizipan Alliance (in Mexico City) were challenged by their prayers, their intense worship, and their passionate love for El Señor. Every morning there were people at the church praying, although I´m not sure if that´s because we were there, or if it´s a normal occurence. But they prayed about EVERYTHING at every time of the day. And for a long time. I think they truly understand the verse that says to ¨pray continually.¨Sometimes the prayers felt really long because I couldn´t understand, but I was able to bounce my own prayers off of the words I did pick up. And today (er, yesterday), I went to the service, and I don´t think I´ve ever ¨felt¨God´s presence so strongly. I was making up my own words to the songs, and it was like my tongue was loosened to pray for the church, the kids, and everything else. During the whole hour during which we sang, I felt like I just wanted to fall on my knees and sob because God was so powerfully present.

We also headed out to the river a couple times, which was absolutely a life-saver...especially after a long ride with 17 people under the canopy of a truck. Sweat, stale air, and sticky bodies made for an interesting ride, to say the least. But I have to say that I´ve probably had the most truly ¨Mexican¨ experiences of anyone I know in Canada! It was so fun. During the second trip we made to the river, it took us about 4 hours to get back, because we had more car troubles. The car behind us starting honking, so we pulled over and realized we had a flat tire! The roads were so bumpy, we didn´t even notice it! So we changed tires, then the new one started being all wobbly! I would never ever trade my memories from Ahuatitla. In fact, I hope to go back and visit my new friends someday. But I fully intend to learn more Spanish first! Although in Ahuatitla, they don´t even all speak Spanish! Most of them speak (to some extent), the native language from that area. I even learned a few words in their language. :) ¨Kianen¨ means hello if you are a woman talking to a woman, or a man-woman greeting. I am now officially 4-lingual...english, french, spanish, and nahuatl...although only in english can I actually carry on a decent conversation. :)

So, are you wondering when I´m going to talk about fresh fruit? :) Right now I´m pecking away at a mango that I believe came off the tree yesterday. And I also got my fair share of oranges (naranjes) straight from the trees. Ah, I wish I lived in such a place where fruit grows everywhere! To have a mango tree in my backyard would be heavenly. :) But to have chickens and chicks (pollos y pollitos) in my backyard would be hell. All the chickens in Ahuatitla run loose, which is fine with me, except that the stupid roosters start crowing at 3 am! Add that to the ruckus already being caused by the dogs (los perros - who I´m sure are noctural), makes for quite a difficult sleep. But I´m sure you can get used to anything. :)

Hm, what else? Well, I´ve never felt so popular in my life! I had kids and climbing all over me! I know that a lot of that was due to my lighter skin and that they found it hilarious that I couldn´t understand them, but I discovered that my calling to work with kids is real. Through God, it´s possible to connect with anyone, whether or not you speak the same language. One of the Sunday School teachers were were training was Theresa, and she´s 14. We spent many hours together, just hanging out, even though her english was worse than my spanish!

gotta go catch the plane!
christie