Club Christmas Drama

Every year, there is a Christmas Drama that all of the Club kids are invited to participate in. We have two practices, and they have to come to one of them in order to be able to be a part of the drama. Their families are all invited to the drama, which was on Sunday afternoon, December 13th this year. The 3 & 4 year olds and 5 & 6 years old are all sheep, the 7 & 8 year olds are shepherds, the 9 & 10 year old girls are angels, the 9 & 10 year old boys are wise men, and there are a few special, speaking parts as well. It really is a precious and beautiful sight to see so many children gathered together joyfully singing about Jesus' birth.

The ovejas

Practicing our song, "Maria Tuvo Un Bebe"

The Club Christmas Drama

Thanksgiving in Mexico

Since Thanksgiving is about the Pilgrims giving thanks after they survived their first winter in America, it is not celebrated here in Mexico (obviously). However, that did not stop our team of American missionaries from celebrating it in full fashion! Last week on Monday, we had a huge Thanksgiving meal with the Americans on our team here in Fresnillo. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, carrots, cranberry sauce, corn pudding, macaroni and cheese, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and more. It was quite the abundant feast. On actual Thanksgiving Day (Thursday) morning, my roommates Karen and Elizabeth and I went running and called it the "Fresnillo Turkey Trot." We even made shirts for it so it would be official. :) It was a lot of fun and reminded me of home. Later that morning, we drove to Zacatecas and celebrated with our team of Americans plus many other American missionaries who live in Zacatecas. We had another delicious meal and even had the opportunity to watch football there, thanks to satellite TV! All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving!

Dia de los Santos y Dia de los Muertos

In Mexico, they celebrate two holidays near the time of Halloween in the U.S. On November 1st, they celebrate "Dia de los Santos" or "All Saints Day." We had a party at church for the kids for Dia de los Santos and explained to them that saints are followers of Jesus. The children could come in happy costumes (no scary ones), and we played several fun games, gave away lots of candy, had a costume contest, and also sang some songs and had a short lesson.

Dia de los Muertos or "All Souls Day" is November 2nd. For this holiday, people honor the memories of loved ones who have died. Often, families will put out special picture frames of these loved ones. They also will go the cemetery and bring food and flowers with them.

For both of these days and several days before it, a lot of people dress up and walk around to houses and stores asking for candy or money. So instead of trick or treating for just one night (like in the U.S.), they will do it for several nights!

Here are two pictures from the party we had at church for Dia de los Santos:

All of the helpers for the Dia de los Santos party

Mareli & Bryan (sister and brother) and their great costumes

What I Do...

Sometimes, people want to know what I do here on a daily or weekly basis. Each day is a little different, so I will give you a "snapshot" into a typical week here.

Monday-Our day off! Some of the things I do often include sleeping in, catching up on emails or phone calls, washing clothes, cleaning my room, hanging out with my roommates, visiting people, running errands, relaxing, and spending time with God.

Tuesday-We have chores in the morning from 9 AM to 1 PM. Then, we have a big team lunch with our American teammates before having team meeting in the afternoon with our whole team (Americans and Mexicans). At night, I go to my cell group from the church which is like a small group.

Wednesday-We plan for "Club" (a weekly Bible Club for Kids) and work on future lessons. We also spend time praying for Club. After team lunch, we set everything up for Club and then invite the kids on foot or by vans. Club itself is from 4 to 5 PM, and then we visit one of the children in our class afterwards.

Thursday-We invite kids to Club and have one Club from 10 AM-11 AM. Afterwards, we visit a Club kid and then have some down time to eat lunch or rest. At 3:00 PM, we start inviting kids to the afternoon Club which is from 4:00-5:00 PM. After that, we do another visit before calling it a full day!

Friday-Every other week, we have team prayer in the morning. Then, we spend the rest of the day doing various miscellaneous tasks for the ministry. I also often have Spanish lessons on Fridays. We can also spend Fridays visiting more of our Club kids.

Saturday-We have Torta (a free feeding program for kids and youth) every Saturday. This takes a lot of time to prepare for and clean up from. It is neat to get to help feed over 300 kids sometimes though! If it is not my turn to help with Torta, I work on more of my other ministry tasks. In the late afternoon, I help with the youth group from our church.

Sunday-We have church at 11:00 AM each week. In the afternoons and evenings, I like to go out to eat or over to people's houses and enjoy spending time with families from the church. On Sunday nights, we often will watch a movie or do something else fun since the next day we get to sleep in! :)

A Tour of our House..

You might be wondering what the houses are like in Mexico. There are all different kinds of houses, some very fancy and some very poor. I live in a fairly big house with three other girls my age who are also missionaries here. One thing that is very unique about our house and unlike most homes in the United States, is that there is a large patio/courtyard in the middle of it. The good part about this is that we get lots of fresh air; the bad part is we get wet going to some parts of the house when it's raining outside! We call our house "The Patio" though for this reason. Are you ready for a photo tour? Here we go...

When you walk in the front door, this is what you see. My room is one of the ones on the right (the first actual door you see, about midway down the hall).

Here is my room...

After you walk down the hall, you turn right into the "patio." All of these doors are different rooms in the house (the dining room, living room, 2 different bathrooms, office, etc.)

The kitchen...

This is the other side of the kitchen which connects to the dining room...

The living room or "sala"...that is pink!

There are lots of other rooms in the house, but that is the end of our photo tour for now. :)

Aguascalientes

Recently, my roommates and I went to Aguascalientes for a fun day trip. It is about two and a half hours away from where we live. This made me think about the book Esperanza Rising because that is where the novel begins. As we drove through the countryside, I thought about the book and how much Esperanza loved living on their ranch. I also thought about how I missed Reading Group and teaching novels. Here are some pictures from our drive...

Viva Mexico!

Today is Mexican Independence Day. September 16th for Mexicans is like July 4th for people who live in the U.S.A. It is a national holiday, and they have fun, traditional events. On the night before their Independence Day, there is a big celebration downtown. There are food vendors, patriotic souvenir kiosks, mini-rides, a big stage with a band, and.... fireworks, of course! After the fireworks, there is something called the "grito" where everyone yells, "Viva Mexico!" We went downtown last night, and it was a lot of fun to celebrate with everyone.

This morning, there was a parade in the center of town. Lots of the schools are a part of the parade, and we saw many students marching. It made me really miss my old students! Several of the kids we work with through our church were there though, and it was fun to see their faces light up when called their names and waved to them. :)

Fireworks celebration the night of the "Grito"

Celebrating with friends

Elementary school children in the parade

Wal-Mart in Mexico!

Did you know that there are Wal-Marts in Mexico? Well, there are! The city that I live in (Fresnillo) is very modern, but not very "Americanized." In other words, there are lots of stores and other restaurants, but not very many are the same as the ones we have in the U.S.A. In fact, the only two you might have heard of would be Domino's and Auto Zone.

However, in Zacatecas (a city about an hour from where I live), there are a lot more stores and restaurants like the ones we have in the U.S. These include McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Burger King, Subway, Blockbuster, and my personal favorite, Starbucks. :) Sometimes we go to Zacatecas to buy supplies at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club that we can't find here in Fresnillo. It is always fun to enjoy some Starbucks while we are there, too! Here are some pictures from the Wal-Mart in Zacatecas...

"Siempre" means "Always"

Looks pretty similar, just in Spanish!

Back to School

Last week was the first week of school at my old school in Birmingham. That means my sweet 4th graders are now the 5th grade leaders of our school, and I am sure they are doing a great job at it. :) The beginning of school makes me think of various childhood memories--buying new school supplies, back-to school clothes shopping, and the excitement of finding out who my teacher was and which friends were in my class each year. Even as teacher, I loved the excitement of finding out which students were in my class each year. Another aspect I love about the start of a new school year is that it is a new beginning. We all need fresh starts sometimes, and the beginning of the school year is exactly that.

While it's not quite time for the kids in Mexico to go back to school, I thought I'd post a few pictures so you could see what schools are like here...

School Zone!

A Local Kindergarten

Brownies

Living in another country is very exciting, but it can also be tiring at times because there are so many things that are new and different. Yesterday, I got to do something that was almost exactly like something I do at home in the U.S.--I made brownies. You can even buy Betty Crocker brownie mix here! Since the package has directions in English, they put a sticker on top of it with directions in Spanish for the people here. I also had to follow the "high altitude" directions because we live a couple thousand feet above sea level on a plateau in central Mexico. (My wonderful 4th grade Alabama History students should remember what a plateau is!) Other than that, everything was almost exactly the same. Most importantly, the brownies tasted just as delicious as they do at home! While I enjoy learning lots of new things and experiencing a new culture, it was nice to just enjoy the comfort of something familiar yesterday.

Location, Location

You might be wondering where exactly I live here in Mexico... Well, I live in the city of Fresnillo which would be like Birmingham or Tallahassee, but not as big or luxurious. Mexico is divided into states just like the USA. The state that I live in is called Zacatecas, so that would be similar to the states of Alabama or Florida. The license plates here say Zacatecas, just like license plates in the USA have the different states on them. You can have a U.S. registered vehicle here though, too, so it's fun to see different U.S. plates here occasionally. :) Our ministry vans were bought and registered in Illinois so of course, they have Illinois plates instead of Zacatecas plates.

I live in "el centro" of Fresnillo, or the downtown area. There is a big plaza near our house with trees and benches. People like to go there to hang out, and there are also a lot of stores nearby the plaza.

A street corner and the plaza near our house, at dusk

Felicia, Karen, and I enjoying some time at the plaza...

Kindergarten Graduation

Today, I went to a kindergarten graduation here. Here, kindergarten is a separate school and you go there for two years. After that, you go to the primaria which is like an elementary school in the United States. Briana is the daughter of one of our local staff/team members, and she graduated today from kindergarten. Each child also has a special friend or family member be their "madrina" or "padrino" for the graduation. The madrina is kind of like a godmother and walks across the stage with the child during the graduation. My friend Karen was excited and honored to be Briana's madrina.

Before the graduation begins...

Briana and her madrina, Karen

Walking across the stage and shaking hands!

Hola from Mexico!

After a lot of travel, I made it safely to Fresnillo, Mexico!  I arrived in McAllen, Texas, on Thursday evening where some of my new teammates met me and the other girl who was moving down.  On Friday, we drove from Texas to Fresnillo which took about 12 hours (including stopping for meals and short breaks).  Some of the cities we passed were Monterey and Saltillo.  I have only been here a few days, but I have already experienced a lot.  Everyone is so welcoming and friendly, and I'm certainly practicing my Spanish lots.  I'll try to post some pictures soon and share more details with you all...

Getting to Mexico...

There are lots of different ways to get to Mexico.  You can take a boat, a plane, or even drive.  I'm going to do a combination of two of these.  On Thursday, June 25th, I will fly from Tallahassee, Florida, to McAllen, Texas (changing planes in Dallas).  Then, the next day on Friday, we will drive to Fresnillo, Mexico (the town where I will be living). This will take many hours and most of the day on Friday.  

In order to go to other countries, you have to have a passport.  Since I am a citizen of the U.S.A, I have a U.S. passport that looks like the one in the picture.  When you cross international borders, they usually stamp your passport in the inside to show the dates you arrived or left on.  

Coins, Coins, Coins!

On the last day of school, my wonderful 4th grade students presented me with a very special gift...a piggy bank FULL of coins!  As we all took turns holding the bank, it was obvious that there were a lot of coins in there.  After lunch, we estimated how many coins were in there and then counted all of the coins.  Most guesses were in the 300's or 400's. Guess how many total coins there were?!  1, 349 coins!  WOW! The pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and even silver dollars added up to $54. 07!  I'm so thankful for all of the children and their families who donated money to help the children in Mexico and to help me get there.  An extra special bonus to the gift...I now have a keepsake piggy bank with FSU colors!  My class knows me so well! :)

A Virtual Field Trip

On June 25th, I will be moving to Zacatecas, Mexico for a year.  As an elementary school teacher and also a children's ministry volunteer at church, I am blessed to know many children.  If you are reading this blog, you are probably one of them!  I wanted a way to keep in touch, and I know how much all students love field trips so I decided to create this blog as a "virtual field trip" to Mexico.  :)  I hope that this blog helps us stay connected and that you learn more about what life is like in Mexico, too...