I´ve devised a plan...

So you all may have a fuller share in our Mexico experience, I´ve devised a plan so you can all take part even from your own homes! First, you will need some supplies. 1- Small garbage can 2- (most important) plastic bag liner 3- bottle of water 4- loose detergent (not liquid form) 5- large bath towel 6- umbrella Alright, well now that we´re set with supplies, our experiment can begin tomorrow morning. You are to brush your teeth, not with faucet water, but that from the bottle. Wet your toothbrush, brush your teeth, rinse your mouth and brush with the same bottled water. Careful not to be tempted to turn on the faucet! Now you will repeat this tonight as well. Also, each time you must relieve yourself, don´t you dare think about throwing that paper down the toilet. Place it in the small trash can next to the comode. Now, you see the importance of the plastic bag. Not fun taking that kind of trash out without a bag to carry it in. It may be stinky but that´s part of the experience. This you must continue doing for a full week! Next, since the temperture your living in is wet and you have no air conditioning, your bath towels never dry out properly. And within days begin to smell of rotten mildew. Now, I want you to find the smallest sink in your house and wash your towel by hand using the loose detergent. Ring it out and set it out to dry. While this may seem like a simple process, the tricky part comes in to beating the afternoon showers every day. You only have about 4 hours of sunlight to dry out your towels before the rain falls. Which surprisingly, 4 hours is not near long enough to dry out a bathtowel! You can try in the evenings with your hair dryer but it´s only self defeating. Also as you go in service, bring with you an umbrella. You´ll need it to guard you from the heat of walking 4 hours on your feet under the shadeless sun of Mexico. No, jumping in and out of cars, finding refreshment in the air conditioning. Your refreshment, you must find under your umbrella.

This also comes in handy for the unexpected afternoon showers that close in on you from just over the mountains...

You may continue each item for as long as your prefer. If you´re so inclined...why not join in for the next 4 months and live just as we do here!

PHOTOS!

Okay. So I finally took some pictures. Here´s what our new apartment looks like. We live in a ´gated community´. We have a little terrace inside the perimeter of all the apartments. We´re number 7 on the bottom floor.

We also have a small little kitchen as soon as you walk in. 4 eye gas stove, sink, and cabinets. We have a mini fridge on the other wall. And our dining room. 3 walls chairs and a large round table.

He´s a snap of B in our bedroom. The only other room in our place. Excuse the mess. We had just woken up...










OH, and our proudest room. The tackily tiled bathroom. Here´s B brushing his teeth like a goober. And yes, what you see there is not only the sink, toilet but also our shower. It´s all right there on top of each other and everything get wet everytime we take a shower together...I mean, uh...Shower. Just plain shower.

Just down the road is where the family lives. Here´s a picture of their house and the little tienda one of the daughters, Erika, runs.


Here´s our street. Calle 16 de Septiembre. On the left you can see the orange tortilleria where we buy from every night for dinner. A church in the distance, VW bugs everywhere!


And now...finally this is where we are at at this very moment. At Berenice´s Internet cafe. Although in the pictures you´ll see her two brothers Omar and Daniel. And then Erika pointing me in the direction of an available computer...


So you can share our moments with us....

Daily Life In Oaxaca

The friends in the congregation wanted to start a Only in Oaxaca... list. I´ve only heard one so far but it´s adequate. Only in Oaxaca do they paint the road lanes over a dead dog! And sadly, yes that is true. We have wild dogs that travel in packs. Ribs showing, fly infested, badly healed wounds. It´s such a sad state. But the locals here think nothing of it. Quite the contrast to what was featured in the SkyMall magazine on our way here, doggy padding for the back of your SUV, doggy steps so the little mut can easily reach the side of the bed, etc.

Graffiti. Most puzzling. Graffiti can be a fantastic artistic outlet. Some even to be admired, but here? It appears as if someone just ran down the street with a spray can. Most unoriginal! No pictures, no nearly unlegible font, no pictures, no Juan ama a Juanita, just squiggles. Truly disappointing. Worse, the city does nothing to prevent it nor clean it. Every wall, every door has its own squiggle of spray paint.

Mexican music. Our personal favorites. You know the kind, trumpety, horns, clown music. Whenever I hear this clown music I´m half expecting that at any moment the Mexicans are going to break into a juggling and tumbling routine! I suspect that they see us coming and go about their normal business and as soon as we´re out of sight the circus act resumes! Much like our toys use to do when we walked out of our bedrooms and closed the door. If you turned quickly trying to catch them you thought for sure you saw movement! Clearly the most iritating aspect of Mexico is the trumpet clown music.

Autobuses! Hailing a bus is really a quite simple motion. Extend your arm, raise your index finger and that should indicate the approaching bus is the one you want. However, this simple motion is often misinterpreted. As the bus soar pass you, you have to ask yourself if you´re being discriminated against. Is it because you´re white?! I mean, how many meanings does ¨hey stop I´m waving my entire arm at you- not in an amicable way¨ But alas...we have to wait longer.

Another nice aspect of public transportation is the vendors. Riding for free of course. As they get on board they begin shouting the marvel of the pens they offer. These are no regular pens. You can´t live without these pens! Men boarding with their guitars in hand, singing, playing. None of any talent. Less the one today, two men, one with guitar one with a panflute. They played the tune to the forbidden dance. After which, they offered to sell their CD instead of soliciting money. Brandon made a donation anyway.

My favorite side effect of the buses are the soot filled snot that results. I wish there were a better term but it fails me now. Snot is the most approriate to describe what is produced from your nostrils. Filthy, black. It´s a wonder these people´s noses aren´t falling off from cancer of the nose! The pollution, beyond horrible. There are no emission regulations. I think they believe the more black fumes your car emits the faster it must be going! Perhaps I can furnish a picture soon of the clouds following these buses.

Mazaltepec

Service again today. However, today was much more interesting than the others. Seeing that the congregation has the whole state as their terriotory we went out to one of the border towns of Oaxaca city. An hour on the autobus took us to Etla. A speck of a town. Two main roads. One going in and the other going out. We went looking for another sisters return visit, a man, who is interested in studying. It took us awhile to find him as we were on the wrong road, the one coming in. He was on the one going out. His English really wasn´t that good but Brandon introduced the Require brochure to him and started a brief study. Afterwards, Brandon returned to Oaxaca to prepare a meal of red sauce and pasta for the family tonight.

Meanwhile, I conintued on with another sister to Mazaltepec where she had a study. Mazaltepec. I believe it must be mandatory to be 4 feet high and own two donkeys! Because that´s all there were. Dark skinned, native Indian looking Mexicans. We found one young boy along the way who proclaimed he spoke English. ¨Do you speak English?¨ ¨Jase¨ ¨Oh great, how is your English?¨ ¨Jase¨ ¨Aha. Would you like to study the Bible in English?¨ ¨Jase¨ ¨So how did you learn English?¨ ¨Jase¨ Then he pulled out on his movies in English. He put in Superman. I suppose since we spoke English that was an indication we were interested in staying awhile and watching a movie with the boy. Then he said, ¨Music. Jase¨ Next thing I know I´m listening to Total Eclipse of the Heart! Seeing, that we weren´t getting very far we left him with the brochure and we carried on our way...only after he insisted we take two lolipops with us.

You would think Mazaltepec was the most fertile town there is. Not by sight, but by smell. I have never known an entire town to smell of manure. Every corner greeted you with a smiliar yet fetid smell. Perhaps this has to do with the mandatory donkey regulation! Turkeys wandering the streets, oxen walking in pairs with their yoke, cilantro filled saddles riding atop ponies, and the gust of exhaust as the only city bus sails within inches of you!

We stoped near a small cluster of trees for some shade. A young girl of about 8 pulled a bamboo stick out of her fence and began fetching something in the tree above us. Cleverly the girl was using a bamboo stick that had two pong like ends. He reached it up to branch, gave the stick a turn and produced a fruit neatly hanging on the end and handed it to us. She repeated the process and this time we got a fruit I have never seen, mispero. It hangs in groups of threes, small fig size, orangish yellow color and a sweet flavor. Not that I tried it mind you! I also walked off with a twig attached to a green guayaba. I´m bringing them home for B to try. He´s much braver than I.

So, now I´m just arriving home from a nearly two hour bus ride from service. And am off to help my hubby get ready for tonight!

Finally! Our Contact Info!

We were warmly greeted to our new apartment by Mrs. Spider and Mr. Mega Huge Ant! I hope they don´t mind sharing the place with us! We´re all moved in. Taken it lazy today, we should have gone in service today but B said if pull two long Wednesday we should be able to make up our time. We need at least 6 hrs everyday to get our time for August. Paid our deposit of $50, much better than the $300 deposit I paid at the other place, which has yet to be returned to me! Rent $250. They clean our apartment once a week. We have telephone service, however it cost 10 pesos to call out locally and the call only last 5 mins?! But we can recieve as much as we want for free. So feel free to pick up the phone and call us at 011-52-951-347-94. We will be home all day today, not much on Wed and the following days in the afternoons. Oh, also there is an operator so in your best spanish accent you have to ask for ´departamento ocho´ (Apartment 8) Our address is: Maglione #7 Calle 16 de Septiembre Num. 407, Ixcotel, Oaxaca, Oax. MEX

Us 

Street of Queretaro leading to the Centro 

Foutain in another Plaza de Queretaro 

Church in Queretaro 

Fountain in Queretaro. 

Sunday: Dress up day!

The sisters from our congregation in Oaxaca all wore dresses typical of the region on Sunday of the convention. All garments are hand made in brillant colors of red, orange, yellow, green and blue; mostly featured with floral patterns accompanied by floral wreaths braided into their hair. There are the three cutest girls in our congregation. The Cruz girls. Daniela, 11. Betzaida, 8. Andrea, 7. Very well mannered and cultured girls they bring a pleasant smile to everyone´s face when they enter the hall. You can see them here in the picture in wearing typical dresses of Oaxaca.

Mexico English Orientation

Saturday of the convention we ran into even more people we knew. Brandon saw Lindsey Gay from Johnson City and I saw James Mitchell, my old sheet rock overseer! Lindsey was just down checking it out, considering moving to Mexico for a time and Bro. Mitchell has already been down here since Feb and staying indefinetly! That kind of commitment would be hard for us to make! At orientation, there must have been about 200 Americans, mostly older ones looking to retire in Mexico. There are 3 circuits in Mexico English. Each CO spoke about the need in his circuit. They handed out a map and pretty much said EVERY congregation or group needed help. They just want the gringos in Mexico! They don´t care where! They suggested, since it was a considerable adjustment for Americans for us to select a climate we want...hotter weather? Stick to the coastal cities. Cooler weather? Stay in central mexico in the mountains. Go visit a few different areas of the country, decide where you want to go. Contact the congregations and the local brothers would take care of the rest. Finding housing, working with visas (very easy to come by), bringing american cars, finding employment if needed... They also have a group in Italian, French, Chinese.... It was very encouraging but mostly stuff B and I knew already...except that you can have your pick! Queretaro is a very modern city. New construction, clean streets, orderly traffic, all which is not found in Oaxaca. The Plaza´s and fountains reminded B and me of Italy. It was really quite a romantic city. After, we went out to dinner with Arelis and Michael Nelms from Crabapple. A very quaint restaurant. We ate out on the patio near the edge of the Plaza de Armas, where the night before they had the influx of Witnesses. White lights climbing up the tree trunks, Mexican duets dispersed throughout the Plaza serenading the dinner-goers, and as always young mexican children approaching your table trying to sell you cheap knick knacks! We exchanged information with the couple so we could continue our new friendship once we return to the States.If possible, I have video footage coming...we´ve got some hilarious shots!!

This map of Mexico with colored tags indicated the locations of English congregations and groups throughtout Mexico.

Gardens of Plaza in Queretaro 

Queretaro. Fri Aug 19th

District Convention. We travelled all night on a bus with the congregation for 9 hrs. We arrived early morning here in Queretaro. Since we arrived so the early, the hotels wouldn't let us check in. So we went straight to the convention site for pre-cleaning even though we were lookin really rough and busted!

The hotel we´re staying at is wicked nice. We´ve ordered room service. Went swimming in the pool, got my butt sun burned while the little Mexican waiters would bring us towels and ask if we wanted anything from the bar. OH and the best part is they have like 5 movie channels all in English so we've been catching up.

Either way, this morning we were a little rushed on time and shared the taxi with Ashton and Eboni. As soon as we walked in an MS from our congregation told Brandon they needed volunteers and sent him over to Dean´s desk. Where Dean promtply made Brandon an attendent. Gave him the fancy badge and everything! I was so proud. He was all seating people and handing out programs. I reserved seats in the first row. We´ve never sat that close before at a convention but it was actually really nice....leg room, easy to pay attention, close to the bathrooms... The program was nice as I´m sure you all remember. Today was the new tract day. Itzel Pacheco had an interview. She was so cute. She wore an indigneous outfit and spoke the most excited English. I taped it all so we can watch it when we get back. They also interviewed brothers from Japan and Germany who were here serving and what challenges and blessings they have experienced. Everyone seems to concur that the challenges are numerous, giving up your standard of living, material things, family for as they call a ´comfortable´home and $3 pesos for the bus rides. But the service is very rich. Surprisingly, the interested ones who are studying are the Mexicans who speak a little English. Mostly men who have worked in the States, picked up some English, and now want to study in English. For some reason, studying in Spanish doesn´t interest them.

Tomorrow, they are having an orientation session for those comtemplating moving to Mexico English. Brandon already claims this isn´t his cup of tea but we're still going to go to the meeting and see what it's all about. They are many Americans here and a few Canadians. The CO is Canadian. The Deckers from Cumming moved here last year. Machal a sister from Roswell Spanish just moved down two weeks ago. Arlis and his husband are down from Crabapple for the convention just to check it out. We were surprised to even know anyone here. The attendance was 2,267 for all of the country!

After the convention we came back to the hotel, ordered more room service then headed out in town to Plaza de Armas. (a main square, much like a piazza) We heard ´some´witnesses might be there. Well, we were misinformed. EVERY WITNESS WAS THERE! Seriously the whole entire plaza was filled with red badges declaring Godly Obedience. We ran into some sisters from our congregation just as the 12-man band started playing. Guitars, violins, accordions, tamborines, flamengo hand clapper things... The fountains were flowing, lights flooding through the archways, and mariachi music resonating off the Plaza´s walls. The band began to move down a side street and the crowd followed. They moved up the north side of the plaza and the crowd followed. Clapping their hands chanting 'OTRA OTRA' The crowd was swaying from side to side, singing the words, gathering in little circles doing what looks like really jumpy line dances. MIND YOU, these are all witnesses now. The crowd got so large, Brandon put me on his shoulders so I could film all these American brothers going loco for this band. This is also on tape!

Well, our night has come to a close now and we must rest up for another day of the convention. I have some digital pics so I will upload those as soon as we get back!

Plaza de Armas the night of the Mariachi band.

Early Morning after a 9 hour bus trip. Arriving in Queretaro. L-R: Eboni, Ashton, Merle 

Plaza in Queretaro

Mon, Aug 15th

Just wanted to make you guys a little jealous that we are having arefreshing mountain air temperature here...66 degrees today! We sleep with all of our windows open and enjoy the fresh air. Hope yall arewell. We´re heading off with the congregation tomorrow night on a 12hr drive to Queretaro for the district convention so we won´t be back in Oaxaca until Monday morning early.

Brandon is really looking forward to this trip...it´ll be nice to see more of the country as well. Also we´re moving to another place tomorrow. It´s not as nice but it´s literally two mintues from my little family down here...10 min walk to the hall...close to the internet and tortilleria! We´ll also be paying $50 less a month and not spending money on bus fares back and furthereach day. We looked into getting B some spanish classes when we get back to Oaxaca. He is surprisingly picking it up really well...I hate how fast he´s learning! I don´t remember it being that easy for me!Humph!

OH also, the new place has a telephone. We can only make local calls but we can recieve international. We´ll have a gas stove which Brandon is really excited about and it´s off a road that the busesdon´t go on so it´s much quieter. Once we know our number we´ll send it to you.We´re there almost everyone afternoon.

We have an easy schedule. Service every morning 9-1- Except Monday, that´s our day off. Wed isall day service. Brandon is in charge of taking the group out at 9, 1,and 5 so that´s our only long day.

I´ve started reading books!!! Clearly Brandon´s bad influence!

Mitla Bookstudy

Our first experience.

Mitla is another city about an hour south of Oaxaca.They have just started up an English group and thisweek was their second study. We left our apartment at4pm to meet up two other american sisters, who livesouth of town, at 5pm. The bookstudy was set to startat 630 so we wanted to leave plenty of time to make iton time as the buses aren´t reliable. These are the second class buses where you will find chickens andfresh harvest stored on the racks above your heads. We made it into the city of Mitla but the bus we were on didn´t go as far as the hall so we hoofed it therest of the way up the hill, all around green coveredmountains, no visible civilization, we walked alongthe road with goats and sheep until we the onlypristine building shining in the distance. The majority of the bookstudy were Mexicans trying to learn English for the field that is developing inMitla. A Mexican brother conducted and B and I and the other sisters were the only native speakers...so we of course gave the bulk of the answers. He askedBrandon to say the prayer. So far each of the meetings we´ve been to, field service, bookstudy, etcthe brothers are already using Brandon with saying prayers at each meeting.

After the meeting we all piled into the back of a local brothers truck as he drove us down to the bus stop...all the sisters in their skirts hoping in the back along with the brothers. Buses also seem to stop their routes early here, around 8 or 9 or 930, you never know as there is no fixed schedule. One bus passed but said they weren´t picking up any more passeger as it was the end of their route. So we waited and waited as it grew darker and finally an hour later the last bus came and we took the long busride back into town. Once we reached Oaxaca center B and I had to catch the bus back up to our side oftown. We waited and waited and none passed. We finally took a taxi and arrived home at 1030pm from a630 bookstudy!!!

The congregation was really sweet and very appreciative to have us there and have the group starting. Most of the friends that assist the bookstudy in Mitla are from the Oaxaca congregationand b/c of the expense associated with taking a longdistance bus ride the English congregation resolved tohelp the brothers pay their fares for the bus so theycan fully support the new arrangement. On a sadder note, to give you an idea of the area andwhere to direct your prayers. A single mother of 5works from her home sewing. She sells skirts for 4pesos and whole dresses for 6 pesos. At the end ofthe day she earns a meager 40 pesos, which for thosequick with math is only $4 a day to support her familyof 5. B/c of the low wages she can barely feed herchildren properly. Her 12 yr old daughter two yearsago contracted anemia b/c of malnutrition and thesister couldn´t afford to bring her to the doctor. Over the next two years her anemia developed intolukemia and she died just last week at 12 years of agefrom this disease!!So while the territory is rich it´s dwellers are poor. We are doing all we can to bring relief of aspiritual kind to the people here and bring them hopethat one day their circumstances will change for thebetter!

Reflective Flight

What is it about flights that make you reflect?
It brings you to life revelations as the earth below you drifts out of sight
Realizing what truly matters and is important in life, are the things you yearn for
I won´t miss my house, job or cutting the grass.
I won´t miss my car, paying for bills or for gas.
I won´t miss my tv, the video games or computer.
I won´t miss my cell phone, driving in traffic, being a commuter.
What I will miss the most are the people in my life,
my family and friends, the relationships we share.
As Solomon said all is vainity under the sun
except of course my ´sun´day nights with my family and friends!

Ok, guys that´s as poetic as I get! Hope you enjoyed it!
Well we made it safe. To tell you the truth I was even a little apprehensive but that has now turned into pure excitement!

We landed, the flight went well. The brothers Curtis and Sandy picked us up from the airport in their huge van that they drove down from St. Louis along with a 18yr old sister, Ashton, from Seattle. We hit it right off. He first took us around to find an apartment. We mentioned Dean´s but he said a sister in the english congregation owns some bungalows that she rents furnished for $300/month. So we went to see those first. They are really cute! THey told us it was smaller than Dean´s but this is the size of a one bedroom american apartment minus the dining room. We have two bar stools. It´s white stucco with a spanish style roof. Tile everything, with huge windows overlooking Oaxaca valley. Hot water shower, fridge, tv (6 channels all in spanish), dishes, pots, 2 couches. So anyone can come visit. She also rents nightly to the brothers for $40 a night so technically anyone who is interested in visiting can stay in the same complex with us.The bus takes about 25 mins to get to the hall.

So we saw the apartment told the sister we´d take it, dropped our bags off and went out to get something to eat in the Zocalo, changed our money...walked up to Santo Domingo...B saw the pure gold plated church...then we drove by the hall, which he thought was particularly beautiful given the area. Then we headed home, went to a walmart like store stocked up on grocercies. Went back and unpacked and made ourselves right at home!

Right wow we at an internet cafe 2 mins from my family´s house, we actually ran into the two girls on the street on our way here... It´s really nice. Oh the place we´re staying is right off the main drag so Curtis lives past us so he said he´d give us rides to all the meetings on his way! Bookstudy is around the corner. I just can´t believe how easy it all was. It was such a blessing...a very easy transition. B seems to be adjusting nicely and liking it. We have our first meetng tonight. Itzel, Josias, the Santiago´s are still here but apparently there´s like 4 other americans down here as well so we should have no problem making friends!