Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Fiestas, Marquisitas y Familia Nueva

BUENAAAASS!

Hola from Chapab! We last left you in Mérida, itching to know about our host families in Mérida and Chapab. Will they survive living with different families? Will they survive the unbearable heat? Will they have any idea what the Mexicans are saying to them? The saga continues...

Thursday night until Sunday morning we spent time with families in Mérida. We had the opportunity to get to know the city a bit: did some sight seeing with our families, went out to lots of sweet restaurants, went to church, spent time with the families, and had opportunites to see what they do in their past time with amigos. Overall, it was like 3 days of fiestas - we had a blast, and even a pool party. The families that we got to know were soooo nice and giving and took care of us really well. Oh, and Anna got bosomed by her Mérida mom. (:

Byron and Inez then took us off with them to Chapab Sunday morning, an hour away from Mérida. Quick summary of our amazing time here so far: our families are INCREDIBLE - we have pretty much fully integrated ourselves into the family already. Stu and Josh live together in one house while Anna and Nicole live together in another. The families here, as they say, live very simple lives, but are some of the most amazing people we have ever met. Stu´s "madre" is one of the happiest ladies we have ever seen, and since Stu´s "madre" is the mom of Josh´s "padre", that makes Stu Josh´s uncle. Uncle Stu. We have a great time just sitting and talking with our families, even Anna and Nicole who don´t know very much spanish still have long and fruitful conversations with the little that they know. It´s amazing how fast they are learning.

We started work on the house we are building yesterday, and today they showed us how to put in the cinder blocks with a concrete mix. We aren´t good at it yet, but we will be. We just hope the thing stands up when we´re finished. We also had our first day of VBS and English Class, and today was Anna´s birthday! It was one of the best days ever: a band playing songs for Anna through her window at midnight (and then eventually coming out and dancing a bit), hot and fairly miserable work, lunch together, tons of fun with the kids and a fiesta after our English Class. Lets just say the party involed a lot of punching Pikachu in the face (pikachu = our piñata). It was a blast!

Everyone is in really high spirits and we can already tell that our time here is going to be incredible (since it already has been). We look forward to getting to know the people here better, each other better, and settling in even more to the culture here. Its amazing how much of a novelty we are here in this tiny town as Americans - the dirty looks, the weird looks, the laughs, and the interest that everyone shows in our presence. We love it though, because it gives us an easy way to make conversation.

For now, we sign off. Wish us luck as we walk past the dogs that seem like they want to kill us, the turkeys that hang out on the roofs and our friendly neighborhood iguanas. Please pray for safety, insight, healing and communication. We thank all of you for thinking of us and will talk again when time allows! And maybe someday we will be able to upload some pics...

¡Que Dios les bendiga a todos!
Stu, Josh, Nicole y Anna

3 comments:

bowpack said...

Hey team, can we get your mailing address?

Matt Bowers

Carlita said...

Amigaaaaaassss!
Thanks for posting a comment Josh. Taylor and I enjoyed reading your blog, sounds like you all are having a blast. But who wouldn't with you four? Exactly.

Josh, the food is a struggle we're learning to adapt to, and you better know what "meep moppin" means. Meep mop is only a phrase that I say all the time. But in case you forgot it means nothing and everything at the same time. Pretty much anything you want it to mean.

Keep on truckin past those dogs that want to kill you and tell the rest of the team hello.
In my prayers,
Carli

Carlita said...

Just kidding Josh. You know what meep moppin means. Soy una idiota. I read your comment a second time.