Pickles are green, Bananas are yellow, Here's our next blog, We'd like to say hEllow...

Hola, bebes!

 We figured we'd write a blog to satisfy all your Em'n'Em cravings (get it??) before we head off to the YOUTH RETREAT tomorrow. We thought we'd set the mood by munching on some delicious Mexican snacks. Here is a picture of us in action.

 

Tuesday morning we woke up... and our water wasn't working again! Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal, except that Emma hadn't showered in a week (and anyone who knows the smell that is produced in such a situation could sympathize). So Greg the mighty warrior came over and fixed the pump once again. Finally we could shower in peace. Then Shelli drove us to the orphanage of the couple that recently renewed their vows, which is about a twenty minutes' drive away. We spent the day there hanging out with the kids and helping the "mom" of the orphanage with any jobs that she needed to be done. This proved to be quite difficult since she didn't speak a word of English, as well as our own obvious lack of certain language capabilities. Emma helped a few kids built crazy shapes (pyramids, cylinders, prisms, etc.) out of chewed up, old lollypop sticks and plasticine. Emily worked on English vocabulary with some others. We played with a couple kids on the teeter totter and swings outside before heading in to get ready for school, which starts at 1:20. It was amazing to see how everyone, even the smallest children, were responsible to get themselves ready, and how they did so in such an organized and well-mannered way. Each child walked to their room one at a time, and when they were all dressed in their uniform they would walk out, at which point the next one would take their turn. Everyone sat around and watched Family Channel shows in Spanish while they awaited their turn. Once everyone was dressed, lunch was served. We handed each child what looked like some sort of potato soup with a creamy, red base, as well as two tortillas. Emily also came across the orphanage's very hungry little kitten, and might have fed it about half a tortilla... Let's hope that cats aren't allergic to tortillas. After lunch we washed their dishes, and shortly after Shelli came to pick us up.

Shelli took us back to her place for lunch. We all sat around and watched "19 Kids and Counting", or as Shelli prefers to call it, "1000 Kids and Counting". After about four episodes, their family decided to take us to the plaza. We don't really know what it was, but there were big buildings (the white house and the brown house, as Miguel Alatriste calls them), which we think are some government buildings, as well as a cathedral. There were a bunch of people selling their goodies, and we both bought cute little Mexican backpacks and paintings made from Indigenous Mexican children. The money from the paintings helped to support them and give them a better childhood. After we tootled around for a while we went to McDonald's for some ice cream, then headed back to the church. It was such a lovely day with the Neufelds!

Yesterday we both had a bit of rude awakening: Emily, from dreaming that a cockroach flew at her face... and Emma, from Emily screaming in terror from a cockroach flying at her face in her dream. All in all it was a good morning. Showers were working, the sun was shining, and, alas, froot loops in our bowls.

We started painting a mural yesterday in the church nursery on the main floor. We were expecting an American woman from the church to come help us, but she didn't show up. Miguel ended up coming over and helped us with any extra jobs that we needed to be done. We are painting a child-like garden scene on the two walls, which will be full of cute flowers and over-sized insects on grassy green hills. Yesterday we finished painting the walls blue, which took about two hours to do two coats. For lunch we went to Subway with both the Miguels and Talson, and stopped by at the Neufelds' house again after. Then we went back to the church and finished painting the rest of the blue coats. Last night was the prayer meeting, but we decided just to lay low and do laundry since the language barrier makes it impossible for us to understand what's going on. Emma took some time to plan out what would go on the walls of the nursery for the following day.

Today we decided to "sleep in" until 10:00, and then work on the mural until lunch time. We worked until 2:00 and managed to complete the grassy green hills. Then (surprise surprise) we went to the Neufelds' house for lunch. Pizza day! Emily helped Shelli edit an article that she was asked to write for a Christian magazine in Canada. We went back to the church and babysat some babies while their mothers were in a Bible study. We later finished the last coat on the hills, and then called it a night.

Tomorrow we leave for the retreat and we won't be back until Sunday (Emma's birthday! Woohoo!), so we'll talk to y'all on Monday!

Later days!

Em'n'Em

 

Nuestra casa!

Sorry for the delay! Ole!

Hola amigos y amigas! On Tuesday morning (the morning after the wedding), we were going to go back to the orphanage to help clean up after the big hoopla. We woke up and got ready as per usual. Shelli was running late (also not out of the blue), so we were just hangin’ out in the apartment awaiting her arrival. We weren’t complaining - with Facebook, fruit loops, and air conditioning, we had everything we needed to be happy on that steaming hot morning. At 9:45, an hour later than expected, Shelli called to inform us that Greg was in the hospital. During the American football game earlier in the week, he cracked one of his ribs (he has cracked it before). He woke up Tuesday morning and was having great difficulty and pain breathing. Shelli told us to pack a bag because she needed to stay with him in the hospital that night. We learned that in Mexico, if patients need to go to the bathroom or are hungry or need a drink, it is the responsibility of a family member to tend to that person’s needs. So we packed some stuff and went to her house to hang out with Talson, their oldest kid, who is home schooled. We spent the day relaxing there and even had the opportunity to call loved ones on the Neufelds’ Calgary phone line. Hearing familiar voices was a scrumptious delight. The other two kids eventually came home from a friend’s house, and shortly after Shelli arrived. She told us that she was actually going to stay home that night, so we could go back to the apartment. So, alas, that’s what went down on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we decided to get a little taste of the Mexican heat by walking aaaallll the way from our apartment to the church. Let’s just say that all the Mexicans thought that we were absolutely crazy. They told us that not even the native Mexicans walk around at that time of day. The 43 degree sun made us sweat more than we thought was possible. The walk took a little over an hour, and in the last few blocks we weren’t so sure that we were going to make it. What do y’all reckon would be the best way of welcoming the two melting Canadian girls after walking all that way? A locked church, perhaps? You got it! And since we had no church keys at that point, we were left with no choice but to bang on the church gates in the hope that someone, anyone, would answer. A young lady working in an office at the church let us in, which relieved us temporarily. Through some challenging translating, we realized that she didn’t have keys to unlock the door of the Compassion Room so that we could finish cleaning it. With Greg and Shelli busy, we had no choice but to go upstairs and sit around (with air conditioning) until they came to rescue us. The rest of this day was spent relaxing at Greg and Shelli’s until 7:30, at which point we attended a prayer meeting at the church. The people here are very passionate about prayer. It’s a beautiful thing to watch them as they openly share their prayer requests as well as pray for each another. Felix, who is one of the leaders here in the church, asked everyone for prayer requests which he then wrote down on pieces of paper and handed out. In between getting prayer requests he would share a story from the bible, which directed them into the next topic of prayer. 

You’d think that one day walking out in the heat would be a good enough lesson for us. But it seems that we’re slow learners ;). Once again, we made the painful walk from the apartments in the 40+ degree heat. We decided to stop and visit one of our Mexican friends at work. Shelli happened to be nearby and picked us up to take us to her house. We appreciated the break from the sun! Every Thursday there is a ladies' Bible study at the church, so we agreed to "watch" their kids... turn our bedroom into a jungle gym! With mattresses sprawled across the floor, kids hanging from bunk beds, pebbles being thrown at our window by the neighbor kids, hair being pulled, and the noise level rising, it made for a very relaxing afternoon... After the Bible study some of the youth got together for music lessons. Emily sat in on the lessons and helped the kids learn a bit of harmony. Shelli was invited to a baby shower that evening, and forced Emma to go along too. Sitting around with a bunch of Spanish-speaking elderly ladies isn't the most fun that we could have in Mexico - but it's a close runner up. Their generosity and warmth always amazes us. 

That day we also came to the conclusion that living at the apartment was too much of an inconvenience. Either we had to make the long journey by foot every day, or take the bus (which we didn't know how to do). So Shelli told us we could move BACK to the church. We moved in that evening and will hopefully live here for the rest of our stay.

Friday: THE ROOM IS CLEAN!! Our hard work has finally paid off. We spent the morning down in the dungeon, shining every last scuff mark off of the Compassion Room floor. We scrubbed harder, and cleaned faster, than Cinderella before her big ball. Below we've inserted a picture of Emma, hard at work, as well as the finished product! 

Friday night was the youth ministry night, called La Semilla. That was a pretty laid-back night because there were lots of helpers, as well as the fact that the kids are all older and can entertain themselves with a game of futbol or by blasting music outside. 

On Saturday morning we went and helped out with the soup kitchen ministry again. We met the same girls that we met the week before, and it was nice to see that many of them remembered our names. We played a few rounds of pato, pato, ganzo with them again, and we also introduced them to the game Stella Ella Ola, which they loved. Even though the kids that go there come from poor homes and broken situations, we continue to be amazed by their gentle and loving spirits. 

At 5:00 that night we had youth! We really enjoyed the music once again. With the help of our trusty translator Lizeth, we were able to pick up a little of what they were laying down. One of the things that we talked about was needing to know who or what something is in order to define it. For example, we can describe the beauty in the things around us, because we see them and are familiar with them. But when it comes to defining/describing who God is, it's impossible without being familiar with who He is first. After that, the youth invited us out for supper to celebrate the 18th birthday of one of the girls from the youth group. We were planning on going to this, but we have been learning that in Mexico, when they say they're leaving "soon", it means that they're actually going to sit around and talk for a couple hours first, and THEN go. So, alas, it was too late for us Canadian girls by the time they actually left, so we stayed back... and ate froot loops. Shelli asked if Emily would prepare something for special music the next day at church, so we both decided to spend some of the evening playing and singing. We thought about doing a round together, but with a lack of practice time, Emma wasn't feeling up for it in such short notice. So Emily decided to sing Only You by David Crowder Band.

On Sunday we sat in on the Mexican church service once again, where we decided to spend more time reading our respective books. After church we went to David Sauceda's house with some of the young adults from the church, where they treated us to some delicious home-made Mexican tacos with ice cream to top it off! Yum yum. David kindly drove us to Wal Mart to get some much-needed groceries. (In case you're wondering: no, we did not buy more froot loops... Emma wouldn't allow it). Then we went back to the church and watched the movie Leap Year, which is set in Ireland (we're preparing ourselves). We spent the night relaxing, and we were even able to talk with friends and family over Skype :D. Later on we came to the sad realization that there was NO running water in the church!! This meant that we were not able to shower, nor brush our toofers, nor flush our urine down the toilets. All of this made for two very sweaty stink heads.

Today Emma woke up at 9:00. Emily woke up at 10:00 (sound familiar?). We took the liberty in calling Greg to see if he could fix our problems. Turns out that he could only fix our water problems. Shelli and Greg met us here at the church, and we were happy to find out that we had water in the church once again. Then we both went downstairs and finished up a couple last-minute things in the Compassion Room. After, Shelli asked Emma to paint a child-like garden mural on the wall in the nursery of the church. She then went on to ask Emily if she liked to color. Shelli said that she could help Emma paint if she stayed in the lines. We will get started on this tomorrow once Shelli buys us paint. 

Right now we are just waiting for Shelli to pick us up to babysit their kids while they go on their weekly date night. We hope that this blog has satisfied your Em'n'Em cravings for now. 

Hasta luego!

Em'n'Em

Us and some of the girls at the soup kitchen!

Todo bien en Mexico... still.

Hey everyone! Saturday morning we woke up without having talked to Greg or Shelli about our plans for that day, so we really had no clue when to wake up or anything. First a little background information on the situation: Our humble abode was situated in the bedroom upstairs in the church, but Greg wasn't so comfortable with this due to the prison-like treatment that we received there (there are padlocks and heavy-duty bars that locked us inside... so basically we were kept in there like prisoners during the night, without any means of communicating to the outside world). So we woke up at 8:30 and were ready by 9:30, only to find that there had been a miscommunication between us and everyone else that we knew in Mexico. Alas, we waited around in our air-conditioned cellar, scraping the morsels of last night's supper off of the floor (we were actually just eating fruit loops). Finally, two hours later, we found Cesar roaming around the church, and he told us that some of the girls from the soup kitchen ministry were down the road in the building that they use every Saturday morning. We wandered down there and sat in on their craft while trying to communicate with the little chicas whose bright eyes and warm smiles made our long wait well worth it. We all ate lunch together after the craft, which was prepared by some of the local ladies (bless their hearts, but we're not exactly sure WHAT it was that we ate). After this, we went outside and played a fun game of pato, pato, ganso (just a little game known as duck, duck, goose in Canada). This was a lovely start to our first weekend in Mexico.


After returning to the church, Shelli came and took us to her home for a second, and perhaps a more fulfilling lunch. She made us tortilla soup, which was a first for both of us. It was DELISH. At this point it started pouring cats and chihuahuas outside. Miguel (not to be mistaken with the Miguel that the youth met on the previous mission trip here), who is living with the Neufelds, walked with us to the grocery store to get some much-needed snacks (more cereal, some milk, and a HUGE tub of yogurt!! YUMMY!). Miguel has been a great friend to us so far on this trip. He comes from a really rough past, but you would never know it from the warmth of his spirit and all the love that shines through him.  Conveniently enough, we met Greg just as we were walking out of the store. We enjoyed laughing and joking with Miguel in the cab of Greg's truck as we squatted in the attempt to avoid getting our batooties bedraggled. That didn't work so well for Emma (she might as well have sat right in a puddle). Well, off we went to the youth meeting at the church!


The youth did a great job leading worship, and we thoroughly enjoyed the speaker with the help of our excellent translator, Liseth. He talked about allowing people to see Christ in us, rather than having them see only ourselves, the things that WE like to do, the things that WE'RE good at, OUR dreams and goals, and OUR accomplishments. He explained that when it's Christ that people see in us,  that's when we are giving God the glory. If you have never been in the place where you don't want to stop being in his presence, crying out to Him, "Santo, Santo, Santo" (Holy, Holy, Holy), then you haven't experienced the power of Christ living in you. Even with the difficulty of a language barrier, God still speaks.


To end off this most excellent day, we went with the youth to enjoy a most excellent Mexican delicacy... HOT DOGS! This is a treat that we have both missed.


Yesterday morning, which just happened to be Sunday (which, in Mexico, is the day that everyone goes to church... imagine that!), we enjoyed some more singing in the morning service. We heard from others that Greg's sermon was great, but being as it was all in Spanish, and this time around we didn't have a translator, it was a little hard to follow. Instead of suffering through those two hours, we decided to spend our time reading. (Emma - Heaven is for Real; Emily - Mere Christianity). After church we were invited to go to a Mexican seafood restaurant with a couple families from the states, as well as the Neufelds. We liked being able to talk and enjoy lunch with a bunch of English speakers without having to constantly explain everything in half-speed, however the whole time Emma was fairly certain that she was going to die from the foreign shrimp concoction that was goin' down in her taco (this was worse than talking in half-speed). All the "kids" ate lunch together, and we sat across from the two American guys who helped us make our way through the Spanish menu. Crazy live Mexican music, bacon-wrapped shrimp, and swordfish tacos made this a memorable meal.


Back to the Neufelds' house we went to play some crazy rabbid (yes, rabbid) Wii game. Soon enough we were joined by some of the guys from the youth who took us hiking up Cerro Jhonson, a small mountain just a few minutes' drive out of Hermosillo. By this time the sun was setting, so it was quite the task making our way up the hill past all the jumping night critters. One in particular that we became quite familiar with is the locust. For any of you not yet familiar with such a being, we've kindly inserted a photo here for you.

Making our way up wasn't too fun, but let us tell you that the view at the top made it all worth it. 

The two of us came back to the church and were later joined by Miguel Gamez, another great friend, and spent the evening in worship with him. It was awesome singing and praying together in total liberty last night. Definitely another memorable time.

Today Shelli blessed us with the honor of cleaning out and organizing the COMPASSION ROOM (dun dun duuuuh... don't let the name deceive you!) The reason why it's called the compassion room is because people should feel compassion for those who have been chosen to clean it out. Shelli told us that she'll keep us down there until it's finished, that we're not leaving Mexico until it's done, and that she'll deprive us of our meals until our job is complete. Needless to say, we'll be in there every day for at LEAST another day. 

After a couple hours of working in apocalyptic conditions, Greg came and let us out for the day (if it was Shelli's choice, we'd still be in there). He told us that we'd be moving "homes", to the apartment of two missionaries who are out of the country for a while, and that we'd have to pack up our stuff and take it with us right then. We did this, then headed over to Greg and Shelli's for lunch. Lunch for Mexicans takes place at around 2:00, and it is the biggest meal of the day.

This evening we had the privilege of meeting a couple who runs an orphanage of about 22 kids and has three kids of their own. Today it was the first anniversary of the orphanage, and it was their tenth anniversary of being married. Ten years ago they were married by the State, never by the church, so they decided to celebrate their anniversary by re-dedicating their vows in front of the church this evening. We were fortunate to sit in on that. After the wedding, our mini-van crammed full of 11 people (five Neufeulds, two Canadians, Marcela and her daughter, Miguel, and Memo, who is another great friend from a past trip here) rode home with blaring Spanish music, which we all sang along to in both Spanish and English. We were so off-tune with each other, but there aren't many things more beautiful than hearing simultaneous worship in more than one language. 

To end off the evening, we moved all of our stuff to the apartment where we will now be staying for the rest of our trip here. We were blessed with a place of our own that has Internet, running water, and a little bit of privacy. We truly are so thankful to be here with such wonderful and loving people.

Until next time,

Em'n'Em

Marcela, Emma, Memo, Emily, and Miguel

The wedded couple!

Todo bien en Mexico!

What up, dawgs! Things are tight here in Mexico... that's what's up. Along with adding a few odd Spanish words to our vocabulary, we're also learning some new gangsta slang from one of our new Mexican friends who we learned spent a night or two behind bars in a jail in Arizona. We have just completed our first full day of our adventure here in Mexico. Here is the story of our trip up to this point:

Alas. It only seems right to start off such an exciting adventure in such an exciting way. We chose to celebrate by setting our alarms at midnight for only a couple short hours later and waking up to the glorious melody of our alarm clocks at 2:30 AM. Although by this point the excitement of the trip was starting to set in a little, I'm pretty sure that very few things (except, perhaps, the real live Santa Claus standing before your eyes...with unlimited Tim Hortons gift cards...in Mexico...) can make a person truly happy at such an hour. 

Off to the airport! Nicely enough, all of Emma's friends came to bid us farewell (thank you Jonathan Lefebvre)....at least SHE had one. We were greeted at the airport by a very nice security man who decided to make our goodbyes as awkward as possible as he whistled a tune and avoided all eye contact.   

We made it smoothly through security, and to our delight both of our flights were on time and early. When we finally landed in Tucson at 11:00 AM, we were welcomed by lots of loud thunder and rain. Greg and Shelli, the couple that we are staying with and helping here in Mexico, arranged for a shuttle to  pick us up at the airport at 3:00 PM. As soon as we landed, we collected our luggage and called the shuttle company, who informed us that the shuttle would arrive at around 2:45. Early, once again! We made ourselves comfortable on some chairs in the Tucson airport. We bought a very nutritious lunch that consisted of yogurt and granola, a fruit bowl, vitamin water, and of course, chocolate. After enjoying many laughs together, meeting a few very nice people in the airport, adding several picture albums to Facebook, and changing a relationship status or two, it was time for our shuttle to arrive. We hauled our seven pieces of luggage out the front doors and into the hurricane of death, making our way under the nearest shelter that really didn't keep us dry at all. After waiting for what seemed like hours in the cold rain storm, our chariot finally arrived, which, in this case, came in the form of a big white short bus full of Mexicans (As you can tell, we really got first class treatment here so far). They gave us the best seats in the house... squished between three Mexicans for the six hour bus ride. Between the two plane rides and the long shuttle, we managed to squeeze in approximately the Canadian equivalent of a full night's rest. Nonetheless, you could imagine how tired we were once we arrived in Mexico! It was so nice to finally get here.

We were dropped off at Greg and Shelli's house, and right away Greg took us to the church where people were celebrating Mexico's Independence Day (they celebrate the eve of in Mexico). We were reunited with many old friends and lots of delicious-looking food, but since we arrived so late the party wrapped up pretty shortly after we got there. The good news is that two beds were awaiting our presence just upstairs! Woohoo! Marcela, a lady from the church, took us up to the room and talked with us for a bit before we called it a night. 

This morning we got up at 8:30 to go watch guys from the church play some football. Let's just say that watching twenty some Mexicans who grew up playing soccer try to play American football is very entertaining. Perhaps they should stick with soccer ;). 

Because of the holiday, today was a pretty relaxed day for us all. After the game we went out to the country where a couple families and some of the youth were eating and playing games. We had a lot of fun out there, ate a little, took some pictures, and talked a lot. After some time, a few of us crammed into a car and drove back to the church where one of the ministries was happening tonight with some of the younger people from around the area. Marcela was leading the girls' chat upstairs, while Cesar (Marcela's husband), and some others were downstairs with the guys. That was good, except for the fact that we couldn't understand much of the Spanish... besides that, the night was good! The evening concluded with spending some more time with our Mexican friends and then Skyping for a while. What a lovely conclusion to our first full day in Mexico!

Things have been going great so far and we're really enjoying being here with old and new friends. We will try to keep y'all updated as time goes on, but since we don't ever know what each day will bring we just have to roll with the cheese. (If you're wondering what ever happened to sense and reason in this blog, she fell asleep on me 20 minutes ago).

Talk to you all soon. Thanks for readin'!

Em'n'Em