Interesting Design

This is a building that we see on our way to church. It amazes all of us and we all say how we would not want to be in it during an earthquake. This is not the best picture but as you can see it appears that there is not much holding it up. They keep building higher and higher. Amazing!

AFRICAM 2!

Okay, it's now the end of the day and I am finally getting around to posting the rest of the pictures from our day at Africam Safari yesterday.

It was great to get out and go to the Africam Safari because it has been kind of a tough week. On Wednesday I went out for coffee with a friend. It tasted so good. You know, the foo-foo kind of coffee? It was an Oreo frapachino type coffee and I haven't had one of those in months. I had a great time talking with my friend, Mary, for about two and a half hours. That doesn't happen real often here either. In fact it was the first time for something like that since we arrived. Well, I bought one of these drinks for Jonathan and Erin also and brought them home to them. They enjoyed them also although Erin only drank about half of hers and Jonathan drank his and the other half of Erin's. That night, I got so sick I wasn't able to go to church and slept all night. Jonathan has not been feeling well ever since either but he didn't throw up like I did. Erin did not eat the cream off her drink but Jonathan and I did so we are thinking it may have been bad cream even though it tasted really good. Jonathan has continued to have his stomach hurt so please keep him in your prayers. I have not been feeling sick but I have had a headache everyday until this morning. Yea! It's gone! Anyway, all that to say, that the driving part for Jonathan was pretty good but he didn't want to go into any of the walking parts so we will be going back again for that part when everyone is feeling up to par.







The largest rodent in the world is the Capybara. Jonathan knew exactly what it was. Sometimes I wonder where he knows this stuff.

Many times we had to wait for the animals to cross the road at their leisure in order to move on.
" Pretty bird, pretty bird, Polly wants a cracker."
This rhinoserous used his camouflage very well. From a distance, it was hard to tell him from many of the rocks.
We never did see an ostrich with his head in the sand.
The animal is called a Nu.

This is a type of buffalo.

AFRICAM!

Today we went on an outing. We went to Africam which is a drive through zoo/safari. We had a lot of fun looking at different animals come of which you had to wait until the crossed the road in order to move ahead. Right after we entered the park, an ostrich tried to take my camera. It's a good thing I had the strap on.




The gates to the tiger area were interesting. We drove in through this gate into an area big enough to fit a bus through where there was another gate. Once we were in, the gate behind us was close and the gate in front of us opened for us to go through. The gates are opened and closed by the guard standing on top.


"I'm trying to sleep here."







This was in the adventure area where Jonathan and I didn't go because Jonathan wasn't feeling well. Looks like Erin had fun.







At this point it is very late and I don't have much more brain energy to write more or add the rest of the pictures, so I will add more pictures and blogging tomorrow. For now, enjoy these pictures from our day.

50 Years Old

Today Jim turned 50 years old. I just realized as I was uploading pictures from my camera, I realized that I had no pictures of Jim. But, I have a couple of pictures from the kids having cake. We bought two big Costco cakes and brought them to Esperanza Viva to have cake with all the kids. They came over and sang a Spanish happy birthday song. It was fun. Tonight, we had a lasagna dinner and then took a bike ride. It's been a fun day.
Thoughts: "I sure wish I could have another piece." I did have one little girl come up and said something about "dobles" which I finally figured out that she was asking for a second piece. It was rather funny.
These boys knew right where to be - not far from the cake.
Luis Abram liked the green part.

Are We Crazy or What?

We added another family member last night. Jonathan has been wanting a cat (and Erin too) and said he would pay for it and everything. Jim asked me what I thought and since I love cats I wasn't adamantly against it. Well, we stopped by the pet adoption place near our house yesterday and they had a kitten there that the kids, of course, fell in love with. She is about three months old and cost twenty pesos. That's about $1.50 in US dollars. They had another kitten that looked like she had just been spayed. We asked about it and they said that it had been and that he did it right there at the shop. So we asked how much it would cost to have the one the kids were looking at spayed. He said it would be one hundred pesos ($7.70 USD)for the kitten and the spaying and the kitten would be ready in two hours. So, we broke down and let the kids get her. They split the cost of everything - the kitten, kitty litter, litter box, food, etc. They will continue to split the cost of the food and litter in the future. Now we just need the kitten and the dog to become friends. Ha! Ha!

Our Anniversary and the Staff Retreat

Today Jim and I celebrated 26 years of marriage. It was wonderful that it was also the day that the staff at Esperanza Viva was treated to a day retreat. We went and played soccer and we were also able to go swimming. Apparently the last time they did something like this was two years ago. As we are learning, the staff here gives 110% and they were well deserving of this break. We had a wonderful day! Here are a few pictures.

This is a picture of Mount Popocatépetl with another smaller hill in front. I like the church on the small hill.

Playing soccer.

Friends


More soccer.
Jonathan even played for a little while.

Can you tell that the ball was down at the other side of the field for a while?
Eating sandwiches, chips and ice cream at the end of the day.


By the way, I am coming up on three jobs I have accepted through the end of the year. I will be buying the groceries for the groups prior to their arrival, setting up translators for those groups with no Spanish speakers, and I will be helping out with activities which means making sure the groups have everything they need and that they get started and ended on time. I am really looking forward to these and the best part is that I am helping Jim since he does things with the groups also. We love interacting with the groups so this is perfect for me.