Wednesday's Blog

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

By Sue Metcalfe

We got up at the crack of dawn…no…it was before the crack of dawn. With 13 people and one bathroom and needing to be at Esperanza Viva by 9:30 a.m. we had no choice.

Our morning devotions were led by Mike was rich in scriptures from Psalms 145 and 146 reminding us that we need to love one another in order to show others the love of Christ. Mike also shared that we should respond opposite as the world responds to situations; so my notes to me said…if you are prone to anger, respond with humor. Those of you who know me will understand that this is a BIG challenge!

We arrived at the Home at Mexican time (late) and Ryan was ready for us to go right to work. He was moving the shop to a storage room and moving everything out of the storage room and sorting it to save, sell, recycle or throw-away. We had everything out of the storage room in probably 30 minutes and an hour after that it was sorted in the tent for save and sell, and everything in the courtyard into piles of metal, plastic, cardboard and wood. My recycling environmentally conscious daughter, Lisa, will appreciate that EVEN in Mexico, some people are recycling.




While the guys disassembled and re-assembled shelves from the shop to the storage room and made a doorway between the two rooms, Lissa, Susan, and I began the interesting task of putting together a trampoline. By the end Adrina and Gail also joined in on the fun. The Home had parts from three different trampolines; some parts were broken and some were in disrepair. After assembling the trampoline with all the best pieces, we saved some replacement parts that were in good condition and recycled the rest. While we made good progress today, we are only about ½ finished. Tomorrow we move things into the new shop, clear out another storage area and clean up the old shop area.

We were ready for our quesadilla lunch and had enough time to recoup a little before we started the Memory Books with the first dormitory of girls. It went well and the kids LOVED the books! Susan took all their pictures and we kept the books until we could get the pictures developed and mount the pictures in each book. Many of them were reluctant to give their books back to us; but it will be a joy to see the looks on their faces when we give them back at the end of the week with their pictures in them. Everyday the kids are feeling more and more comfortable with us and us with them. They are so happy, loving, appreciative and caring of one another. While it’s obvious how much we physically have in the USA, it’s also obvious how much we don’t love and care for one another the way they do here. So we’ve come full circle from this morning’s devotions—instead of us showing them how to love one another, they showed us!



It’s 6 p.m. Mexico time and Hallelujah there is no cooking tonight! We are going to a local restaurant that we call the “Molotes”, and those who have preceded us say they have great food. Lunch is at 2 p.m. for everyone in Puebla, so dinner doesn’t happen until late…8 p.m. We are trying to improve our looks and smell right now before we leave in a couple hours.


Tuesday Evening:

By Gail

Tonight we went to dinner at Molotes. What a wonderful time we had! There is a pastor here from Oaxaca who came to the restaurant when we did so he and Josh (Jerry and Susi McNally’s son) ate with us also. Many of the group ordered Cimitas which are sandwiches that I hear are very good. I haven’t eaten one personally but Jim really likes them. Others had Molotes which are quesadillas that are fried. We also ordered Chalupas which are small round tortillas with meat on them. You can then put lettuce and salsa on them. Erin and I had the Pozole which is a soup that originated in Puebla. It has pork, chicken and hominy in it and then you put lettuce, radishes, lime juice, chili powder (which I discovered is way hotter here than in the US), and ground basil. Everything was so good! The best thing was that we had 18 people there and it cost $470 in pesos including the tip. Okay, in US dollars that is about $40.00. Wow, we couldn’t even feed half of us at McDonald’s for that.




Now we are all getting ready for bed. We all worked hard today and everyone is very tired. So, that is all for now.

Gail