Tires, Ajonjoli, and Pepe

Sunday morning was the long-awaited trip to Ahome. The churches in Choix and San Pedro were cordially invited to Ahome to attend services held by a minister from Oregon. Daylight Savings time began the same morning which made the 5:00 alarm not quite so harsh. We left in the early daylight hours so squished in our respective vehicles that Stacey and I were sitting on a tire and staring out the back window of Rod's van. We got a few "pobrecitas" which made us feel much better. After our three hour ride on the tire, we reached Ahome to sit on hard church benches. The gringo minister was fluent in Spanish so I struggled to understand him. After the service we ate grapefruits from a nearby tree and watched the guys play volleyball in the hot sun. The church ladies served us really good soup and corn tortillas at 2:30. During the second service of the day, I was so sleepy that I could hardly keep my eyes open. It didn't help that I was sitting against the back wall with no air circulation. After the service, the volleyball court was shaded so several girls joined the game. And it was fun, despite the Mexican rule of not rotating. For the ride home, Stacey and I squeezed in Loren and Donna's truck just like real Mexicans. My legs kept falling asleep, but the ride was much more comfortable than the tire. Loren dropped by Julian's ajonjoli field to see if he was guarding it. Side note here: ajojonli is sesame seed. Mexicans harvest and stack the bundles to dry. When it's dry, they shake the bundles and let the seeds fall onto a tarp. However, if someone does not guard their crop, more than likely someone else will come along and steal it. Anyway, Julian was in his field and wanted Loren to go back to his house and call the police because someone had attempted to walk off with some of his ajonjoli. So we spent the next hour or two trying to sort out the mess for poor Julian. By the time we got home, I was so tired and there still was no water for showers. I wanted to cry but I just went to bed.

Monday morning started as usual except we still didn't have water (oh wait, that is usual). While Stacey and I baked cookies, we made ourselves coffee to fight off the sleepy/grumpy mood. After that we were remarkably happy. Ah, the marvels of caffeine! Monday afternoon we did some investigating of our water problem and found that someone had turned off our city water supply. That still didn't solve the tank problem, but we were one step closer. Later that afternoon we went to San Pedro for Kid's Club but no children came. Julian and Francisca weren't even at their house (where we have the Kid's Club). Rod drove out to Julian's field and found the entire family harvesting ajonjoli. Amidst the bugs, dust, and blazing sun we joined in with the harvest for a little while. So the next time you eat a cheeseburger with sesame seeds on top of the hamburger bun, think of me laboring under the Mexican sun. Julian made a comment about having a little ajonjoli school instead of a Bible school. "Come back next week for lesson two!" That evening we went to Loren's basketball game and watched him play against high schoolers. Walking in late made the gringo family very conspicuous. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get used to being a spectacle. We didn't get to watch the game long before we headed to verb class.

On Tuesday, the youth group from Door of Hope in Ohio arrived safely for their work week. Many Mexicans were curious about the huge crowd of gringos around Loren and Donna's house. The poor people were so tired and I felt so sorry for them. Seeing them brought back some bittersweet memories of my trip a month ago. Stacey and I helped Christa make lunch for the group. In the afternoon, we went to Loren and Donna's to make pizzas for the group. Other memories of the day include walking off in someone else's flip-flops and having the cat make paw prints in our pizza.

Wednesday was good. We got to Loren and Donna's before the youth group had left for the Kid's Club in Aguajito. So we waded through a mass of people we didn't know yet. When they left, we worked at making an authentic Mexican meal. Like Donna said maliciously: "No more nice American food." The afternoon was Kid's Club at Rod and Christa's. Twenty children came; a few were sooooo energetic and bad, especially Adryan and Rojelio. I just wanted to spank them and hug them at the same time. After the evening prayer meeting, Stacey and I traisped home to relax. Earlier that day, Loren had come and checked our water and completely dashed our hopes of having water in our tank in the near future. So we "showered" in the outside sink and with buckets. It's wasn't too bad. We were relaxing later that evening when someone banged on our door. Considering that we had locked our gate and not our front door, we were scared. I was walking to the door and calling out "Quien es?" when I stumbled over the kitchen chair which made a loud scraping noise across the tile. I was never so glad to hear a soft, "It's Janessa."

Thursday morning we were rudely awakened by the barking of a certain idiotic rat--er--dog. Pepe. One of these days I will shorten his chain and tighten his collar. He chooses the stupidest times of day to begin his little program. He ends every bark with a question mark and fills in the empty spaces with wimpy growls. "Yip? Yip? Yip? Grrrr! Yip? Yip? Grrrr!" So that's what I woke up to on Thursday morning which made me envision ways of silencing him (perhaps forever *sinister laugh inserted here*). Instead I calmly got up and washed my hair in our outside sink and prayed that the water would turn on. Since I had the day off, I walked downtown to the bank and withdrew 2,000 pesos. Feeling extremely rich, I sauntered over to JLR to see what I could blow my money on. Just kidding, I bought cornflakes and toothpaste. Thus is the missionary life, I'm discovering. That's okay; it's worth it. After being lazy for the rest of the morning, Stacey and I walked down to Rod and Christa's for gorditas (fried cornmeal, chicken, and potatoes topped with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, avacados, onions, carrots, and cheese. <--Wow that was a long description). We spent some time getting to know a few of the people from the youth group. When they left for work, we came home to be lazy again. For dinner we joined the youth group at Pollo Mayo and had fun hanging out with them all. It really made me miss my youth group *insert sniff here*.

Hallelujah! God brought us water on Friday. Now we have access to that precious commodity we take for granted in the States. In the morning, Stacey and I helped with lunch-- Mexican hot dogs (which are much better than American hot dogs, btw). Of course, making hot dogs for a lots of people meant lots of chopping. Onions, tomatoes, avacados...and carrots, cucumbers, and jicama as side veggies. During our siesta time, we discovered that water was finally reaching the tank and thus our bathroom. We left for Mochiqui, realizing that when we got home we would get REAL showers (!!!). In Mochiqui I helped Alma a little with her English lesson and then we girls played jumprope. That was good practice for Alma, who is learning her numbers: "Whon, tooo, ssree, far, etc." We got back to the orphanage for fun night in time to see the end of the soccer game. After nachos, we played volleyball. I always forget how bad I am at that game, but I had fun anyway. I talked with Teo who had a hard time remembering my name (I'm tired of being "la otra muchacha"!). At the end of our Spanish/English conversation he asked if we could be friends. What a sweetheart! I must have looked fluent in Spanish *insert proud, beaming smile here* because one of the guys from the youth group needed a translator and called me over. What a joke! But I tried... I also found a kindred spirit in the youth group- a girl who enjoys writing as much as I do! By the time I had my HOT shower, it was late and I was tired.

Then Saturday came. I'm getting used to Pepe's barking in the morning so I was able to fall back asleep momentarily. Saturday school was fun. Lenn used props to drive his point home and the kids loved it. After class, Ana and Rosa walked with us to our house; they wanted to see what it looked like. Knowing what their house looks like made us self-conscious of our "luxurious" surroundings. Ana and Rosa missed the Mochiqui ride and Stacey walked them home while I made lunch. After lunch I called "mi hermanita" and we talked for a long time...that was lots of fun! Stacey and I walked to Marlen's house to see what she was up to. Her grandmother invited us in to sit at the kitchen table in front of the TV, but Marlen was showering (and singing she told us later). We stayed for awhile and then traisped over to Loren and Donna's. Eventually we went prayer walking uptown and bought some really good fruit drinks at Oxxo. And then of course, Saturday evening pizza and time to crawl into bed!