Goodbyes, Buses, and New Schedule

SUNDAY: After I got up, I crawled back into bed because I was too cold to go out onto the balcony. We all got ready for church and then piled into Rod's van and Loren's truck for an extra snug ride because of the extra people coming along. The service was good; Julian made sure that my family felt welcome. Rod preached a sermon on happiness vs. joy. I introduced Yesi to my entire family and she charmed all of them with her 7-year-old, toothless grin. We had lunch at Julian and Fransisca's. When we got back, we hung out together until the Choix service. Since it was Brianne's last Sunday and Garrison's birthday, we sang their favorite songs...very loudly. After the service, Salvador stopped by and I got to introduce him to my brothers. Miguel excitedly explained to Salvador how BIG my brothers were. Mom presented Rumaldo and MariCruz with a gift for helping us make tortillas. Part of the gift was a 2-liter coke which Rumaldo proudly carried around with him. We went to Mochiqui to drop off the children and then went to the hotel to look at pictures and eat quesadillas.
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MONDAY: The Yoders were gone all day on Monday, so we had free reign of their house...which we were too busy to take much advantage of. We walked up to the bank to try to pay our visas, but the bank was closed (someone said it was a holiday, but I just think that Mexicans make up excuses to have parties). Then we bought groceries and took them over to Vanessa's. Vanessa's family got to meet my family and seemed impressed (as much as everyone else we meet) at their size. We meandered uptown again for family pictures. A drunk guy walked through our posing and tried to sell us ice cream; but we weren't charmed into buying any. We finished souvenir shopping and stopped at Andre's to eat sopes. They were delicious... Mom and Dad went to Loren and Donna's to sew and nap (respectively) while we kids walked up to the "Bienvenidos a Choix" arch. The sun was blazing hot and I was sure that we'd all come back with golden tans, or fiery sunburns (we didn't though). We took pictures standing directly below the arch and almost got hit by passing cars. We got back to the Yoder's just in time to hop in the van with Rod and Christa to go to San Pedro (actually, only Bev, Wendell, Bradley, and I went along). We had a nice class with very attentive children. After class, I walked up to talk with Narely (sp?) who was sitting on the front porch. I ended up the afternoon still talking to her and her husband, Jesus. By the time we returned, it was time for dinner. My brothers and I bought groceries and then we all helped to make cebiche and fried plantain. Dad decided he would rather starve than eat cucumbers. Loren and Donna got back as we were ready to leave.
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TUESDAY: Janelle and I spent most of the day at the bank. Well, sort of. Our day revolved around our time at the bank, but we skipped out on a few hours of actually being there. We got our number...#117 when the bank was currently serving #32. We walked around town and got K-Freezes while we waited. When we walked back to the bank a half of an hour later, the number was 36. We decided to go back to the Yoder's. We helped with a few things, and then ran back up. The man told us it would be at least another hour yet. We went up over lunchtime and waited for awhile for our turn. The whole ordeal ended differently than we expected...but it's not worth explaining. We did a little more shopping as a family and when we returned, I stopped by the hotel desk to ask the owner where we should leave the keys on Wednesday morning. He, his wife, and his son started talking with me. Eventually Bev joined me and we continued to talk until the rest of the family was ready to head to the taqueria for dinner. We enjoyed the food again. Bradley passed the time by blowing across the tops of the glass bottles. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at us.
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WEDNESDAY: We set out at five o'clock for Los Mochis. The trip was sad because we were all very tired, but I knew that it would be the last time that I would see my family for at least six months. We dropped them off at the airport and I said my goodbyes, as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Scott and I waited at the bus station until our late bus came to pick us up. Then we spent the next twelve hours on the bus to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico (a border town). Scott and I did our very best not too fight... Once we got to Nogales, we ate hamburgers at Burger King and then took a taxi to the border where we renewed our visas. We crossed over into the States for about five minutes until we discovered that no shuttles ran that late at night. So we walked back into Mexico where no one even checked anything. We walked all of the way back to the bus station. It took FOREVER! and it was so cold. We decided to take another busline home...and sat around and waited for the twelve o'clock bus which turned out to be late. I was so tired and kept falling asleep as we waited.
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THURSDAY: We started out on our bus back to Los Mochis and I think I was asleep before we even left the station. I remember waking up various times and feeling extremely numb and uncomfortable. But somehow the hours of the night passed. I woke up for the last time in the morning with the realization that my motion sickness pill was worn off. I ate some chocolate and another pill and was grateful when my world stopped spinning. I was bored the rest of the way to Los Mochis. Nothing blogworthy happened that I can remember. On the bus from Los Mochis to Choix, I kept falling asleep and spilling out into the aisle. When I got back, I forced myself to do two loads of laundry and houseclean my room before I finally showered and crashed. Sleep was beautiful...
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FRIDAY: ...and I got 11 hours of it. I spent Friday morning making cupcakes for fun nite that night. That included a great cocoa hunt uptown and downtown and all over town until I finally found it in Don Josecito's store right next door *sighs*. But I enjoyed walking around town and seeing people again. After lunch, I walked back uptown to the hotel my family had stayed at to give the owner some cupcakes. He was very pleased. I came back to catch up on e-mails and upload pictures for my family. We eventually headed out to Mochiqui...after the Kindergarten parade down our street finally ended. Donna and I studied with the girls and then I went to play games with them. Some little boys joined us and soon we had kicking, and dirt and stone throwing...so we headed back to MariCruz's house. Donna and I got to the orphanage just in time to jump in line for nachos. After dinner, we disussed my new schedule among other things. We got home late and I was soooo tired.
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SATURDAY: I hate roosters. If roosters aren't necessary for chickens to lay eggs, why don't we just eat the roosters and save ourselves lots of early morning frustrations? If you can't guess, a rooster woke me up. Then we ate breakfast ad got ready for Saturday school. After class, I went back with the orphanage crew to help out with Saturday lunch and afternoon activities. The new schedule was an adjustment, but I'm happy with the realization that the schedule will get easier every week. I had to oversee lunch cleanup which meant keeping on top of two naughty little boys. It was fun *grins*. Afterwards, I played lots of games of Snakes and Ladders with the girls and Fernando...and then Memory...and then jumprope. I had my time off in the middle of the afternoon. I tried to sleep off a headache, but only succeeded in making it worse. I helped get dinner ready and then fed Chuyito and ate. After dinner we hung out in the kitchen until Loren came to pick me up.