Tracts, K-Freezes, and Spankings

Sunday, May 10, 2009.
Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers in the world! I wasn't with my mom today, but I made a cake for someone else's mom. The kids made Donna breakfast in bed as I mixed up a chocolate cake. Kyle came hopping into the kitchen to see what I was up to. I told him I would tell him what I was concocting if he could keep it a secret. Even as a 5-year-old, he recognized his weakness and blurted out, "Just TELL me!" I didn't, and he returned to the bedroom, bearing false reports that I was "making supper." I was in the midst of baking the cake when I noticed that we were out of gas. I think I have a strange body chemistry that makes gas vanish out of the tanks. Two times in four days! I was discouraged although Loren went almost immediately to get another tank. The cake, however, was not ruined and came out smelling ooey-gooey and delicious. Ana came to church and we sat together. The service was about madres (mothers). Loren called up different people to talk about their mothers. Ricardo came to church late. Then he sat in the front bench. I'm not sure why he sat up there, because he spent the entire service swiveling his head from side to side to make sure that he wasn't missing any action behind him. He waved his hand frantically when Loren asked questions, but he rarely knew the answer or said something really off the wall that told the rest of us that he hadn't been listening. Then he randomly reached back and yanked the tag off of his 'Lindolfo Reyes' T-shirt. After that, he had the tag in his mouth or was wrapping it around his finger as he watched the world around him. I love Ricardo; he's eccentric and adds a touch of humor to any situation. I was sitting behind him (which is why I can give a detailed account of his actions) and I kept laughing quietly at his tactics. After everyone left, we had lentil soup and chocolate cake. In the afternoon, I wrote a sappy e-mail to the best mother in the entire world. At the service in San Pedro, the service was a lot the same. Julian's mother applauded him after he gave his little speech. The wind in my face on the ride home made me very tired.

Monday, May 11, 2009.
I bought groceries and walked to Vanessa's house. At first, my visit felt like it was in vain; the family was distracted and not very friendly. But as I was preparing to leave they began to ask me questions about hell and salvation. I plunged in to explain the spiritual realm to them. The Holy Spirit was definitely with me, but I still came home to freshen up my spiritual vocabuarly a bit. In the afternoon, Rod and Christa came to pick us up for the San Pedro Kid's Club. We had a nice class; the children were well behaved. It may have been the heat; no one really has much energy to be naughty with this weather. After class, I talked with Fransisca and Gris. Fransisca informed me that if she had an available son, she would want him to marry me. The rest of the conversation ran along similarly humorous and ridiculous lines. We got back to eat Loren's cebiche and some pitayas that Rumaldo had dropped off earlier.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
I walked up to SuperChoix and ordered my usual 1/2 kilo of hamburger. The meat-guy gave me a smile of unconcealed mirth. I must be the only person in Choix who buys hamburger. I made bread, cookies, peach tapioca (Thanks, Mom! It turned out good!), and spaghetti. I now have a recipe to make bread FAST! It baked in 15 minutes when it was supposed to take 40-45 minutes. Never mind the crispy, black outside; it was the doughy inside that counted. Okay, it wasn't horrible, just discouraging. I tried to read in front of the fan during siesta time, but I fell asleep instead. We left to pass out tracts about 4:30 p.m. We rode through flying tar, stones, and dust on the way to Aguajito. As we pulled up to the side of the rode, Gris was just driving by in the car. She slowed up and rolled down her window. Then with a very confused look on her face, she surveyed our mighty number and asked, "Y eso?" (And this?). We all laughed as Loren explained. Passing out tracts when fast in both Aguajito and Colexio. We were standing around talking when we saw a boy ripping apart one of our tracts. We all stood and watched him perform this task. He noticed us and was embarrassed, but we didn't look away. I made a comment along the lines of "He should be embarrassed!" My head was pounding on the way home and I began to wonder what it would be like to get sick while trapped in the back of the truck with seventeen other people. When we got back, I couldn't eat much for dinner (that is a SURE sign that I was sick!). But I took a few ibuprofen and a shower and felt good enough to clean my room and sort my laundry.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
I woke up this morning realizing that I'd had enough sleep. That felt nice. I was up and at the plaza by 8:00 a.m. I started reading a very interesting book and finally dragged myself away by promising myself I'd stop for a K-Freeze before heading home. The ploy worked and I happily sipped my K-Freeze all of the way home. Kyle was intensely jealous and showed me all of his money. Together we figured out that he had enough money to buy K-Freezes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday...and a hamburger on Friday. He has a potentially blissful week coming up. He thought maybe he'd take my debit card to the bank and get even more money to buy even more K-Freezes. I quickly shot down that brainy idea. I did my laundry, ate lunch, and then talked with my family on the phone. It was so hot and my ear got all sweaty from the phone. After dinner was prayer meeting. After prayer meeting we took the Mochiqui villagers and some of the orphanage crew home (Lenn was in Mochis to pick up the new worker). We dropped off Ian and Jesse at the gate and then Loren stepped on the gas. I bent over backwards the bar in the truck. Jesse laughed at me as I cried out in pain. I was still rubbing my aching back when Loren slammed on the brakes and both Janessa and I flew to the front of the truck. But the ride got even more uncomfortable when Loren stopped to pick up three young men from Mochiqui and hauled them with us all of the way to Choix. The three guys plastered themselves against the back of the truck and we hugged the front after an obligatory "Buenas tardes" (Good afternoon). Janessa and I ran to Don Josecito's for milk and yogurt (in two separate trips, of course). I wanted to finish my book that evening, so I didn't think about going to bed until long after I should have.

Thursday, May 14, 2009.
Potato day at the orphanage. That should have been a clue to how my day would go. But it didn't even send off warning bells in my brain. The groceries were late which meant the potatoes weren't done on time which means a stressed Tricia...again. Thursdays are my thorn in the flesh right now. We ended up being only a few minutes late for lunch although everyone was sitting at the table waiting for us. The bright spot of my day was that I got to meet the new worker, Rhonda. Well, not exactly meet her since I knew her from before. I got to remake the acquaintance. The children were all excited over the new clothes that the social services gave them for children's day (social services came right before lunch, go figure). I iced the pumpkin whoopie pies and then exited the fray for some time off. In the afternoon, no visitors came so I spent my time talking with Rhonda and watching Chuy. Hearing Rhonda's questions made me remember my first week in Mexico. Debbie and I heated up leftovers for dinner and we ate. Then the boys passed out pitayas. We each got six of them! I helped start the clean up and then went outside to watch the kids play jumprope. The boys were showing off for Rhonda. Everytime they did something, they's look at her to make sure she was watching. It was hilarious. Again I had a tardy ride...that never came.

Friday, May 15, 2009.
I saw lots of people from Mochiqui as I biked out of town Friday morning. And yes, I actually rode my bike. I was walking it down the street when Rumaldo sped around me on his bike and said, "Subete!" (Climb on it!). Maybe it was pride that made me obey him just to prove that I could. When I got to the orphanage I started in with my work. The boys were still around, disrupting my piles of sorted laundry. Once things quieted down, I relaxed with the washing machines and read my book. It was a relaxing morning. I tried to remain optimistic as I clambored onto my bike under the scorching sun. And I was optimistic to a certain point. That point was when I was wearily cresting a hill. I glanced to my left and met the eyes of a jogger that was overtaking me. Startled, I swerved as he passed me. I would have fallen if I wouldn't have caught myself with my foot. He turned around and ran back to wherever he'd come from. As soon as he was out of earshot, I burst out laughing as I huffed and puffed the rest of the way into Choix. I chatted online with my two sisters, my mom, and Brianne. It was work to keep up with four different conversations! We left for Mochiqui and picked up Maria at the orphanage. In Mochiqui, Maria and I visited Ana as Donna made her own rounds. Two Jehova's Witnesses came by Ana's house. Afterwards, Ana began to ask me some spiritual questions. After trying to explain a few things, I resorted to having Maria translate for me. Then we walked up to MariCruz's to study with Carla and Tita. When we got home, I showered and then Rach and I walked up to the taqueria to meet the guys for our singles' night out. After tacos, we walked up to Oxxo to get ice cream. I saw my former little neighbor girl and talked with her for quite awhile. We finished our evening by eating ice cream under the air-conditioning at Yoders'.

Saturday, May 16, 2009.
I had two answered prayers on Saturday. One was that Salvador came to Saturday school. He only needed a little convincing before he came in and sat quietly. I was delighted by the way he listened to the Bible story. I sat between Rhonda and Ana. The afternoon was fairly relaxed. With Rhonda's help, lunch was simple. After lunch, Domingo and Miguel discovered a few of the buttons that make me tick. After their work, they went to wash up and came out of the bathroom with soap all over their faces and in their hair. I playfully tried to wipe it off of them, but they preferred to strut around and show off their ingenuity first. My second answered prayer came when I was grinding away at the peanuts to make peanut butter. Out of the blue, Rosalina began asking me questions about what it meant to be a Christian and baptized, etc. I was excited. Not only was it good for her to learn, but it was also good for me to practice my Spanish. I cleaned up after making the peanut butter and by then Chuy was awake from his nap. I took him outside to look at the cows before I went for my time off. I was back on duty just in time to heat up some beans and rice and feed Chuy before dinner. Diego and Miguel came in with pitayas for their personal desserts. I tried to talk them into giving one to Chuy. Miguel gave his to me. "Tengo tres mas" (I have three more) he consoled himself. I gave Chuy a taste of pitaya and after that he kept reaching for it and didn't want to finish his beans. The children were extremely traviersos (naughty) during dinner clean-up. I was worn out by the time that Domingo came in to sweep and mop. He whined and whined and then whined some more when I told him in no uncertain terms that if he didn't do a good enough job, he'd have to redo it. I tried teaching him how to say "I like to sweep the floor" in English. The I altered his favorite phrase ("I want a hundred cookies!") to "I want a hundred spankings!" He gave me a startled look that told me he knew exactly what I was trying to get him to say. Loren came to pick me up early. As I was leaving, the pile of boys by the porch bid me farewell by belching loudly. Such is life...