Two weeks and counting...
I'm not going to try to put these images in any kind of chronological order. Sorry. Bear with me... 
Somehow Cecily and her friend Valeria ended up on clean-up crew for the Primary activity.
Cecily and Swiper, the super-patient cat.
The kids from the Primary activity, with Susan, in the light blue sitting in front, and Presidente Cortes in the yellow baseball cap.
Mostly the same group without Susan and the Presidente.
Playing with playdough.
A group of the boys playing pick-up sticks.
This lizard hung around on the cord of my hairdryer for a couple of days. I don't think he liked the way I was doing my hair- he wanted to see more lift.
The teenagers ended up on kitchen crew.
Keyla, Erick's sister, sweeping up at night.
Tania, Kenya, and I can't tell who the other two girls are- I'll have to ask who was wearing those clothes that night.
The kids decided to explore the property our house sits on and ended up at a little stream, which was really fun, but everyone came home with cuts and bug bites and all wet. So they did a little first-aid clinic when they got home. From left to right, Tania, Paola, and Keyla.
Elliot and Swiper.
Elliot and Alexis were horsing around and just as I took this photo they knocked heads.
Having hotdogs for dinner.
A river with some impressive rapids that we found- oh, wait, that's our driveway during a rainstorm!
The kitchen crew, with Alexis (big Alexis, not little Alexis), Juan Carlos, Audrey, and Hermana Wendy, serving the kids hot dogs.
Adorable picture of Cecily and her buddy Valeria- and Cesar and Paola, Valeria's brother and sister, in the background. Juan Carlos is also their brother.
Cec and Tania. Tania is Erick's sister.
This is the new kitty who's been hanging around our house. The kids named him Canela, or Cinnamon.
Somehow Cecily and her friend Valeria ended up on clean-up crew for the Primary activity.
Cecily and Swiper, the super-patient cat.
The kids from the Primary activity, with Susan, in the light blue sitting in front, and Presidente Cortes in the yellow baseball cap.
Mostly the same group without Susan and the Presidente.
Playing with playdough.
A group of the boys playing pick-up sticks.
This lizard hung around on the cord of my hairdryer for a couple of days. I don't think he liked the way I was doing my hair- he wanted to see more lift.
The teenagers ended up on kitchen crew.
Keyla, Erick's sister, sweeping up at night.
Tania, Kenya, and I can't tell who the other two girls are- I'll have to ask who was wearing those clothes that night.
The kids decided to explore the property our house sits on and ended up at a little stream, which was really fun, but everyone came home with cuts and bug bites and all wet. So they did a little first-aid clinic when they got home. From left to right, Tania, Paola, and Keyla.
Elliot and Swiper.
Elliot and Alexis were horsing around and just as I took this photo they knocked heads.
Having hotdogs for dinner.
A river with some impressive rapids that we found- oh, wait, that's our driveway during a rainstorm!
The kitchen crew, with Alexis (big Alexis, not little Alexis), Juan Carlos, Audrey, and Hermana Wendy, serving the kids hot dogs.
Adorable picture of Cecily and her buddy Valeria- and Cesar and Paola, Valeria's brother and sister, in the background. Juan Carlos is also their brother.
Cec and Tania. Tania is Erick's sister.
This is the new kitty who's been hanging around our house. The kids named him Canela, or Cinnamon.
Dear friends and family,
This might be our second-to-last letter to you from Mexico. I’ll write another next weekend, but I don’t know if I’ll get around to it the day before we leave here.
We have one week left to go without James. He’ll get here next Monday and spend a week, and then we’ll leave on the 20th. We can’t believe it’s already here. I was telling my dad that we’re so excited to come home, but are so sad to be leaving. And that that means it was a good vacation, right? Because we’re glad we didn’t move here permanently, but are glad we came. We just wish that we could clone ourselves and leave a copy here and take a copy back with us. But I wonder where the real “us”es would stay. And would we know if we were just the copies or the real ones? Hmm. Very metaphysical, all of this.
Last week the branch president of our church called me and said that they had a sleepover planned for the Primary kids that had been planned since January, and that the location where they had planned to hold the activity had fallen through. He wondered if they could have it at our house. I talked to Ted here at Project Amigo and he offered the Hacienda to the kids. So Sunday night the branch president and a couple of other members came up and visited the Hacienda to get an idea of how their plans would need to change. It really is a nice location for such an activity, but I was nervous to death thinking of the responsibility involved in being the matchmaker- responsibility for how the kids acted toward Project Amigo and how Project Amigo responded to the kids.
So Friday night they all got into vans and drove up. It was raining when they got up here. There were 31 kids, 6 young men and young women to help with crowd control, and about 8 adults coming and going to help. They played games and had a couple of spiritual lessons and finally, at about 10, the stars came out and we got to look at them. Cecily and I pooped out and went home to sleep. The rest of the kids, especially the teenagers, didn’t get to sleep until about 3 in the morning. The next morning, the people at Project Amigo fixed them a pancake breakfast, they played with clay, and took a tour of Cofradia. I think they had a lot of fun. They were very well behaved and the people in our branch were really impressed with Project Amigo. One of the sisters teared up and got very emotional when she heard of everything that they are doing for the kids up here. The branch already has planned to work on a couple of activities with Project Amigo in the future.
So now I’ll back up to the beginning of our week- the kids still went to their curso de verano. This coming week will be their last week for that. On Wednesday we picked up Erick and his two sisters, Tania age 10 and Keyla age 12, and Juan Carlos and his sister, Paola age 9, and brought them up to our house. Juan Carlos and Paola only spent one night, but Erick and his sisters stayed until the Primary activity on Friday. They were fascinated with the lot that we live on, because it kind of disappears into the jungle, so they decided to explore it. They came back muddy and scratched and bug-bitten and wet and so excited that they had found a little stream. So they turned right back around and went back. When they got back they all sat down with Neosporin and Hydrocortisone and patched themselves up. At some point Elliot’s shoes had fallen off and Erick had to carry him back the second time but they thought it was a blast. That night they watched a movie and the kids fixed popcorn and chips Mexican style, which meant that they poured hot sauce, lime, and salt all over them. They actually used limes off of one of the trees in our yard! And they showed Audrey and Elliot that they way you were supposed to eat the popcorn with hot sauce was just to keep shoving it into your mouth to show how strong you are. And so they were all out there sweating and their eyes were watering….. And someone forgot to tell Cecily about the hot sauce and she snuck one and wasn’t impressed.
That Thursday we dropped Juan Carlos and Paola off at their house. And on our way, the brakes went out on the van. So we crawled to a gas station and the guy there checked the brake fluid and we had absolutely none. So we filled it up and also added two quarts of oil. But the brake light is still on- Ted says he thinks it’s because the brakes will feel spongy for a while until the fluid works its way through and gets rid of all of its bubbles. Then, because we hadn’t had enough excitement that day, we went to the beach. Erick fixed us lunch so that he could show us what they eat when they go to the beach. It was tuna fish with mayo and corn and chopped up salad served on corn chips and, of course, with hot sauce on top. And we had coconut milk. And the boys gave me a couple of scares because they got too far out in the water so I got mad at them and made them go home. So we’re not going anywhere near water until Dad gets here. The lifeguard didn’t even really notice that the boys were floating away- when I started calling them back in, he came over from talking to the cute girls he was apparently spending the day with, and informed me that if he had to go out and save them that we would have to be banned from the beach, so I should just let them work their way back in. Because he probably read my mind and knew I was struggling with the question, “Let the boys drift out to sea and still be able to come back to the beach, or have them saved and be banned…..hmm…” No, they really did make it back fine and he probably knew more about the ocean than I did, he just seemed like a very laid-back person to have entrusted our lives.
I’ve been quizzing the kids here and listening to the radio to find some popular songs to bring back for my Spanish class and already have found a few that are always being played. One is “Dimelo” by Enrique Iglesias, and it is so popular and so all-over-the-radio that I bought it from iTunes. In fact, one of the girls who stayed at our house for youth conference had the song as her ringtone, and when another girl complimented her on it she rolled her eyes and told her that two other people just at that conference also had it as their ringtone, so it was hard to tell when it was actually her phone ringing. So, anyway, I downloaded the song and it came on a few days ago and Cecily apparently had also noticed that it was always being played, and she knows all the words to the chorus! She doesn’t know what she’s singing, and it’s really just a phonetic proximity of the words, but she really does sing along with the song! It’s so cute!
Audrey and Elliot’s friend Ricardo left on Thursday to go to school. He’s going to a school called Benemerito de las Americas that’s in Mexico City. It is run by the LDS church, a private boarding school, that LDS kids here can go to. It sounds like a really impressive place- the two boys who came to our house to get ready for the folklore dances also went there and really liked it.
We’ve pretty much had to give up on piano practice for now. The humidity has gotten to the electric piano that we brought and it’s acting funny now. There are a couple of notes that don’t play, and a couple that play a different note. And now, every once in a while, the low E flat will just start playing very staccato all by itself. Even when no one’s in the room. It’s like the piano has a life of its own now. It plays what it wants. And that makes it really hard to practice when the piano is playing something different than you’re playing. Audrey’s still trying to practice hymns for church. She’s been playing two of the three hymns every Sunday and is doing very well at it.
Saturday, after the Primary kids had left, Ted held a birthday party for a friend of his and invited us. There were two couples from Colima, an American couple that we already knew who have bought a house nearby that they’re fixing up, the birthday couple, and a young couple, Luke and Sarah, who have a baby who’s 7 months old- James. Luke was a volunteer with Project Amigo four years ago and wanted his wife to meet everyone and visit Cofradia. We had so much fun. One of the other Mexican couples had brought their granddaughter who was the same age as James, so we played with the babies while everyone ate. James especially loved Elliot, and brightened whenever he saw him. Cecily was getting jealous, and kept telling him to put that baby down.
I finished writing a parent questionnaire that we’re hoping will help us to understand the attitudes of the rural parents towards reading. We’re fine-tuning the translation, and then Ted is going to send his University students out to ask all of the questions- they were worried that my white American-ness would influence the way they answered the questions. I’m really excited to start to get some of the questionnaires back. It’s probably something that’s going to take months, but we’d love to find something we could do to help parents to understand and support more their kids’ love of reading.
Audrey’s almost finished with Harry Potter 7 and it’s painful for her to have to carry on a conversation with anyone, much less do things like go to church and curso de verano. But she should soon be able to speak with people like Mary again without worrying about accidentally finding out what happened.
We will be seeing all of you very soon! We hope you’re well.
This might be our second-to-last letter to you from Mexico. I’ll write another next weekend, but I don’t know if I’ll get around to it the day before we leave here.
We have one week left to go without James. He’ll get here next Monday and spend a week, and then we’ll leave on the 20th. We can’t believe it’s already here. I was telling my dad that we’re so excited to come home, but are so sad to be leaving. And that that means it was a good vacation, right? Because we’re glad we didn’t move here permanently, but are glad we came. We just wish that we could clone ourselves and leave a copy here and take a copy back with us. But I wonder where the real “us”es would stay. And would we know if we were just the copies or the real ones? Hmm. Very metaphysical, all of this.
Last week the branch president of our church called me and said that they had a sleepover planned for the Primary kids that had been planned since January, and that the location where they had planned to hold the activity had fallen through. He wondered if they could have it at our house. I talked to Ted here at Project Amigo and he offered the Hacienda to the kids. So Sunday night the branch president and a couple of other members came up and visited the Hacienda to get an idea of how their plans would need to change. It really is a nice location for such an activity, but I was nervous to death thinking of the responsibility involved in being the matchmaker- responsibility for how the kids acted toward Project Amigo and how Project Amigo responded to the kids.
So Friday night they all got into vans and drove up. It was raining when they got up here. There were 31 kids, 6 young men and young women to help with crowd control, and about 8 adults coming and going to help. They played games and had a couple of spiritual lessons and finally, at about 10, the stars came out and we got to look at them. Cecily and I pooped out and went home to sleep. The rest of the kids, especially the teenagers, didn’t get to sleep until about 3 in the morning. The next morning, the people at Project Amigo fixed them a pancake breakfast, they played with clay, and took a tour of Cofradia. I think they had a lot of fun. They were very well behaved and the people in our branch were really impressed with Project Amigo. One of the sisters teared up and got very emotional when she heard of everything that they are doing for the kids up here. The branch already has planned to work on a couple of activities with Project Amigo in the future.
So now I’ll back up to the beginning of our week- the kids still went to their curso de verano. This coming week will be their last week for that. On Wednesday we picked up Erick and his two sisters, Tania age 10 and Keyla age 12, and Juan Carlos and his sister, Paola age 9, and brought them up to our house. Juan Carlos and Paola only spent one night, but Erick and his sisters stayed until the Primary activity on Friday. They were fascinated with the lot that we live on, because it kind of disappears into the jungle, so they decided to explore it. They came back muddy and scratched and bug-bitten and wet and so excited that they had found a little stream. So they turned right back around and went back. When they got back they all sat down with Neosporin and Hydrocortisone and patched themselves up. At some point Elliot’s shoes had fallen off and Erick had to carry him back the second time but they thought it was a blast. That night they watched a movie and the kids fixed popcorn and chips Mexican style, which meant that they poured hot sauce, lime, and salt all over them. They actually used limes off of one of the trees in our yard! And they showed Audrey and Elliot that they way you were supposed to eat the popcorn with hot sauce was just to keep shoving it into your mouth to show how strong you are. And so they were all out there sweating and their eyes were watering….. And someone forgot to tell Cecily about the hot sauce and she snuck one and wasn’t impressed.
That Thursday we dropped Juan Carlos and Paola off at their house. And on our way, the brakes went out on the van. So we crawled to a gas station and the guy there checked the brake fluid and we had absolutely none. So we filled it up and also added two quarts of oil. But the brake light is still on- Ted says he thinks it’s because the brakes will feel spongy for a while until the fluid works its way through and gets rid of all of its bubbles. Then, because we hadn’t had enough excitement that day, we went to the beach. Erick fixed us lunch so that he could show us what they eat when they go to the beach. It was tuna fish with mayo and corn and chopped up salad served on corn chips and, of course, with hot sauce on top. And we had coconut milk. And the boys gave me a couple of scares because they got too far out in the water so I got mad at them and made them go home. So we’re not going anywhere near water until Dad gets here. The lifeguard didn’t even really notice that the boys were floating away- when I started calling them back in, he came over from talking to the cute girls he was apparently spending the day with, and informed me that if he had to go out and save them that we would have to be banned from the beach, so I should just let them work their way back in. Because he probably read my mind and knew I was struggling with the question, “Let the boys drift out to sea and still be able to come back to the beach, or have them saved and be banned…..hmm…” No, they really did make it back fine and he probably knew more about the ocean than I did, he just seemed like a very laid-back person to have entrusted our lives.
I’ve been quizzing the kids here and listening to the radio to find some popular songs to bring back for my Spanish class and already have found a few that are always being played. One is “Dimelo” by Enrique Iglesias, and it is so popular and so all-over-the-radio that I bought it from iTunes. In fact, one of the girls who stayed at our house for youth conference had the song as her ringtone, and when another girl complimented her on it she rolled her eyes and told her that two other people just at that conference also had it as their ringtone, so it was hard to tell when it was actually her phone ringing. So, anyway, I downloaded the song and it came on a few days ago and Cecily apparently had also noticed that it was always being played, and she knows all the words to the chorus! She doesn’t know what she’s singing, and it’s really just a phonetic proximity of the words, but she really does sing along with the song! It’s so cute!
Audrey and Elliot’s friend Ricardo left on Thursday to go to school. He’s going to a school called Benemerito de las Americas that’s in Mexico City. It is run by the LDS church, a private boarding school, that LDS kids here can go to. It sounds like a really impressive place- the two boys who came to our house to get ready for the folklore dances also went there and really liked it.
We’ve pretty much had to give up on piano practice for now. The humidity has gotten to the electric piano that we brought and it’s acting funny now. There are a couple of notes that don’t play, and a couple that play a different note. And now, every once in a while, the low E flat will just start playing very staccato all by itself. Even when no one’s in the room. It’s like the piano has a life of its own now. It plays what it wants. And that makes it really hard to practice when the piano is playing something different than you’re playing. Audrey’s still trying to practice hymns for church. She’s been playing two of the three hymns every Sunday and is doing very well at it.
Saturday, after the Primary kids had left, Ted held a birthday party for a friend of his and invited us. There were two couples from Colima, an American couple that we already knew who have bought a house nearby that they’re fixing up, the birthday couple, and a young couple, Luke and Sarah, who have a baby who’s 7 months old- James. Luke was a volunteer with Project Amigo four years ago and wanted his wife to meet everyone and visit Cofradia. We had so much fun. One of the other Mexican couples had brought their granddaughter who was the same age as James, so we played with the babies while everyone ate. James especially loved Elliot, and brightened whenever he saw him. Cecily was getting jealous, and kept telling him to put that baby down.
I finished writing a parent questionnaire that we’re hoping will help us to understand the attitudes of the rural parents towards reading. We’re fine-tuning the translation, and then Ted is going to send his University students out to ask all of the questions- they were worried that my white American-ness would influence the way they answered the questions. I’m really excited to start to get some of the questionnaires back. It’s probably something that’s going to take months, but we’d love to find something we could do to help parents to understand and support more their kids’ love of reading.
Audrey’s almost finished with Harry Potter 7 and it’s painful for her to have to carry on a conversation with anyone, much less do things like go to church and curso de verano. But she should soon be able to speak with people like Mary again without worrying about accidentally finding out what happened.
We will be seeing all of you very soon! We hope you’re well.
posted by Parnell Willmores at 9:03 AM
2 Comments:
Wow!! I can't believe how much bigger Cecily is. Even Audrey looks so much more mature, although falling in and out of love does do that to some people. We can't wait for you to come home!
I loved the pictures. It looks like the kids made some great friends!
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