1. In mid-March, one of my former editors and co-workers from Delta Sky magazine, Jason Oliver Nixon, and his partner, John, came to Mexico City. He was so kind and invited me out to an amazing dinner in D.F. I was in heaven: lobster enchiladas, cactus leaf salad, yum! Thank you, Jason and John!
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2. In late March, my friend Diana came to visit for a week. My first visitor! It was amazing to see her, especially since I have not seen her in more than a year (she taught English in Korea the past year). We toured around Cuernavaca, and she got the hang of taking the Ruta (bus) while I was at work. At night, Diana helped me with work—we took the kids to running club, hung out with them, etc.
Diana and me on my roof.
The last weekend she was here, we went to Acapulco to meet up with her family, who has a time share there. What a fun time! Amazing sun, beach, etc. Thank you, Kruppstadts!!
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3. We celebrated Easter with the kids in Miacatlán. We bussed all of our high schoolers to the home where the younger kids are, and we spent Holy Thursday through Saturday there. (I stayed for Easter Mass and the egg hunt so that I could document them for my job.) I have to say that this was one of the most special Easters I have ever had.
We woke up at 6 a.m. Easter Sunday for a sunrise Mass out in our garden. (The bad news is that it really felt like 5 a.m. because daylight savings time began in Mexico that day.) The altar was decorated with all the tropical flowers you can imagine, and streamers were hung above it. Candles were the only source of light we had that early in the morning. It was so beautiful seeing all these little faces looking in awe as Father Phil performed mass. My favorite part? All the voices belting out the songs. It was incredible.
After Mass, there was a special treat: chocolate donuts and chocolate eggs. Let´s say the kids were definitely hyped up enough before the house-wide Easter egg hunt. Imagine 600 children running around to find the prized eggs. It was hilarious.
A group of boys finds a few eggs.
One of our kinders and his chocolate donut.
Father Phil celebrates a sunrise Mass.
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4. Due to the Easter holiday, our kids had two weeks off of school! We teamed up with our women´s director, Vecry, to plan a dance competition for the girls. The prize? A night at the movies. This might not seem too exciting to some of you, but most of our girls have never been to the movies AT NIGHT! There were two nights of competition, and the winning team was a group who performed hip hop. It is pretty interesting seeing Mexican teenagers try their hand at hip-hop moves!
The Mexican hip-hop queens!
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5. In early April, I had the chance to visit Taxco, which is the silver capital of Mexico. I went with three other friends, Erika, Jeremy, and Martin. I am pretty sure we did every touristy thing you can do there in less than five hours! We took a ride up the mountain, we saw the huge Jesus statue, we shopped for silver, we toured the church, and we ate like locals in the zólcalo. It was amazing...and tiring.
The central plaza in Taxco.
We fit 16.2 people (there was a baby) into this "city bus."
How many white VW taxis do you see?
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6. Two weeks ago, our kids had puente (vacation) on a Friday, so Naomi and I went with the Life Teen group to Los Columpios (the swings). This is an outdoor ¨park¨ of sorts that has a lot of swings (think tire swings, etc.) as well as camping. We set up spot at a shelter and played team games all day. The big treat was lunch: Costco burgers!!
I asked one of my girls, one who tends to be very angry and not very talkative, if she would take pictures for me. Generally, when I try to take pictures of the kids, they will not let me. But give a camera to their friends? Oy, vey! I got 200 amazing pictures, and a new friend out of this girl. It was amazing. I guess give a little trust before you expect it in return? Lesson learned.
Multi-legged race!
Karen and a columpio.
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7. This past weekend, we had our volunteer retreat at Xochimilco, which is on the western side of Mexico City. There used to be an lake there, which is now a series of canals. So, much like you would do in Venice, we boarded a gondola-type boat and relaxed for the day.
Mexican "gondolas."
It is very rare for all of the volunteers to be able to do something together...normally someone has to work! So, that made this day all the more fun!
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8. Construction on our new library is done! I am so excited. I am working on now shelving all of the books and coming up with a system to check them out. Book club is coming along, slowly but surely. We have had more girls tell us this (Memoirs of a Geisha) is the first book that they have read for fun!
More to come later, and I promise to be better about posting. Hope all is well with everyone!
I loved hearing about this. Yes, you should blog more. :) Godspeed, Jane!
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