Sewage, not a writer's dream topic!

I suppose one day I will be glad that I wrote about the sewage disaster in our house. I don't purposefully focus on the good and ignore the bad or rather I don't purposefully pretend that the bad doesn't exist. It is just within my hopelessly optimistic personality to look at the bright side of life and have the good as my focus rather than the more difficult issues. Also, I feel it is noteworthy to point out that writing is an expression of art to me. It is my creative side. Writing is the side of me that sees and feels beauty, flowers, and the depth of love. When things go bad I tend not to write. I'm not trying to hide anything; when I don't write it is simply that beauty and love are what inspire me, raw sewage just doesn't get me to the point of stirring my emotions! But in order to be true to our life experiences here in Mexico I am going to write about this whole horrid mess!

Well, first of all right now I am really sick. I had thought that I was going to enjoy my first mild illness in Mexico. But what started out as a little sniffle has turned into full fledged bronchitis and laryngitis! I have heard from many people that they fought so many sicknesses during their first year in a foreign country. I suppose every country has its basic virus's and when we move out of that system of germs our bodies have to deal with things that they have no resistance for. So it's been a tough year physically. Gary, who is never sick, has had more illnesses this year than in our entire marriage!

We did not sleep well last night. Gary is in the process of making screens for our bedroom windows. But until then the nights are warm so we have our windows open. I feel like raw mosquito bate. They were sucking blood out of my knuckles, ankles and every piece of flesh that happened to get exposed during the night. Gary and I both got about three hours of sleep as the buzzing and the biting of the mosquitoes was horrible. I got up around 5:00 AM between the mosquitoes and the coughing trying to sleep was a hopeless affair.

Therefore, between the lack of sleep, the bronchitis and the raw sewage I was a basket case this morning. It is very difficult to cry with laryngitis. I was crying but it came out in mostly just squeaks! Plus, it takes great effort and when it was all said and done the tears weren't worth the effort with laryngitis!

The plumber is coming today and we feel confident that he will be here "sin falta" without fail.

There is a Mexican cultural aspect that takes time to understand and figure out the nuances of. The Mexican people would never want to disappoint anyone so instead of saying at the car rental, "No we don't have jeeps" they will say, "Si, si tenemos jeeps!" but clearly there isn't a jeep for 100 miles! (This was a true story in a cross-cultural book that we read!) What we are trying to pick up on is the subtle nuances of communication in Spanish that say, "I would love to provide you with what you are looking for but I cannot." It's very subtle and at times difficult to understand but we're learning.

In any case, on Saturday Gary and I were trying to figure out if the plumber was trying to tell us that he didn't have the equipment to take care of our sewage problem. He is a good man, someone that we trust, and he is an excellent hard working plumber. (He is also a kindergarten teacher at a local school!) Yet, for the past two weeks he has been saying that he would take care of this sewage problem, "sin falta" but never arriving! On Saturday we began to feel that we had missed something culturally and that he probably couldn't do what we needed to have done but because of the taboo of disappointing he couldn't tell us, the harsher "NO!" that we Americans take with a grain of salt. We were pondering this when Marco (the plumber) showed up at our door! When he looked at the sewage system this time, as opposed to two weeks ago, we could sense the difference of the work appointment set up and knew that this time he would be here on Monday, literally sin falta!

This is a confusing aspect of culture. Americans are so direct and to the point, which of course comes across as abrupt and harsh to the more sensitive Mexican culture. We've seen this hesitance to say, "No" or to disappoint many times. It's subtle and you have to pay attention to catch it. If you don't catch it you will go through life in Mexico constantly frustrated.

Even with Carlos and Susana, our dearest and closest friends, they still communicate in an indirect way. If I invite them for comida at 3:00 they would never say, "Oh we can't make it at 3:00 how about 4:00?" Instead they say 3:00 or 4:00, which is the subtle way of saying, I can't make it at 3:00 but 4:00 will work. If you don't pick up on this we would be planning on comida at 3:00 and they wouldn't arrive until 4:00! It's always subtle and it takes listening with your heart and not just your head. Communication isn't terribly factual in Mexico but strongly on the feeling or emotional side. So with Carlos and Susana, it is our job to pick up on the reference to 4:00 and say, "Oh 4:00 would be perfect!" and then everyone is happy because they will be here at 4:00.

When we shopping we have found that everyone says that they will have the tool or the plant or the spice, "Next Wednesday!" At first, I kept going back and expecting them to have my requested plant on Wednesday! ;) It NEVER happened. finally we realized that this is the local way of not disappointing or of letting a person down more easily. It is fine when everyone understands the nuances of what these things mean. A Mexican man selling flowers on the street would never tell a woman that, "NO! I don't have roses!" He will say, "Oh I am sorry, I don't have them today, maybe next Wednesday....." We have to be quick to pick up on the tone of voice, the use of maybe (tal vez) and the common usage of next Wednesday, meaning there isn't any chance that he'll ever have roses! :)

So Gary and I were trying to figure out if Marco was trying to tell us that he didn't have the equipment to fix our sewage problem. Thankfully he arrived just as we were discussing this and we could tell the difference between the promise to come, "sin falta" two weeks ago and the promise to come, "sin falta" on Monday, which is today!

So we are very hopeful that today, when he gets done with his kindergarten class, that he and his sons will come and begin this horrible disgusting job. Apparently, Marco was busy with another plumbing job but in the typical Mexican way could not tell us "NO!" or "NO, I cannot come right now!" It is so vital and imperative to life in Mexico to learn these cultural things and enjoy them rather than fight against them. Actually I like being in a softer more gentle culture! Except when I am buying dishes!

One time when we were buying dishes at a local furniture store, they only had one box of the stone wear that I had fallen in love with. I needed three boxes! I went to the manager to see if they could order two other sets. His name is Noe or Noah in English and we got to know him throughout this past year in Taxco. Noe proceeded to show me these other lovely dishes and ignore my request to order more of the one's that I loved. When we pressed him he went to his computer and said that they might be in NEXT WEDNESDAY! ;) (Notice the "might" like my flower man's "maybe!") But without missing a beat Noe showed me these other lovely dishes that he thought that I would really enjoy. The point of that whole interaction was to please me. We found out later that the dishes that I loved were discontinued! (So much for next Wednesday!) But instead of telling me that it was impossible to order them he tried to find a way to satisfy and make me happy. This wasn't at all to make a sale but simply because it is engrained within the Mexican culture to please and to not disappoint other people.

So we are learning slowly but surely to pick up on these things. The Mexican culture is so soft compared to the American culture. All it takes is five minutes of listening to the Spanish language to hear the difference. The Spanish language is fluid, light and musical. The English language is guttural, harsh, and direct. This is very indicative of the culture and it takes time to be able to figure out what is actually meant by what is being said.

I don't know how I got onto a cultural discussion when I set out to write about the sewage! I guess there just isn't much to say, "The sewage smells horrid, it is the most disgusting thing I've ever had to live with, and I'm about at the limit of what I can handle!" There, that's about it! :)

The smell is difficult to describe. It is different than an outhouse. It isn’t even like a dirty toilet. It is more sulfuric and pervasive. It doesn’t just come up from the basement and the hallway where the leaks are located but it seems to also waft up from the drains in the showers! Thankfully the weather is warm and the windows are open (or broken) 24/7!

I’ve been trying to minimize the health hazards by flushing gallons of bleach down the toilets which then washes out into the hall and down the wall in the basement. There is just too much though for the bleach to do much. It minimizes it but every day the mess is worse because more and more is waste is accumulating.

As much as I want Marco to show up today…finally! I am not looking forward to having this mess dredged up. I don’t know what Marco and his sons will find or what we will be faced with as they begin to clean it out. We know there were sewer rats in the system before we began the restoration. What kind of gross mess might he find?

 There are sewage pits all over the house that he will be able to lift up and begin the clean out. Problem is these pits are in our living room, rec-room and other family areas! I don’t want to begin to face even more than we’ve been exposed to already. I’m at my “grossed out” limit!

Never the less, as I sit here in our living room looking out at the bougainvillea against the stone walled driveway, as I look around at the beautiful brick work in the house and enjoy the cheerful windows and the birds sitting on the trees just outside the balcony, I have no regrets about this house. The sewage issue was an unseen aspect of the restoration and has taken us by surprise. Everything else Gary and I could evaluate and weigh the pros and cons of the house. Yet, had we known would we still have taken this on? Absolutely! So I take comfort in the fact that whether we knew at the beginning or not, nothing would have changed our final decision to take on this project.

We know that God is going to use this place mightily and we know it is his plan that we took this whole thing on in the first place. We must simply persevere and rest in his strength and provision to get us through this large hideous mess!

Exotic Oatmeal Cookies!

It's been nearly one week since Berto came by, returned Gary's drill that he had borrowed and invited us to comida. It was a shockingly chilly Saturday afternoon and we were slouching around in our comfort jeans enjoying the cool weather. Berto's invitation hit us all by surprise, particularly since it was only one hour until the time when we would be arriving at his house. I quickly tried to think of something that I could make and bring. I couldn't imagine walking in their door without an offering of food to share. Yet what could I make on such short notice?

Planning for dinner invitations is a very American cultural aspect and not part of the Mexican culture. Still, I haven't figured out exactly how local women pull all the details together on such short notice. No one would ever arrive at a friend's house without a yummy side dish or dessert to share with everyone. But how do these women do it when invitations are spontaneous? Maybe everyones refrigerators are full of "just in case" things to share with others? I don't know but I haven't acclimated to this aspect of the culture just yet!

We didn't have any chocolate bars to make chocolate chip cookies so I flew into making oatmeal cookies. When they began coming out of the oven they seemed a little "dull" and "everyday" (little did I realize that they weren't so everyday!) so I quickly made some cream cheese frosting to go on top. They were actually quite delicious so I was happy to have been able to come up with something so swiftly!

On a side note, Bethany and I tend to deal with a great measure of trepidation in any new situation in Mexico. Despite my being a very strong people person, I also have a very shy side as well. Bethany isn't an extrovert to begin with so her shyness is very pronounced.

 So as the guys walked happily along the path to Berto's house, Bethany and I were trying to deal with our fear of the unknown and the upcoming navigation of conversation in Spanish with our limited knowledge.






Berto and his family live just down the hill from us. We walked up our dirt road about 20 meters and then down a steep path with dried corn husks and banana trees on either side. A medium sized dog greeted us with a bloody torn ear. In Mexico we're learning to swallow hard and go on with life when we see a dog that is less than pampered.

When we arrived we didn't know what to expect but there were brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles filling all the spaces outside and inside of Berto's house. More and more people kept coming as the afternoon wore on. This wasn't a fiesta or special occasion but simply the main meal of the day and apparently Berto and his family are accustomed to the "come one come all" open door way of life.

Honestly we felt very awkward but tried our best to do the right thing, smile when appropriate, eat the snack that was handed to us and try to figure out what people were saying.

As an example of how difficult these situations can be, we have all had some excruciatingly embarrassing moments in Mexico. My story begins when we were just getting to know Carlos and Susana. They came back from a trip to visit their family in Mexico City and brought Susana's mother back with them. We were invited up to meet her and spend a little time together. Susana began to show me her prized bag of spices that she found in Mexico City, the spices that she cannot find in Taxco and the spice that she needs to make her special mole sauce.

Well, as she began to show it to me, I thought she was giving it to me so I graciously said, "Oh muchas gracias" and took the bag. It only took me a few seconds to realize that she wasn't giving it to me but showing me her special treasure but it was too late. No Mexican person could ever imagine taking back something that another person thought was a gift. So in the typical generosity of the Mexican culture Susana gave me the bag of spices. I was mortified inside but didn't know what to do. My stomach felt sick and I thought I was going to vomit! I spent the next hour trying to figure out what to do. How could I make this situation right?

 Amazingly, by God's grace I thought of a plan! Susana is always expressing a desire to cook with me, so I invited her and her mom down for a cooking party the next day so that we could all make the special mole sauce together! Our families would then share a yummy meal together hosted at our apartment. Hurray!!!! The cultural blunder was solved. Yet, the fear of such situations is very real in my heart.

Bethany's story happened at Christmas time. We were at the Christmas posada in our neighborhood. We had never been to an event like this and didn't know what to expect. We all were given candles to carry as the procession walked through the darkened night on the dirt roads. When we all gathered outside at the neighbor's house for the fiesta we all blew out our candles. It was difficult to see within the darkness of the December evening. At the same time a lady came by with little cups with something long and white sticking out of them. Bethany, remembering many candle lit Christmas Eve services, thought these were cups to collect the candles! So much to the hostess's shock and surprise Bethany put her candle in the cup. As it turns out the cup was full of "ponche" or Christmas punch and the candle looking object was sugar cane, which is part of the Christmas tradition of Posada! UGH! I saw the mortification on Bethany's face as she realized what she had done.

Gary's situation involved our first day of work on our house. Berto and his family all came over to help. During the day of back breaking work Gary mentioned to Berto that we would have a fiesta for Berto's whole family "when we were all finished!" Gary meant when we were finished with the house project in several months......Berto didn't take it that way but we didn't realize exactly what Gary had said as we all were trying hard to communicate in Spanish. When we were all finished for the day, exhausted and disheveled, Berto's family, from the youngest baby to the oldest grandpa, began to congregate in our driveway! We were polite but it was difficult after such hard day of work. Carlos had come by to tell us privatly that he and Susana had dinner waiting for us since we had worked so hard. As we all stood around waiting for Berto's family to leave so that we could go to the apartment and colapse, it dawned on me that possibly Gary had communicated that the fiesta was today! NOW WHAT???? Thankfully Carlos was there so we told him what happened. He was kind and generous enough to go out and bring back enough food and drinks for everyone. It wasn't exactly the typical fiesta but at least we didn't send Berto's family away hungry after inviting them to a "fiesta!" Oh the tangled web we weave when we try to communicate in another language and in a different culture!

These are the things that give us a measure of terror as we go into new situations. The difficulty is that we are in an area of Mexico that does not have a lot of interaction with Americans. The silver shop owners in downtown Taxco know how to communicate with Americans but the typical family living on the hillside down a dirt road has never encountered an English speaking person before. They don't realize that we've never had "Ponche"! They don't realize how unusual and different everything is to us. The Mexican's around us think, as we in America think, that everyone around the world does the same things as they do! So we end up looking like a fool and feeling horribly embarrassed much more than if we lived in a tourist area where the Mexican people knew that Americans never have been to a posada and that we never drank ponche before with a candle looking piece of sugar cane sticking out of the cup! The Mexican people are very kind and gracious but we do notice their looks of shock as we try to navigate our life in this foriegn land!

Therefore, comida at Berto and Agustina's house was met with a bit of trepidation, to say the least! Berto's family is on the same economic level as Oscar and Silvia but our friendship with Oscar and Silvia has centered around their entertaining us at their place of employment which is the B&B, Casa de Las Palmas. Berto and Augustina's home is all that they have so we were blessed to be right in the middle of an authentic poor Mexican family eating comida with their whole extended family.

How do I describe Berto's house? It is a concrete structure, as all houses are in Mexico. (No wooden frame construction!) The house is small but cheerful. The walls are painted peach with a nice stenciling done by Augustina's sister, using just cut out paper and free hand painting! There are two bedrooms for the family of six. The bedrooms are right off of the living room with a curtain as a door. There is a very rustic bathroom that Gary was the only one to brave and a small utilitarian kitchen. People spilled outdoors to eat and talk as the "dining" area was not nearly large enough to contain everyone.

Berto was like a little kid and showed Gary all of the "toys" in his house. He has a large sound system used for fiestas (Now we know whose responsible for the loud music during the occasional fiestas down the hill!) He showed Gary his pirated and very well used CD collection. He showed us family photos and his fruit trees. He has a Mandarin tree right outside the living room window so he reached out and picked a few mandarins for us to eat. They were quite sour but we let on they were sweet as honey! :) Berto is working on his house and making an addition on the roof. So he took us up and showed us what he was doing.

One thing that I realized very strongly is the natural and good pride that any man has in his home and in his family. What would it have done to Berto's self worth, had Gary and I tossed some American trinkets at him as Berto tried to show Gary his home and construction project? It is so very vital to learn how to give to the poor in an honoring way in a developing country. We want to honor their pride in their accomplishments and not toss things at them as if we were royalty giving little crumbs to the dogs below us.

Yes, Berto's family is quite poor. I'm sure that they struggle to put tortillas on the table. Yet, how are we to be generous without wounding Berto's self worth as a man? Well, for one thing we can be generous in lending him Gary's tools. We can pay attention to when his birthday is and buy him a tool that will help him build the addition on to his house. But this is done in friendship not in pity. It is honoring to give a gift in friendship but very dishonoring to give something out of pity. No one wants to be pitied but everyone could use a generous friend who sees our needs and gives from the heart.

After Berto took Gary around and showed him all his treasures, including a very large machete that he had used to cut down a tree that morning, we all sat down to eat!

We've learned to watch our Mexican friends with hawk eyes to see what they are doing. We were served chicken legs with the mole sauce that is called "table cloth stainer" in Spanish. Everyone was eating this with their hands and using a spoon on the side. The problem was that we were not given any napkins. My fingers were so messy and I didn't know what to do with them. Thankfully, halfway through the meal, Augustina passed out some napkins. We tried not to look desperate but our family snatched up those napkins very quickly while Berto's family was content with the more sensual way of experiencing the texture of the meat and sauce on their fingers!

We had a pleasant time sharing a meal together but the highlight of the afternoon was when Augustina passed around my oatmeal cookies! This moment will stick in my memory until I breathe my last bit of air on this earth. Bringing oatmeal cookies to a friends house was such an example of the cultural differences that we find ourselves in. No one knew what an oatmeal cookie was! Aside from the Christmas cookies that I had already made for Berto, I'm not sure that any of them had ever had a cookie before! They were quite nervous and I saw in reverse our cultural and culinary fears being played out in them. What exactly was this very foreign food they wondered? The teens were scared to taste them and almost refused! They didn't know what frosting was and some thought it was mayonnaise! Once they tasted it their fears were relieved but they were still nervous about eating them as if a large foreign bug might be hidden inside! (Boy do we know those emotions!) I’m not even sure if they really liked the cookies or not. I think oatmeal cookies were just a bit too exotic for Berto and his family to really enjoy on their first try! Hopefully, after we went home they were brave enough to eat a second one and eventually began to savor the combination of oatmeal, brown sugar and frosting! How amazing, that a little "ordinary" oatmeal cookie would be such a cause for alarm and fear of foreign foods! We will never forget that priceless moment. What an amazing experience to live in another country where every day things like oatmeal cookies are extremely exotic!!!!

It's surprising though, no matter how much shock a foreign food like cookies might give to a local family, they are always more thrilled with exotic American food than classic Mexican fare. I suppose it's the same thing as we feel, that the grass is always greener. Somehow it seems that a mango is much more delicious than an apple or a coconut dessert is much more fun than pumpkin pie! It's been a surprising "treat" if you will, to bless our Mexican friends with exotic American desserts, when they are so simple and common for me to make.

One of the astonishing aspects of our friendships in Mexico is how we've been welcomed into the family unit where no other friend is welcomed! The week before this comida invitation Gary and Bethany (Nathaniel and I weren't feeling well) were invited to Berto's son's confirmation! The house was full of family but no other friend but Gary and Bethany. This aspect of being welcomed into the local families has really hit us deeply. Family is a huge deal in Mexico and it isn't that easy to become a part of one. Yet, in the three closest friends of our life here we have been welcomed, with arms open wide, into their families. This is a very significant aspect of these relationships and one that none of us take lightly.

Our passion is to see whole families receive the gospel message. In Acts in the Bible it talks about a man being saved, he and his whole family! This is what we envision for Mexico. Typically missionaries try to pull away converts from their families; we believe that the gospel is powerful enough to give boldness and strength to the person who has come to faith. Therefore not only will a father come to faith but he will bring his entire family to Christ!


What an amazing blessing it has been to be welcomed into Berto and Agustina's family! Hopefully one day soon we can welcome them into the family of God!

Felicidades!

I hear the rain trickling down as the roosters crow in the background. It's been drizzling the past few days, which is very unusual for February in Mexico. I have determined though that the rainy season, May through October, is my very favorite tropical time of the year! Just hearing the water cascading down the cobblestone driveway brings such found memories of a cool heavy storm on a warm July evening. I absolutely love it!

As we near our one year anniversary in Mexico, of course I have been pondering our life here. Actually, I feel a bit pressured to write about this milestone and then I get stalled because it is very difficult to summarize our family's first year in Taxco, a little 500-year-old colonial town in Mexico.

Flowers at "Las Palmas"

We've lived in three distinct places in this past year. First we had our life at what we affectionately call, "Las Palmas" or "Casa de Las Palmas". This is the B&B where we spent our first two months in Taxco.

Oscar and Gary sharing a birthday meal together

This is where Oscar and Silvia held our hand and helped us navigate and begin to understand life in Mexico. I don't know how we would have survived without them. We will be forever indebted to such a wonderful godly family. I'll never forget that first week when I was so afraid and so full of culture shock. Oscar was very kind and re assuring. He kept touching my arm and saying, "It will be all right, Raquel". Silvia and I didn't know how to do much more than hug, kiss each other's cheek, and laugh at our struggles to communicate. What an amazing time that was. Bethany and I were in total, engulfing culture shock, while Gary and Nathaniel were on Cloud Nine, completely enthralled in everything new and beautiful about Taxco.

Casa de Las Palmas

Taxco

Culture shock is an incredibly weird experience that is difficult to explain unless you've been through it. One book I read in Loveland described the author's first year in a tropical country. She was surrounded by beautiful flowers and exotic birds but didn't see them for the first six months because of the blinding shock of incredible change. I can relate! "Las Palmas" is one of the most beautiful places in Taxco with its gorgeous flowers and giant palm trees. It is a magical place with the city lights twinkling from the roof top terrace as a guitarist gently sings a Mexican love song in a distance. Yet, when we arrived in this glorious place, I was totally immobilized and incapacitated.

View of "Las Palmas" roof terrace

Thankfully, the bulk of that shock lasted only a couple of days, but those first couple of months were particularly difficult for me, and many times I wanted to run away but had no where to run to.



Then we moved to our apartment. I remember Carlos and Susana bringing ice cream to us as we carried our book boxes up the 30 stairs to our apartment. Little Camila was so sweet and greeted each one of us with a handshake in her little one year old way!


At the apartment, we didn't have the daily care that we had from Oscar and Silvia at the B&B. We had to navigate language and culture more on our own. Yet God in his blessings and provision gave us Carlos and Susana. Again, I don't know how we would have survived without them. After selling everything that we owned in Loveland, during our first week at our apartment we had many things to buy. We went to the store to find Nathaniel and Bethany a mattress and our washing machine but hadn't a clue how to get them home. Amazingly, we saw Carlos and Susana in the same store! They gave the rest of the afternoon (toddler in tow and baby in tummy) over to helping us! Funny thing was, when we left our apartment we were careful to lock and bolt the doors because we really didn't know the neighbors, Carlos and Susana, that well! Turns out they had gone shopping too! (Maybe they locked and bolted their doors because they didn't know us either!!!) That day of helping us get our children's mattresses back to our apartment began the closest friendship of our marriage.



Every day life in our apartment was difficult. It wasn't simply that it was a small space, but that the layout didn't work well for our family. We were squashed together like sardines and had zero privacy. Yet, there were also many blessings in those months, the main thing being the growing friendship with Carlos, Susana, Camila and finally baby Sebastian.

Those seven months were almost like living together. We heard each other's private noises (nose blowing, singing in the shower, and going to the bathroom!) from one apartment to the next. We knew when each other went to the store and when anyone in the family had the sniffles. We took countless food items up and down the stairs to each other's door step from Susana's amazing chilaquiles to my Cinnamon rolls that Susana is now addicted to!

We shared birthdays, Christmas celebrations, the birth of their baby, and earthquakes together. It was an amazing time of deepening our relationship through every day of being in such close contact.

Yet, despite our love for them, the close contact was one of the difficult aspects of the apartment. Knowing each other's bathroom habits brought intimacy between us, yet it also felt very intrusive into our American need for privacy. (Privacy and personal space isn't such an issue in the culture of the Mexican people.) So we varied between a feeling of intense closeness and a feeling of invasion. I loved the times when I would sneeze and Carlos would yell down the window well, "Salud," or when Susana and Camila would sing in the shower together and we would all get to giggling about their antics. Yet on another level it was difficult for us to be in a state of perpetual togetherness. We never felt like we were ever quite alone. Having private time alone is not only American cultural value but also one of our family values as well. I began to feel more and more as if I couldn't welcome people in to our home for dinner because I was already feeling too much extrovert time in "living together" with Carlos and Susana.

We knew we needed to move to a house that had privacy and a little bit of land but we also knew we wanted to stay in our small barrio of Casallas. How could we find a house to suit our family in such a limited housing area???

Our third and final stage of settling into life in Mexico has been moving into this old Mexican home. All of the restoration work aside, this is the place that finally feels like home. We are settled into normal living and it feels wonderful! We are totally on our own now after having two families placed in our lives by God to hold our hands and guide us through our first year of life in a foreign land.

Our kiddos finally have some land to play on and explore. They run up and down the road trying to fly their homemade kite, which is reminiscent of times they had with their friend Noah in Loveland. They climb trees and go on adventures together.



Gary and I finally have our privacy and I have quiet time alone to pray, read my Bible and write. I have my kitchen were I can cook up a storm and sing the whole time! Gary has a nice cheerful office to study for preaching the Word of God and to spend time in prayer. We have neighbors coming by to offer their help in moving a refrigerator or to invite us to a fiesta, or to borrow a tool. For the first time in a year, life feels very normal. Very much like Banyan Ave in Loveland, just with tropical birds in our trees and coatimundi's climbing in our windows!

Coatimundi-they have gotten into our house on occasion and
are actually prized (and expensive) exotic pets in the States!
Anyone want to buy one???

So now we are settled into our "new normal". Life in Mexico is VERY different. Our day-to-day life in a small town in Southern Mexico is poles apart from our life in Loveland. Yet, we have weathered the ups and downs and have begun to live in this very foreign land and finally feel normal in doing so. Nothing is the same as it was in the States but the everyday things that were so shockingly different about Taxco at first are beginning to feel comfortable and normal to us now.

I can't imagine driving to the store in our old Subaru that we left behind in Loveland. We are so accustomed to riding the combi buses, and they are a constant source of delight to us. We love the interaction and the friendly camaraderie that is shared as we all ride into town together. It's like a big family van taking the neighborhood to town. What would it be like to drive alone to the grocery? or get on an American city bus and not say a cheerful "Buenos Dias"? What would it be like to not pass each other's bus fare from one person to the next until it got safely to the driver. Or not to squish 18 -23 people in a van built for 10??? We cannot imagine our life being any different now. The thrill and excitement of riding the combis has passed but now it has become a joyful, comforting part of our daily life and we cannot imagine anything less.

The mercado that was a scary dark maze when we first arrived is now a kaleidoscope of colors and the intense fragrance of tropical fruit. We can buy fresh mango, coconut and bananas from the tree! The fruit and vegetables are amazing but the ambiance of the mercado is what makes it so memorable. The noises, the smells, the people buying and selling. It is a scene out of Roman Holiday, Dicken's Christmas Carol, or My Fair Lady where there is a bustling life surrounding an open market in the city.

How could King Soopers or even going way back to Giant Eagle compare to the life and vitality of shopping at a Mexican street market??? Buying fresh meat dangling from a hook or cheese fresh from the farmer has become the delight of our life!

The Mexican people will forever be etched into our hearts. They are extremely hard working, generous to a fault, with warmth and loving kindness surrounding every interaction they take part in. When we first arrived in Mexico we began to feel indebted to everyone around us. Between Oscar and Silvia and Carlos and Susana, we couldn't imagine how we could ever give back to them the love, friendship and support that we had received. Yet, no one seems to realize how much that they have given to us. One day when we were beginning work on our house, Carlos said, "Now maybe we can help you since you've done so much for us!" What???? I don't remember that. All we remember is how much they have given to our family. It's an amazing culture and one where generosity is a national ingrained value. How could we ever live without the Mexican warmth, friendship, and giving spirit?

After one year of living in Mexico do we feel at home? Certainly! Are there still struggles with language, culture and adjustments? Of course! I would say our largest struggle is with language. Yet, despite the difficulties we are extremely happy and content with our life in Mexico! We look with anticipation to see how the next year of our life unfolds and to see how God continues to intertwine our hearts and lives with the friends and neighbors around us! So celebrate with us as we anticipate the commemoration of our first year of life in Mexico!

 Felicidades!