Una Grande Aventura

Hoy, yo tenir una grande aventura.

Today, I had a large adventure. Holy smokes. I don't even know where to begin. No. Wait. That's a lie...

This week (this past Friday to this coming Saturday) I get the opportunity to live with a Mexican Family. I'm living with Pastor Jose and his family. I have 3 sisters, Citlali, Quetzali and Karina. My first night we had pizza for dinner and I learned a couple new games (nieces and nephews, watch out!) Saturday we had a busy day including but not limited to: a basketball game that we missed, a soccer game, shopping, a nap, youth group, a birthday party and staying up late. Sunday was crazy because it was my sister Quetzali's birthday party (she just turned 14) and since my father is the pastor, we got to church early. Oh, and everyone else on staff met and moved in with their Mexican families. Hope everyone is having a blast and learning a lot of Spanish!

Which brings us to today: I didn't have work today, but my sisters all had school and both of my parents had work (they're teachers.) So I got the privilege of waking up whenever I wanted and hanging out with a lady from the church (Paty.) She made me breakfast and we had a great conversation. She's in Seminary to become a Pastor of Music. Then another lady from the church came and I got to spend the day with her. Which began the insanity- in a good way.

Maggi sells school uniforms. Three times a week she goes to a Prepa in Tecate and sells the uniforms. So today involved going to Tecate. But first we took Paty to her house off of Casablancas. Then we went to Maggi's house and hung out there for a little bit while she made her son (Israel-17) breakfast and I watched Spongebob Squarepants and Penguins in Spanish. Then we dropped Israel off at his Abuela's and stopped at D'Volada- and they got my order wrong and I wound up with coffee instead of tea. Lame, but it was needed in the end.

After that, we went to the house of a family from the church where Maggi gets the uniforms. The daughter (Dulce-18) is super neat and I met her on Saturday night at Youth Group, so it was nice to get to talk to her again. We kicked it there for a little bit and then Hermano Julio (Dulce's dad) came and we headed out to Tecate.

A Tecate: We stopped for Birria. Bam dude. Birria. In a cup. The best. Yeah. After we ate the birria, Maggi and I headed to the school with the husband of one of the ladies from the birria stand-I think... And we went to the school and sold uniforms for a couple hours. After, the principal from the school took us to the McDonalds, where I bought a kids meal solo for the Transformers toy.

We then met up with Julio and headed to the Mexican equivilent of GreyHound because the car broke down (hence the multiple different cars...) and we took the Greyhound back to Tijuana. When we first got on the bus te driver was playing "Waka Waka". Bam yeah!

We arrived in Tijuana tired, weary and ready to be home, but that wasn't the end of the adventure. The bus dropped us off about a half mile from where it was supposed to, so we got to lug all the uniforms down the hill to where Julio's wife awaited us with a car. We then went back to their house and I got to observe. Which was crazy. But they have their own honey farm.

And now I am finally home and have eaten dinner and am watching tv with my sisters. Phineas and Ferb and Sonny with a Chance. Yay! Have a great week!

Oh! And I get to go to San Diego con mi familia Americana in 5 dias!!!!

Dios se Bendiga!

Fall Update #1

Not that I'm going to number all my fall updates... It's just 7 in the morning.

So for those of you who have realized that I completely space that I have a blog and then remember on a random week day in which I cannot do anything about it, I apologize. These past four and a half weeks since I left Portland have been incredible. Here''s the quick overview (because I need to do laundry...)

Week one: SoCal
When I left Portland I flew down to Burbank and met up with Jessica, a fellow intern here at Caravan. I spent 5 days at her house in Saugus (Santa Clarita) hanging out with her and her sisters and going to the MyGen conference. It was a blast. If you have time and are between my age and I'd say late 20s I would suggest reading My Generation by Josh Riebock. Here's the website: http://www.joshriebock.com/
On that Saturday, Jessica, Rebecca (her sister), Justin (Former Baja Bible School Staff) and I all headed down, out, over, wherever it is that Irwindale is and went to a NASCAR race. Yup. That's right. A NASCAR race. Much more fun when you actually know someone racing, and when you get to watch it with people who all know what''s going on. After the race I went to the Murphy's house and spent a brilliant couple of days working on the racecar and hanging out in the AV.

Week Two-Now: Back to Mexico
Tuesday the 14th found me in a car on the way to Escondido via Saugus. Every Tuesday I take a class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement at Calvary Chapel. It's so incredible. Aside from that has pretty much been day groups from San Diego on Saturdays (I got to build with North Park again! Yay!) and working around the dorms. We've painted the front of the building (it's now blue) and built la new guard shack and sanded the deck because you couldn't walk on it without getting slivers.

Oh! And we just got back from a 3 day trip to San Quintin in Southern Baja. We built a house for Ramon and Vanessa, a missionary family with New Tribes. I got to meet a lot of different NT affiliated people, and even a couple from Oregon who went to Multnomah!It was an adventure that included over ten hours in a truck, ridiculous traffic through "mountains" and some great conversations.

So yeah, that's pretty much it for now. This coming week includes a week long group from Arizona, and on Friday I move in with a Mexican family. So updates on that when I can! Love you all and thank you for your prayers!