Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo from Wikipedia.

Click the link above to read the full article but to sum it up in my words:

Cinco de Mayo celebrates the battle of Puebla that was fought by the Mexicans against the French in Puebla Mexico on May 5th, 1862. Seems like Napoleon wanted to use Mexico as a base to help the Confederates fighting against the North in the Civil War. Well, that didn't happen.

Ironically most of Mexico doesn't even observe it as a big holiday. It has been celebrated in the US longer then in Mexico and has been popularized due to the rise of the "Chicano" heritage. With the onset of major endorsements and push of Mexican products, it has become one more reason to party and push beer and tequila drinking.

If you live in the US you know what Cinco de Mayo is, if you live in Mexico you might just hear how your neighbors to the North are partying for you.

Either way, have fun and don't drink and drive.

So Close... Yet So Far...

Twenty months ago we started the application process for Olya's visa to the US. Right from the start we knew we would face obstacles as well as delays, mostly due to her being Russian and having gotten married in Mexico and applying through the Consulate here. We took this in stride and buckled down for the wait. We had no idea the ride we were in for.

We have had challenges along the way like waiting months for her police report from Russia, to her and the kids living in 4 different locations in the past 12 months. We have also been blessed by the help of many along the way, from finding a good and economical immigration's attorney to the people who have put Olya and the kids up in their home letting them live there and helping to take care of them while I was in the States.

 So we were very excited when the day came for me to join them in southern Mexico and all travel to Cd. Juarez, the Mexican border town across from El Paso Texas. All interviews for immigrant visas with applications originating in Mexico have to interview in Juarez.

Arriving in Juarez in late January.

Although we were thrilled and excited this trip was one of the hardest I have ever made. See I had thrown my back out in late December and had been completely immobile for the entire month of January. The pain I endured that day of travel was probably the worst I had ever had in my life, I was on very potent pain killers that would work only temporarily and due to my immobility learned what it was like traveling in a wheelchair.
God Bless Raymond and Esther who picked us up and let us stay in thier house for the 10 days we were hoping to be here.

Olya went to her interview and due to my being laid up in bed I did not go with her. The Consulate actually advises for the applicant to come alone so we thought it would be fine. I think the whole concept of a Russian living in Mexico marrying an American in Mexico then applying for a visa to the US was a little hard for them to comprehend. As they sent her case to Administrative Process saying it would be another 6-8 weeks before a decision would be made.

Looking at this photo right above you can see the brown fence running the length of the photo, that is the border fence between Juarez and El Paso, the sand in the front being the Mexican side and the mountains being the US side. This spot is 3 blocks from the house we are staying in. We are so so close... yet with no visa yet it still seems a world away. Please keep praying it arrives so we can go home.

A Mexican Friend...

IF YOU’RE LUCKY TO HAVE A MEXICAN FOR A FRIEND YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND FOR LIFE!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!

A Comparison Thesis:
FRIENDS versus Mexican Friends

FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Are the reason you have food .. . .

FRIENDS: Will say 'hello.'
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Will give you a big hug and a besito . . .

FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. and Mrs.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Call your parents mom and dad

FRIENDS: Have never seen you cry.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Cry with you . . ..

FRIENDS: Will eat at your dinner table and leave.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Will spend hours there, talking,
laughing and just being together and then take a plate to go. .

FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours....

FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Could write a book with direct quotes from you .. .

FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that's what the crowd is doing.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds' a __ that left you.

FRIENDS: Will knock on your door.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Walk right in and say, 'Heeeey, I'm here!'. .

FRIENDS: Are for a while.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Are for life and will see you hasta luego in that rinconcito en el cielo.

FRIENDS: Pretend it is OK when you are being a pest.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Tell you, 'Hay, como Chingas!!!

FRIENDS: Will ignore this.
MEXICAN FRIENDS: Will forward this to their Homies, comadres, familia, tios, tias, nanas, sanchos, cunadas, la maestra de ELL, la vecina, el Puppet, la Shy Girl, mi papi and ALL my beautiful Mexican friends!!!

Missed an hour...

Some people don't like the hassle of Daylight Saving Time, having to switch your clocks once a year to gain either an hour daylight or in the fall an hour of sleep. I personally don't mind either way.

It's been a long busy week and I have been feeling tired all throughout, so I was looking forward to the time change today of setting the clocks back an hour. (In Mexico we do that the last Sunday of Oct.) I was on devo this morning so knew I had to be up for that, after my hour sleep in of course. Oh, I went to bed a happy man after resetting all my clocks and alarms.

This morning I am awakened to the ominous sound of banging pots and people talking loudly in the kitchen while they were making their breakfasts (our room is closest to the kitchen) and thinking I didn't want to get up... after dragging myself out of bed I looked at my clock wondering why my alarm hadn't gone off, imagine my surprise when it read 6:15 am. "NO," I thought, "they shouldn't be their making noise till 7:15 am."

So I go out and ask them "if they knew what time it was" with the sure answer of "7:15 am, same as every morning." I then asked "if they changed their clocks back" and received the reply, "Oh Crap, was that today?"

3Marias

Tres Marias is a small village up in the mountains on the road between Mexico City and Cuernavaca with a strip of about 120 little rustic restaurants which sees a lot of touristic traffic on the weekends. As a home we have been going up there on the weekends for the past year for witnessing and fundraising. We have grown quite close to some people in the village and I can't walk anywhere in town without people greeting me and finding out whats happening with all our projects and little things in our lives.

I try to take the kids up there with me as often as I can as they get a chance to witness as well as get treated to a nice meal as we have several folks who always invite us to eat. The food is amazing authentic Mexican food all made by hand. This has become a favorite thing for the kids and Jade esp. likes it as she makes her own quesadillas in one of the restaurants.

Since the kids are going home tomorrow they all went out with me today to say good bye to our friends and for a last breakfast. Here are some photos.

Jade making her tortillas for her cheese quesadilla.

Adrian making his: ham, potatoes and cheese.

Alex making his: mushroom and cheese.

The quesadillas being toasted on the stove.

The kids content with the final products. This was just thier snack.

The owners of one of the resturaunts with the kids. This sweet couple feeds us two times every week with as many people as we bring, one time they feed 14 of us. God bless them.

This is the meal I had that day: Steak fillet with beans and nopales (cactus), red and green (from the spices) suassage, with lettuce and tomato. With a side order of tortillas and this is a meal leaving nothing to be desired.

Jades meal of orange juice, cheese qeusadilla and Birria soup. The sould is made in a tomatoe base with barrbacoa (lamb) meat. This soup is a fovorite with all the kids.

Adrian very content with his food. He had the same thing Jade did.

Alex with chorrizo (saussage) tacos topped with tomatoe onion and nopales (cactus).

JT Board Meetings

I just got back from 3 days at JT Board meetings. They sent this thank you to our home for letting Katrina and I attend the meetings. But I also want to take the time to thank all of you there at the meetings for being understanding and helpful with me and my back having been out. Thanks alot to Andy, for driving down to Cuernavaca to pick us up, to Joanne and Sharon for making sure we all had everything we needed.

Swine Flu

It's hard to know from the news what is the truth about the Swine Flu. Different channels, websites and newspapers all say different things. Stories fly ranging from, "it's a cover up and thing aren't being reported accurately, more people are sick and dying then whats reported" to " it's just a big hype to test government control."

One thing is for sure though, whatever is going on it is really affecting the country of Mexico and it's economy. Businesses are closed, people aren't going out as much and Mexico City is shut down. This is having a very big impact on the homes in Mexico City and the surrounding cities, with not being able to do their normal outreach and fund raising.

Please take a minute to pray for those homes being affected, that the Lord will keep them safe and also that He will supply all of their needs during these difficult times. Add us to your prayer lists. Thanks so much.

Building

While I was gone on my trip, back at home a team was sent for nearly a week to San Bartolo to help improve some of the villagers houses. Additions of rooms were added to 4 houses during that time. Here are a few photos from the team that went.

Fran adding the last nails, with Gabo good Mexican laborer that he is, looking on.

Phil, the Foreman adding the last piece.

Isreal, Fran and Gabo with one of the families who received an addition to their makeshift home.

Valentines Hugs

Yesterday we sent a team of 10to the center of town, armed with SLY tracts and wearing "free hugs" t-shirts and signs in attempt to hep cheer people up. They were out for a couple hours, gave away lots of hugs and tracts and prayed with over 200 people to receive the Lord. What a day.

Gabo, Olympia, Ivan, Katrina, Fran, Lynette, Israel, Lena and Esther

Katrina hugging a little girl.

Lena giving a hug while Esther is giving the tract.

Olympia and a young woman.

Esther hugging two at once.

Vacation: Day 10

Today my back is completely out, I can barely walk. It's the last full day here and I am just resting staying in bed Please pray that I can heal quickly.
The boys went to the beach today for some water and air sports. They said it was great fun and something they would do again. Just a few photos I stole from Bruni.

Fran taking off from the beach pulled by a motor boat.

Fran about 60 feet about the water.

Gabo at takeoff.

Gabo, high above the sea.

Vacation: Day 9

Today we went out to the island again for a lazy day at the beach, I read a short book about the importance of small talk and how to make people comfortable in conversations. The kids went snorkeling and shell hunting. By the time we got back in the evening my back was hurting quite a bit so I just went to bed early.

Alex, wanting to drive the boat to the island.

The Island Beach

A cave Lena and Alex found that was littered with thousands of sea shells.

Lena, Fran and Alex snorkeling.

Sailboats were a common sight today.

Vacation: Day 8

Day Eight: Laguna de Potosi
Today the 8 of us went to a lagoon about half hour from Ixtapa. We intended on taking a boat tour of the lagoon which takes about an hour and a half, but after swimming and shell hunting and having a good lunch no one was up for it. After just lazing around in hammocks and drinking from fresh coconuts we ended up heading back to the hotel in late afternoon, a good all around relaxing day at the beach.

Restaurants lining the lagoon.

Alex with fresh coconut.

I guess I was wondering if they added rum to mine.

Later that evening Bruni and I went to the beach to watch the sunset, we sat on the beach taking photos, me drinking Baltika 9 and her sipping on a French wine. We got so many photos of that sunset trying to get the perfect one, you know where there was either a pelican flying over the sun, if the shadows were just right and getting annoyed that two collage age girls were sure set on ruining our perfect photo by having picked the setting sun as thier backdrop for thier splasing around in the waves. All in all I think we got one or two good ones so I will put them up here for you to see.

The beginning of the end...

The pelican...

The reflection...

Final moments...

Vacation: Day 7

Day Seven: Zihuatanejo
After spending the morning at the beach we headed into the local town of Zihuatanejo. Since Ixtapa is the expensive touristic town catering to Canadian and US tourists, Zihuatanejo is the cheaper town where almost all the locals live. It is the small fishing port and commercial heartbeat of the area. We do all our grocery shopping and things here. But tonight we spent some time to just explore the town in the cool of the evening, we got a few trinkets and took some photos and had dinner at a quant little side street resturaunt. It was a very relaxing day.

A trinket shop where we got a few inexpensive items.

The bay at dusk with table's set on it from a local resturaunt for romantic dinners.

It took us nearly half hour to get Alex to let us take his picture.

Bruni and I

Dawn, Phillip, Fran, Bruni and I at dinner. Gabo took the photo and the young ones, Lena and Alex sat at " the fun table."

Our dinner of chicken fajitas and vegetable soup.

Vacation: Day 6

Day Six
Today we just lazed around on the local beaches and hung out resting and relaxing. Bruni, Alex and I had a buffet breakfast at a 5 star resort. It was pleasant and a nice way to start the day, we also took a tour of the hotel and we ended up about 12 stories up with good views of the beaches and city so here's a few photo's for you.

My breakfast. Chilliquilles with srambled eggs, potatoe wedges and rolls, accompanied with a fruit plate and fresh grapefruit juice.

The town of Ixtapa, looking inland.

The beach and pools below.

Lena and Alex riding horses up the beach.

The sunsets here are spectacular.