Climbing the First Mountain

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Hello everyone. A lot has happened since my last blog post! We (the country group) moved out of the convent. Living with the hermanas, I learned much about Mary of Guadalupe (a Mexican representation of the Virgin Mary). The wisdom and understanding of those women amazes me. I tried to have deeper conversations with them and even on an occasion that I would disagree with them, they practiced understanding and patience. The one that I probably got the closest to would be Margarita (I called her “mamasita” which she got a laugh out of). I talked to her a lot and she invited me to visit the convent sometime in my year of service to say “hi” to her.

After the convent we went to Tepoztlan. Tim and I moved in with a temporary host family. Our host parents were named Rosa and Salvador. We saw a son named Asael. He was married to Cinthya and had a daughter named Sophia. Sophia was scared of white people for some reason. Every time she saw Tim or me she would start crying. So I bought her some chocolate that she took out of my hand. Baby steps. That part of the family lived in the next house over. We also lived with another one of their daughters named Montse and her daughter called Limny. I loved being with the family. We had many conversations at the dinner table about differences between languages and a lot of laughing at the way I speak or what I said in Spanish when I say something wrong. Somehow I can still make jokes even in Spanish to make people smile. I played a lot of futbol (soccer) especially with Limny and her cousins. It looks like I might be doing that a lot this year.

Our Mexico group went up to the top of a mountain to see the pyramid and many sights on Saturday. Limny wanted to go with us. This was her 11th time. We climbed many, many stairs to get to the pyramid. When we got to the top of the mountain Limny began to get hypothermic because it was also a little chilly. It was time to get her back home. So she and I left the rest of the group and went down the mountain. It was very dangerous because of the rain. Many parts of the trail became a river. I slipped a couple of times because I was in tennis shoes, but Limny was a pro because she had hiking boots. At the bottom of the mountain the rain stopped and Limny was able to warm up a bit. I am not sure that adult male figures are as prominent in children’s lives here. On our way back in the streets, Limny followed me as I jumped around in the puddles in the streets. Many people smiled at it a lot and we got quite a few stares. After I got her home Montse got her dried off and she was outside again playing more futbol with her cousins. As soon as I dropped her off, I went out again to find the others to make sure they got down the mountain safely. I found them close to the mountain and we got back and dried off too. Through this story I was anxious about if I was making the right decisions in leaving the rest of the group to get Limny home. Everything turned out okay so I feel like I trusted my judgement in the situation. It was a lot of fun despite the poor conditions in weather. We were not able to see out to far out from the mountain because of the clouds and rain.

We are now at a Lutheran seminary in Mexico City. We stay here until Friday when we move in with our permanent families. I met my family at church the previous Sunday. I will be staying with the pastor of the Lutheran church here, that aligns closely with the beliefs of the ELCA. I can’t wait to pick his brain on a couple of things when I am able to communicate in Spanish a little better. I will have a baby sister (of eight months), two younger brothers and a mom and dad. I am super excited for Friday. I will also get to visit my work that day as well.