Day 3 in Mexico

I wrote this on Thursday but couldn't post it until today:

Today we went on a big outing. It was an all day affair, and along with us came Naomi, Liz, and David Gonzalez. David is one of the cutest 6 year olds I have ever met, and his mother Naomi and her sister Liz were warm-hearted. I enjoyed speaking Spanish with them, and they were very understanding and helpful.

David. He had me wrapped around his little finger.

David with his mother Naomi.

Liz is David's aunt and Naomi's sister.

After picking up the Gonzalez family, we drove up into the mountains until we came to the top of the pass over the mountain range. At about 9,360 ft., we stopped to have a picnic lunch in a meadow that Mark and Esther had been to before. Mark told me a story about the last time they went to this particular meadow with some friends from Mitla. They arrived to have lunch there at about 2:00 PM on a rare clear day during the rainy season. As soon as Mark pulled off the road, he felt his car sink down just a little. A few hours later, when they decided to leave, he got in the car, and as soon as he pressed the gas pedal the car sank in up to its axels. They didn’t get home until 1:00 AM.

Our experience was much more pleasant. I climbed up into a huge cactus plant and had my picture taken. David and I played catch with pine cones, and when he tired of that, Mark and I worked together to rig up a “columpio” out of rope and tow straps that Mark had in the Durango. David got endless enjoyment out of this makeshift swing, and I got endless enjoyment watching him (and pushing him). After a picnic lunch of tuna fish sandwiches, manzanas (apples), and jugo de mango (mango juice), we packed up to go down the other side of the mountain where we visited a trout farm.

I am standing in the middle of a huge cactus plant. What is amazing is that the plant pictured is nowhere near the biggest of these that we saw.

Mark pushing David on his columpio. "Mas alto! Mas!"

The trout have to be imported from a hatchery several hours away, and they are kept in various pools along a hill. There is a makeshift waterfall between each pool, which has something to do with the oxygen levels in the water I think. The restaurant where you can buy cooked trout was closed, and no one in the expedition wanted to carry home raw fish. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed watching David feed the trout.

David crossing the bridge at the trout farm.

We took a different route back down the mountain than we had taken coming up, so we got to go even higher (10,500 ft.) and passed through several small mountain villages. One of the villages was having their annual town fair. We heard several homemade fireworks go off, and we saw the men constructing a huge firework tower for the show later.

The trout farm.

Today was the first day that we used primarily Spanish for the whole day. Since the Gonzalez family didn’t speak English and I am trying to learn Spanish, all our conversation was in Spanish. It was exhilarating for the first few hours, comfortable for the next few, and exhausting towards the end of the day. It requires constant focus and mental processing to trace even the most simple of conversations. Nevertheless, I learned a ton, and I am looking forward to another month of exhilarating, exhausting, informative interaction in a country I am growing to love.

Beautiful pine forests at the top of the mountains.

I took this on the way back down the mountain. David leaned out the window to take everything in almost the whole way.

When we got back to Mitla, we went straight to the Gonzalez’s church for their evening service. It was much harder to understand the Spanish spoken during the sermon than the Spanish we had been using all day. For one thing, my brain was running on reserves. Plus, the pastor was from El Salvador originally and had a strong accent. Also, during the day I could use events and motions to guide me in understanding the conversation; the sermon was given with few useful motions, and my only guide was the fact that I was fairly familiar with the text of 1 Corinthians 11. 

The church we attended was located in this pavilion next to the Gonzalez's house.

At the beginning of the service we sang a few worship songs. I was able to participate pretty well, though I didn’t always know the meaning of the songs, because I could predict the melody pretty well based on the chord patterns and the lyrics of the songs were in the bulletin. When we finished singing, the pastor, Americo, split us into pairs. Each pair was assigned three verses out of 1 Cor. 11 to read and discuss. I was paired with an older lady, and I’m sorry to say we did little discussion. Still, our interaction was cordial, and when I saw her in the market today in Mitla, we exchanged familiar greetings.

The guitar that was used during the service belonged to Liz, so afterwards I asked her if I could play. We ended up singing together and trying to find out which English worship songs had been translated into Spanish. The Gonzalez family came back to our place to eat, and on the way we stopped at “Taco Brown” to get some awesome tacos. After the meal we sang and laughed the night away.
I feel as if I have been here for a month already, but it has actually been just a few days. Tomorrow the rest of my time here will take shape as we return to Tlapa where the Weathers live and work. They will be translating during the day, and I will begin the work the Lord has for me to do here, whatever that may be.

Food from Taco Brown. Good food and great fellowship.