I´m up to my ojos in frijoles

Hey! I´m alive!

So, I went to my town this week! I live in Ojo de Agua, which is about a half hour from Cuauhtemoc, with a widow named Paty and her 2 sons. Life is very chill, and settling into a routine of sorts has been awesome. I take it easy and I have a ton of time to read while I listen to "La Ranchera de Cuauhtemoc", which is a radio station we get out at my house. The radio is ALWAYS on when people are in the house. Though my house sucks any heat from my body, I get the warm fuzzy around my family. I love waking up and watching Paty make fresh tortillas every morning. I love my evenings where Paty and I sit in the kitchen (which is the warmest room in the house) and make small talk between my reading my book for class and her embroidery. I´m learning Spanish slowly but surely, but it sounds like I´ve come in with the most out of previous students. I still can´t wait to know enough to talk more to my family and my students!

Ah.... my students! As crazy as these middle school kids are, they are SO FUN! I teach English every lunes, meircoles, y hueves (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) from 8:30 to 1. My first day was pretty stressful because I wasn´t given any guidelines or instructions on what I need to use or whatever. The students are more advanced than I originally thought, so I was a little sad I couldn´t just sing ABCs to everyone. But I have more of a game plan for each class, and I enjoy going to the school.

My town is cute and really relaxed. The weather has been pretty cloudy (except for when I´m in Cuauhtemoc, which is surprizingly warm... and I wish I had my chacos here) so I haven´t walked around very much. But I´m hoping that I can this next week or so. There are dirt roads except for one main one, and when driving in you have top stop for gallinas y vacas crossing the road. I love it!

So... I think that´s it. I´m doing fine. I´ve heard from people that the first 3 weeks are usually the hardest, and I can see that. It´s weird to think about being here for so long. I have gone to Catholic church a couple times, and those are the times I´m usually home sick. I thought I was going to be with an evangelical family, but it didn´t turn out that way, which is fine. But I miss being able to worship corporately and share in sweet fellowship on what God is teaching me. I do have one other Christian in the group, which has been nice, but we can only see each other when we all get together every other weekend. So, I guess you can be praying that something will work out. But overall, everything is alright. Even my legs are healing! Oh... yeah... I didn´t want to worry any of you, but I got bite by a dog twice my first full day here. But now I just have some sweet bruises and a good story. The teeth didn´t even touch my skin, and the dog was up on all its shots. I told it to my students and showed my bruises, which they seemed to enjoy.

Continue to pray for Janine and her family as she is still trying to get back to a more "normal" state. She was wanting to be here by February, but now she can´t make it until end of March. Also pray for our safety here. Things are not that crazy, but you hear of things every now and then. And, of course, pray for the students in the program. They´re all so great, and I just want to be a good light to them when I´m around. Also my family, because my mom seems interested that I read my bible and take notes, so hopefully I can talk more to here about what we believe and such.

I pray for you all often, and you are in my thoughts!

Vaya con Dios,

Leah

I´m here and alive!!

I need to make this short, but I wanted to let everyone know that I am in Mexico and all is well!!

The two days worth of bus rides was pretty exhausting because both of my departures were very early in the morning, and I can´t really sleep on buses. So very sleep deprived I arrive in Cuauhtemoc yesterday evening with 4 other fellow students. Today we all slept in and then got a tour of the Mennonite part of the town. I don´t feel like getting into details, but let´s say I ate a lot of cheese... and there was a bunch of white folks who didn´t speak English or a lot of Spanish... and there was a dog. But I am well and things are going great so far. Tomorrow I meet up for class, and then I will be heading out Monday to stay with my host family! Very exciting.

Other than the area being beautiful and the people being more than accomidating and friendly, we´re all kind of learning things as we go along. Please continue to pray for safety and good health for me and the group. Also pray that the whole group will get here soon, cause not everyone is here yet. Okay.... that´s it! Adios!

Vaya con dios,

Leah