Maestra

     The voice of little children calling me Maestra as they come up to me with questions has created some of the best moments for me on this journey thus far. I love the sound of being called Maestra by these ninos; my  desire to teach and work with children does not stop even though there is a language barrier. There are no words to describe how I feel after I tell a student they've done a good job and we both just smile at one another with a genuine joy and care. This past Tuesday we got to teach English again to ninos in the community. In the morning we only had 4 students but the afternoon we had closer to 25. However this time was different because Katrina was sick and couldn't come and the boys needed to leave early in the afternoon, leaving me to finish teaching 25 ninos and jovenes. It was a bit overwhelming at times but over all it brought me more joy than anything. There would be times I couldn't understand them but it didn't matter, God uses people even without words. (The picture above was drawn for me by Melissa- the nina that I am pictured with in another post. It says "Best friends forever"!)

     A lot has happened since I last blogged about my experience in Mexico City.  We had a two-day basketball camp in Las Aguilas  at which around 10 or so kids came. Basketball here ends up being a mixture of football and basketball because dribbling isn't normally first on their minds or on their minds at all! Basketball isn't quite my sport but it was a lot of fun to play with the ninos and jovenes. I played a little one on one with Ozkar, who was confident that he would win, but some how I won (pictured to the left). It was a good moment!! During basketball camp, a new family came to the church and I got to talk to the mom, Beatrice, the oldest daughter, Guadalupe, and the youngest daughter, Andrea. Andrea was only 2 and she loved going down the slide and we would give each other eskimo kisses. I was really excited when Guadalupe came back for English class! I hope she keeps coming to events and eventually to church. I know they have a taqueria close to the church, I just don't know where it is yet.
   The four of us, Carmello, Zach, Katrina, and I, have also finished our Spanish classes for the summer which is sad because they were really helpful and I enjoyed getting to know Eli and her sister, Angie. Hopefully Katrina and I will be able to spend time with the two of them at some point this summer. Since we don't have classes it has been hard to discipline myself to study the language. I am hoping to start reading a book in Spanish soon, study the verbs and other words out of a dictionary, and begin a language route. The language route is part of the LAMP program in which Katrina and I would go around the neighborhood to the same few tiendas multiple times a week, just to work on our spanish. We would tell them that we don't know much spanish and that we want to practice for just a few minutes with them. This is a system not only designed to help us with English but also to help us develop relationships with people in the area. I am a little nervous to start this route but I think it will be extremely beneficial for my spanish as well as create a different experience for my time here in Mexico. Sometimes we have to go out of comfort zones to grow as people and to allow God to use us in ways we would never expect.

    Another thing we have done is visit HueHuetoca, this is the area the boys are staying in all summer. It is a lot different than Las Aguilas. HueHuetoca is more of an area for the middle class and Las Aguilas is more lower class. HueHue is filled with cookie-cutter homes which you can see in the picture on the left. tell from the picture below. It has a lot of places for people to play basketball and soccer. While in HueHue, we played cornhole and in the dirt with some of the ninos. On the other hand, Las Aguilas is a built on the basura (which in English means trash). Where I live is built on top of trash and the main business here is picking up and sorting trash. The funny thing is when I went to HueHuetoca I felt out of place and I was excited to return home to Las Aguilas. Las Aguilas has become my home away from home. I love walking home from church and seeing Pedro and his son, Eric, working on cars at their mechanic shop. I love standing out because we are the only gringas in our area. I love hanging out in the departamento watching movies in spanish with Joy and Katrina. I love playing card and active games with the jovenes.  Las Aguilas is a joy, better yet the people of Las Aguilas are a joy. They are a burst of love, joy, and encouragement for Katrina and me. (Katrina and I taught the jovenes "Ninja" or as we call it here "Karate"- shown in the picture below)
   There is more I could write and more feelings I could express but for now just know that I am doing well. I am enjoying my time here and learning more and more about the culture, the people, myself, and most importantly God. I didn't know what to expect coming to Mexico and there are still some days I am not sure what is in store but I know that God has me here for a reason and that by the end of this summer  I will have seen God work in my life and in the life of those around me in many ways!