Brielle in Mexico!

Monday (lunes)
I finally got to Mexico! For those of you who don't know I'm with Medford UMC young adults in Rio Bravo Mexico working with Manos Juntas. What are we doing? You'll find out when I do! This post is a bit run on but hopefully it works.  Let's just say that yesterday was a long and harrowing day of airport travel. It was awful. And I wasn't really in the right mind frame to deal with it. But after a shower and full night's sleep I was ready to start today fresh. We flew the last leg of our trip to McAllen and picked up our luggage without any problems. Then Willie and his wife and Matt arrived in the van to pick us up. A few quick stops later and we were crossing the border. Seamlessly I might add. It was very quick and easy. I love looking out the windows at the surroundings. The roads are rough so I insist on riding in the first row of the van. The houses are lots of bright coral colors. I'm trying to read the words on the signs to practice my Spanish. We arrived to a welcome party of friends. The room we are in has several bunk beds in three separate areas. All of the Medford girls are in the outside area. Kathleen has her own room and the other girls have the last room. The boys are in a separate building. There are lovely white rocking chairs out on the common area outside our rooms. Lunch was tostadas which were amazing. All of the food here has been great. After lunch we discussed briefly an article about American cultural values and how we have to remember they are different here in Mexico. Then this afternoon we took a van ride to the community center run by Manos Juntas. They have an after-school program for kids to get extra help with their school work. They also teach kids who aren't able to get the help they need in school, like kids with special needs or disabilities. They asked us to help the kids but there were a lot of us and not a lot of them. Also the language barrier was difficult. But this is the first time they are bringing in a group to work with the programs here an Manos Juntas. So it's new for all of us. I sat by a couple kids and read the workbooks they were doing. I think not having something to do is going to be a theme. When I was in the Philippines a lot of the trip was listening to stories and that was hard to cope with. I think that makes coming into this trip a lot easier. This is a trip to listen to stories and figure out how to further develop the relationships I'm making, and the relationship our church is making with Manos Juntas. We did get a quick reprieve from watching the kids and toured the carpentry shop out back. For the remainder of the time at the center me and a few others quizzed Alex and Victor, our interpreters, for translations to Spanish. Alex is Willie's son and Victor is a student studying to be a doctor. When we got back to where we are staying I got the chance to sit out in the common area in view of the palm trees and sunset and do some knitting. This morning the group that got here did some sewing and I've been told I will get to do this and knitting tomorrow! I'm very excited! I feel somewhat qualified for this job. Dinner was equally good, chicken and zucchini, rice with tortillas. After dinner was devotions and then to bed to journal and sleep. Which is what I'm about to do right now. Considering where I started this trip I'm doing much better and I think I'm finally ready, spiritually and physically, for this trip.