Last time I reach you from Mexico

26th June, 2007

The days events have passed and now we are on to less than a week on the trip. It was the same routine as yesterday; we went to work then school. Today we visited Guadalupe Victoria, another private school. It was cute; they had a little sign that said ‘welcome SJA students.’ Personally, I liked this school a little more than yesterday. Yesterday the only student I talked to was Maria de Jesus, and she was awesome with her little bob haircut and cute pale blue scrunchy, but I felt a little more love in the school today. I also noticed that the schools seem to have a similar set up. They have the rooms with the gated windows that open up. The school buildings all seem the same but with different colors (the format being a large rectangle) and having broken glass bottles on the tops of walls (like barb wire sort of to stop anyone from trying to get in the school because the walls all low enough to run and jump). The computer teacher’s name was Rene. He seemed to know a lot about what was going on and it was interesting talking to him. He understood my broken Spanish and I understood his broken English. The problems there involved two CD-drives not working and two monitors were dead. Unfortunately we could not fix them. One being because the monitors were just, well dead essentially, and two, because the CDs were not reading any CDs and it was easier for the time to just get them a new CD drive. We will have El Fondo get them the new items. We also showed some kids and an older man the inside of the computer. Those kids are smart, smarter than me at least. They have a great memory of all the things that were told to them. Oh and there was a que padre chico named Alexis. He is a shy one. Jessica, /Katherine, and I played basketball with him. He wouldn’t let me take a picture of him but I was able to get a few, well Katherine was.
After that we left for the day. Oh, and when we got picked up there was this little girl in our car. Her name was Gabbie. Oh, she was so small and cute! And she liked The Who and the Japanese music I was playing!_! *squee* I wish I had a picture of her, she was so sweet. So yes, that was most of the day. I really do not feel like talking about school. It was school. We learned kitchen objects (through a badly organized version of memory, but Leo is cool so it was okay) and also clothing (through role playing and watching Sam to a very scary, but good job at being a small child). We took Katherine home because Foviola could not pick her up (she was staying at the house with Jessica who had a bad migraine). So we (Matilda and I ) took Katherine downtown Fortin, which we came to the conclusion was so much better than downtown Cordoba because it was small and had break dancers (how can you beat that???) Oh, and I should also type this. Hannah is leaving for USA because she has been sick. Poor girl, she couldn’t keep up any of her food and she has low blood pressure. Feel better Hannah! Now back to the house. We had some awesome fresh bread from the pandaria (which you get a big silver plate and put all the bread you want on it) and made sandwiches. Then Matilda and I just hanged with our mom and dad. Now I am here listening to The Who…again.
Hmmm…and I have been on a constant search for the political agenda of Mexico. I feel it is kind of like…well Louisiana. Conservative with its crazy liberals. I am on the search for the homosexuals! I know Fovilola said she knew some people who are gay, but like Matilda said, the younger generation seems to be more open minded, at least in that sense. I still do not know. At my house we have dial up, and it is not used often. I can’t look up the political parties…so I think at the end of the trip and when I am back in the states I will have a ‘cultural discussion’ afterwards. Stay tuned!



June 27th

After realizing that Wednesday was not the 28th, but the 27th, I now start to type the adventures in Mexico!!! So yes. Today we went to another school. Again, this one was private and had the same rectangle format as the other schools. The difference? The colors were brown and beige and also the computer lab was upstairs! It is the only room upstairs. The lab itself was in great condition. Apparently they received a government grant for maybe 10-15 computers. The rest were provided by El Fondo. So when we got there, we really did not know what to do. They have a technician that just recently came by to look at all the computers and make sure they work. So really there was nothing to fix. So we kind of stood around awkwardly at first. Oh, it should also be mentioned that today was the first day for John to be gone. For those just now reading, Hannah had to leave, and John was going with her. In his place we have the new Spanish teach, Amanda, from St. Joseph here. So yes. We decided we were going to teach the kids how to take apart a computer (what is in it and all) and also how to make Cat 5 cables. It all seemed to go well at the time. I meet a cool kid named Kassandra. She volunteered to make a Cat 5 cable so she is awesome in my back. And I felt very loved when she decided to sit by me to learn about power point (though I am no that great of a teacher). So yes. There we were putting all the computers together and then we are about to leave and we notice one of the monitors will not turn on, then we notice another. Then we noticed a pattern. The ones we took apart were not working…so yeah. I still do not know why. Of course the one I work on does not work and towards the end it did not turn on at all. So I was pissed. We had to leave there with two broken computers when previously all of them were working. The computer teacher said it was okay and that they were having problems previously…but I felt like a failure for awhile afterwards.

Afterwards we went to the Spanish classes. This time we went to a sort of mini Wal Mart and went around naming things. It was interesting. We all came to the conclusion that Leo is just awesome and I still think Ricardo (?) is Don Quixote in some weird way.

So yes, then we hung out with our family. Oh! And I feel much love because little Jorge is showing more love. He kisses me and hugs me a lot, so it feels nice. I think I am growing closer to him and slightly distancing myself from the rest of the family. I have no clue why. So anyways. We went out to eat and then to get coffee. We played pool and yeah…it was interesting, but really the game is not my cup of tea.

That is mostly it for now. Besides Matilda getting her ass tapped by some dude at the billiard hall, nothing much happened. The days are going and all that is left will be five. We have one more school to visit, then Friday we see the orphanage one last time. Saturday we decided to go see the coffee farm instead of Puebla (even though I found out it has the Aztec pyramids and we are not going…so a little pissed). Sunday is family time then we leave Monday. I still need to take some more city pictures and such. We will see how it goes.

Do I dare disturb the universe?