The Adventure of the Flu

Click on over to my wordpress site to find out how our trip to the mountains for Christmas went and how we had a somewhat different adventure than the one we expected!

Yikes, almost been a month since I've posted!  I hadn't realized so much time had passed...we've had a busy month with several different activities, including a women's retreat, a quick trip to Mexico City to renew Jkaile's U.S. passport and Jojo's birthday!  I think the highlight of the last few weeks, however, was the trip we made to the towns of Ixtepec and Cuetzalan with the Sexton family.  The Sextons are appointees with Pioneers and were on their vision trip to scout out the different PI teams in Mexico to see where God might be leading them to work in the future.

Town of Ixtepec

And of course, they couldn't really get to know what our ministry is about unless they made a visit to some Totonacan communities in the mountains, which we were happy to show them! We chose to take them to visit Miguel and Magdalena and family in Ixtepec, where we spent two nights before spending the day at the Coffee Festival in the town of Cuetzalan.

We had so many experiences in those three short days, it would be hard to describe it all here in one post, but I will try to highlight the important parts...or at least the parts that I thought were most interesting!

Miguel had visited Ixtepec before, but this was my first time there.  I really hit it off with Magdalena and we ended up talking until late that first night we were there, as we shared our hearts with each other.  The conversation continued the next day as she showed us around town (the guys had all gone to Mr. Miguel's garden). I was honored that she was so open with me about her life experiences and I shared back with her about some of mine.

Magdalena preparing corn tortillas

Miguel and Magdalena with a Proclaimer

(audio Scripture device)...it has the New Testament

in their Totonacan dialect

The next day, we were invited to eat at another family's house and they served us each a large piece of fried pork with black beans and freshly made corn tortillas...which was humbling because their house is very small, has a dirt floor, and the walls are made out of 'carrizo', which are cornstalks woven together.

The next day, this family also bought us a bunch of cookies for our trip home! We had a great time at their house, Miguel shared some thoughts on Bible storytelling with the family, the kids chased chickens and saw their bunnies and Micah found a meteorite!

After lunch, we visited another family who lived a ways out of town where Jojo had an interesting experience in their outhouse...he had to go while we were there, but the outhouse was even more primitive than usual and just had a hole with nothing to sit on.  Once he figured out how to use it, we realized we had forgotten to bring the toilet paper with us from the van.  After some thought, the kids decided to give him some banana leaves!  Then Jkaile thought it would be fun to wipe with banana leaves as well, but to his great disappointment, he couldn't produce anything that needed wiping! Boys...

I didn't get any pictures during that visit because I was busy practicing the Bible story that I was to present in the Miguel and Magdalena's church that night. The people consider us to be something like pastors, even though we've tried to avoid having that image, so when they heard we were coming, they asked if we would speak at their church (they are without a full-time pastor right now). We agreed, but decided to present the teaching in a Bible story format with Miguel presenting part of it and me the other.

My part was to share the story of the birth and life of John the Baptist and I was having trouble remembering all of it, particularly the parts that contained prophecy about Jesus. I also struggle a bit to remember the stories when I present them in Spanish, which obviously is my second language.  So I was practicing the story when Magdalena informed me that they would be translating it to Totonacan during the service...I didn't know that, so I asked her to help me practice it with a 'live' translation. She did that for me and then she told me that since she liked the story so much, she wanted to translate for me in church that night, even though she wasn't the 'designated' translator!  I was pleased because I had enjoyed working with her and I think we make a great team.

It seemed like the people enjoyed the story that we presented.  We're just beginning to learn more about oral communication principles and how to put them in practice. These concepts are definitely new for the Totonacans.  Traditionally, they are an oral culture, but oral communication principles have not been used much in church settings. We're in the process of exploring how oral communication principles could be used in evangelization and discipleship in the Totonacan context and we're excited about the possibilities because so far, they are responding positively. But that is a whole other topic for another day...

It was hard to say goodbye to Miguel and Magdalena the next day, but we hope to go back to visit soon!  The town of Cuetzalan is not too far from Ixtepec, but the roads were quite twisty and sure enough, some of us were getting a bit carsick! At one point, Jojo threw up quite violently and we had to pull over to get him cleaned up (I even had to wash his hair!). Fortunately, we quickly found a place where someone had built a small tank to hold the water being piped down the hill.  It was there, basically out in the boonies, that we met a man who spoke English because he had lived in New York for many years!  You just never know who you will run into!

We finally got to Cuetzalan, where we planned to enjoy the last day of the Coffee Festival (and yes, I bought some coffee, about 3 pounds of whole beans).  The sights were quite enjoyable as there were many traditional Totonacan dancers there from many different towns participating in the traditional ceremonies and rituals.

 Totonacan 'voladores' (flyers) performing

in front of the Catholic church

Colorful dancers

Religious procession taking saints 

and other images into the church

Lots of Totonacans in traditional dress

Cool shops

We liked Cuetzalan a lot and we felt like we didn't get enough time to really explore as we'd have liked...there are some caves, waterfalls and ruins in the area that we'd like to go see sometime.  Every time we go to the mountains, it seems like it's getting harder and harder to come home...I think we'd like to make one of these mountain communities our home!

The town of Nanacatlán

On the way home, we caught a glimpse of Orizaba at sunset, truly a breathtaking sight!  Orizaba is the highest peak in all of Mexico and is often covered in clouds, so we were thrilled to catch these pictures.

*Other links from this trip...Gracia writes about the animals we saw and Jkaile is impressed by the pig.

Trip to Veracruz

About three weeks ago, we had the chance to go visit some Totonacan communities in Veracruz.  This particular part of Veracruz is on the western edge of the state very close to the border with Puebla state and small Totonacan communities are located all throughout this area.

As you can see from this picture, this part of Veracruz is at a lower elevation with rolling hills rather than the steep mountains just a bit further to the west. It is a very fertile land and we were amazed at the variety of fruits and vegetables that the ranchos (gardens) here produce. And see all those clouds?  Those were the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto that was moving through that weekend!

Our purpose in this trip was to participate in a children's activity that was to be held in the town of Poza Larga that Saturday.  Miguel shared a story about friendship with the kids involving three butterflies and three flowers.

There were also games and a meal of tamales, horchata (rice/cinnamon drink) and cake.  Our kids were a little shy at first, but then they started making friends and participating in the games. It is always a joy to see our kids making connections with the Totonacan kids!

We stayed with a Totonacan family while we were there, Lorenzo and Juana and their four children.  They fell in love with Gugui and he really had a good time at their house! He loved all the chickens and turkeys wandering around and how they cooked over an open fire!

On our way home, we decided to take some time to visit El Tajín, a place where they have restored some ancient Totonacan ruins.  The neat thing was that Lorenzo and Juana decided to join us, along with their entire family! They live just about 40 minutes away from El Tajín, but they had never visited there before. That made it a really neat experience for us to tour the ruins along with a Totonacan family! We also had our friend Gabriela from Chihuahua along (pictured just to my right).  Here we are as a group getting ready to watch the voladores (literally 'flyers') do a Totonacan ritual where they tie themselves to the top of a tall pole and slowly circle down to the ground as the ropes unwind.

El Tajín was really an impressive place!  Even knowing that most of the ruins have been restored doesn't take away from its impressiveness and it made me wonder what it looked like during the time it was built.

Then it rained for a while and we all got soaked!

Micah with his friend Josué.  Josué is the son of one of the pastors where we visited and he and Micah really hit it off!  We actually brought him home with us after this and he spent a week visiting us in Apizaco.

And then, of course, we had to play around with the camera angles...but since it was our first time to try this, they didn't turn out as good as we wanted!  Still lots of fun, though!

Here is nice picture of Miguel and I (pre-rainfall)...Miguel bought that shirt in the market in front of El Tajín, it's Veracruz-style (which happens to be very similar to Venezuelan-style!)...I love the way he looks in his new shirt and cowboy hat!

We brought a couple of extra family members home with us, since Jojo decided to ask a friend there in Veracruz for some chickens!  We brought them home in a box and they only escaped once on the way home (unfortunately depositing some undesirables in the van) and now they have their own cage out in the garage.  They spent a couple of weeks in the dog's kennel, though, until we got them a cage.  The kids are already counting the chicks they think this pair will give them!

Here is a picture of all the things our friends gave us, including some things not pictured, such as plantains, vanilla, and pepper pods. Pictured below are oranges, yucca root, squash, bananas, squash seeds, avocados and sweet potatoes.

We can't wait to go back!

The Rest of the Journey

So...after camp in Prescott, we spent a week in southern Arizona visiting friends and resting up from our week of camp.  A friend loaned us their trailer house as they were out of town, and it was a fairly peaceful week except for me getting sick with a bad flu and us finding out we had misplaced our van title.  :(  At first we thought that we wouldn't be able to cross the border into Mexico without the title, but then we found out we could use our vehicle registration...whew!!!!  Our leaving was delayed by me getting sick, but then we finally got on our way and headed south for the border.

Gracia, Jkaile and Jojo enjoying our hammock

We had a good border crossing and trip down and by evening we were in Chihuahua City.  We spent nearly two weeks there visiting friends and catching up with the news from El Cordero, our former church.  We stayed a few days with one family and then moved over to a different house for our last few days there...it was a good time, even though we weren't able to see everyone we would have liked to see.

Our trip from Chihuahua to Puebla was very interesting and I really enjoyed my first glimpses of the central part of Mexico.  It took one day to get to Saltillo, where we spent the night in a hotel, and then we traveled on to San Juan del Río, Querétaro on the second day.  The scenery began to change from dry, desert to more lush green and I found myself snapping pictures all along the way!

I think these are called 'yucca' plants, but we'd never

seen them grow as trees!  

Another fascinating sight were all the herds of goats

or other animals all along the four lane highway...the traffic didn't

seem to bother them a bit!

A man on horseback buying 'tunas' (prickly pears)...I 

think the colt was interested in eating some, too!

San Juan del Río is a small town that was a delight to see...it was a little like stepping back in time to a more colonial era.  We really enjoyed our time there sightseeing and also getting to know the McManus family, whose ministry is supporting homeschooling families.  They have a beautiful home and even more awesome, an entire library (literally)!  Our kids thought they were in heaven!

There are even more books down in the basement!

  

So when we left the McManus household, we were carrying even more stuff, several stacks of books that we checked out from their library!  I'm not quite sure how we fit it in, but we did...from there, it was only a few hours to Puebla.  After basically of month of traveling, we were all more than ready to arrive at our final destination...the scenery along the road continued to change to be more and more green and fertile farmland.

Fields of 'nopales', prickly pear cactus.  

Such beauty made me catch my breath a little...some because these scenes remind me of Colombia, where I've left a piece of my heart, but mostly because this is our new home and I was loving what I saw.  It felt a bit like coming home...

Missions Conference

We just got back yesterday from attending a missions conference at my Mom's sending church over in Tulsa. I'd forgotten that my family has such celebrity status over there in that church, we were treated like royalty! We were only going to attend, but they included us as featured missionaries which was rather unexpected. It was good to reconnect with people that know my family and hear from the various other missionaries that attended, including my Mom.  Todd Ahrend from The Traveling Team was the main speaker on Sunday for both services, what an incredible speaker! 


The kids weren't too sure about the conference at first, but they were hooked the first night when some folks from the Voice of the Martyrs spoke and then the kids had the opportunity to try to smuggle Bibles through an elaborate darkened tunnel. The church even provided an EMT to stand by in case any of the kids got too stressed out because apparently it was quite intense! My kids loved it though and then couldn't wait to go back...they weren't disappointed with the other events like learning about other cultures, trying some exotic foods and worshipping God under an Angolan hut.

Miguel and I were asked to teach the 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school class...they weren't sure if they could get a missionary to speak in their class, so they were thrilled to have us there. We requisitioned some of Mom's tribal stuff and Miguel put some pictures together, so we had a decent presentation and wowed them with monkey teeth and Yanomamo arrows (10 feet long) and the blowgun and darts (Miguel shot a picture of a tapir we projected onto the wall). I did the talking and we pretended like Miguel didn't speak English so they had the chance to experience a language barrier. I think it went well and we heard from several parents later how much it had impressed their children.

I had a bit of a cold when we went, but all that talking I did brought about the usual laryngitis I get when I talk too much. I mean, I usually DO talk to much anyway, but I always get laryngitis when I go on translation trips or have to talk constantly like at a conference, etc. Speaking to the kids for 45 minutes on Sunday morning was the final straw and I could barely speak the rest of the day and I had a lot more talking to do!

We stayed with a wonderful couple while we were there, an older couple who spent a few years on the mission field after their retirement.  They loved our kids and have a gift for hospitality.  They have a full basement that we stayed in and we were very comfortable there at their house, which made our time there so much easier.  They even introduced us to their neighbor who is a pastor from Venezuela!  Small world...

Overshadowing this event, however, was the fact that Papa John (my stepdad) had to be admitted to the hospital overnight because he had been having all the symptoms of a heart attack and therefore missed part of the conference.  It turned out not to be a heart attack, although it might be some sort of blockage, but it was a bit alarming and we were faced with Mom and John's mortality once again.  Not something that's all that fun to face, but necessary at their age (Mom turned 65 on Friday).  Papa John has an appointment with his regular doctor today, so we're waiting to see what results that might have. 

So a rather eventful week for us and we're enjoying a day of rest today...I was planning to do school, but that's kind of hard to do without a voice!   The kids aren't too disappointed, though...

Life, Disrupted

A good way to describe the last week or so is just that, "disrupted"! Yes, Miguel did get home and yes, MIL and BIL arrived with him. It was a long, long trip for them and Miguel has been fighting a cold/throat infection since arriving. MIL Delia and BIL José David, aka JD (or Lali, because when Jojo was little that's what he took to calling JD) are having a wonderful visit so far. The kids are enjoying the extra attention from Abuelita and playing with JD. I had forgotten how much Delia likes to clean and work around the house...I think I try to avoid housework as much as possible or something whereas Delia is always looking for something to do! But I certainly do appreciate all of her help around the house, although Miguel has been getting on to her for working so much...he says she's here to spend time with the grandkids and not to work. LOL! It has not been a burden to have the company, it's just that it disrupts my usual schedule and I'm way behind on my computer time!

Yesterday we packed up and came up to El Paso for two nights to renew our visas and do some shopping. It was a good trip, although it was incredibly HOT (think over 100 degrees!)...and we had no trouble at the border. We were even entertained by some really cute little prairie dogs while were waiting in line to cross over to the U.S. They were begging for food at the side of the road! We didn't have anything to give them, but we scrounged some muffin crumbs from Jkaile's carseat to throw out and sure enough, one of them came scampering over to pick them up! So, so cute...Miguel tried to snap some pictures, but I don't think he was successful. Those little guys are fast! We didn't have to wait long, but the prairie dogs helped distract the kids from the wait and the heat, so that was good. We are very thankful that the air conditioner in the van is working well, but it wasn't having much luck combatting that heat while we were stationary...

Delia and JD had to stay in Chihuahua while we're here because they do not have papers to enter the U.S. But they are holding the fort and taking care of all the chores there...feeding dogs, birds, fish...and who knows, maybe it's a welcome break from a chaotic, kid-filled house! :)

Today Miguel and I are tag-teaming the shopping...he went out by himself this morning to get some things done while I stayed here in the guesthouse with the kids and then I'll go out later while he takes care of the kids. And hopefully we'll be able to get everything on our list and be ready to go home tomorrow.

Little Debbie

Yesterday morning I was digging through the cabinets looking for a quick "breakfast" to give the kids to tide them over on the hour trip to Grammy's house (I wanted to leave quickly and skip the whole rigamarole of sit-down breakfast) and I found a box of Little Debbie Donut Sticks (I know, I know, not the most nutritious food, but a special treat for once in a while). So I handed those out and off we went...okay, I will admit to sampling one myself...they are really good!!! We will definitely NOT be keeping these around the house.

On the way home, we pulled up beside a Little Debbie semi-truck and it had a huge Little Debbie logo and pictures of different snack cakes on the side. The kids were so excited, pointing and screaming and I was showing Jojo that it was the same picture on the box...then I looked up and the two guys in the truck were looking at me and laughing about the whole thing! So I held up the box of Donut Sticks and they held up their box of Oatmeal Creme Pies and we gave each other thumbs up before the light turned and we went on our separate ways...so there you have it, Little Debbie bringing folks together on the road. Nothing like connecting with complete strangers over snack cakes!!!