My last couple of blog posts have been complaining about our car woes but I want to be very clear – we are loving our new life here and recognize that we have a purpose here that goes far beyond being comfortable in our wheels.
Last week I made a quick business trip to Canada and returned Sunday afternoon, eager to get back to what is now my normal life. Every day we go to the orphanage to spend time with children. I am now on the Steering Committee of the home and we are in the middle of the fundraising season. Our largest fundraiser is in less than 3 weeks – 1500 people will come to eat Ribs and listen to music and hopefully spend lots of money on raffles and 50/50 draws and auction items. I am chairing the committee for this event even though I don’t have a clue what I am doing – which is kind of how I rolled in Canada too (ie Gymnatics Nationals 2007!). But what we love most is connecting with the children at Casa Hogar and last week was a typical week in our life there.
GROUP VISITS
On Wednesday we helped conduct a group visit. All we knew was that a group was coming from the Four Season in Punta de Mita to tour the orphanage. Shortly after 2:30 a giant bus pulled up – I can’t imagine how the driver navigated through the narrow roads in this neighborhood but the children were pumped to see this bus stopping at their house. 40 top producers of a software company – Qualtrics – poured out of the bus and spent the afternoon playing road hockey and other games and touring the home. They left a GIANT pile of fantastic gifts – schools supplies and backpacks and clothes and fans. They also presented us with a cheque for $100,000 pesos. Veronica asked me to thank them in English and I admit I had a hard time talking as I choked back the tears. During the winter we have many tourists who visit – they don’t all leave $100,000 pesos but they all leave something – a bit of cash, a bag of toys, some ice cream or candies, always smiles and hugs and pieces of their hearts. I love looking at the children through their eyes and reminding myself why we moved here. Thank you Qualtrics – and all of the other visitors who have blessed us this winter, including my own friends Melanie from Weyburn and Alex and Jill from Regina.
CHURCH
Wednesday night we accompany the children to Spanish church. Nothing is as lively and life-affirming as Spanish church and we love dancing around with the children – and holding young Jose as he inevitably falls asleep in my arms. As much as we believe in feeding the bodies of these little ones, feeding their souls with God’s love and hope is the most important – and satisfying – thing of all.
ENGLISH LESSONS
We started a new program last week using Duolingo to teach the older children English. Duolingo is language software that Grant and I have been using regularly to learn Spanish. It has the capability to be set up as a classroom – using individual lessons and group activities. This means that we can help facilitate their learning without being fluent Spanish speakers. And it is perfect for children and teens because it feels like you’re playing a video game. We worked with Miguel, Rubi, Paolo and even young Edgar last week and they are all eager to learn English – and to help Grant and I learn Spanish. Win/Win! We would love to invest in a few tablets which would make using this technology much easier so if you have any old ones you don’t want let me know! For these children, learning English will open doors to working in the tourism industry and it will absolutely change the direction of many lives.
HELPING DAD
The home had a broken Golf Cart sitting in the yard for the last few months and Grant set to work fixing it. He had a LOT of helpers who wanted to hang out with him and help.
SWIMMING AFTERNOON
Just like in Canada, teachers here schedule In-service days one Friday per month. Last Friday school was out and we were all invited to go swimming at the Yacht Club in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. The Yacht Club is the winter home to many families who live on boats, traveling the world. The children who live on these boats are home schooled and don’t often get the chance to hang out with other children, so they loved hanging out at the pool with our children. It was a fun afternoon and we ended by making pipe cleaner bracelets.
After swimming, Grant and I drove Jose home to San Vicente as we do every Friday and visited with young Irandi and her baby Alison.
It was a full week and after dropping Jose off we drove to Nuevo Vallarta and ate pasta and sipped wine in a quiet garden restaurant. Although we are where we want to be here in Bucerias, sometimes we need to withdraw from the crazy noise of children and dogs and roosters and music and close our eyes and just breathe. To be together. To reconnect. To toast this life we are figuring out. To just be Grant and Karen.
MAKING FRIENDS
Last night we attended a Western Themed party. We are slowly making our own friends here – some Mexicanos, some Gringos. I don’t think you could survive here if you didn’t have people to ask the tough questions: Why does my stove dial only have numbers 1 to 5 instead of degrees? Where do you buy your spices? Flour? Do you eat vegetables anymore? You found dried cranberries? Where? What is your favorite taco place? And always… did you hear that music last night?
Tonight we will go and pick up Jose and deliver him back to Casa Hogar. Our week will start again. We will spar with car dealerships and conduct committee meetings and eat tacos and sweep up the never-ending supply of dust that comes through our windows. We will laugh with children and maybe cry for them. But whatever this week brings us, we will live boldly and fully. We will be grateful. And we will eat tacos.
One of the highlights was the cutting of the Rosca. The bread (it reminds me of Easter Bread) is a sweet bread shaped in a circle to represent the crowns of the Kings. It is covered with candied fruit. Hidden inside the bread are little plastic dolls – baby Jesus. The tradition is that whoever finds the baby must host a Tamale party on Feb 2nd. For these children, the promise is whoever finds the dolls gets as many tamales as they want on Feb 2nd. It reminded me of when we hid money in our birthday cakes when I was young – what kid doesn’t love a fun choking hazard treasure hunt? And the best part??? I got a Baby Jesus! So I think that means I have to host a Tamale party.
He said he would be back in less than an hour but we knew there was no way that was happening. Especially since he said he had no gas in his motorbike and all the gas stations were closed because of the gas hike that was going to happen the next day. He assured us he would be back – if he didn’t run out of gas. We went to the beach, took out our tablets, ordered some lunch and some drinks and settled in to read and play some Candy Crush and wait. He arrived back in about 2 hours, after having driven to San Vicente to get gas. So far so good. Surprisingly good. And then it wasn’t. The last step was to call Volkswagen for a code to do the final programming. And they were closed. ALL of the Volkswagen dealers he knew were closed. It was New Year’s Eve. So…. Monday. We would have to finish on Monday. Are you sure Monday isn’t a holiday? No, no, no – we will definitely get this done on Monday. I will call you on Monday.
mind myself that there IS peace that passes understanding when you are where you are meant to be. I probably should have picked “Fitness” or “Healthy eating” a time or two. But what about 2017? Now that we are finally here, what do I want to see grow in my life? Because you know that what you focus on always grows.
riends when I really just miss my old friends.
Next we drove to Valle de Banderas to deliver clothes, gifts and the food hamper to the family I told you about a few weeks ago – the two little girls who cannot stay at Manos de Amor because they don’t have their papers. Since I wrote that post, their mom has decided she does not want the 2 older sisters living at Manos de Amor either, so all 4 girls are now living with grandma or mom. As we drove up, the oldest daughter ran to our car and threw her arms around us. She has always been closest to Grant and she held him for a long time. We went in the house to give the gifts to Grandma and there were the 3 other girls. A bit shy for the first few seconds but then the two littlest ones jumped into our arms. I truly don’t think I have ever felt a hug as tight as the one I felt from the littlest daughter. She held me for many, many minutes as tight as she could. She simply wouldn’t let go. Grant was experiencing the same thing with the second daughter. They were desperately hungry for our love and we let them cling to us for many minutes. No words. No questions or explanations. Just hugs.
Karen Moves to Mexico 