Rambling Thoughts Por Este Mes

While my (Jacquie) previous posts have been more thematic the past month (mes in spanish) has flown by so quickly that it is hard to pick any on thought to focus one and so I feel more inclined to share a few of the various experiences and thoughts that have made up the past few weeks between Hilary’s 2nd birthday (Feb 19th) and Rick’s 37th birthday (March 15th – yes today!), which has also included the current visit of my parents to San Cristobal – and thus the reason for the lack of blog entries. Why spend time typing on a computer when you get to visit your family right in front of you! Hilary seemed like she was 2 quite a bit before her second birthday as she is quite a bit of a go getter having definite strengths in ability to quite gracefully get around and doing things “my self.” As my mother commented this evening she is not one to be outdone by her older brother! She is full on into learning her colors, singing most of the alphabet song, and helping me to bake cookies. Most remarkably she has an almost scary ability to do parts of puzzles intended for 4 or 5 year olds. Yet she is still my little baby and finds herself often in our bed cuddling in the morning and letting me know that she needs me to “holda her” or in general shouts out “mommy I need you”!

Feliz Cumpleanos Hilary

 

We enjoyed a good Mexican fiesta to celebrate her birthday, complete with tortillas and a pinata with the wonderful community of friends we have made her in the past few months.

A Birthday Ride

This month Ezra has also very much settled into his routine of going to school from about 10-2 everyday. All three of us make the 15 min interesting walking journey through the busy street that leads us from our house to his school passing by various stores and street venders selling most anything you could think of food, clothing , hardware & sometimes playing english music (this morning I heard a classic Rick Astley song), we often also see cerditos – little pigs – being sold on the side or perhaps someone holding several turkeys upside down either going to sell them or having just bought them i’m not sure. My Dad has commented that you could take this journey everyday and still see something a bit new – he has especially been enjoying the diversity of life around our neighbourhood here in San Cristobal. At his school Ezra is starting to understand more and more Spanish all the time and comes home often with a new word or singing a Spanish song, although the other day he admitted to my parents that sometimes he just says Si – yes – even when he has no idea what his teacher is saying! (Hey i do the same thing). We are fairly confident now that his best little buddy he made in the first weeks of school is not returning and it saddens me that he already need to feel the lose of friendship and of having to make new friends, but he seems to be adjusting quite well and the other day he said he was going to pray to make a new friend.  He is also having more good times playing with the son of my good friend Rebecca at our weekly playgroups who speaks both English and Spanish – yes another blessing! I am thankful that Ezra’s school continues to be a place for him to be loved, cared for, given time to explore on his own, learn Spanish, make new friends and this past month gain a growing appreciation for drawing and coloring.

I have already mentioned several times that my parents are visting  us this month – what a treat! They have rented a home about a 15 – 20 min. walk away and so for the past 2 weeks we have enjoyed sharing meals at each other homes, touring around places in San Cristobal, hearing my parents make many courageous attempts at speaking words in Spanish, having my dad help us figure out new colectivo (bus) routes, enjoying some shopping and lunch dates with my mom, showing off all the new things our kids are into or doing, and just in general visiting and having some babysitters! They are here for 2 more weeks and we look forward to a bit of a holiday/excursion with them next week which i’m sure will leave us all with even more good memories.

Abuelo y Abuela

Rick is actually celebrating his birthday today somewhere out in the countryside of Chiapas as he is on a 3 day trip. I was able to talk to him for 5 min today via cellphone before mine ran out of minutes but not before he could tell me that he was treated to a nice dish of boiled snails for breakfast – thankfully he is always a gracious eater with a hearty stomach to help when many different foods are needed to be tried. While we are all experiencing adventure here in Mexico his work has meant even more for him – but for the most part he’s loving it.

For me I have been happy this last week in being more bold and able to communicate with the various people I meet on the street, with friends, basketball teammates and taxi drivers. There is so much to learn but progress is encouraging. I’m also getting closer at defining what my part-time volunteer service which I will hopefully start in April – more details to come.

This month also starts the beginning of the season of lent which will conclude with 2 weeks off from school and work for Holy Week and other festivities. We look forward to experiencing the Easter season in the new culture. We also look forward to a MCC Mexico Team retreat this weekend in the state of Guerrero which means reconnecting with friends and colleagues for some business and socializing but also traveling by several modes of transport including airplane, bus, taxi, and donkey – we will tell you all about it soon. For now it is too late for me to be up so i’ll post this without editing or adding pictures which perhaps I will do both of tomorrow.

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