Mumbling creepers and Hebrew dancing

I’ve been eating meals with the students this weekend (which I don’t normally do, but since my aunt and uncle have been gone, I am), and it has been a good experience. I feel much more accepted and “part of the group”.

Yesterday, Efren, who speaks English (gracias a Dios), came to me with the request to go with him to Rigo about some songs Rigo wanted us to learn in English to sing when we ever had conferences here at the BI with English-speaking people (Efren has made mention of it last week, but it totally left my mind since then). So we knocked on Rigo’s door and entered his house after his niece came up behind and let us in (he couldn’t hear our knocking because he was listening to worship music really loud on his computer).

Okay, so it is completely amazing at how well he knows his way around the computer without his sight. He only uses the keyboard (is learning all the commands), and he remembers where EVERY THING is on the desktop and in the menus. I bet Brandon McRee couldn’t access his computer with his eyes closed like Rigo can!

Anyway, he opened his music library and opened up the Hillsong album (my parents are fans of them and I know a few of their songs), so I was relieved that those were the ones he wanted us to learn. He knew the songs in Spanish, but didn’t know the English titles (obviously, because he doesn’t speak English), so Efren and I clicked through songs and/or translated the Spanish titles to English to find the four that Rigo wanted us to learn. He asked me to get the lyrics and chords for Efren and I to learn, so I spent a few hours doing that on the computer (lyrics in both Spanish and English). I thought I took a really long time for just for songs (internet was slower than molasses and I also took an accidental nap), but Efren and Rigo were very satisfied with how fast I was able to produce the copies of lyrics and chord. Anyway, we didn’t practice yet since the worship band had to practice for our Sunday service, but we probably will this week.

During worship practice, Rigo’s wife, Beteli’s mom, asked me to teach Beteli English while they had worship practice. I think that was her way of asking me to babysit Beteli. So I took Beteli—had no idea how I was going to teach her, so we headed up to my apartment.
“And Abri?”
“No, Beteli, just you.”
“And Danielita?”
“No, Beteli, just you.”
She’s used to typically having another kid in their when I watch her.
“Are we going to color?”
“Yeah, we’re going to color and we’re going to learn!”
“Are we going to play?”
“No, we’re going to learn. Do you want to learn English?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s go learn!”

There were clothes drying on the table (which isn’t out of the ordinary), so I decided to grab some crayons and go work with her in the dining hall off the chapel by where her parents were having worship practice. It was really hard to get her to focus on learning (Obviously! She’s a kid!), so I tried my best to keep it interesting and not cram her brain with words. I taught her the colors while we colored and I taught her the word “Look!” since I know she used the word “Mira!” a lot. It was so cute, because I’d point to a crayon or a color on the page and say, “Blue!” and she’d repeat, “Bloop!” It is also harder to teach her colors because she doesn’t even know them in Spanish or Huave yet, so I might have to teach her those first; or maybe not. Unlike adults, children don’t need to know the word in their language first in order to learn the word of a new language. There’s whole life starts with immersion—seeing something and learning the word for it. I just have to keep that in mind. I’m thinking about maybe just talking to her in English when I’m watching her; for her benefit, and because it’s what her mom wants. That way she’ll automatically train herself to learn English by adaptation and immersion—like I am.

For cena, we had arroz con leche. I felt dumb, because I’m so used to people serving the food for you, I kept forgetting that the students do it different on the weekends—twice in a row I tried to take one of the girls’ cups they had just poured for themselves and said, “Gracias!” They looked at me funny and then I realized what I was doing. What a goof!

Oh, and the Hebrew dance went fine this morning! A few girls didn't participate, so that was a bummer, but it still looked okay! Church was very depressing though—after we took communion, Brother Martín had us all join hands around the chapel and sing one last worship song. As I looked around the room, only I and one other girl was singing (out of 60 people) and everyone had a very sour look on their face… so much for uniting the congregation. But then the whole church ate comida together after church, and then the smiles decided to show up. Oy!

Oh my goodness, and creepy Karla is always coming up to me and kissing my cheek and looking very awkwardly at me; I’m so creeped out! She’s only 15, but she looks my age and is a bigger girl and she dresses kind of emo. Did I mention before how she showed me that she’s been cutting herself, and tried to explain it to me for 5 minutes (didn’t understand much of it since it was in Spanish AND she’s a mumbler), so I just prayed with her (in English) and told her she shouldn’t do it anymore. I tried loving her “like Jesus would”, but the more I love her, the creepier and more clingy she gets. I’m at a loss with this one.
I’m afraid to go to church sometimes (esp. on Thursdays when Aunt Lila and my friends aren’t there); today after church I jetted-out and sneaked into Aunt Lila and Uncle Kent’s house so she wouldn’t find me. And I didn’t go to the church baseball this afternoon because of her—“what if she’s going…”—I’m legitimately uncomfortable… more than I’ve ever been with any person on this Earth. :\

Alright, in closing. I have some really exciting news—to me—but I can’t share it yet.

Una conferencía por la salud de mujeres

Just got back from una conferencía por la salud de mujeres (a conference for the health of women), put on by one of the churches here in Tecate (Sinai), and the guest speaker being the doctor the BI uses—Dra. Yolanda. What a character! Tall, curly-haired, curvy, and hilarious! Unfortunately I only was able to follow 1/8 of her jokes; she was very blunt with everything she said so she had the women rolling. Of course she also poked a joke about me being the only “gringa”—or in this case, non-Latina—in the building (except for this one girl who was apparently half white—her Mexican mamá wasn’t too thrilled about Yolanda leaving her out—but Dra. Yolanda said the girl was still part Latina). This was even pertinent to the discussion because, according to Dra. Yolanda, out of all the races, Latinas have the highest risk of breast cancer for some unknown reason.

The church was very neatly decorated with pink, flowers, and breast cancer ribbons. They served coffee and pan dulce. Several ladies started the conference with personal stories of family, friends, or personal experiences with breast cancer. Another lady sang a BEAUTIFUL song about being used by God—amazing voice! Then Dra. Yolanda presented her powerpoint and commentary concerning Cancer de la Mama.

*The Spanish word for breast is mama (you’ll notice, without the accent, as the Spanish word for mother does)—I was a little confused at first…*

So I understood about 75% of the information that she gave. Didn’t fully understand her jokes and witty comments, but oh well. :\

**When Uncle Kenta had talked about her before I was expecting her to be old and farty (guess I just wasn’t paying too much attention to how they’d describe her—I just always associate doctor with old age and farty-ness). Anyway, she’s not. She’s young (mid-30s), attractive, witty, and confident—the kind of lady you’d want to sit and talked to for an hour over coffee (if you spoke the same language, of course). She’s the doctor who’s been “dignosing” and dealing with all our fake passer-outers this year. Haha! What a gal—she had chewed Daniela out for her incident (even made her cry)! Also, Dra. Yoldanda had miraculously gone to Africa this past summer—God really wanted her to go and made sure she knew it!**

After her presentation and answering of questions, they gave out prizes through a game of “What’s in your purse?”Anyway, good conference; advantageous with all the important information it had to offer!

It was also funny riding there and back—crammed in an 8 person van with 15+ girls—O, Mexico! How thee cracketh me up!

Oh, Tío y Tía are gone all weekend for their anniversary, so I’ll be with my roommates for all meals and everything—should be a growing experience. :)

Yesterday + Today = 2 days

Yesterday was an improvement. I think I unconsciously knew, when I was typing up my last blog, that if I vented about the things that were bothering me, it would hold me accountable to put more effort into changing them. It’s comical how the human brain works; God’s funny.

So, yesterday I was on-time for Devotionals—it’s been a while. I didn’t get to walk down with my roommates (haven’t been ready on time for that since the first week I was here), so that was nice. I had beans and a tortilla for breakfast, toast and an oatmeal drink (avena) for snack (antojitos), and beans, rice, and tortillas for comida; oh and I snacked on some lime-flavored peanuts for dinner. So I kind of stuck to my no dinner deal, and the only sugar I consumed was in the agua de naranja (orange flavored water) that Gloria made with comida.

I only had Abril yesterday for the first block. I think her parents don’t have money for diapers, because for the 2^nd time this week she wasn’t wearing one and just peed in her clothes and I couldn’t do anything about it, so I just let her nap and took her outside for a walk so she wouldn’t cry (she loves being outdoors), and we also played blocks together. I was much more involved in playing with her today (accountability).

Aunt Lila and I hopped—well drove over—the border yesterday to get mail. My box from my mom hadn’t come yet—she’s sending me winter clothes! And muffins! :D What a good mama! I’m gonna go check again today.

For Wednesday, mid-day chapel, Jehú’s brother, who’s been staying here since Monday, brought the message since Uncle Kent was away at a conference. I don’t remember Jehú’s brother’s name, so we’ll call him Billy. Billy talked about the steps of being a missionary, specifically when it comes to working with indigenous tribes and people. He’s a missionary with an organization that outreaches to the indigenous (now I understand why that’s all Jehú ever talks about when it comes to ministry, is how God loves the indigenous people). He talked about how you have to learn their language and their culture thoroughly, and gain their acceptance and respect, before you can share the gospel; it takes a lot of time. He said that typically it would take about 50+ years to establish a mature Christian church within a tribe of “unreached people”. Pretty crazy!
I wasn’t expecting his lesson to be impactful, since I’d heard he was as arrogant as his brother, but he turned out to be pretty humble and giving God the glory.

We ate comida and then I went to my dorm to sleep for a half hour, which morphed into three. Exhausted I suppose. When I awoke, I got to gab with my mom for a little bit on the phone and then I returned to my room where I found Joka and Chely laying in Joka’s bed (they usually cuddle together, but they weren’t this time), so I decided I would lie with them. They were surprised because I hadn’t done it before, so they wanted to take a picture of us three lying on the bed together. “Now let’s do one with our stuffed animals,” Chely suggested. “Now let’s do one with the guitar,” Joka added. One thing led to another, and we ended up taking over 30+ pictures for a half hour all throughout our room and even on our back porch. We were ready to look at all our crazy pictures on the computer, so I was looking for the “synchronize” settings on my phone; touched an option that said “format memory card”—everything was erased. All my photos, including ones I’d taken before, all my music, all my videos—everything that was saved on that memory chip—gone. Just like that. I knew it was irreversible after a few touches around my settings, and I explained to Joka and Chely what happened, but so I wouldn’t seem careless, I converted the language on my phone to Spanish and handed it to them to try to reverse what I did. Of course, they couldn’t either. Oh well. “One last one,” Chely said. Okay, so we reiterated four of the photos.

Today I woke up late again, so I didn’t shower until after breakfast so I wasn’t late for Devotionals. Didn’t eat breakfast with the students, either, because the burritos had churriso (sausage) in them. I was nearly late to babysitting since I didn’t get into the shower until 7:40—so I had really wet hair. Anyway, I babysat Abril, next a babysat birthday girl, Danielita (one year old today—I gave her a birthday bath in the sink). Also, I think Danielita has eczema (her parents are taking her to the doctors tomorrow), and it doesn’t help that they don’t cut her nails—she has scabs from scratching all over her rough-skinned arms and legs and in her ears. Pobrecita (poor thing), missed out on one of the best things about babies: soft skin. I tried to trim her nails while she was sleeping—couldn’t get all of them (so little).

Beans and rice for comida. Now I’m off to the other side to do post office stuff and pick up communion items for church.

Well, that’s all, I guess.

I’m just looking forward to my muffins.

Depues una día largo.

Wiped, like a baby butt. What. A. Day. What a long day, with that! I watched kids from 8 AM to 6 PM with a two hour break. Beteli in the morning while her parents went to a doctors appointment in Tijuana and to check out the brail institute for her dad, Rigo; David accompanied her as a playmate (they play well together—both being 3), then Abril and Daniela joined the mix at 11 AM, along with two 5-year-old girls who weren’t supposed to be in there after my aunt had talked to them last week (luckily she rescued me again by sending them out). At 1:30 PM, the parents came early; it was time for my two hour break, so I crossed the border to get the mail and also ended up picking up Keila from school since her dad broke down on the way.

*A majority of the parents here in Mexico want to send their kids to the Tecate Mission 1^st-8^th Bible School because they’ll be able to learn English fluently. Unfortunately for the families, it’s a small school—less than 50 students in total. Aunt Lila said that while kids are even in the womb, their parents will put them on the waiting list to get in. Luckily for Keila, Jaunita, and David, their parents are missionaries through TMI, so they get first dibs.*

When I got back at 3 PM, I ate my lunch (rice, beans, and tortillas) that Aunt Lila set aside for me and then at 3:30 PM, it was back to watching niños. Beteli and ooh, my favorites… (sarcasm) Nohemí and Grete… Nohemí was her typical bratty self—was even sticking her tongue out and throwing toys at her sister and Beteli—but her little sister, Grete, cried a whole lot less than typical, which was so nice.

**Mexican children stick their tongues out differently than American children—it’s actually rather obscure unless you see it repeated. They do it more lizard style (in-out-in-out) where as American kiddos eject, erect and keep it that way. After I noticed little David do his lizard thing at me two different times today when I told him to do something, I put him on time-out in the corner for about three minutes. All I said to him was “Pensas!” (think) didn’t know what else I could say in Spanish. I didn’t know what I should say when I relieved him from the chair, so I got my translation dictionary out and looked up the word “rudeness”: mal-educación. When I came back to him, he had a single tear down his cheek. “Terminaste? No más mal-educacíon?” I asked. He nodded, and I patted his back to go play with Beteli.**

Um, I’ve kind of learned from my father, instead of my mother, how to interact with kids. This is not a good thing. I teach them how to play with the fire in the candles (Keila at the wedding; not the babies!), I tip them upside down, I carry them on my shoulders, I pat their mouth when they won’t stop crying because it makes a funny noise. Not something a mom would ordinarily do… or a daycare provider. I fail. At least I’m recognizing it, so I’m working on not doing it when I catch myself.

I also fail as daycare provider in this aspect: I am SO flippin’ lazy. I interact with the kids as little as possible—well, maybe not as little as possible, but pretty close—for instance, if I have two kids, I’ll try to get them to play with each other so that I can do my own thing (reading or Spanish studying), if I have one kid I put in a movie to keep them occupied, and if I have one baby I try to put it to sleep. How terrible. The ideal daycare provider would have a set schedule and would play with the kids, would play guitar and sing with them, and have some lessons to teach them new things (shapes, colors, counting, ENGLISH). What’s holding me back? It can’t be that difficult. I’ve honestly never been a fan of kids, but people would never know it by the immature level I stoop to when I’m with them. That’s another thing, when I’m with these kids I feel more like a big kid than I do a caregiver… not cool. That’s one of the leading mistakes of parents and guardians today—trying too hard to be their friend instead of the authority. Because I’m not the authority, the kids walk all over me and demand as they please (sans please and thank-yous). I want to be the one they look up to and admire—one does not typically admire one’s servant. Instead I only get their respect when I’m surprisingly stern; and then their just plain confused. I need to gain the respect efficiently and effectively.

I want to lose weight, but I’m always hungry. I was hoping to lose 10/15 lbs while I was down here, but instead I’ve gained 5! I’m so bummed. First I was going to do that “Diet for Your Blood Type” thing, but couldn’t commit. Then I was going to only have sugar once a week, but couldn’t commit. Then I was not going to eat dinner anymore, but couldn’t commit. Then I was going to cut out all sugar, and guess what! I couldn’t commit. :\ I’m not morbidly obese or anything, I realize this. But nearly every girl always has some extra weight she wants to lose.

***P.s. Marbella, Keila’s mom, had Tio, Tia, and I over for dinner where she made us the most delicious enchiladas my taste buds have ever encountered.***

I also can’t get up early! Never on time for Devotionals. In fact, these past two days I’ve been 17 minutes late! 17 minutes! It usually only lasts but 30! I wanted to set a goal of practicing guitar, studying my Spanish books, and reading my books I brought, every single day. Not one day have a committed. Not one day have I completed all. Lack of accomplishment kind of makes me hate myself.

And I also feel terrible. More often than I have in my entire life, am I reading the Bible. Daily-daily! And absorbing so much of it—especially with how Aunt Lila and I are studying it with a guide and questions—but even with all the Bible reading and praying I’m doing, I sure do feel far away from God. Just two months ago, it seemed like He was all I thought about and I talked to Him in every opportunity. Now all I think about is the things I need to get done and how much of a failure I’m turning out to be, and I don’t want to talk to anyone. I’m getting to that point where I’m so disgusted with myself—and feeling so… lonely? I don’t know, maybe—that I wouldn’t mind just calling life quits and sleeping for an eternity. I guess what it all comes down to, all this rambling adds up to, is the fact that I have lost the motivation to stay motivated (I know it sounds redundant, but the words create a perfect description). I need Jesus to set me afire once more—I need a passion again. I need want Him to be my Passion.

On a better note, I was actually there this morning for when my roommates congregated to pray. It was my turn—I was going to pray in Spanish for my first time ever publically, but couldn’t find the prayers I’d written down for when I did get to lead prayer with them in the morning. So again, I prayed in English instead. What a bummer.

Nelly came up to our dorm the other night to remind Chely and Joka about dance practice, and since I was there she invited me, too. So that night at 8 PM we all met in one of the classrooms where Joka (I was surprised) and Nelly (she coordinates most of the dances the girls do on Sundays—they usually use tambourines, flags, and American Sign Language [and it was funny last Sunday in their dance they were using ASL to sign with the song, and the sign for the word “king” is to cross the letter K down your chest, but “king” in Spanish is rey)] taught us a dance routine to a Hebrew worship song I had heard in our room. The dance they taught us was a simple synchronized dance of which we hold hands in a zig-zag sort of chain and two-step sort-of-danced with our feet. It’s a cakewalk (and I’m a terrible dancer—ask my mom), so I was rather shocked when some of the girl couldn’t get it and practiced the simple 8-count move for 15 minutes. Once we rehearsed through it in the actually line (we learned it separated), it was a little harder trying to remember the order of the steps and trying not to step on the other girls’ feet at the same time. Anyway, I’m looking forward to performing on Sunday—just have to find a black skirt.

Uncle Kent and Aunt Lila are going away this weekend for their anniversary.

My parents ordered me a new Bible—English Spanish Parallel—and it’s pretty interesting because the English is in ESV, which I’ve never used before. I’m so excited go through this as I am reading the entire Bible all the way through, and highlight and underline all the new verses that are important to me or intrigue me in this new Chapter of my life.

TALENT SHOW #2

Friday night was way different than I’d expected. And I feel bad; I was dreading the song with Leti so much and it turned out fine—it was intended to be kind of off. Anyway, I’ll get to that later. First I’ll start from where I left off.

All afternoon I had played “Un Viaje Largo”, the song I was going to sing with Keila, so that I could memorize the lyrics completely. I think I listened to it about 50 times. :)

I also went to Bladi—the worship leader—and asked him if he’d accompany Leti and I in our song, he didn’t seem so sure he knew it. I felt really terrible because I went to ask him and interrupted their worship practice, and I didn’t even say “Perdon” or “Lo siento” or even “Con permisso”—I just walked straight up on the stage, asked him my question, and walked straight off; not even acknowledging the band. What a fool.

Anyway, I changed clothes 3 times, practiced three more times with Keila and her dad Jaun (he played guitar with us), and then it was time!

First was Lucy singing accompanied by the worship team. She has this prideful attitude like she’s the best singer on campus, but both songs she sang last night were completely off key. Chelita and Lidia, in my opinion, are far more pleasant singers.

Anyway, next was Elda with her very impressive interpretive dance. The lights were off and as you can see in the picture below, she had her face painted like a mime and wore white gloves.

Then Leti and I were up with our duet of “No Hay Dios”. The way she introduced it was that we were both learning a second language and decided to try singing in it (I in Spanish, her in English), so bare with us, she joked. We ended up doing it accapela, but it was fine. I forgot half my lyrics, but it wasn’t a big deal because as I looked around the room there were wide, white grins everywhere. Well, this was fun, I thought.

Next Rosanna shared an apparently sentimental poem, she started crying, but I didn’t understand it. I think it had to do with how God can bless your life if you allow Him to.

Anyway, next came Miguel. Firstly he presented 4 ladies with artwork of roses he had drawn. Marbella, Keila’s mom, for her helpfulness and giving spirit, Aurora, who wasn’t there to accept it since she was preparing for her skit, for her kind heart and warm spirit, me, which I felt so honored by, for my patience (specifically with his daughter and the other babies), and his wife because he loves her. Then he performed two songs—very well done.

Next was Leti’s skit with her sons. I missed the gist of it, but Aunt Lila explained that it was originally an English skit about a kid witnessing to his friend and giving him a ticket to heaven, but the other one loses it, then asks for another, so the good kid cuts of a few pieces of his own ticket, and in the end the good kid goes to Heaven, and the bad kid goes to Hell, and his ticket pieces spell “HELL”. Boy, was that a run on, or what? Well, it was cute.

Next went Rigo and David performing a duet together with a song and guitar. David is profesh at riffing, so that’s what he did, and Rigo strummed. Also, David harmonized vocally with what Rigo sang. It was really awesome seeing Rigo involved, with him being newly declared blind.

Then came my and Keila’s duet, singing “Un Viaje Largo” by Marcela Gandara. She softly introduced it, but since everyone was talking during the transition, no one heard it. Anyway, we didn’t sing as well as we did when we’d practice, but it was our first time on mics, so it was still pretty good. We both had fun and I gave her a big hug when we finished.

Next came the rondalla, one of my favorites—an ensemble of guitarists (+ a bassist, in this case). They all strummed together and sang. It was really pretty. And Bladi riffed a little bit! Even Rigo was up their! The audience chanted “Otra! Otra!” after they had done, demanded another round, which they would later.

Then came the clown skit with Leti, Lidia, Dalila, and Priscilla all dressed as clowns. They didn’t speak throughout the whole skit either, just motions and gestures. Leti and Delila came in first with their bag dragging on the floor, then Lidia came in skipping with her bag super light-weight. Then they started taking out the boxes in each of the bags. The boxes in Leti and Dalila’s bag said traits like “envy”, “pride”, and “drunkenness”, as well as a whiskey bottle, whereas Lidias boxes in her bag said characteristics like “joy”, “love”, and “goodness” as well as a paper cross. Lidia explained through gestures that they needed Jesus and they wouldn’t have those heavy boxes anymore; they could instead have light happy boxes, so Leti and Dalila accepted Jesus and threw away their old bag and boxes and skipped off with Lidia and her light bag of good traits. Priscilla is Leti’s 5-year-old, she was pretty shy, so didn’t do anything but sit on stage. And Lidia, who by nature is a complete sweetheart, was the cutest clown I’ve ever seen!

Next Aunt Lila performed a magic show that she’d been preparing all afternoon. She somehow incorporated the gospel, which I thought was neat. (Late I tried to guess her secrets)

Next was another skit with mimes about how Jesus can take away your sins such as “violence” and “drugs” that the Devil puts on us. Everyone was shocked at how scary Leti looked in her “Satan’s girlfriend” get-up. Oh, and Keila was in it! All the other kids that participated were laughing and talking, but she stayed in character. Oh, and a student at the BI named Jesús, played Jesus. :)

Beto and Gloria did an adorable skit together (they’re husband and wife) of which was a play on words—and he played the dumb guy and she played the sweet, innocent girl (which sort of mirrors them in reality). I also was informed, by my tía, that Beto used to be a professional clown and was the one who taught Leti and Lidia and the others who did clown skits that night, how to be clowns. He had a quick wit, which I didn’t expect.

The rondalla did otra round of their song, which everyone loved and appreciated.

Joka, who was the host of the night, even presented her own talent of writing a poem. She’s so precious, and made a great hostess—something her handicapped arm can’t prevent her from doing well!

Luci performed one more song with the band in closing and then we ate nachos, MnMs, over-baked cookies, and drank Mexican hot chocolate. I also snagged a photo with Miguel, his wife Rebe, and little Abril.

What an unexpectedly wonderful evening, thanks to Elda, Joka, and Aqui, who organized it!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy it!

TALENT SHOW #1

So, talent show tonight for the whole student body...

I'm in two songs with two different people. "Un Viaje Largo" by Marcella Gandara con Keila & "No Hay Dios" con Leti (the tone-deaf lady who speaks some English). I'm looking forward to the one with Keila, especially because her dad will be accompanying us on guitar; I just have to COMPLETELY memorize the lyrics in just a few hours. The one with Leti, um, it's just to be nice. It's going to be terrible, no matter what. I might try and get someone to accompany us on guitar for that one as well (I tried, but can't transition chords fast enough), but it will still be bad since she can't match pitch; but it's to glorify God, right? Right.

I'll let you know how the talent show goes (hence the title "Talent Show #1"... oh wait, I'm sorry... "TALENT SHOW #1"... excuse me).

Today I realized how, this is going to sound funny, mature babies really are. More than we assume--they're quite the manipulative little things; they'll put on the most dramatic fit to get what they want if they think it will work.
Little Abril, 9, 10 months old: if you lay her down, she'll cry and scream, so I thought I'd do an experiment a few times. I lay her down and go and hide while she's screaming and crying and trying to sit herself up; once she's up and sees I'm not around, she stops crying and goes on a Lynda-Hunt... once she sees me, her tantrum resurrects. How manipulative!

Anyway, that's all. Oh, and I'm starting a study of Acts with my aunt--kind of excited to follow the study guides--new view.

Okay, I'm late to practice with Leti. Adios!

Stuffed Animals & Love Life

Since yesterday was Tuesday, I had the first block off, so I utilized the time by crossing the border to run some errands and then sorting through Aunt Lila’s Oaxaca & Tecate pictures, which I posted on Facebook later today.

Once it was time to have kiddos, Daniela and Abril played great together to start and then when they got tired they napped together. If I have the two of them, I stick to a routine: Danielita can fall asleep really fast without me holding her and she sleeps like a rock (nothing can really wake her up), so I just give her a bottle and lay her down and she’ll drink it herself—then I rub her head and she falls asleep in minutes; Abril, on the other hand, is a very sensitive sleeper—I have to rock her to sleep in my arms and then it takes two or three tries before I can actually put her down to where she won’t wake up. Neither of them cried the whole time—that’s a first for two babies at once so far.

*Oh, while it’s still on my mind. There’s this guy named Jehú—I’m pretty certain he’s got the hots for me. It pretty much makes me uncomfortable, especially because he happens to be the most arrogant, full-of-himself (but doesn’t have much reason to be) guy here. He’s known at the Institute for being what would best be described in Layman’s terms as a “cocky geek”. Anyway, he says hi to me whenever he sees me, I always catch out of the corner of my eye staring at me, and I wouldn’t think anything of these cues, except he’s the type that’s so self-absorbed that he typically wouldn’t pay any attention or go out of his way to greet other people.
I think I just really need God to teach me to see Him how He does—I can’t be irritated by someone I’m supposed to love as a brother in Christ.
He asked me to teach him how to read music, so I did that last Thursday before church and this morning before breakfast, and he wants to schedule another lesson. I don’t know how to play piano well, so it’s hard to teach him (he’s the keyboardist on the worship team).*

**There’s a talent show this Friday night and I’m supposed to sing a duet with Keila and a duet with Leti (they both asked me). With Keila, I’m singing a song by Spanish Christian Pop singer Marcela Gandara (I LOVE her voice and Keila gave me a copy of one of her albums); with Leti (who speaks pretty good English) we’re singing a song from church that I’ve never heard—I’m singing it in Spanish and she’s singing it in English. One problem, Leti is tone deaf and no one has told her. I’m not going to tell her. I’ll sing with her because it’s the loving thing to do (Aunt Lila said the students don’t mind—most of the talent show gigs will be off-key or not work out); I just feel bad that she doesn’t know.**

At 3:30 I watched Beteli and Keila’s brother, David. Beteli and David are both 3 and play well together (and by play well I mean Beteli bosses David around, and David obeys). I wasn’t supposed to have Nohemí & Grete, their parents called saying the girls were throwing up, but they brought them half way through anyway. That had me nervous—didn’t want the other two kids getting sick; turned out it wasn’t contagious.

We crossed the border last night to get beans and pick up Mr. J from the mission (who’s basically Brandon McRee in 35 years, but more interested in Linguistics and Philosophy and less interested in technology) to bring him here because he teaches here at the BI.

***We can only cross over to Mexico with so many bags of beans at a time otherwise we can go to Mexico jail after a certain amount of times getting written up. Uncle Kent and Aunt Lila have been written up once so far.***

Last night, Joka, Chely, and I played around with stuffed animals—we were rolling on the floor laughing from our goofiness. I taught them the camp song “There Was a Great Big Moose” and acted it out with Chelita’s moose stuffed animal, then I interpreted the song, and then I sang it in English and animated the Moose stuffed animal while Joka sang the translation in Spanish. It was hilarious! Oh and we made a bear family out of our stuffed animals and took pictures; and I acted out a mini soap opera with the bears. Yep, I’m 18.

Anyway, it was funny.

P.s. Didn’t have Fiesta de Frijol this morning because I was on time for ever meal the past two weeks. :)