Day One

Well, what to say... the events of the last 2 days have been absolutly amazing. i'm blown away. this superceeds any expectation that i had of Oaxaca, or even international travel. not that i am expericed by any means, but i do have one under my belt yet. there have been so many things that have happened, so be prepared for a long entry.

the flights were pretty routine, when we were getting ready to board for Oaxaca in Houston this guy came up to Tina and asked if it was really her. she said yes and he re-introduced himself. he works with Wicliff Bible translators here in Oaxaca. so they got reaquanted, and i remembered someone from Esther's letters. so i asked him if he knew them, he said he did and he was good friends with the husband. so that was cool. very cool. something was wrong with our orignal plane, so we had an extra 15-20 min so i picked his brain about his work. i find it so very interesting. i can't even go into all the details now. way to much.

while on the flight we had to fill out the immigration paper work, well, both of us messed the paper work, so the guy picked on us somewhat. anyway, that is neither here nor there and it's one of those things that you would have to be there for. we landed and the airport was just a little bit bigger than Quincy. it was funny. Tina has been so gracious with me taking so much time to explain so many things to me, like when you get off in Oaxaca you have to go through this line and put all of your luggage on a conveyer belt and walk through and show your papers and then push this button. the button will either flash red or green. tina went through and pushed the button and it was green, i come right behind her and i didn't push a button or hand in paper work. it was so crazy. tina told me it was a good thing. so we find the pastor and his wife and we head to the hotel.

traveling inside the city is a whole trip inside it's self. we crammed into the van (did i mention that we had 4 large sized suitecases, 2 cary-on's one back back and one briefcase?), so we are on our way. it was night, but i could see shadows of the huge moutains. they were beautiful. so we head through the city. i have no idea where we are going or anything to that effect. the only thing that i do know is that we speed up and then slow down for speed bumps, a whole bunch. it didn't seem like there was any rhyme or reason for them, that's just where they wanted them to be. the traffic was straight up crazy. i don't think i'll ever complain about Broadway in Qunicy being busy again. you have to be a super agressive driver here. all the roads are one way, and LOOKS like there is only room for 1 car, but they prove you wrong in a hurry. infact, there are parking spots all along the side of the road, and 2 lanes of traffic. like bumper to bumper. crazy drivers, crazy passengers, people just getting out of the car while they stop for a second. we finally got to the hotel after i was sure i was "going to meet my Maker", it didn't seem like we were in a parking spot, but everyone got out.

we walked into the hotel, it's absolulty beautiful. it's like a 400 year old building, it's so amazing, it has an open-air court yard inside the door. the rooms are pretty big, and really high celings. it's plaster/concret rooms, tera cotta colored tile, it's just great. the first room that we looked at was facing the street and music was blaring, tina asked for a room on the back. both of us slept like babies last night.

oh, i forgot to mention we got to eat real nachos. it was at an open air resturant. it took for ever to get our ticket, but Tina said to remember that the culture is totally diffrent here. in the States we would think that they are trying to get us to buy more food, she said that they wanted us to feel welcome. the streets were packed with people. it was something like 10 at night, but people were just eating supper. so we walked and looked around and just saw some cool things. when we came back to the hotel we had to ring the doorbell to get back in. this was very comforting.

this morning we got up and walked to the Catholic church down the street. this is not your tpyical American Catholic church, it's huge, all built with slave labor. the inside is all gold. it's huge, it was so very sad. i didn't take pictures b/c Mass had just gotten out and i didn't want to be disrepectful. there were people everywhere saying their roserys, it was breathtaking, but yet so opressive. Tina told me about some of the history that is so very sad. i had to choke back tears. it was so opressive. we went to a friends house, and stopped at a couple of stores along the way. it was very nice. the 12 block walk wasn't that bad at all.

we went to her friends house and it was good. i felt so welcomed. even in the midst of all of this, i feel a peace, i feel safe, i feel apart of it. it's quiet amazing. Mari's (our friends) mom was so concerned about me hitting my head. we had breakfast and this coffee that was ground really really fine, and boiled with vanilla and cinamon. it was pretty good. had beans and cheese and tortillias for breakfast.

we went to the market and my heart broke. it's a 40 acer markets. there were dead chickens everywhere, i need to try to remember to take a picture. the people are absolutly beautiful, but absolutly lost. there are skelletons everwhere. they celebrate the dead, like some morbid obsession. there was a big trash heap and Tina told me that is where they go to get food. it was crazy.

we got back to Mari's house for us to go help with the childrens ministy. and then decided to come back to the hotel for a min. now this was a trip. we had to catch a taxi. i've never ridden in a taxi in the States, this was a trip all together. the taxi cab driver had music blaring, it was English, and not very good stuff. it was really sad. and i was sure i was going to die at least 2 times. i now see why so many people like to walk instead of ride. i think it's much safer! but it was an experince. then we went to the childrens ministry.

it was so very touching. we got there and i got introduced to more family. it was so poor. the roads were poor. we went into the little shed where we were going to have the class. about 11 kids came in. i got to looking at them and my heart broke. they have nothing, no body wants them. their parents don't want anything to do with them b/c they are to big of an inconvince, and the church doesn't want anything to do with them b/c they are "pretty". i looked at them and had to leave the building. i couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Tina came to check on me to see if i was okay. i was just so overwhelemed. These kids needed to know that they were loved, that God loved them. they may never get out of that poverty stricken area except if they get into drugs or prostitution. i was so overwhelemd. i have the vision that God has for the church. to reach the lost, sick and dying. to spend time with the least of the least. to be His hands and feet. to be His love. to show them Jesus. i just broke. even right now i cannot sit here without being moved to tears, not out of piety, but out of love and compassion. these kids are so beautiful and they deserve to have a future better than what they are being set up for. it's so sad. they sang a song, and heard a story, and did a craft. then they had a treat. even an American sucker (thanks mom for the tootise roll pops!) after that we went to do the exact same thing again in another neighborhood. the kids were just as beautiful. there were more of them. it was like in the mid to low 60's and the kids had on stocking caps, sweaters, and hoodies, they were cold. it was kind of funny. but the people that were doing it had to the kids not to be afraid of my camera. that i was taking pictures b/c i love kids, not b/c i wanted to take pictures of them so i could kidnap them and try to sell them or their organs (these are some of the rumors that were going on about this ministry), so most of them complied. some of the kids were still scared of me. but that's okay. i loved them the best that i could.

when we got back and washed all the glue off of us we went to supper and did some light shopping. it's now 9:27 and we both are ready to pass out.

oh, i forgot to tell something funny, sad, but somewhat funny. i found out the meaning to "waking the dead". Tina had told me that here they celebrate the dead. witchcraft runs rampied here (there was this place in the market that Tina said that is where you bought all of your witchcraft supplies, and you can talk to the lady and the lady can tell you what your recipie is, and then for another small price you can pay here and she will mix the potion and cast the spell for you. it was so very sad). so she was telling me somewhat about it and we were getting ready to leave for supper and there was this huge bang, and i asked her what it was and she told me it was fireworks to wake the dead. and she really meant it.

well, i guess that wraps it up for the night. hard telling what tomorrow will bring. please pray for us and Oaxaca!