The weekend's aqui!!!

So another day, brings many, many more things to learn. Today being Saturday and the weekend, we were able to sleep in until 8:30 or so. We ate breakfast, and then went about Saturday chores. At first I helped sweep off the basketball court. This last week, a large stage has been put up for a small carnival the orphanage is hosting later this month. The construction of the stage however, has left a lot of scrap wood, screws, and nails, all over the court. Afterwards, Fr. Michael had me move to cleaning the chapel with some other boys.

At 13 years old, I started coming very early on Sunday mornings to church to clean and prepare the altar and church for the service. Those hours in the early mornings, listening to matins, and helping my priest instilled in me a true love for the church, and worship. Therefore, getting to go and clean the St. Innocent chapel was really exciting for me. We pulled a lot of the shelves, and chairs out, and swept and mopped the chapel. I guess the chapel picks up a lot dust and critters during the week. We had a lot of spider webs, and dust everywhere, but both of which have to be expected. The chapel is actually is open to the outdoors between the top of the walls and the roof. However, when we finished the chapel, it was very clean for Vespers and the coming week.

The Spanish learning definitely is encouraging at the moment. Thank you all for your prayers. I noticed I’m starting to be able to pick up the subject in conversations. Tonight at vespers, Father talked to the boys about the candles in the church and then about the feast of the Elevation of the Cross. Thankfully, I was able to pick up what he was talking about, and understand what he was trying to express. --- On a different Spanish note, our librarian has given me a few children’s books that I can read out loud and get to understand the words, and figure out pronunciation. I’m also reading through the service books, and trying to say prayers in Spanish.

Looking back at high school, my language of choice was French. It was a good experience and I did learn quite a bit. As I work on my Spanish, there were some helpful similarities between French and Spanish. However, hindsight being 20/20 I would have taken Spanish if I could do it again. Yet, something that I did do in high school, that is benefitting here, was playing soccer. Today I played some futbol with the boys on the basketball court. Thankfully, I was able to hold my own with some of the older boys. While I was rusty, I actually surprised a few of them. I’m sure they didn’t expect some tall dude from the US to be able to do anything with a soccer ball, but I did alright. At least I have something that I can hold my own in. Since the Spanish can be a bit embarrassing at times, having something that I’m good at, is a big positive.

Getting to know the boys has been really neat. Each boy is very different from the other, and their unique personalities are exciting to get to know. However, I found I have to be careful. I was hanging out with a couple boys tonight and what I thought was innocent fun quickly turned sour. My being the “responsible adult” on the scene, I should have realized what was up and stopped it, but being the new guy I didn’t realize it until to late. Thankfully Alex quickly was there to deal with the issue, but I’m learning I can’t necessarily assume the best. Little brothers can be mischievous at times.

Meals have been a neat surprise so far. Yes, there have been beans at a majority of the meals. Yet, I’ve not had a single meal so far I did not enjoy. It’s cool getting to see the different meals the boys have. I got to have cactus earlier this summer when I visited for a week, and tonight again I got to have some more. It’s very similar to a green bell pepper. I have to admit it tastes pretty good.

Please keep me in your prayers, and pray that my Spanish continues to improve. Thank you!

Under His Mercy,

Joel

PS – My address for the next nine months is…

Joel Schaefer
c/o Project Mexico
P. O. Box 120028
Chula Vista, CA 91912