yep, I'm in Mexico

Wow, I can’t believe I’m coming up on two months already. It’s scary, I still feel like I still have two months with Alex here, along with Kat and Mike. Sadly, both are leaving in the next couple weeks.

This last week has been a very good, productive week. I’ve gotten some projects done, and my Spanish took off after being stuck in a flat for about a week.

Wednesday, I went up to the states and picked up Dn. Daniel. He came down and stayed with us through Friday. It’s possible he and his wife may be joining us in the future, permanently - a very exciting possibility! Dn. Dan, is a very kind and wonderful man. When I heard we were going to have him visiting, I thought to myself, “wow, this will be the first time in my two months that I’ll actually know more Spanish that another American at the orphanage.” How terribly I was mistaken. Dn. Dan walked into the office and one of our staff members greeted him saying, “como estas?” He laughed and then launched into an explanation about how the trip was, how the flight was, and how he’s enjoyed the time in California, ALL in Spanish. There goes my chance… guess I’ll be waiting until January to get off the bottom of the Spanish speaking totem pole. I felt a little better though, when I learned that Dn. Dan had been in the Navy and had spent 6 months in a Spanish school and then was sent down to Venezuela for an entire year. While this was back in 1990, he still knew quite a bit, and made a great impression on the boys and the staff. Everyone took to him very quickly.

Wednesday and Thursday I focused on getting the cross, and candles hung up in the church. Not the hardest job, but I had to prime, paint, finish, drill, screw, and attach these boards. Basically, there was a lot of little things that added up. I had a rather foolish moment while drilling. At one point my drill bit got loose, so I had to retighten the drill. A couple minutes later, it felt like it was getting lose again. Forgetting that just moments before this drill had been creating a large amount of friction with the cement wall, I grabbed the bit to see if it was loose. A sizzling sound came from my finger tips. I quickly realized that the bit was fine, instead I needed to tighten down some common sense. However, burnt fingers and all, I finished it Thursday, and it looks good. I joked later, that it was a good thing I got my Sentri pass done earlier in the week. As part of the Sentri application, you need to get fingerprinted. Had I waited until Friday, I wouldn’t have had any finger print on my left thumb and pointer finger. That would have been rather humbling to explain why I had not finger print.

Friday, I went and helped up in the office in the states. One of our staff member’s father, is having heart problems at the moment. Since she has not been able to be at the office much, I had to go and do a few jobs around the office. It won’t be long, but I may be going up there once a week or so for maybe a month.

Today, after breakfast I had to go help out up in the animal pens. We have a cow that looks to be really struggling with an illness right now. The poor thing couldn’t get off the ground, so I had to go in with a few of the older boys and staff and pick her up off the ground. I really hope she can make it, but we might be putting her down pretty soon here if she doesn’t recover. If she hadn’t been strong enough today to hold her own when we picked her up, we were going to have to put her out of her misery today. (I noticed they had the equipment ready to go, if we hadn’t been successful.

Speaking of which I had a bit of a, “oh, yeah I’m in Mexico” moment earlier this week. Since there is no trash system down here, the best way to dispose of trash is to burn it. A lot of locals will take their trash out into the middle of a field light it on fire and walk away, (with is still burning a lot of the time). So, I was on my way to put some trash our incinerator. Since the incinerator is right next to the animal stalls and you can always hear the different animals, chickens, a annoying rooster (who decides his alarm is 5am, and every ten minutes afterwards), along with a couple horses, cows and pigs.

However, this time I noticed two different things. First, there was a smell, vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. It seemed to be coming from the incinerator, like something had been burnt. At the same time I realized that one of the animal sounds was missing. As I walked up to the incinerator, I discovered the culprit. I put the bag in the fire, then realized I had tossed the bag on a leg. A hoof was attached. Then I realized there was an animal ear next to it. Turns out it was butcher time at the orphanage and our beloved pig had met its end. After eating pork that evening, I walked out from the kitchen and noticed one of the ranch staff washing the pots and pans that had been used in the butcher process. All well and good, except that he was washing them in the spicket right next to my room. There was a definite smell exuding from the pots and water. As I walked into my room I discovered that this aroma also inhabited my room. All I could do was shake my head and think, “yep, I’m in Mexico”.

Senor ten piedad,

Joel

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. ~ Robert E. Osborn