this one time at band camp....

I feel like band camp is a good way to begin stories some times. Or at least a common one. Only problem is...I never went to band camp. I thought for a while about joining band, back when I was about to start high school, but I had only a few flute lessons before my teacher when back overseas. So I decided it wasn't worth it....and am glad I did. Being an art/theatre/astronomy kid fit me better, I think, than would have the band kid requirements (not to mention the stereotypes).

I guess I could always say "this one time at church camp...."

Ayways, the purpose of the post is mostly to express amusement at a ridiculous comment I just got on my last blog. Here it is:
Anonymous said...

Here I was thinking that this was going to be a high quality blog, and once again, you let me down. Thanks for wasting minutes of my life that I will never get back.

May 20, 2008 10:43 AM

At first I was a little offended...I mean, some one without the guts to even leave his or her name decided to insult me. I happen to like my blog, low quality as it may be. And it's not for the amusement of random people so much as to inform those who know me about what's going on in my life....

Then I realized that, rather than feel downhearted that some random person likes to sit around his computer and insult people online, I should find the good in the situation. I realized that this is a rather funny comment. Kudos to the author for having good grammar, punctuation, and such...I must admit, I don't always do so much (though I do try to spell check my posts, and don't even use things like rotfl, r u l8, and so on, even for texting), and most demeaning comments make themselves even less intelligent than they inherently are by not capitalizing or using te rong theire's & mispeling things and forgeting periods

I just want to say a couple of things. #1 I hope Anonymous reads this (and thinks about how silly it is to insult people's blogs). #2 I didn't ask you to read my blog (and if I did, that means I know you and you could at least tell me who you are so that I know what friend to spend less time with). #3 Minutes? Oh, joy. If it only took a few minutes to read then why are you complaining? At least you know to avoid it in the future. #4 If you thought it would be high quality and were wrong, that's your lack of initial judgement, not mine. #5 If you think that it's my fault that you "wasted minutes of [your] life", you are sadly mistaken. Seriously, let's think about this. You're going around, reading random blogs, spending time on the internet. You could be doing something useful, like cooking, reading a book, working, exercising, spending time outside. If you think reading my blog is a waste of time, I'm going to assume that you don't know me, or at least don't care about what I'm up to (which is totally fine, I don't expect everyone to want to keep up with my every move). So why would you read it? If you think going around reading random blogs is going to be worth your time, a good use of minutes of your life, then maybe you're not so intelligent to begin with. Honestly, it seems like you like wasting minutes of your life. And, #6 is that it sounds an awful lot like something my friend Drew would write. If that was you, Andrew, you can forget an invitation to come to my house this summer. (:



And now, reflecting upon this which I've just written, I want to mention as a disclaimer that I did it purely for fun. There was a day when I might have wanted to be all serious and angry on the internet, but I've realized how dumb that is. So please realize that I've been laughing half the time I've been writing. Also, I've spent my morning cutting mangoes and helping to cook, so I've also done worthwhile things, which makes me feel better about being online.

So, without further ado, let me leave you all (which, as far as I can tell, equals maybe one or two of my friends and some random Anonymous person with no life) with a fond farewell and picture of a mango tree.

Little bit o' this, little bit o' that

So for this blog I'm just going to copy and paste the little blurbs I've been putting on to Word....seems easier than trying to rewrite everything in some special way. I'll start each day's entries with the day's name, so I guess it'll be a bit like one of those (some times cheesy) little diary books.... Anyhoo, here goes

MondayPicture from Independence Day past....just to illustrate the idea of fireworks (:

Off in the distance fireworks keep going off. I heard them early this morning, when it still basically counted as night. Today afternoon I was standing in the kitchen and heard some go off, and asked D what they were. She explained that, as the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on December 12^th, all of the really religious people celebrate in some way on the 12^th of every month, and a part of that celebration includes fireworks

Picture of the Soriana in Reynosa, 'cause I don't yet have one of Tc's. The one here in Tc has a less colourful sign.

I didn’t really do much of anything on Monday….went to Soriana with D, as well as a pan (bread) place which was absolutely delightful…got a little pastry, and she and I both got her favourite, rolls that are so fluffy (and were still warm-she said it was the best she’d had them), and a bit sweet, so quite nice. We talked about the change from Gigante to Soriana, which apparently started in the north and then moved throughout the country.

She said Soriana is worse quality, so she doesn’t like the change. Next time I go I’m going to take a picture, just to put along with my ones from Reynosa…

Tuesday-Tenís y cumpleaños

One of C's friends from school

Today I sat around doing computery stuff until around 4, when C was actually pretty prompt in calling me, as promised yesterday, for tennis. Turns out she has a class in the Parque that starts at 4:30, so I reckon that’s part of why we were so on time. So we went to the class, everyone’s still just beginning, and after a while it ended and most left, but we stayed and played, and eventually some guys she knows came, and the two courts needed to be shared by eight people.

Guy on the right we didn't know. When we played doubles, I was on his team. He was pretty nice, and patient to make sure I understood the rules (and the Spanish haha). Guy in the background is one of C's friends, and quite good at tennis.

So the two who had been there a while just kept playing on the other side, but us who had been discussing split up, and the boys played at first, and then after a while we girls split onto different teams and the boys walked us through the real rules. My teammate, Nacho (not some one that C knows, just a random person, though she knows the girl who came later and I’m assuming is his novia), had to repeat a lot for me, since I’m not familiar with rules in Spanish. But he was a really good player, and we won. Like, every time. It was fun.

Then after C and I came back we got ready to go to L’s fiesta para su cumpleaños. I went with D, who had made the cake. There were only a few at first, and they platicado (chatted) for a while, some times to each other, which I understood some what, and some times to me, asking about things, and repeating stuff for me, and helping me with some words and stuff. It was nice to have D there, so that I didn’t have to describe everything, but could merely ask. More people came after a while, there were tostadas, eventually cake. I went and played with the kids for a while, took pictures (partly because Dad wanted me to since he didn’t come), changed my batteries so I could actually use the flash (it stops working when it's low batteried), and then we left. Tomorrow I’m getting up early to go to the university with C. Yay!

These next several were taken, as you might be able to tell, in a row. I wanted a picture with the kids, and they started gettin' rowdy and these great pictures are the result. The next to last one was right after some one threw a stuffed animal at D (did I mention we had been throwing animals at each other a few minutes before? See video...) and my face shows my amusement mixed with a little bit of surprise.

Wednesday-escuela? Pero ya empece mis vacaciones! (School? But I'm already on break!)

Taking morning pictures before C was ready to leave for the tecnico

So I got up at 6:30 this morning. I dressed quickly, refreshed my makeup (which I had pretty much left on from the night before), and then had 20 minutes to eat breakfast before 7, when C had told me to be outside. I went out at seven, took some pictures of the ivy, and eventually her dad invited me into the house. She was running a bit late (which seems to be her norm haha), and we got to the university a bit late. Her mom drove us, and it took a decent amount of time. So we went right into the first class, derecho (law), where the maestro was reading out of some book, and his voice was extremely soporific. As in, if I had him on tape I would turn it on to make me fall asleep. Then there was administración, and there was an oral exam. When she asked, most students straight up told the maestra, who seemed like she must be friendly and cool but strict with rules and work, that they hadn’t studied, so she said they could take it on Monday (I didn’t understand whether they lose any points or not). C and four boys had studied, so they stayed. She did her part 2^nd, so then we left. She told a couple of people who asked that she had said a ton of stuff and the maestra finally said she could get a 90 (out of 100) if she brought an ensayo (essay) in on Monday "dije un montón, y me dijo que si trajo un ensayo el lunes va a darme una noventa, y lo dijo a los otros, también:. . The prof also apparently told the boys the same thing. In between classes, we met people. There were the two boys from tennis, and a guy I remembered from when she had stopped to say hi to several people on the way out of the concert.

Making stuff for Teacher's Day

Tomorrow is El Día de los Maestros (Teacher’s Day), when people celebrate their teachers, and there isn’t school. A bunch of the girls had bought little plastic Bibles (because there were no plain old book shapes) and put little letter stickers on them, and rhinestones, and bows made of ribbons…I was on the ribbon-making crew. Fifty-one white, and then a mix of blue and pink. I guess there must have been one coloured and one white on each. We desayuno-d (ate lunch) at one point before that, and then after C and B and I took a bus to this place on the opposite edge of town from where she lives, that was basically like a smallish American mall.

On the bus

On the bus again, laughing at the difficulty of taking pictures with bumps on the road and no shocks on the bus

Waiting to cross the street...mall in the background

There were these weird mannequins... So of course, we had to take pictures with them (until some one told us that even though she didn't care the rule was that we couldn't take pictures in the store)

It’s still under construction, but there was a Sams Club whose building honestly didn’t look different from American ones at all. Then the main area had a Liverpool, Sears (seh-ahhrs), and C&A (ad some restaurant). Between the Sears and C&A is under construction so we got to walk between them in the heat. I was extremely thirsty, so I bought a water (for 500 ml? ~$0.45 American), and the icee machine in Sears wasn’t working so we went to the C&A and got mango smoothies (Dad was sooooo jealous that I got one without him….and I haven’t even showed him the pictures yet).

I wanted to take an incognito picture of the construction, mostly because it seemed so funny to me that US malls would generally wait until it was all finished to let people come in, but they just let people walk through the completely unfinished drywall and construction and stuff...

They started joking about freaking out about the light, "Mom says not to look at the light!! Augh!!" So that's what the hand is about.

Seriously, am I still in mexico?

mmm, mango smoothies!

We took a taxi back to the house, and arrived a bit before 4. Not having gotten enough sleep last night, and then being awake so early, I was pretty exhausted and went to descansar (rest). I tried using my computer, loaded the pictures, but then Word froze up so I just turned it off. I lay down, and after a while fell asleep. I woke up a couple of times, but other than turning to my other side at those occasions, I didn’t move. I conked out for three hours, with like all-out dreams and stuff. I woke up for dinner; and afterwards Dad and I went on a walk, out to the main road and back. We’ve been going on walks several evenings and just talking, which has been quite nice.

¿Taxi?

El primer día—Llegamos

The first day—we arrive

As all who are familiar with my habits and moods may know, I am a morning person. There is nothing that thrills me more than getting a very few hours of sleep and then waking up before the Sun herself. On these joyous morning occasions, I am as cheerful as a lark welcoming the flowery, colourful springtime.

And for those who don’t know me so well, all of that previous is dripping with sarcasm. When I am tired, I can be a grouch….just ask my mom. Ok, actually, please don’t. Just take my word for it, without examples.

Gettin' ready to get on the plane

So Dad and I got up around 4:30 and left around 5 for the airport. We flew to Atlanta, blah-blah, then to Mexico. I got through all of The Lioness and Her Knight by Gerald Morris, and made some more progress on At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald—two highly recommendable books, I must say. We arrived, met up with a couple who are here in Tc. for these two semanas (weeks), ate a bit, and got on the bus for three hours. (I wish to mention briefly here that it smelled a bit sewerish and was hot and I was by then quite sleepy after only about two hours of sleep the night before and from having been up for around ten hours after that so uncomfortable circumstances were temporarily taking away the joy of being back in Mexico. But after arriving and eating some delicious tacos I felt mucho mejor (much better).)

Hooray, bus!!

Around 8:30 some of the young people arrived for what D. had called a “party for Emily”. I was excited that people I didn’t even know were throwing some sort of party in my honour. P, and a bit later C, came to get me, and we went out to the car and met up with their respective brothers, L and J (don’t you love this alphabet soup of names? I’m reminding myself of FDR…Dad said I oughter be vague since this is, after all, the world wide interweb) We went to some restaurant, got coffees and teas and played cards (I must say it is a bit difficult to remember the rules to Blackjack when they are being said in Spanish…<<¿Cuánto vale ésta?>> <Necesitas 21>…< ¿once…doce…trece…y uno o once? ¿Este uno o once? Bueno...Sí, ya termino...>>) We played some other game that I didn’t understand at first, which involved making all the pairs you could with the seven you were initially given (Oh, Joy...I had none), and then drawing cards from each other around the circle to try and make pairs, avoid the Joker, and see who ran out of cards first...and second...and third...and last (guess where I was...in English, it begins with the letter L). After we had been there a while, we came back towards the houses, first driving around the town a bit. They showed me the parque, discussed whether different establishments were restaurantes, barres, clubs, or what have you, and so on. We got back, and turns out C and J’s house (did I mention that they are siblings, as are the other two to each other?) is right by D’s? So we played ping pong for a little while, and then I decided to acostarme (go to bed). I guess I was in bed by midnight, and I woke up around nine this morning feeling much refreshed.

Opening the Wardrobe....I mean....gettin' onto the roof

After breakfast, which involved cereal with MANGO chunks (to my family, let me just say that I’m sticking my tongue out at all of you haha) on top, a banana from D’s tree(s?), several cups of coffee, and stories of Mexico, Hawai’i, Indonesia, and different things involving living in these places and differences between cultures, especially as far as clashes go. J and B talked about how on Hawai’i there tends to be a big clash between the gringos and the others, who are from the Philipines, Japan, and Hawai’i, mostly.

After I finished writing all that previous, we went to church, which is right next to D’s house. I met a few people, and after some songs the kids were let out and this girl I had met, who had helped Dad with Spanish last time, invited me out with her to Sunday school. I went ahead and went with her. They talked through some things like “do you know how to share the Gospel with your friends?” and the difference between santificacion y justificacion (sanctification and justification). As it happens, We’ve talked a bit at D-group about the difference between those two. The guy leading it had gotten volunteers to go through each of these (the separation of us from God and bringing together by the cross was laid out on the white board in one of those little diagrams), and at the end they were asking me how much I had understood. I said, <bastante>, “enough”, and then he asked if I could describe the difference. I don’t think he expected me to say yes, and be willing to, but I did, and was. So I said something like <justificacion es el momento en que estamos justificado, salvado por Dios, y santificacion es el proceso en la vida en que llegamos a ser mas y mas como Él>, which is something like “justification is the moment in which we are justified, saved by God, and sanctification is the process throughout our lives of becoming more and more like Him.”

A view from the roof (there are mountains all around, this one being the closest, from what I've gathered)

After that stuff there was fruit with sweet milk stuff (mmmm, que delicioso!! Jyummy!!) for the celebration of the día de las madres, Mother’s Day, and people hung around for a while. I met a few other people, including P and D, and C was there as well. They brainstormed things we could do and show me while I’m here these dos semanas, el cine, nadando, museos (two weeks, cinema, swimming, museums), and then eventually I headed back to D’s house with her and J and B. Now I’m sitting on her lovely front porch enjoying the breeze, distant roosters, muchachos coming into the gate to play, and, of course, the wireless internet. ¡Qué padre!

the porch

So, in closing, I’m thrilled to be here, disfrutando el pais otravez (enjoying the country again), and making lots of friends (and family—hah! I’m already on summer break, you noobs) jealous. (:

Adios!!

View of behind the house, from the roof

me anima que tengo ojos

Today I'm going to write a blog amidst pictures. Exhibit one: Fútbol. Me gusta jugar fútbol, pero no lo puedo hacer bien. Es mas facil simplemente mirar, y me encanta los jugadores latinoamericanos, porque pueden jugar muy bien. Es un partido bonito que ver.
Basically I just said that your hair looks nice. Or maybe that I like futbol, otherwise known by estadounidenses (Americans) as soccer. Why we decided to give it a name by which it is not known by....anyone else in the world? I do not know, but we seem to like to do things like that. Kind of like the military, which does complicated things like call hats covers.
There's not much grass in Reynosa. There's not much green, actually. There's a ton of polvo (dust), though. In fact, if you ever wanted any dust at all, it's the perfect place to go. Naranjito is even worse, 'cause it's a little more rural, so the dust gets blown around even more whenever there's wind. The above picture was taken from the van.

Exhibit two: cleanliness. I have another picture where there were a couple of people standing in a pile of garbage. I'm not sure what they were doing, and I didn't see that again, so I don't know if trash scavenging is a common thing. In my observation, Mexicans just kind of throw trash out the window, no worries. There's garbage everywhere. It's so so foreign to my understanding of beauty, or how to take pride in one's land.

This is my cool friend Alyssa (pronounced a-lease-uh, not liss). I think that's Francisca's dog. Exhibit #3 = perritos, a common theme from both years.

I'm not sure what this kid's name is, but I thought it was a cool picture. Exhibit #4 = bicycles. There were several boys, as well as some older youth, that rode around a lot. I think some of them think that they're cool. They weren't.

Exhibit 5 : The young life guys. Brad at top, and Kyle at bottom. I'm actually not sure if Kyle does younglife. Brad actually I had seen around the group of younglife kids that are friends with my roommate form last semester, jen. These kids like to climb a lot, and I've seen them around climbing in Raleigh. Continuation of normal habits.

Exhibit #6: el problema. Graffiti is a pretty huge problem. When we had a cookout for the community on Thursday night, one of the things we had gotten for the kids was chalk. Pastor Alfredo asked us to make sure the kids didn't use the chalk to draw on the paredes (walls), because they try to avoid instilling in them the value of vandalism. It was sobering to realize that something as simple as chalking can perpetuate a bad mindset. Later, while I was drawing with some of the girls, some young teenage boys came over and asked for chalk. As they headed straight for the nearest wall, I stopped them-"Oye, el pastor dijo que no debemos dibujar en las paredes." They immediately lost all interest in the chalk! Any doubt in my mind from the pastor's warning was erased.

Exhibit 7: La Iglesia. The church had been painted, and got its beautiful black railing since last year. When we first pulled up I think I gasped in shock at how beautiful it looked.

Exhibit 8 : para alabarTe. I love church in mexico. Or even with Mexicans in Waxhaw. It's so different from the fluid, harmonious stuff I'm used to. Everybody participates. The lady on the right is Pastor Alfredo's daughter in law, whose name I forgot. His son's name is also Alfredo, and their three little girls are muy bonitas. The lady on the left is Francisca (sp?), and providence built her house three years ago (the year before I first went). She is one of the individuals from the community that we really work to continue a relatoinship with every year. Wonderful, godly woman, with a wonderful family.

Exhibit # 9 : mi corazon. This is Pati. She is one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever known. Sunday, when she wasn't in my lap, she was up with a tambourine and several other girls keeping rhythm. Later, when a group of us went to the school to tell people about the cookout, we arrived during recess, and she found me and started talking torrents and torrents, which hadn't happened on Sunday. Then we played some games with all of the kids. All of the girls joined hands and walked around in a ring around the rosy style circle, and the little girls had some little chant, and at some point we all sat down. I didn't know what they were saying. The circle got bigger and bigger, and was a terrible, compacted circle, and all of the boys kept running in and out under our arms. Some of us gringas took the initiative to get everyone to back up and make a huge circle. Pati is mi bonita, and I should have put her in my carry on.

Exhibit #10 la bonita, otra vez
Exhibit 11 is blurry. dang.

Exhibit 12 : sonreindo. Look at that smile. Exhibit # 13 : apparently I missed the notice that we were having a serious, smiley picure. Christina went last year, and Johanna is in my small group. Both of these girls are very dear to me, definitely some of my closest in Raleigh.

Exhibit 14 : Our Fearless Leader, Josh.

Exhibit # 15 : housing. This is a nicer looking example of a house.

What Exhibit are we on? Christy and I might be regretting those big WHATaBURger!!!s. I got a double cow burger. And ate the whole thing. Not sure what she got. This theme of barf-faced-ness would be continued at the end of the week, when I spent six hours of my Friday evening and into the morning barfing up large amounts of nothing and small amounts of water and that pink medicine stuff. A few others got sick, too. We weren't sure what it was from, because there wasn't really a common factor of food. However, A. I've now gotten sick from Mexico, which seems to be a necessary experience in life, and B. We were back in Texas, so at least there were first world hotel comforts. Also, C. Amanda and Christina were troopers and took care of me. And D. Mrs. Nash gave me mommy advice the next morning when I called and mine wasn't around.

Exhibit 213843870 : Andres. Andrew went last year. He's a cool guy. Even though he tried to steal my camera. This is still in the Whataburger, before we went into Mexico, beginning of the trip.

Exhibit # C = comiendo. C is for cookie, or for comer, which are both nice things. This is inside the church. The inside is painted blue and white, which are the colours picked by Faith Ministries for all of its buildings. Quite nice.

Chili con Carne

When one thinks of Mexico for Spring Break, Cancun probably comes to mind. Lots of mostly naked young people, booze, and plenty of illicit activities/substances.

When I think of Mexico for Spring Break, a slightly different image comes to mind. It involves a dusty place with lots of mesquite trees, cinder block buildings, and children.

Reynosa, Mexico is directly across the border from McAllen, Texas. For several years the college ministry at my church has been partnering with Faith Ministries, based out of McAllen, by sending students down during Spring Break. Faith Ministries, or Ministerio de Fe (website), works with the poor in Reynosa, and surrounding towns such as Naranjito, to build homes. These constructions are about the size of my dorm room, and made out of rough cinder block. However, for those who live in shelters made of plywood (or whatever else is around), these houses, which cost around $5000 to build, are a huge blessing, and not attainable without help.

I have had the opportunity to serve with the college ministry the past two years. We try to spend time with a specific church community in Naranjito, which is a poorer, more rural pueblo next to Reynosa. Faith Ministries has started several churches in this area, and has a center in Reynosa. We stay in the church in Naranjito, working with Pastor Alfredo and the church there. During the days groups work on building a house for a specific family, building relationships with that family and the other workers. In the evening, at least in my experience, there is time to shower, rest a little, and play with kids.

I'm going to go ahead and post a few more pictures, and maybe comment on some of them. Later I'll write more about some specific stories and whatnot.

Some sweet tile in the airport in McAllen...took this one for Mom (:

EJ and I get excited about Mexico...

Ninos!!! (Me with Pati, Kyle with Alan and another kid)