Swimming home after work in Acolman

A couple of weeks ago, we were driving to our home in Atizapan from the retreat centre in Acolman when the traffic inched to a crawl. We progressed only a couple of blocks after an hour and a half. The truck driver beside us stood on his running board to look ahead down the street and we asked him if there was an accident ahead. He told us that the water is very deep, up to our truck window! That was enough for us. We gave up and turned around. That meant an extra two hours of driving around the mountains (back east, south, then west again) to get to our house.

Tonight, we were able to continue driving through this same stretch of road after a heavy rainfall. Wow! There was a river running down half of the street, being fed by other streets joining from mountainsides. There even was a current that could sweep you away if you should try to walk across the street. Small cars were overwhelmed with water and quit.

Other than this adventurous trip home tonight, we are doing very well. This morning, our girls had free medical exams as part of their entrance requirements for the school they will attend in a few weeks, Mexico City Christian Academy. The clinic was put on by a group from Baylor University in Texas. Then we went to camp and discovered that the paint we had bought was not a milky coffee color but rather, terracotta. It turned out to be a color we liked even though it was a mistake. Besides painting, the group from Ontario, Canada also did a lot of roughing in of plumbing today and we are delighted with their progress. We enjoyed Enchiladas Verdes for supper.

Artisans' Market - Artesanias de Ciudadela

This is a picture of a large artisans' (craftsmen's) market in the historic district of downtown Mexico City. Crafts are brought from all over the country of Mexico to be sold at this market with just a few extras that have been made in China. Surprisingly, the prices at this market are very good. Marcel has been bringing groups to one particular booth that sells pure silver items. The vendors are two Methodist ladies and they have been very generous! Our visiting tourists are able to purchase items at exceptionally good prices.

Marcel bought Petra a pair of silver hoop earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet made of a chain of little sombreros. Above Petra's head hang a Mayan calendar and a Day of the Dead skull mask. You can also see hammocks, zarapes (colorful woven Mexican blankets), toys, ceramics, t-shirts, windchimes, and puppets. This market also has a luthier's shop where mandolins and guitars are made by hand. Someone from our current group bought a mandolin with a case for $60 U.S. dollars.

Mexican Mounted Police

On Saturday, I (Marcel) took a group of summer missionaries to downtown Mexico City, as we often do, to let the group buy touristy things at the Ciudadela de Artesanias (Artisans' Market). When time permits, we will walk to a nearby Christian bookstore, the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) and eventually we arrive at the Zocolo or city centre where we can see the Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral), the Palacio Nacional (National Palace - government house) and the ancient Templo Mayor, an Aztec temple archeological site that was accidentally discovered in the 1970's when Mexico City's Metro subway was being built. We had an interesting suprise this last time. We were right by the monument to Benito Juarez when we saw two mounted police from the Distrito Federal Policía. Maybe the uniform is not as crisp as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with their red coats and Stetsons, but the sombrero and mariachi-like uniform sure was cool!

Snail Wrangling

Hmmm... aren't little BOYS made of "snipes and snails and puppy dog tails"? Our three youngest girlies had a blast catching this scoopful of snails in Royce and Sue Baron's backyard.

New Dormitory Roof

Our new dormitory roof was completed in mid June - and just in time for our rainy season! Actually, the rainy season in Mexico City is not as difficult as I had imagined. It begins to rain each afternoon at about 4 p.m. and will continue to rain, usually for two hours but sometimes right through the night. (At our house, we haven't had to water our tiny patch of new backyard sod even once.)

The new roof seems to be holding off the water very well so far. Both floors of this end of the dormitory are empty concrete rooms that we weren't able to use yet for camps this year.

The newest member of the family

By popular demand, here are some pictures of our new puppy. She is a four month old German Shepherd born in San Juan, Texas. She answers to the name "Scout" (a name which is difficult for Mexicans to say) and she has already shown that she will be a good guard dog for the girls.

What kind of snake is this?

What kind of snake is this? Our camp caretakers, Juan and Carolina found this snake about two weeks ago. They described it as a "field snake" but that could be anything. They could not tell me a specific breed. They said it is venomous but not deadly and that adult snakes, which get up to one meter long, are often found under the Nopale Cacti. This one was only five or six inches long. If anybody knows specifically what kind of snake this is, let me know.

Popocatépetl

Today, for the first time since we moved to our new house, we were able to see the top of Mexico City's volcanos. That is rather amazing because of all the smog here. (Yesterday the smog was so bad that all foreign vehicles were not allowed to drive.) Popocatépetl is the largest of the two volcanos at over 17,800 feet and is the volcano in the picture. Yes, that is snow at the top of the mountain. Last July, when Marcel was here, the volcano had about a 30 minute eruption that went for miles. The cross section chart of the Mexico City's topography is from north towards south. We live on a mountain to the right of downtown and the volcanoes are on the opposite side of the valley, to the left.

Hecho a Mano video

Linked to our blog site is a short (1 min. 5 sec.) video of the theme song for the recent VBS at Christ Lives Bible Church. The song is called "Hecho a Mano," meaning Made by Hand. The lead singer, Nayeli, has an increadibly good voice. Enjoy!
http://video.google.com/videouploadfinished?docid=5058779841072329446&cid=2bc67b05d672fe97

Teotihuacanos for a day

One of the really cool things about living in Mexico are the pyramids. About 15 KM from the camp in Acolman is the ancient city of Teotihuacan which means "where men become gods" in the Nahuatl language. The city was started approximately in the year 100 B.C. but scholars hotly dispute who started the community since there is no written record. Various native groups settled there over the next thousand years but for reasons unknown, they more or less abandoned the facility before the Spanish conquest. At its peak, over a quarter of a million people lived in this city. It is thought that only 10% of the city's archaeological ruins are uncovered today.

When missions teams come here to help at the camp or at a VBS, we often take them to the pyramids to get a sense of the history and culture of Mexico. The picture you see here is of our seven year old Kirklyn standing on top of the Pyramid of the Sun (the largest of the three pyramids) with the pyramid of the Moon in the background. Almost 400 feet up from the valley floor, one must ascend 248 very small steps to get to the top. Unfortunately, many people continue to come here to practice native worship of the sun syncretized with the Catholicism.

Vacation Bible School 2007

Hecho a Mano - Made by Hand was the VBS theme. 270 little voices sang that we are not the result of an explosion but that we have been specially created by the Designer of the Universe. The leaders went all out and had the church incredibly decorated. The children learned about how Peter grew to completely trust Christ. We enjoyed black light puppet plays, tacos for snack time, an outdoor obstacle course, skits with huge paper mache costumes. One girl who was dressed up as a mother canary and had live baby chicks in her basket that she wanted to protect from "Avian Flu". A big hit were the live minnows that each child could take home in a styrofoam coffee cup.

I (Ingrid) helped with the 3 and 4 year olds - all 38 of them! This is a picture of them fishing for magnetic fish with the help of Pierre. We caught Pierre unaware as he glanced up to see who was calling him. A couple weeks ago, Pierre preached for 20 minutes or so and then another young man from church took over for the next 20 minutes. Not only does Pierre have a nice wardrobe of various soccer jerseys (including Petra's favorite Dutch player Ruud Van Nistlrooy), but Marcel liked his example of "Tag Team Preaching". Wonder if that could catch on back home in Canada...

To promote the VBS, the youth from the church and a group from Manitoba walked around the neighbourhood for four hours handing out invitations. A mom who received an invitation brought her little ones and joined the small adult class of 10 people. She accepted Christ and just a few days later, told us that her life has all ready changed noticably for the better!

Albondigas! Meatballs!

This is a photo taken at our retreat center in Acolman during Youth Camp (ages 16 to 25). A group from Bridgeman, Michigan have been with us for the past two weeks and the camps went very well! Our first week of the summer was VBS, then last week was Adolescents Camp (ages 13 - 15), and we have just finished our third week at Youth Camp. We're a little tired but having fun.

Our camp food has been traditional Mexican dishes - all delicious yet inexpensive. We especially enjoyed Mexican meatballs with a small piece of hardboiled egg in the center of each meatball, served with a tomatoe sauce and white rice with vegetables. The Spanish Word of the Day quickly became "Meatball". The campers laughed when we guessed that the name was "Ball of Meat" (pelota de carne). "No, no, no :) Al-bon-di-ga!!" Someone would walk by and Marcel would say, "Hey - meatball." The reply would be a giggle and "Albongida!" After much repetition and laughs, this new word is now in our nogins!

The campers have also had some traditional camp fun. They moved their counsellor's matress, sleeping bag, suitcase, and lamp our of their room and into the hallway. A couple days later, the same man was tied up, stuffed into an inner tube, decorated with a Welcome sign across his forehead, and then given an application of foot powder to his head. Funny how youth always know when you really love them and that you will put up with their affectionate pranks.

The Camp at Acolman

We are off to the retreat center in Acolman this weekend to be with a missions team from Manitoba. They will be conducting a VBS at our church in the nearby Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec. For those of you who have visited the camp, you may notice that the second floor has been added to the family dorms. Moises and his crew have been working very hard to finish this camp. We need many more work teams from the US and Canada to have this camp fully operational...hint ...hint.

Room with a view

We have our new home in the Mexico City suburb of Atizapan! It is a house built onto the side of a small mountain. This is the view from our balcony looking to the south towards downtown Mexico City. You might note that the smog and approaching rain come up the valley from the downtown area. It is rainy season now so we will add a "clear day" photo after a cleansing rainfall.

We Made It

Estamos aqui! We are here! Our border crossing that so many of you were praying about, it went very well. No taxes, no inspections, no fines, no "fines" (bribes)! At the second inspection point 20 km inland, we were directed to the inspection area. The state police officer read our letter of invitation that explained that we would be using our items in the trailer for our personal use and for ministry. He had a brief look in our trailer and sent us on. Our new little guard dog, Scout (9 wk old German Shepard), our tools, piano, clothing, books, and family of seven were all permitted into Mexico! Thank you for all of your prayers! We made some stops on the way in at Saltillo, Matahuala for the night, and San Luis Potosi on the second day of driving. The trailer was heavy (piano, tools, and theology books!) so we were often in the slow lane with the big trucks while going up the mountain roads.

We think that we have found a house to rent in the suburb of Mexico City that is called Atizapan. It is very close to Moises and Carolyn Ruiz. They live near a corner. Our house isn't on their street but on the one around the corner and about 10 houses down. The house is built on a hillside and has the bonus of an amazing view of downtown Mexico City off in the distance. You could likely see for miles if it weren't for the smog! The house needs a fair amount of work to be done on it. It also has been unoccupied for some time as there was an inch of dust on the floors. The yard is tiny, smaller than many master bedrooms in Canada or the United States. They have all ready cleaned up the dusty floors and tore out the weed "garden", leaving nothing but a small lemon tree. Wonder of wonders for us: another house on the flight path to the airport though Marcel doesn't mind a bit! The neighbourhood is close to a large technical university and on Mondays, a market is set up on a street just 3 blocks away. There are many community and kindergarten programs available in this area that should provide us plenty of opportunities to connect with our neighbours aside from being a family with a bunch of blondes walking down the street.

The girls are doing very well so far with the change from living in Texas to Mexico. Three of us have had a couple nosebleeds from living high up in the mountains. Carolyn told me that spaghetti noodles take 15 minutes to cook at this height rather than the usual 7 minutes. Marcel saw an airplane altimeter last year that said that the airport is 7,800 feet above sea level. Our home is well above that. We hope to calculate just how high in the mountains we really are.

Having visited here two years ago really helped us. The traffic is not nearly as scarey as it was our first day two years ago. The trip from our Christ Lives Bible Church in the northeast of Mexico City to our area in the northwest of Mexico City takes one hour. We were able to drive back home on our own without following the Ruizes. We didn't get lost and things are beginning to look a bit familiar. Another exciting new thing for us: we can better read the Spanish road signs!