Well, it looks like I have been struck by what all the locals thought inevitable but I thought I was invincible from...the travelers poo :/ The downside, of course, is that I cannot move far from our little casita without having to take an immediate about- face back toward the porcelain throne. Lets just say, Kyle and I's first official "esposos" night did not go quite as romantically as planned. WARNING TO FUTURE MEXICO TRAVELERS: don't even think about eating an entire bowl of homeade salsa from a restaurant without asking if the ingredients are washed in filtered water. Kyle and I = Tourist Fail.
But enough with the downside, the upside is that I now have to time to write a little about what has been going on down here. Let me tell you about our new friend Ramon...
Ramon is our wonderful friend who picked us all up at the airport, dazed and confused as we were from over 15 hours of travel. He is also the host father of Lindsey. He has taken on the role of advice giver of all things Mexico, which has been a real blessing for all of us. (More advice from Ramon to come). The night we arrived, it was already after 11 o clock and we all expected to just crash in our beds, thinking that everyone else here had the same idea. Oh no, not in San Miguel. We were met with a full meal of fresh frijoles, rice, rolls (I can't remember their Spanish name), Guacamole, and fresh cream. The whole family was there to greet us! This was my first impression of the people in this city, and I can say, it made me never want to go back to the states. "What a warm and thoughtful welcome, they must be so tired but are wanting to serve us food as a welcom," I thought to myself in my stupor.
The next morning we were told to meet for breakfast at 9 am. Well, 9 am turned to 9 15 which turned to 10:30, and then we were off to breakfast with Maria (more about Ramon's lessons on Mexico time to come). I thought this would be like an orientation type of breakfast. You know, to tell us our schedule of activities for the church and the expectations held for us. You know what I mean, business-type stuff, the real important things.
Instead of sitting down to a moderately serious meeting with Maria, we were met by all the host families, including the pastor and his wife. They were already ordering food and laughing and talking away. No business here, just talking. I sat down in my chair a little disillusioned, wondering what was going on...my expectations were shattered...and I had been so nervous that Maria and us were late. We spent the next two hours chatting away about life, having different foods explained to me, and learning new words in Spanish. Everyone seemed so happy together, this big family with the pastor and his wife. I felt warm and at home already. I couldn't help myself, I had to inquire about this new culture. I had to understand if this was some strategically planned event to make me feel at home or if this was normal life for them.
"Ramon," I leaned forward across the table, a little embarrassed to ask my following question. "Do you guys always do this, you know, eat together as a big group and talk together all the time? Or is this a special occasion?"
Ramon gave me the tiniest hint of a smile and nodded at me. "This is what we do here. We eat together, and we talk together. We are together all the time."
"THIS..." said Ramon as he lifted up his large sandwich full of huevos rancheros, waving it in a large circle to gesture around the table at all the smiling faces, "...is San Miguel."
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Bienvenidos a San Miguel!
Hello to all in cyberspace!
Tarah here. First off, welcome to our little blog. It took me a while, but I finally got around to setting this up to share about our new Mexico adventure. I hope nobody is too disappointed in how long this took me to create, and I hope you wont be equally disappointed when you realize how undisciplined I am going to be about writing on this thing. I like to consider my unreliable nature for all things journaling more like an appreciation for 'living in the moment' than flat out indiscipline. I encourage you to see it this way as well, for it will save you any potential frustration with me over the next six months :)
The four of us (Lindsey Speck and Anthony Molieri as well) have been given a number of responsibilities here by the church leaders. We will be starting our weekly English classes on Monday, and will provide an adult, children, and teen class to everyone in the church and the rest of the community. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for us because we have never taught an English class before, and already people in the church are sharing with us their own excitement to learn the language. Lindsey and I will be taking weekly trips to an impoverished area of town to spend time with two families and their children who live very far from the church but desire to be in community. There are a lot of retired gringo(a)s here in San Miguel, so the pastor has asked us to also conduct weekly English services. These will most likely look like Bible studies rather than traditional services, but we are excited for this challenge as well.
Our first priority here is to learn Spanish...ASAP. We can only be as effective as our level of communication will allow. Regardless of my 10 years of Spanish class, it is difficult to keep up with the speed at which people speak here. We are attending biweekly conversation classes to help with this issue. Last night at conversation, I had a discussion with a Mexican man about the US's position as global 'dictator' and the mechanisms of control it uses on other countries through the economy, etc. By the end of the conversation, my brain felt like an egg on a frying pan and I wanted to sleep for a week straight. Nonetheless, I knew my language was making progress. I have now moved passed the "Where are you going?","This is a boat", and "The cat is running" phase in my language progression. Praise God-I don't know how long my sanity could hold up speaking only at a 1st grade level to everyone I met. And God help the people that have to listen to me talk about what I had for lunch or what my favorite subject in school is every day...
My goal for this blog is to share a diverse range of experiences while we are here in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Something I noticed after my stay in Guatemala 3 years ago was that I found myself telling the same stories over and over again when I returned to the States. After awhile, I had my lines down like an elevator speech, and my memory bank of stories and emotions during the entire experience became thinner and much less rich than when I first returned. I hope that I can prevent that phenomenon by maintaining this lovely little blog affectionately titled "The Chronicles of Kyle and Tarah," and that we can always return to it to remember the smells, sounds, and stories of San Miguel de Allende.
Bienvenidos a nuestro blog :)
Tarah here. First off, welcome to our little blog. It took me a while, but I finally got around to setting this up to share about our new Mexico adventure. I hope nobody is too disappointed in how long this took me to create, and I hope you wont be equally disappointed when you realize how undisciplined I am going to be about writing on this thing. I like to consider my unreliable nature for all things journaling more like an appreciation for 'living in the moment' than flat out indiscipline. I encourage you to see it this way as well, for it will save you any potential frustration with me over the next six months :)
The four of us (Lindsey Speck and Anthony Molieri as well) have been given a number of responsibilities here by the church leaders. We will be starting our weekly English classes on Monday, and will provide an adult, children, and teen class to everyone in the church and the rest of the community. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for us because we have never taught an English class before, and already people in the church are sharing with us their own excitement to learn the language. Lindsey and I will be taking weekly trips to an impoverished area of town to spend time with two families and their children who live very far from the church but desire to be in community. There are a lot of retired gringo(a)s here in San Miguel, so the pastor has asked us to also conduct weekly English services. These will most likely look like Bible studies rather than traditional services, but we are excited for this challenge as well.
Our first priority here is to learn Spanish...ASAP. We can only be as effective as our level of communication will allow. Regardless of my 10 years of Spanish class, it is difficult to keep up with the speed at which people speak here. We are attending biweekly conversation classes to help with this issue. Last night at conversation, I had a discussion with a Mexican man about the US's position as global 'dictator' and the mechanisms of control it uses on other countries through the economy, etc. By the end of the conversation, my brain felt like an egg on a frying pan and I wanted to sleep for a week straight. Nonetheless, I knew my language was making progress. I have now moved passed the "Where are you going?","This is a boat", and "The cat is running" phase in my language progression. Praise God-I don't know how long my sanity could hold up speaking only at a 1st grade level to everyone I met. And God help the people that have to listen to me talk about what I had for lunch or what my favorite subject in school is every day...
My goal for this blog is to share a diverse range of experiences while we are here in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. Something I noticed after my stay in Guatemala 3 years ago was that I found myself telling the same stories over and over again when I returned to the States. After awhile, I had my lines down like an elevator speech, and my memory bank of stories and emotions during the entire experience became thinner and much less rich than when I first returned. I hope that I can prevent that phenomenon by maintaining this lovely little blog affectionately titled "The Chronicles of Kyle and Tarah," and that we can always return to it to remember the smells, sounds, and stories of San Miguel de Allende.
Bienvenidos a nuestro blog :)
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