Celebrating one month!

Wow, It's been a month (and a week or so). What fun! A lot has happened and I have a ton of pictures from this weekend alone!

Friday we went to the traditional town of Cuentepec, near Xochicalco (yeah, I've been spelling it wrong). This is a town where they still speak the indigenous language of Nauahtal. There was a Feria (or festival) there in celebration of San Miguel (or St. Michael Archeangel) who is the patron saint of the town. Every town has a patron saint and every saint has it's day. We visited with a family in Cuentepec and they shared traditional foods and lots of stories with us. They speak both Spanish and Nauahtal, but not Ingles, so it was a bit of a struggle at a time to understand but I felt like I've really learned a lot in the last month because we had pretty serious political discussions with them and we were able to understand each other. The town is very old and very humble. They have computers there, but internet is still a dream. It was an incredible experience and I'm so glad I had the opportunidad!

Saturday was a day of homework and descansado! I got a lot done, but there is a lot more to do.
Sunday, Stephanie and I went to D.F (Mexico city) with another school. We went to the house of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The museum of Frida Kahlo (the Blue House) and the Museum de Delores Olmega (I think, I always forget her last name!) and finally to Xochimilco! What a lot of fun. We made four new friends from the other school. They seem to have more free time than we do and know Cuernavaca much better and have made several suggestions of places to go and things to do. Xochimilco deserves some explanation. It is advertised as a floating botanical garden, but that is an extreme exaggeration! This body of water (I have no idea if it is a lake or a river or what) has tons of little launches that you ride in and venders have their own boats from which they sell drinks of all kinds, food of all kinds, jewelry, bonzai trees, music etc. We purchased drinks and hired a mariachi band to float along side us and seranade us with a song. I can't tell you how fun it was!

When I returned home Carmen, my Mexican Mother, had spent the last 24 hours or so preparing posole, a traditional Mexican dish made from Corn (of course). It was my first opportunity to try it and it was wonderful!

Last night as I went to bed my back hurt, I tried to stretch it out and I realized it was my kidney that hurt, not my back. Since I had a kidney stone a few years ago, I soon realized this was the same thing. I prayed to God for healing and tried to go to sleep, but I was in too much pain. I decided to drink a bunch of water in an attempt to flush things out. I realized from my last experience that this could backfire, but I was willing to take a chance. I slept fitfully running to the bathroom once in a while and at 4:30 the pain was so intense that I was ready to wake the family and ask to be taken to the Hospital. I went to the bathroom one last time and had a long talk with God in Spanish and in English which is our mode of communicating these days, more in Spanish than in English though. I reminded him that I could not afford anothe hospital stay and certainly couldn't afford surgery if it came to that. I asked him to please remove the stone immediately so that I wouldn't have to miss any school. For some reason I decided to thump my kidney three times, it hurt, but soon afterward I felt a scraping sensation inside of my abdominal area and, not to be gross but,I let loose some urine and the pain was pretty much over. I'm still a little tender, but I know that the stone passed and I am well. Thanks be to God!

I'm tired today, but not as tired as I would think after something like that.

Wednesday we start teaching English at a local church as "voluntary work" I'm a little stressed out about it but I think it will be a lot of fun once we get everything in place. We have researched resources, but the church has never had English classes before so they do not have a program in place. We will be establishing it. Kind of scary but I think we will do fine. We have three classes. Wednesday and Thursday with Children from age 5 to 12 or 13. and Sunday for older people from 16 to 61. There are about 10 in each group. There are four of us teaching. I think it will work out, but like I said, I'm a bit scared.

I'm having trouble posting pictures so I guess I'm going to have to do that later. You'll enjoy them, and I've been handing my camera over more, so I'll begin posting more pictures of myself.

Love you all and miss you terribly!