mexican driver's ed

After two weeks of living here I wonder how long it will take me to master the roads. The driving here is confusing to me for a bunch of reasons.

1. Rules seem to be more of a suggestion.
2. The roads are not named. Or if they are, it's not posted anywhere.
3. There are only stop signs on main roads. If you are in a neighborhood, it's each man for himself.
4. Right now, everything looks the same to me. I see signs, but as they're not in my native tongue, I can't associate them with anything.
5. Roads are mostly 2 lanes but if a third guy wants to join in, he can.
6. The only way I know the road we live on, is that I turn left after the speed bump with the car-width sized hole in it.
7. There is one intersections with like 5 roads joining together that could really use a stop sign, traffic light or a man standing in the middle guiding us all. But really, it's the most aggressive driver who gets where he wants to go.
8. I could be turning left to cross traffic and someone will jump ahead of me and dart through as if I weren't even there.
9. Oh and watch out for man holes, they may or may not be covered up.

However...I like not using my turning signal. And thinking of "stop" signs as "yields". I am going to get back to the states and be aggravated at all the law abiding citizens who don't realize how much quicker they could get to their destination if they would just take a Mexican driver's ed class.

surprise ending

Not watching TV has given me more time to read which is one of the things I have told myself I didn't have time for because of having a baby to care for. Turns out, there IS time, I just must have been using it for unproductive things.

A trilogy called Mark of the Lion was recommended to me by Lisa and I picked the first book up several days ago. I couldn't put it down, it was that good! I was determined to finish it last night as I laid in bed. It was around 11:00 and Steve was watching a movie in another room. Finally, 500 pages later and emotionally spent, I was finished! I put the book down for just a second and then wondering when it was published, I picked it back up to flip to the front page. Then there on the front page were two black eyes, four legs and a tail staring at me! A gecko was hanging on the inside flap of my book! I yelped and threw the book across the room!

How long had he been there?! The whole time I was reading? It was like an HOUR! Was he waiting til I put the book down to jump in? He was IN MY BED! I mean, since we've been here, I have seen a dozen of them crawling outside AND inside. But I thought they'd try to avoid me.

I looked at the book which was now sprawled on the floor, pages bent. I held my breath and eased open the cover. He was still there...but he looked flattened! I was horrified! I killed the gecko! I choked back tears and ran to get Steve. He was kind enough to hold me and calm me down. He left his movie to come deal with the situation.

Turns out, Gecko was just stunned. Steve let him go.

I'm just happy I am not the reason the third largest insurance company is without it's spokesperson.

a day at the beach and a little spill

We woke up this morning unsure if this would be the day we would be able contact family and friends without having to go to a nearby coffee shop for internet access. If there is one thing we have learned so far, it's patience. Our internet/phone lines have worked for 1 out of the 10 days we have been here. I have been itching to talk to the outside world but things move slower here and we rely almost entirely on Lisa to do the translating and figuring-out-of-things. So when we couldn't get the internet working, it was on her shoulders to take care of it. She did all she could through the phone but had to make several trips to the company to have them finally get out here to get us a new box. The box worked. YEAH! And now we are all happily skyping and typing away on our keyboards to friends, family members and significant others who have been wondering what has happened to us.

We are in the tail end of the rainy season and have been having rain showers off and on for the last few days. Today we woke up and it was sunny and so we took our first trip to the beach.







Breckyn loves the water and it is so much fun watching her play in the waves. The water is incredibly warm right now almost to the point where it isn't refreshing but it is nice to be able to walk right in without having to adjust. If only we could send some of that water northeast!

The spill came this afternoon when Justin jumped on his scooter to go to the bank. Lisa got a phone call about 5 minutes after he left. He had been in an accident. Thank the Lord he is ok! A car pulled out in front of him and he had to swerve
to avoid it, dumping the bike which then ended up under the car. Justin ended up with a lot of scrapes and his leg in a temporary cast. The Lord worked out all the details after the crash. Justin and Lisa did not have to pay for anything at the hospital and the scooter was not impounded (as is the norm) which would entail hefty fees to "bail" it out. The police officer just said "It is too far to the lot and I do not want to drive down there". Gotta love it! It could have been so much worse, so we are really grateful!

Thanks for all your prayers and now that we have a (hopefully) constant internet connection, you'll here from us more often.

We have arrived!

On Monday us girls made the flight from Los Angeles to Mazatlan. It was as easy as I could have hoped for. Benadryl has become my new best friend. We stepped off the plane onto the tarmac and a wave of heat and humidity hit that took my breath away. Elisabeth smiled at me and said, “welcome home”.

The original plan was for the guys to drive in the day before and set things up for us, get some groceries and pick us up from the airport. As they were driving my car through the border on Sunday morning there was a small hitch that delayed their trip. The car is in my name and I wasn’t there. When you drive into Mexico you have to register your car. If that doesn’t happen and you reach a checkpoint bad things can happen. So my parents had to be called to help out. They had to wait to Monday to get to the safety deposit box and get our marriage certificate and then fax it to the motel. The guys finally crossed the border around 6 a.m. and made it to Mazatlan by 7:00 p.m. It was a long day for them.

So we had a really nice guy named Chris who is with the YWAM in Mazatlan waiting at the airport for us. He loaded all our bags in a friend’s car and drove us to our new home! We through our bags down and headed out first to the coffee shop to use their phones and jump on the internet and then to the grocery store for immediate supplies.

The plan for the next couple of days is to settle in, get the phone lines and internet set up (it seems to take a while ‘round here), and learn how the house runs. There are filtration systems, pool cleaning guidelines, and general cleaning practices like scraping gecko poo off the walls to get used to.

It is so good to be here finally! It has taken 7 or 8 months of planning and thinking about being here and we are so excited to jump in and get going.

Cali

We have been running like crazy people since the moment we landed in California. This is the first minute I have had to sit down and tell you what we have been up to. The flight with Breckyn was as perfect as I could have hoped for. Thanks to Elisabeth, who is 7 months pregnant and considered "disabled", we were able to get the front seat with extra space and Breckyn played on the floor with her toys for most of the flight. I was super jazzed! Thanks to all who were praying for that. I was anxious about a screaming baby.

We spent the first night in the Pasadena area and then got up the next morning for a 5 hour drive to Crowley Lake, which is a tiny town tucked into the mountains near Mamouth Lake which is near Yosemite. I finally got to meet Tom and Heidi Lonsdale and their family. They are an amazing couple and I am really looking forward to working with them and spending more time with them in Mazatlan.

Steve and I fell in love with the people of Crowley and the "chill-ness" of it all. It was both competely relaxing AND cold as it got down into the 40's at night. We stayed with a great couple, Tommy and Windser Czeschin and their two adorable kids. We were given a friend's RV to call our own for the weekend but didn't realize it had heat for the first 2 nights so the 3 of us slept huddled together for warmth. I think I thought it was more fun than Steve did!

Crowley is an absolutely beautiful area and thankfully our schedule allowed us to stay an extra day to visit nearby Yosemite National Park (pictures to come later). And the Czeschin's were kind enough to allow us to take over their home for another day. I really hope we are able to stay in touch with them as their hospitality and genuineness made a huge mark on us.

We drove back down to the Los Angeles area on Tuesday and Steve and I continued on to Huntington Beach to spend some time with my aunt Barb. Steve and Justin have made several great contacts with area churches in hopes of recruiting more students for the program and it seemed like a couple more people were interested in jumping on board with us!

Pray for the guys as they are driving through Mexico on Sunday and it takes about 12-14 hours to get through from the Nogales border to Mazatlan. I will post a new entry as soon as I possibly can.