Its hard to believe but I've been in Mexico for almost 6 weeks already! I feel like there was never a time when I didnt know the people here..they all feel so much like family.
I have gotten into a nice little routine here. I wake up around 8 and drink my banana chocolate milk that Rosa makes us. Then I go to the school across the street where I have my list of students. I talk with each of them for about 20 mins each. Then around 11:00 I go home for lunch. We always eat tortillas and something. Like tortillas beans and salsa. Or tortillas and eggs. Or tortillas with chicken and mole. Or basically tortillas with anything. After lunch we normally fill up some buckets to wash the dishes (all by hand and outside of course). Fun fact: we use the same water to wash the dishes as we do to wash our clothes. We also do a lot of mopping, washing clothes and that sort of thing. When thats done I will spend time holding the babies or sleeping. At 2:00 I go back to the school for more therapy. I take the kids out one by one and then talk to their parents or the teacher or the principal about them. I really enjoy it and think that I am slowly getting better. I have had sessions with 80 kids now and am going to pick a focus group of about 30 of them to focus on for the next 7 weeks.
After school we have another meal of something with tortillas. Then I play with more babies (my favorite is Katita..she is basically my sister now and I'm taking her home with me). We help make salsa or cut up foods. We sometimes watch mexican novelas with Katy or go on walks with Rosa. Around 7 we almost always walk to the garden where we buy fruit ice cream or sweet bread and sit in the sqaure watching kids run around. The people here are so friendly and I think almost the entire town knows my name (not my real name but my mexican name, Noelia). Shop owners offer their house and anything they have. Its such a cute place and I feel so at home. At night we eat either sweet bread with milk or we go out on the street and Rosa buys us enchiladas or tacos from a lady making them in her front yard. As you can see I am being very well fed.
People here know me as "the psychologist" not that I have been spreading that. I do tell them I am just in college but they dont seem to care. They stop me in the street and ask me to talk to someone they know. So sometimes at night I have adults come over and I do some therapy with them. I kind of like working with the adults more. It feels more productive. I know the problems of this town pretty well.
Speaking of problems, the towns water supply has dried up. We had a town meeting last night to decide what to do about that. All the grandpas came in their cowboy hats and everyone was all dressed up for it. It was cute. I felt like I was in stars hollow! Me and Abbey took advantage of out time in the town center and bought some ice cream and corn on a stick.
Sunday my little Katita turned one year old and was thrown the biggest birthday party I have ever seen. The place was decked out in decorations and they dressed her up as a popular tv character. They even put hair extensions in her hair so she could have pig tails. They killed 25 chickens and cut them up. One interesting thing here is that meat is never refrigerated. It will sit out for days-cooked or raw-and then we will eat it. But we havent gotten sick yet so who knows? We spent the weekend cooking and the day of the party about 200 people came. We served them all food and these creepy clowns came.
Two weekends ago we went to this city called Celaya. I got some quesadillas there that were truly life changing. This last weekend we went back to Guanajuato. I love that city! We stayed in this adorable old hostel that was built into the mountain and made of old brick and wood. We watched another wedding in the cathedral and went down into some mines. I didnt really enjoy being so deep underground with all my clausterphobia. But I lived! We also went to this mummy museum that guanajuato is famous for. Apparently the dirt in guanajuato is special as in it preserves bodies. So when someone dies they bury them and then uncover them like 5 years later. So they have all these corpses basically on display. It was a little creepy. They had a lot of baby corpses too..it was interesting.
There were some intense pinatas and the biggest cake I have ever seen. It was fun.
The other day I was putting something in the fridge when I noticed (it was impossible not to notice) the head of a giant pig. This was a pig I had been feeding just a few days before. Now its huge bloody head is in the fridge. Supposedly we are making a soup out of it soon..but its really gross to look at.
We also went to a ward talent show that they had in the city. We got up and sang a song from backstreet boys. It was kind of funny.
I love the busses here. They remind me of Chile. But you have to be careful how you sit or you could break your back. Its so bumpy!
We have been having quite the thunderstorms here! They normally come at night and last hours. The thunder is unreal it is so loud. And the lightning is unending. Its like the light is on basically. I have feared for my life a few times.
Speaking of storms..I have about 50 mosquito bites on my body right now (not exaggerating). Every morning I wake up with more and more. I dont know what to do. So much for staying zika free haha.
I have been working pretty close with one kid in the school...little 8 year old marcus. He is a handful. The principal gave him to me as the hardest kid at school. He is always beating others and stealing things. When I first went to observe him he was rolling around on the floor and climbing everywhere. He has a pretty huge group of followers too. The whole class was out of control actually. They are all just beating each other up and climbing and jumping everywhere. But when I talked to Marcus he was such a sweet kid by himself and comes from such a horrible family background. He just needs some love. He is a lot better behaved now and its fun to watch the changes. He is super hilarious.
Welp its about time to go out searching for popsicles. But I'm well and happy here. I love being here and wish I could stay the whole year.
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