One teacher has a soft spot for the stray dogs that roam freely through the school so she puts out some dry dog food. I've caught a few of the kids eating the dog food. These arent curious unknowing toddlers but full grown eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve year olds. They are literally starving. There is a little food stand in the school where they sell little sandwiches and juice. So far I havent really offered or given much money to the beggers or homeless people here. I know I dont have much and even a million dollars wouldnt be enough to help everyone who asks. People ask for money all the time. We kind of had to learn to just ignore it. But one boy asked me for money for a piece of bread on monday and I knew he really needed it. So I bought one sandwhich and told him to share it with his friend who also looked starving. I didnt think he would actually share it so I spied on them and saw them walk around the corner where they sat on a bench and split the sandwhich. The next day I couldnt help it anymore..I bought ten kids lunches. They were running around screaming and dancing. Kids shouldnt get that excited over being able to eat lunch. It was really special but really heartbreaking. There are only 8 days left of school so I will buy them lunch for the rest of my time here. Its too hard to say no.
So many of the kids I work with our Caleb's age. They tell me how their parents beat them, abandon them and leave them home alone for days at a time. So many cant read and have zero self esteem. Their clothes are in shreds and dirty and they are starving. I cant blame them for any acting out they do in class.
Not all of them come from homes like that but way too many do. But I love them all so much. I would adopt all of them if I could. I do have to say that these kids rally around each other and care for each other unlike anything I have ever seen. A few kids have pretty major handicaps and disabilities. But the kids will hold their hands to help them walk and always include them in everything. I never see any teasing or anyone being left out. They have a level of caring and unity that we cannot match. Today a whole third grade class tried to teach me how to play soccer during their recess. I am getting way to attached to all these kids. I think I am too attached to everything here. The whole way of life is so simple and laid back. I like walking around the corner to buy enchiladas from someones porch at night and feeding the pigs with the babies. I like washing my clothes in buckets and knowing that everyday around 6 there will be a huge thunderstorm that will kill all the bugs (hopefully).
There are parts of life I wont miss though. Right now its midnight and I am in bed trying to sleep. Its going to be impossible though...there is music blasting to an exteme I have never experienced. Its like there is a huge rock concert 5 feet away. My ears hurt. Its been going on for 7 hours already and shows no sign of stopping. Gotta love it though! The people here are hard core partiers! There are huge parties every weekend!
Last week we went to an interesting party. For lack of a better name it was basically a loss of virginity party. Here whenever a guy a girl are ready to get married or whatever they just sneak off for the night. The next day the parents cry and then plan the wedding (even if the girl is 13). That night they invite the whole town over to eat endless amounts of ice cream and celebrate/mourn the coming marriage. Its pretty funny. I liked the ice cream though!
Our professor was in town a few weeks ago and took us all to guanajuato again. I ate the best ice cream of my life and also found some decent enchiladas (shamefully I like american enchiladas better than the real ones). The next day we went to a rancho wedding. The mass and wedding itself were in this adorable tiny church. We all three rice at them afterwards and then went to a nearby house to celebrate. The party after the wedding went from 2 to 1 am. The bride and groom were in charge of cleaning and serving all the food. It was weird to see the bride walking around the whole time cleaning and getting all dirty. At one point it starting downpouring (we were all outside in the dirt) and she was in her huge white wedding dress and it got all soaked in mud and red mole. They also had pictures of random people on their wedding day everyday (i think it was supposed to represent the bride and groom but they just dont have their own pictures?). The traditional wedding and party meal is rice, mole and shredded pork. I used to really love it but then it gave me food poisoning and I've had a hard time eating it since then. Anyways the party was so long and so loud that me and Abbey decided to leave after only 6 hours of it. We tried to find the bus but were in this tiny town and got lost. We ended up walking a good hour or two along these strawberry fields in the wrong direction. Luckily we ended up finding someone who gave us a ride back to the rancho.
I finished up all my therapy sessions this week. I am going to miss all my kids so much. They are all so special and all just want to be better and have better lifes. I have learned tons from each of them. Some of the teachers and the principal told me that they have seen a lot of improvement in the kids I worked with. ( I ended up focusing on 60). That made me feel better about this whole thing..I think a lot of them just lacked some positive attention.
On Tuesday me and Abbey decided to go on one more adventure. We went to see a huge Christ statue on a mountain (like a mini one of the one in Brazil). We thought it would be a short little few hour trip. We had to take a bus to Silao and then from there we took an old, green rickety bus up the mountain. It ended up being a two hour bus ride up the edge of a mountain. We went through multiple mountains actually. Everything was green and there were beautiful plants and trees everywhere. I felt like I had left Mexico. It was really just out in the middle of no where. The street we drove up on was cobble stone and a huge thunderstorm came. It was raining so hard we couldnt see out of the window and I was really worried about driving or slipping off the side of the cliff. Once we made it to the top it was really raining too hard to stand around and enjoy the Cristus statue. It was actually too foggy to even see it and it was getting dark but we enjoyed it none the less. We were the only ones on the bus ride the way down so our bus driver just stopped randomly outside of a house and invited us inside to eat. We ate deep fried chilies stuffed with cheese. I was relieved when we got off the mountain but we still had to take the bus back to our rancho. The bus driver didn't want to drop us off outside of our rancho so we had to walk along side the freeway for awhile. It was an adventure.
We went to Leon last weekend since it was our last weekend here in Mexico. I got really into the food while I was there and just ate my heart out. I think it was because I know that good (mexican) food is shortly coming to an end. Leon also had some beautiful cathedrals....but the food was the main highlight (as it normally and rightfully is).
We started teaching a little family literacy at night. I kind of drag my feet to go because I am so exhausted after being in the school all day but its turned out to be a good experience. The other day we were talking to the grandma about teaching her to read too. She said no because she has no weave all these baskets for her job. We offered to teach her while she worked or to even help her. She said it was too hard for us to do and that she wouldn't be able to focus on weaving the baskets and learning at the same time. I thought she was just rattling off a bunch of excuses. But then we went back to teach the son and she was on the floor making the baskets. She had long sticks of bamboo around all around her and was using this huge knife to skin the bamboo. Then she used the knife to kind of peel the bamboo into long shreds. I was worried about her stabbing herself with the huge knife. But her hands were hard and had cuts all over them. She had to kneel to make all the cuts and got out of breath doing it all. I'm not doing a very good job at describing this but trust me when I say a 25 year old man would have a hard time doing it. It looked extremely labor intensive and dangerous. It also was something that I would not be able to do (she was right).
Being here has really taught me to value my education and to value the opportunity that America offers. She probably spends at least one very labor intense hour making a basket that only sells for 75 cents. That is her job. That's how she supports her family. She is happy and has a beautiful family but I am still grateful that I have the opportunity to get an education and to not have to peel and cut up bamboo until an old age. We should all be grateful. Our education really is precious and in so many parts of the world people are denied that opportunity. I don't think I will ever complain over homework again (at least I shouldn't).
Rosa must have decided that we aren't prepared for marriage until we know how to make tortillas. So Monday she taught us how to make both corn and flour tortillas. It was a lot harder than it looks but the flour tortillas were heavenly! She also bought each of us a mini tortilla maker as a goodbye gift. It was very sweet. Rosa feels like a second mom to me. I respect and admire her so much. She is such an incredible woman and I am going to really miss her. On our last day in the rancho we went to the school graduation that was filled with dancing. We said goodbye to the students and the teachers. It is so sad leaving. This place feels so much like home.
The governor of the state of Guanajuato came to the rancho to give a speech or something. He talked to us white girls for awhile and even invited us to eat lunch with him. It was fun.
Me and Abbey got about 17 book of Mormons from the missionaries in the city and spent the last day handing them out to pretty much everyone we know. Most of the people have never heard of the church before (there aren't any church buildings, members or missionaries there) so they were all super grateful for the books. It was a cool experience. Hopefully something good happens there someday.
Rosa and Lencho drove me to the bus station at 5 am this morning. They stayed until my bus left and they both cried a lot. It was so hard saying good bye. I do feel like I am leaving my family here in Mexico. I know I failed Rosa by not finding a mexican man to marry and wont be staying there forever. But I do think part of my heart will always be here with this family that so fully and generously accepted me into their family. And with all the kids..who have so many problems I desperately wanted to just take away from them. Hopefully I can return with a bit more knowledge, wisdom and money to make the changes that those kids deserve.
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