what a day!
lerma and her husband (jesus) and her daughter (marlen) and grandkids (daniela and adan) picked us up and we went to san carlos. to get there, you go down the driveway of the baja country club, and then keep going for a loooong time. it was absolutely beautiful. for like 15 minutes there was nothing, just mountains. then all of a sudden we came upon this mexican style resort, with a lake and little swimming pools tucked into the side of the mountains. the church was in the middle of this forest of palm trees. lerma's brother is the pastor. it was a great service - almost 3 hours, and there were 3 vans full of guys from a nearby rehab. i love going to churches like these - the guys were singing and it was so beautiful. it didn't matter if they could carry a tune or keep the beat...they just sang.
after the service we had pozole, a mexican soup that has chicken, hominy, onions, and spices, and then you put radishes and cabbage on top. it's good stuff. then we went for a walk with lerma, and the pastor's wife and co-director of the rehab, olga. up higher in the mountains are thermal waters that you can go in - like a jacuzzi - and that's what san carlos is known for. we didn't go that far but we passed a lot of cactus trees and i ate cactus for the first time...it was delicious! a lot like honeydew but with seeds. the shell or whatever that it's in keeps the fruit cool, so it was really refreshing.
after our walk we went back to the pastor's house and the rehab, which is actually right behind the church that poughkeepsie united methodist has been working at! the pastor said he knew who i was talking about when i asked him if he knew the pumc group. they have some random animals, and lerma's grandkids had a ton of fun. except for when jesus put adan on the horse. hahahaha.

great day! school tomorrow, chuy's back, can't wait to see how it goes :)

pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/hilary.e.holbrook