church for the weekend! will post on sunday along with a monthly update...i cannot believe it's been another month already. aah!

great day of school. whenever i stop worrying so much about every little detail and celebrate the things the kids ARE doing (instead of getting frustrated over what they're not doing) things go so much better. it's awesome to realize that my mood has a direct effect on every one of the kids in the class. if i'm stressed and trying to get through a lot of stuff and trying to keep every kid on task 100% of the time, they rebel against that. if i keep up the constant and direct positive reinforcement along with some space for constructed play time, everyone is much happier, and as a result, more work gets done. 4 years of teaching in the states has made me into someone i don't always like - always working with my back against the wall, with a schedule that i feel like i'll never be able to get through, and curriculum that seems overwhelming. gahh.

today at lunch, ted and renie stopped by to pull names for paychecks. this was a good sign - money came from somewhere, enough to put together part of a paycheck. they pull one or two names every two weeks, and this person gets their full two weeks of pay. everyone else gets less, because we never have enough money to pay everyone in full. well, renie pulled two names, and then kept pulling, and pulling, and pulling, until everyone's name had been pulling. we got two donations in the last 2 days that paid for all of our bills this month, including our entire payroll! what a miracle!

today i learned the word for cheater - tramPOso (say it with disgust...it's kind of satisfying hahaha). teddy, tonio, sergio, jose, and alex and i spent the afternoon playing hide and seek in the street in front of their house. it was so fun and by the last round they finally kept their eyes closed the whole time. little by little...step by step...changes are made...

today was SO windy! oh my goodness. it was kind of hard to have school when the dirt was blowing in our faces and flowers, leaves, sticks, and trash were swirling around our feet. yikes. hopefully the boys' house will be done soon so we can move inside their old house! we did take advantage of the chaos, though, and had a lot of fun with the kite! we didn't even have to run with it so the kids in chairs got to fly it, too.
i walked to the store with jaime and we saw a couple kids who made their own kite out of a garbage bag and string. it was awesome and totally worked.
chuy went to ensenada today for something with conafe, so i taught alone. it was so funny (and comforting) to think about where we were the last time i taught alone, and how far we've come since then!

so the concert yesterday was a lot of fun. it was at a church downtown by the harbor. the church was unlike any church i've ever seen in ensenada - huge! it used to be a movie theater. eliseo told me to come early to help, so i got to guard a staircase in the middle of the church :) it was cool though because i was inside with the rest of the staff and got to see the band warmup. i felt like i was at a concert in the states!
i recognized one of the girls from roca de salvacion, and i started talking to her. she said she was so glad she saw me because when i was talking on sunday about gabriel house, God put it on her heart to help us. she and her neice want to collect money or at least get a list out of our needs. she was really passionate about it, asking me tons of questions and seemed really interested in finding a way to help. so cool!
almost all of the people from the class on sunday were at the concert, and it was super fun to be hanging out with friends that were my age! the drummer was awesome. he started beat boxing in the middle of this really slow worship song, and slowly it got faster and faster until it was an all out dance break. eliseo was crazy - in the beginning, the pastor of the church was shouting out names of cities to figure out where everyone was from, eliseo kept screaming 'new york city!' in that slightly high pitched voice of his.
cande and angelica were there, too. he is so awesome...he wears his heart on his sleeve and it is such a beautiful thing. dad, no one could ever replace you, so no worries...but i kind of feel like cande's a favorite uncle or something. he always gives me a huge hug and warm smile whenever he sees me. and then reminds me i'm not allowed to have a boyfriend or go downtown at night!
abraham is the drummer in the roca de salvacion worship band and he has a 2 year old son, bryan. i tell you, that kid is going to be famous very soon. i swear he was born with drumsticks in his hands. he was at the concert (in a suit!) and was drumming on the seats the whole time. that kid is good! its really weird to see a 2 year old keeping a beat with drumsticks....but awesome.

becky left today! we had a big party for her at lunch. as the car was pulling away, alex (our super sensitive friend...) got teary and was crying a little. then tonio saw, and so he started bawling, and then i looked at teddy and he had tears streaming down his face. then lerma started crying because the boys were crying! becky gave each kid a picture of her and that kid this morning and decorated the picture frame, so i ran inside to get those while explaining that she would be back in less than 2 months. when they saw the pictures, all 3 of them started crying even harder. oops.
it must be hard for the kids to not have anyone permenant in thar lives. there are workers that stay for a long time but other than ted and renie, everyone's come and gone :/
i'm glad i still have 7 months before i have to leave...gahh

concert was great! caleb, pastor cande's 15 year old son, and abraham, the drummer in the worship band, played with the opening band. it was awesome. so tired...will write more tomorrow.

whoosh! once again, the weekend flew by.
saturday becky and i went into downtown ensenada and she did some last minute shopping. later, paco and i were hanging out with his sister and her 6 year old daughter (who, thanks to her uncle, believes i'm from russia and have a pet bear. it's been 3 weeks now, and she still believes us...) when marta called us and told us we were going to a party. one of the kids in the church, isaac, turned 16. we stopped at church to pick some people up and she asked me where my bag was, because she assumed i was sleeping over. i told her no, i was going to roca de salvacion on sunday because i haven't been there for awhile and after eliseo's (minor yet unfortunate) car accident i wanted to be there. she said i could sleep over anyways and i told her i felt rude, using her for a bed and not even going to church. she goes well if i'm giving you permission it's not rude! she scared me at first, but she really is extremely nice.
her mom, who lives at the church too, is awesome. again, first impression is she's very intimidating, but once you get to know her she is really sweet and always cracking jokes. last week she turned 86(ish)! i had no idea. she acts like she's about 60...always moving around, cooking, cleaning, or doing something. she has at least 11 kids, possibly more. paco, her grandson, doesn't even know how many aunts and uncles he has!
roca de salvacion was incredible. i was having a terrible morning for a variety of reasons and it was that much more awesome to be there. i just felt like i could breathe again. eliseo led worship and did a great job, as usual. we sang amazing love, dancing generation, trading my sorrows, and a bunch more that i can't remember.
right before the service started, cande asked me if i could share about my time at gabriel house so far. it was the first time i've done something all by myself like that in spanish! it wasn't that long but it went really well. i started out by saying i still can't speak a lot of spanish, but i'll try, and with God all things are possible, right? i got some solid amens which was a good start :)
i went to the sunday school that had people from 11 up to 25 years old. it was kind of funny, but so cool to hang out with that many kids that were more or less my age. angelica, cande's wife, led the class.
there's a concert tomorrow that eliseo was selling tickets for - i tell you, i don't know why he's going into administration; he would be a very good salesman. it's (apparently) a pretty famous drummer and his worship band playing at a church downtown, right by the flag. i'm super excited...i'm going early to help eliseo. we're event staff! i have no idea what it will be like hahaha

such a fun day.
martin and i took thelma and jaime to the hospital for check ups. they had a great time...they really enjoyed being in a different place with different sights, sounds, and smells. the road from where we parked to the hospital was really bumpy, almost like cobblestones, and both of them were laughing so hard as they bounced along. it was hilarious.

i finally went to the bike shop and bought a new tire for sergio's bike. it's a foot pedal bike, so he's the only one who can use it, but becky used to ride it with someone in the basket on the back! teddy and i went for a walk with it, and it's a lot better for him. he can't ride jose's bike because his legs are way too short, but he can steer and be pushed really easily in this one. here's a picture of pilar trying to figure out what's going on!




i was organizing all of our school supplies this afternoon and found a huge, 5 foot long kite tucked away in a corner. it wasn't really that windy, but that thing flew. it was so fun. i brought the kids from down below up to take turns with the kite, and we spent the whole afternoon in the street, running back and forth and flying the kite, mexican style :)

i think i have writer's block. lots on my mind but can't put anything into words!

off to the hospital with jaime, thelma, and angelino tomorrow. last week was apparently slow for a friday, and every one of the 4 waiting rooms we were in was standing room only. i wonder what tomorrow will be like...

school was awesome this morning. i felt like i had unlimited patience and an abundance of joy, so thank you for your prayers!
chuy is taking more of the responsibility of school, which is the way things need to keep going. the two of us spend the half hour before school starts setting up and talking about his plans for the day. i give him ideas for how to supplement the material - how to make it suitable for our class, how to help the kids stay interested, how to make sure everyone participates - stuff from my 'bag of tricks' that he is still developing.
one thing i've figured out about my relationship with chuy is that we're both in positions we've never been in before. i spent the last 4 years working with at least one (if not 2!) mentor teachers who watched my every move and gave me tons of feedback, both encouragement and constructive criticism. now i'm the one who has ideas to share and feedback to give, and it's a new and unfamiliar position for me to be in. now that i've realized this, though, i have felt more comfortable being that mentor teacher for chuy. (not the best one out there, that's for dang sure, but i'm trying.)

becky's starting to pack - she leaves tuesday! she's going back to maine to try to raise some more money and then she's off to language school for 4 months, starting in january. i'll definitely be speaking less english when she leaves. that's not a bad thing, though!

this is my sweet naynay (and marcos) who i have yet to take a decent picture with. the girl never stops moving. she can kind of talk...she can understand a lot and speaks in 2 or 3 word phrases and will repeat a lot of what you say. she's hard to understand but the more time you spend with her the more you can understand what she's saying. hanna, the summer intern, left less than a week after i got here. irene never quite grasped that my name isn't hanna, too, so she's been calling me hanna since i got here. i know i should have corrected her from day 1, but i was just happy she was recognizing me and calling me something. we're working on getting hilary down. anyways, in school today, she said josue's name, and then just to be sure, i asked her chuy's name, which she said, and then my name. she said hanna, and she wanted to keep working on her puzzle, so i just said, si, mas o menos (more or less) and kind of shrugged my shoulders and smiled. priceless - she did the exact same thing, except mas o menos came out as ma o mayo. same voice pitch and everything. it was so funny.

i made cupcakes for the boys to decorate this afternoon, and we had some extras so i gave them to the ladies. i tried to explain that the frosting and crumbled cookies go on top of the cupcake, but the ladies kept calling it bread and said it would be too sweet with the frosting and cookies. they had a point :) the boys had no problem with this, though. teddy wanted a spoonful of frosting for each bite of cupcake. ha!

today was great. chuy and i are communicating better and he's beginning to trust me more. today was the first day i felt like we were truly and 100% a team, working together to bring our students an education. sweet!
jose can be pretty resistant to school sometimes. i think part of it is because he knows he's the oldest and he also knows he can't do what a lot of the other kids in his class can...read, write quickly and neatly, and other things like that. he needs a lot of one on one time to get a task accomplished, and it's really hard because i don't always have the time he needs (the life of a teacher, regardless of the country or language, right?). during science we were talking about bodies and drawing ourselves, and i worked with jose to get this out of him - the yellow paper in the background. he worked so hard and was so proud. can't you tell?

i took ely for a walk this afternoon...so fun. we walked by our neighbor's house, and he grows peppers and grapes so we were looking at them up close. there was a tree outside his property that had purple berry looking things on it, so i thought i'd try one. well i can safely say they were not berries. it was the nastiest thing - really bitter and sour. i couldn't get the taste out of my mouth and ely was doing her laugh-so-hard-i-get-nervous thing. eek. totally worth it though for her to laugh like that.

this is the view from rocio's house. we had a heat wave this weekend...it's been cold in the mornings and at night but saturday and sunday were HOT. apparently this is not the case in new york...

friday i had to go to the hospital with martin. becky usually goes with him, but she went to the states for a mexican medical open house. chuy did school alone, which was good for him to experience, and he also did a great job! we talked about it after and he was exhausted but had them do a great craft and the kids said it went well.
we left mimi at the hospital and she's still there - she has a ton of water on her brain and has since she was born. the xrays are just unbelivable - none of the doctors understand how she's alive, let alone eating and responsive. her head is about the size of soccer ball, and a solid 4/5 is water, with her tiny little brain at the bottom. anyways, she's been having some neurological problems with mini seizures, a really tense body, and grinding her teeth, so hopefully they will figure out what's wrong and get her the right medecines.
we picked up medecine for some other kids and one of our poor constipated babies got looked at too :/
i saw teddy's dad at the hospital, someone from laerma's church who spoke english, and another guy from a neighboring rehab. it was really cool to recognize faces!
it was great to spend some time with martin. he's also a pastor and has worked at gabriel house for 3 years. he taught the school before we got the conafe program, does a lot of therapy with the kids, and is the all around handy man with just about everything. he's got such a great heart and is an evangelist, let me tell you. he's really passionate about gabriel house and the kids, and it was really good for me to hear his stories and testimonies about his time at gabriel house. we spent almost 7 hours at the hospital for 3 appointments, which apparently is quite normal. the good thing is we got all the medecine and appointments we needed.

friday night paco and i worked on my message for the young adult class on saturday morning...i asked him to translate for me because i knew i wouldn't be understood as well as i needed to be. what our friday night study session turned out to be was him reading a sentence in english, not understanding it, me saying it in spanish, and him translating my spanish to correct spanish. it was hilarious, but took like 2 and a half hours for a 20 minute message. eek.

it went well on saturday morning, and it was really fun to be able to teach. the week that marta asked me to teach i was reading james chapter 2, about faith without works, and kind of rediscovering that passage again. i was underlining and writing down verses that i liked, and i realized i underlined or wrote down almost the whole chapter! i knew that was what i would teach about...faith without works. i found a great story online about swimming and not knowing how and learning all about it but still not jumping in...or something like that. i have the text of the lesson if you want to read it - just email me and let me know!

rocio and i spent the afternoon hanging out and getting some more supplies. i haven't hung out with her in awhile so it was good to spent more than a couple minutes with her. she's so funny. such a 17 year old. i asked her how she was doing and she did that, 'oh, i'm fine," with a big sigh and eyes that begged to be asked for more. she told me she found out this week that she has asthma, and everyone on her dad's side has it, and she can't box, run, or sing anymore. i feel bad for her, obviously, but i don't understand how she was able to do all this stuff before, but all of sudden, with this diagnosis, she isn't able to do it now! we spent awhile trying to figure that out, and she couldn't tell me. not sure if it was because of the language or she really doesn't know...but now she has an inhaler. apparently no one here has asthma, so i tried to explain to her that tons of people in the states have it and it doesn't affect most people too severly. that was news to her, so hopefully she can feel a little better about herself now...

church today - rosa preached about the armor of God in isaiah 44. it was great - she's a strong preacher. she doesn't mess around and she makes sure that everyone understands what she's saying. it's a very good thing, though, because that should happen when a preacher is preaching :)

teddy, alex, and tonio got to go to church today with becky, kim, and chloe. they had a great time...it's the same church their sister goes to so they got to see her, too. teddy got scared and started crying during the drama, tonio fell asleep during the sermon, and alex almost jumped out of his chair while people were clapping during the altar call. other than that they had a great time and were so excited to tell me about it when i got back this afternoon. we have a hotel shuttle size bus that was donated that doesn't have insurance right now...we're in the process of getting that and hopefully when we do we can take lots of kids to church every week!

pictures!

so renie got to meet the first lady of mexico yesterday! she was at a conference about social justice in mexico. she was able to invite senora calderon to gabriel house and give her some info. there are some great plans in the works...probably will be a long time before they are in effect but the idea is still a great start.

i was at renie's this morning when cristina brought mimi over, because she was really not doing well. her whole body was tense and she was grinding her teeth so hard i thought they would break. we're taking her to the doctor tomorrow but before cristina took mimi back we laid hands and prayed for her. after we prayed she was so calm. it was beautiful. no more teeth grinding, no more tense body...she just looked tired. ted said they have so many stories like that, it's just so cool. pilar came to us as a newborn - she's 8 now - with a hole in her heart. they had ekg pictures of her heart and when they took her took a doctor 3 days later, the doctor asked if they had the same baby, because there was no hole in her heart. none. gone! wow.

there's a man who keeps his horse in this little field next to the boys' house, and he was bringing her back today when jose waved him over. he brought the horse over and talked to the boys for awhile - everyone except sergio, who's afraid of dogs and horses - and teddy asked him where his cowboy hat was. he thought that was pretty funny.

victor loves to give the babies a kiss on the cheek, but for some reason after the kiss he insists on trying to slap the baby. we have been working very hard on a kiss and nothing more...and lately he's been getting better and better at that. it may be because i pull the baby away before he can do anything else...but i think he understands that a kiss happens without hitting.

betzy's here! she's really sweet and so fun - she doesn't talk but she smiles when you talk to her. it's so precious. she's 8 years old and 17 pounds...and we put her in the wheelchair of a small 3 year old. her already impoverished grandma was taking care of her but she died a couple weeks ago. hopefully she will gain weight in a healthy and quick way, and we can get to know her and her needs better.

the floor of our classroom is paved but it kind of slopes off to one side, and omar's chair was too far back and the first thing he did when he sat down was flip over backwards into the fence. he was hysterical, even though there wasn't a drop of blood or bruise to be seen. mr. tough guy reached out for me in front of everyone and just sobbed into my shoulder. i know he was scared and not hurt but still...when these kids cry like that and all their defenses are down, i realize just how lonely they are sometimes. they're always surrounded by kids and work with people who love them, but sometimes life is just tough.

renie went to a conference today to represent gabriel house, and the first lady of mexico was there. haven't heard yet how it went, but i hope she got to meet her and tell her about gabriel house!

school was a little rough today for a couple different reasons, but the kids learned that we have five senses and they can name all of them. for that, i will rejoice. we used popcorn while it was in the microwave and after, as we were eating, to talk about the 5 senses and how we use them while we're making and eating popcorn.
in the afternoon luz, the woman who works below with the preschoolers, and becky and i went for a walk with the kids down below. it was so great to get out with all of them. they had a lot of fun and no one ran away!
after that martin brought teddy over to the big house and arranged all the kids in wheelchairs so they were facing teddy and made a big deal out of him being the teacher and having everyone get ready for class. he was so thrilled....when he gets excited he puts his hands out in front of him, kind of like he's going to give you high 5s, and scrunches his whole body up. its kind of frightening if you don't know what's happening but when you realize he's super happy it's a great thing to see. he spent the next half hour reading out loud from a kid's bible. it was a lot of fun for everyone.
i went to ted and renie's tonight for the tuesday night worship thing. we talked a lot about what's going on here and it's always good for me to listen and get to know their hearts better.
becky and i went grocery shopping and the CHRISTMAS aisle was up and ready to go. eek! halloween is a really dark holiday here - they celebrate day of the dead - and there's obviously no thanksgiving in november...so the next major holiday is christmas. wow.

so saturday morning i was sitting in the young adult (ish) class at church, thinking about how relieved i felt because i knew marta would never ask me to teach this class. she knows how i speak spanish...it's one thing to teach sunday school to a bunch of 7 year olds, but quite another to teach a sunday school class to a room full of teenagers and 20somethings. after the class ended on saturday marta goes, 'hilary, can you teach next week?' oh good gracious. no, marta, i cannot teach next week, were the first words out of my mouth. not don't want to...can't. in spanish anyways. she looks at me and goes sure you can! this is not someone you say no to....so i'm doing it in english, and paco's going to translate. gahh. that woman will certainly be the cause of my premature wrinkles.

school was good today - a couple of tough moments, but omar and marcos are getting a lot better at turning their behavior around and making good choices. before, if they got upset or angry...forget it. they were done for the day. now, with positive but persuasive words and lots of love, they are doing much better at owning their actions and changing them for the better after they get upset or angry. it's really cool to see them take control and be proud of their choices.

we talked about story today, and chuy asked me to put that one the schedule. i asked him what story it was and he said something. what? he said it again. i don't know that story, i told him. he looked at me weird and rolled away and then brought the book over to show me. it was christopher columbus, except in spanish its something totally different. oh yes, chuy, actually i do know the story of the person who discovered the continent i live on. ha! we had a good laugh.

we might be getting another girl at gabriel house, which is just crazy to think about in the midst of these serious financial struggles. here's the email renie (the co-director) sent out tonight.

Two days ago I was visited by my friend, Monica Pickett Gonzalez . Monica is a lawyer and social advocate for DIF, (el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia or the Integral Development of the Family). DIF is a government agency that helps to develop and strengthen families in Mexico. Monica works tirelessly day and night to place children at risk in the safest homes she can find. There are few homes available.

Monica came for another matter, but as she left, she thrust paperwork into Ted’s hands. All that she asked is that Ted and I take a look at it and pray about what we could do. I knew if I looked I’d be hooked but I could not resist; another handicapped child begged for a home.

The paperwork showed pictures of a little 8 year old girl named Betzira. Our family has already nicknamed her, “Betzy”.

As I scanned the papers, I saw photos of the twisted body of an incredibly emaciated and handicapped little girl. The papers say she weighs just 7.8 kilograms. “That’s only 17 pounds” my mind screamed, “My Annie weighed three times that weight at eight years old!” I wish I could send you the pictures I am staring at in disbelief as I write this.

Her former medical history is unknown. What is known is that Betzy is an abandoned, handicapped orphan in a country that is not yet handicapped friendly.

Her mother, who is addicted to drugs, abandoned her at two months of age and her whereabouts is listed as unknown. Betzy’s only known relative was her impoverished great grandmother who took care of her the best that she could until she died a few weeks ago.

The brief information begs the following questions; how is it that an eight year old child only weighs 17 pounds? What kind of incredible suffering and deprivation did this child and her aging and sick great grandmother go through?

She desperately needs the love and care that we at Gabriel House so want to give but we are limited by the lack of financial donations we are now receiving. Please, please help us.

Ted and I have been pouring over the names of our children; asking ourselves which ones we need to give up and send elsewhere in order to keep those more needy? Which ones will be wrenched from the only family and home they have ever known?

Do you have any idea what an impossible task that is? We have raised most of these children since infancy. How can we sacrifice one for another? What will it do to them to lose the only home they have ever known?

Please don’t turn away thinking someone else will help. Betzy needs all of us; no donation is too small. Bless your hearts; I know that many of you are worried and afraid about how you are going to pay your own bills. I also know that God will bless your giving.

(Jas 1:27) What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

(Heb 13:5)GNB Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you".

(Pro 19:17) GNB When you give to the poor it is like lending to the LORD and the LORD will pay you back.

Love in the mighty name of Jesus,

Renie

www.gabrielhouseofmexico.com

For those of you who will give; Write Gabriel House on the envelope or the memo line of your check, and send to:

Mexican Medical Ministries

7850 Lester Ave.

Lemon Grove Ca. 91945

One hundred percent of your donation will come straight to Gabriel house.

whew! here i am again...sunday night with a full week ahead of me. i'm ahead on planning for school this week which is normal when i'm teaching in the states but very rare when i'm here :)

the party was really fun. we spent the whole weekend getting ready...cleaning, decorating, cooking, talking, teaching kerly how to say she's 1...
typical party for a 1 year old. tons of people are there for her and she has no idea what's going on. it was funny too because both (yes, both) of the pinatas were at least twice as big as her. she was only scared of them when they were flying through the air...otherwise she kept trying to hit them.

pictures!

here's the dress i bought kerly for her birthday. i also got grey leggings. i cannot wait to dress my kids hahaha.

i'll be at church for the weekend and will post on sunday.

today i realized how important it is to love first and worry about the rest later. so many times i find myself in teacher mode, where my biggest concern is how fast or efficiently we can get things done. instead of asking jose how he's doing when school starts in 2 minutes and he's still in his room, with teeth to be brushed, i ask him to please hurry up and get to school. instead of sitting with sergio to talk to him and his stuffed animals, i ask him to please be quiet so that we can have school outside. instead of giving tonio a hug, i put him in his wheelchair because it's faster if i do it.

yes, school is important. yes, getting our work done is important. but what's more important is to realize that these kids, day in and day out, lead the same life, with the same people, in the same place. when they feel that extra unconditional love, they are affirmed and know that they are valued, respected, and loved. this is why i'm here.

today during art we made snakes from paper plates and talked about why snakes coil up in real life, just like our paper plate snakes. i am trying to teach these kids how to think for themselves, and let me tell you, that is not something that comes easily. i usually show the kids an example of our art project so that if my spanish is less than adequate they can get the general idea. i put my snake away when the kids began working on theirs for this very reason, and when omar asked to see it and i explained why i didn't want him to copy my plate, he got furious. i mean, just angry. he has a very short fuse, which is another thing we've been working on...when he gets mad he snaps and it takes a lot for him to calm down. he can't verbalize what happened or explain how he's feeling. anyways, he was just so mad! finally i let him see my plate because, really, it was just art. he copied the whole thing, color for color, pattern for pattern. but he did calm down and finish the project, which i consider a success.

i had some music on while the kids were coloring and they all started singing during todopoderoso...it was so precious. everyone was happily working on their own project, sharing markers, talking together, without problems. its times like this when i can appreciate the sweat, tears, and frustration that school can sometimes cause :)

here are pictures of our classroom and a video of my singers

during preschool, nay nay walked over to the big alphabet hanging on the fence and said llave (key). she knows lots of words but it can be really hard to understand her sometimes. the more time i spend with her the more i can understand, but we're not quite there yet. anyways, we worked with that alphabet for almost half an hour, and she knew so much! i was really surprised. there's a picture of a man for h - hombre, and nay nay said it was don lupe, one of the workers here. every time she said his name...she was convinced it was his picture. the more i looked at it the more i could see the similarities and chuy thought it was just hilarious.

afternoon school was a little crazy this afternoon because we had some slow eaters at lunch, so we just had pilar and chloe for the last class. becky and i walked with them down the street and it was so nice. pilar can bounce off the walls a lot of the time, and she tends to get in other people's business and be pesky. her eyes were so big the whole time were walking, and it was so fun to be able to take in her surroundings with her. i love when i get to be with the kids individually and experience life with them.

our turnips and radishes continue to grow (still waiting on those carrots), the celery leaves have turned blue, there is an egg that is almost see through in my fridge, 7 colorful snakes are hanging from the roof of our classroom, and we are certain that roosters can't lay eggs. it's been a good week.

today in science we poured vinegar over an egg and over the next few days are going to watch the calcium shell get dissolved by the vinegar. we also learned that eggs come from chickens. not roosters. roosters are the 'papas,' and they cannot lay eggs. chickens are the 'mamas,' and they have the babies. didn't think i would have to explain that one, but i did. i also tried to explain the little white thing is the part that would become a chicken, had the egg been fertilized. we'll save that for another day...they also didn't know what the inside of an egg looked like, so we cracked an extra egg open to study that too. it's so fun to things like this with the kids. to see things that i take for granted through their eyes for the first time is incredible.

marcos didn't go to school this morning because he had a doctor's appointment. as soon as he got back, he was asking if he could go to school in the afternoon. i tried to explain that he is well past preschool, because our preschoolers can't write and he's super close to being a fluent reader. he couldn't understand that though, and kept asking for the rest of the day if he could go to school. i hold on to these moments when he's throwing a minor temper tantrum because chuy and i won't let him play in the dirt during recess :)

at dinner tonight, victor figured out he could reach the string that turns the light on and off. he's been on and off different meds while they try to figure out the right dosage for him, and lately he's been really quiet. it's sad because he used to talk and be really responsive, but not so much anymore. hopefully it's just a temporary thing until he's on a different medecine or dosage. anyways, he held on to the string for about 5 minutes while everyone, especially the boys, were cheering him on and trying to get him to pull the string. when he pulled it and the light when off, his eyes got super big and everyone clapped and was laughing, and then he got this huge smile on his face. for the rest of dinner we had a mini disco as he kept turning the light on and off!

we got 20 boxes of cabbage delivered after dinner and the back end of a semi is still parked in the street in front of the big house. these kids can always use more vegetables, so praise God!

this morning while we were doing our calendar, becky told me that it was tonio's birthday. most of the kids here don't know when their birthdays are, they just know the month it's in because a group from san diego comes once a month with cake and ice cream and we celebrate all of the birthdays for that month. anyways, we couldn't let his birthday pass by without at least singing to him! as we were finishing up with the calendar, i said that today was also a very special day because it was someone's birthday! they all started shouting my name, and then we had to remind ourselves that my birthday was last month. then they were just confused, so becky pointed to tonio and he put his hands on his heart and had the most precious look on his face. it was like, 'me? it's MY birthday? really? are you sure?' it was a little bit sad that he was so surprised but a lot of fun for him, too.

his sister came later in the day, which was amazing! she's really nice but apparently full of empty promises and always promises tonio, jose, and alex that she'll come and then doesn't show up. they spend days waiting for her and then are so sad when she doesn't come. regardless, though, it was great that she came. she brought a big cake to celebrate tonio's birthday and the boys were so happy to have her with them. it was sweet.

like i've mentioned before, gabriel house is in a really bad financial state. we are several payrolls behind and very much in debt. renie and ted have come to the realization that we may need to cut staff (even though we're short already) and send some kids to different orphanages or back with their families. the thing about gabriel house is it's not an orphanage...it's technically a rehabilitation center. the point is not for the kids to spend their whole lives here. some of them, yes, they will never and can't ever go home. anyways, it's been stressful and sad and hard to deal with these ideas. that's all they are right now, are just ideas, but nonetheless changes are going to be made. we are just praying that God will direct us through this the way he wants, and only his way. ted especially has said that he's going to 'nehemiah this place up' with fasting and praying and everything because he truly believes we have done everything we can and now we just need to wait on the Lord for an answer as to what he wants us to do.

some good news, though. angelica, the assistant director, went with some of the ladies to ted and renie's this morning to talk about pay. they ended up praying together, which was awesome because a few of those ladies have never prayed before.
well, this afternoon ted got a call that someone deposited enough money in our u.s. account to cover an entire payroll. coincidence? definitely not :)

it's fall in mexico, and this is a beautiful thing. i didn't think i would get to experience fall, but we are definitely in the middle of it. the mornings are cool as the sun slowly makes it way up in the sky, and then the days are pleasant and warm with cold nights. i love love love this.

learned something very interesting recently - a popular worship song here is la niña de tus ojos. i have been wondering for awhile why child is feminine (la niña) and not masculine - surely men sing this song too, and it wouldn't make sense for them to sing 'i'm the girl of your eyes...'. angelica told me that la niña is the word for girl but also a part of the eye, and it roughly translates to 'i'm the apple of your eye.' ha! now i understand.

we learned how to bowl during gym today. that was funny but a great activity for all the kids - wheelchairs or not. in science we did the classic celery in water with food coloring experiment to understand what happens when we water plants, or how rain gets absorbed into plants.

josue and pilar who go to school in the afternoon are frustrating to work with sometimes. they both are always talking. always. the only problem is no one can understand them. with josue, once in awhile, you can catch a few words here or there. but with pilar it's just impossible. i can't imagine how frustrated they must be! to be always making sense to yourself but not having anyone else understand you. yikes. they both are so sweet though. maybe since they've always been like this, it doesn't bother them as much.

i took alex to the bistecito today. it was so fun - whenever we go for a walk, we just go to the tienda that's a 2 minute walk away. you can see it from gabriel house. the bistecito is a little less than 10 minutes away and it's a lot bigger. alex got to bring the hand-pedal bike inside and his eyes were so big; it was awesome. he was so careful and took forever to pick out his treat, and then we sat outside while he ate and watched all the cars go by on the main road. it was so fun to be far away, or kind of far away, and watch alex take in this other world that he doesn't see very often.

----monthly recap----

i forgot i was supposed to do this. oops!

tons of pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/hilary.e.holbrook

september was a month full of great things.

school changed A LOT. we went from lots of writing and reading and not much else to reading, writing, english, science, math, gym, art, and a morning routine! the afternoon class - preschool - is still developing and keeps getting better. we split it into two groups - ruben, pilar, chloe, and sergio for about an hour, and then irene and josue for about half an hour. that split was incredible...chuy and i are able to do so much more with the students this way.
things were a bit rocky with chuy for awhile - he's got a big job to do and at times i think he feels overwhelmed. we are here for different reasons, and that's not a bad thing, but at times it makes it hard to work together. God has been so faithful in working in both of us to make us a good and effective team, but please continue praying for that to keep happening!

we had mexican independence day which included a parade of kids, some in wheelchairs, some walking, and some being pulled in a wagon for the ride of their lives (by sergio, of course) yelling viva mexico! all the way down the street. good times :)

lerma, a woman who works with the boys, invited becky and i to her church. it was an awesome experience to be able to go to church with her and her family. her brother is the pastor and he and his wife also run a drug and alcohol rehab in san carlos. olga, the pastor's wife, made me try tuna, the fruit from a cactus. it was delicious! a lot like honeydew but with lots of seeds and better.

i taught sunday school at church about hebrews 12 - running the race that has been set before us. lots of fun, and thank you lourdes for finding a bilingual sunday school lesson website. the internet, man, i tell ya!

i got to go to pastor cande's church and watch caleb, his 15 year old son, lead worship. i sat with eliseo and rocio and had such a great time. it felt like i was in a place where i truly belonged and was welcomed. i feel that in marta's church too, but this is different.

i got a lot of cards for my birthday which was so fun. i've also been skyping a lot, which is awesome. i really don't feel like i'm that far away when i get to see people's faces all the time! my skype name is hilary.holbrook if you ever want to talk!

whew!

friday was a good day. the morning class went well - this was the first week we had some students earn all 5 stars throughout the week, which meant they got to pick a prize from the prize box. they earn stars for doing things above and beyond what is expected of them, and i'm not quite sure i explained that adequately. then again, kids don't always understand that concept. we are slowly making progress on learning the days of the week and remembering that no, we don't have school on saturday and sunday!
preschool was good with our new structure - work at the table, organized play on the floor, songs, and a wagon ride. my ear infection is back and i cannot hear a thing out of my left ear - i had to apologize to all the people who may have heard our music session because i'm pretty sure i'm tone deaf right now hahaha

paco picked me up after dinner and we hung out with the boys for awhile. they are so funny when he's around - a million questions and since 3 of the 5 boys can't talk he's getting pulled in 3 different directions too! he has some great ideas for a mission type thing in the future, and one of them is a big brother big sister kind of program. he wants to start at gabriel house with the boys. right now it's just an idea - he still needs to talk to the appropriate people, but it would be awesome if it worked out.

he had a soccer game and so i watched him play. that was so fun. i was for sure the only gringa in the stadium but it was cool to be a part of that. mexican soccer is so different from the states. wow. it doesn't matter who the players are, what shape they're in, or what they look like - everyone is so good.

i slept at marta's in the same room as two gigantic pinatas that were almost as tall as me. they were terrifying. kerly's birthday is friday - she'll be 1! her party is this coming sunday. at first i thought, you know, a birthday party for a one year old. cool. should be fun. well goodness gracious i was wrong. this is going to be quite an event. i'm super excited. the whole church is invited, they already have the pinatas and tons of candy, and everyone's talking about it. marta asked me if i could come on friday to help get the gift bags ready and other prep stuff. apparently this will take more than an hour or two to prepare for. and of course kerly has no idea what's going on. she's kind of walking, and saturday night marta kept telling her that in the name of jesus she has to learn how to walk in a week, for her party!

adriana taught the class on saturday morning; it was about the holy spirit. she did a great job! she was really nervous all morning and i got to pray with her right before, which was cool. at night, when the worship band was practicing, marta had everyone watch. i'm not sure why - usually we are upstairs getting the food ready for sunday after church while the band practices. it was fun to watch though - they're starting to do some faster songs :)
paco leads worship and he's all about the slow ballads, which is very lovely, but once in awhile it's good to sing! we sang some good songs this week though. it was funny - david is the drummer but he has school on saturday night so he wasn't at the practice. a couple of songs needed a drummer, so first paco was singing, then he grabbed a guitar and sang and played for a few songs, and then he jumped over to the drums for a song, and then sang and drummed for a song. all he needs is a harmonica and he can be a one man band!

after the practice we were making the ceviche for sunday, and i was cutting cilantro. i asked marta about 6 times if it was small enough and she kept saying finito! finito! finally i cut it small enough and she says, 'okay, now you can get married.' thanks marta.

i finally saw al and rosa in church! al, rosa, and marta rotate each week as pastor's of the church. al preached today about dreams - the title of his sermon was the death of dreams. it was great. a lot of the pastors that i've heard in mexico preach straight from the bible and try to help the congregation understand what God is trying to tell us. al did more of a sermon that references bible verses, like at hrc. he talked about how our dreams sometimes don't match up with God's dreams for us, and what can happen when we pursue those dreams. he also talked about what can happen when our dreams and God's dreams for us are the same, and then he talked about the sermon on the mount and the dreams that people listening to that sermon may have had. he speaks very slowly which was awesome! i was right there with him, understanding almost all of it. woo hoo! thank you Lord.
we hung out upstairs in marta's house for awhile. she made some kind of fish that was amazing...cooked in foil with lots of spices, tomatoes, and onions. mmmm. david was showing al and rosa his website for kids camp, which they really liked.

i wore a dress to church today, and adriana was saying how pretty it was and how she doesn't have any. we kept talking and what's going to happen is i'm going to bring every dress i have here and she's going to borrow one for the party. she was so excited...it's fun to hang out with her. i forget what it's like to be 16. gahh.

after church we went with rocio to get some more stuff for school. she looks good - no more neck brace, and she said she has no more pain. i wish all of you could hear how fast this girl talks. it's just unbelievable. i'll be feeling good about how much i'm understanding, and then she gets in the car and i'm back to square 1. she's funny though.

i am so, so thankful and grateful for each weekend. i have my wonderful life at gabriel house, but then every weekend i have great friends who i get to be with. it's been a really good balance between work and play :)

headed to church for the weekend. will post sunday night...have a great weekend!

here are some pictures from the last week or so.

preschool went really well today, thank goodness!
we worked at the table today for about 20 minutes, and then the kids played on the floor for about ten minutes. we all sat in chairs and sang a few songs, and then went for a ride in the wagon!
it was good to have that structure - they certainly had some choices, but weren't running the show. i have lately been feeling really overwhelmed with the preschool - i feel like my knowledge is with kids who already can or are having trouble reading. we're working on colors, numbers, and basic things like that with the preschool! the structure of today was really good.

chuy is doing really well. he and i have been talking more, building our relationship professionally as well as personally. he has really made a point to encourage the kids more when they do something well. i know that's not his personality or culture, and to see that from him is so great. the kids love it, too.

i just love the kids here so much. it's like i always have friends - whether i want that friend to be a crazy 17 year old in love with his bicycle, someone who rolls around all day long yelling like tarzan, or girls who have a whole world behind their eyes....i get to be friends with them.