The flash cards on the walls

A beautiful start to a very tropically humid day

It's super late . . . been trying to get all my stuff packed up in preparation for early departure tomorrow morning, so I'll try to keep this post brief.  Amazing how you can live in a place for only three weeks and accumulate/spread out so much stuff.  I was cleaning and organizing and packing for a good part of the day!

Alas, it was my last full day here.  But another good one.  Oppressive humidity and high-pressure system (the sun was way intense, and the undersides of the clouds were completely flat) returned today.  Very tropical-feeling.  Once the afternoon wind started, it was a little better, but then of course the wind got gusty, and around noon, I saw a mini-tornado come ripping across the hillside from the vineyard on the southwest side and go swirling through the middle of the main complex.  Was down at the staff house at the time.  Hope the guys up at the auto shop site didn't get their eyes, mouths, and lungs full of dirt, because there was a huge column of dust, ash, and weeds going up more than 50 feet in the air!

Double walking loop this morning, which was nice even with the heat.  Had some good reflection time . . . Mark had gone over the spiritual-gifts section in Romans 12 for staff devos and then I read Hebrews 1 on my own while sitting outside (always a rad passage), so that was some good encouragement for the day.  I've gotten to think and pray a lot during my daily walks.  The alone time with God (with minimal distractions for once!) has definitely been one of the most valuable things about this trip.

Got to help Juanita with lunch one last time!  She made fish tacos with the rest of the frozen fish that Erik brought a couple weeks ago, so I spent about an hour cutting strips of cabbage for garnish and dicing tomatoes and onions for a fresh batch of salsa bandera.  A really nice addition to the lunch was plátanos con crema, which is just sliced bananas served in Mexican sour cream (which is runny like half-and-half, not thick like yogurt).  Amazingly good, especially on a hot day!

Hanging sheets on the clothesline in the (very) bright 1 pm sun

Spent most of my time today just finishing thank-you cards, taking care of other random loose ends, and cleaning up my room.  Did a load of towels and sheets so that at least most of the linens would be clean.  It was weird to hang-dry everything on the clothesline in the blinding sunlight, humid heat, and gusting wind.  Felt like a picture of something in the past . . . I'm so accustomed to using a dryer.  We live in such a weird bubble of oblivion in America.  I was shocked the other day at the baby shower when I went into Juanita's house to use the bathroom and saw what their bathroom looks like.  It's indoor and has tiled flooring, but the floor is uneven, and the "shower" is just cement blocks mortared into an L shape in the corner to contain the water, and the shower head is this rinky-dink little spigot coming through a hole in the wall from outside.  No towel racks, no shelves, no real door—a swinging door with a sliding bolt.  I mentioned later to Janet that it seemed so primitive compared to the nice bathrooms we have at RSM, but she said Juanita's house is like a palace compared to most of the houses in Guadalupe, and that Juanita's family used to have only an outdoor cold shower and an outhouse, so their place now has been much improved.  Pretty crazy how we get used to being so comfortable.  We forget that most of the people in the world live differently from how we do, in a lot less comfortable conditions.

Had a nice talk with Amber this afternoon while we helped the girls with kitchen duty.  I always enjoy one-on-one time with any of the staff, but with Amber I view her as a sort of mentor and example because she's just a few years older than me and she is an artist, a Christian, and a good wife and mom.  Plus she is a pretty chill person.  I look up to her a lot.

Amber and me in the kitchen today

 Also had some nice interactions with a few people from the visiting group.  They were at Howard & Janet's working on the plumbing for the new master bathroom (one of the guys in the group is a retired architect and was the one who originally drew up the plans for the house remodel) and on a couple of other small cleanup jobs.  Two of the other guys were outside, trimming the trees and bushes, and I stopped to talk with them during one of my comings and goings.  The older of the two, Gary, has done tree trimming for years, and he had done a beautiful job on the two trees out in front.  (I love the plants at the staff house, by the way—so much bougainvillea and oleander in a variety of pinks, oranges and whites!)  Later after lunch, I met the plumber, Freddie, who actually got a bachelor's and master's degrees in art but is now an artist on the side and a plumbing contractor by day.  He was a classic individual!  I liked him right away.  Maybe I clicked with these guys because they remind me a little of the guys my dad works with in the landscape architecture sphere.

The girls have all started getting attached to me during this past week, and now I'm sad to leave just as I'm starting to get to know them a little bit.  Gladis always gives me hugs or tries to poke me, and Noemí, Celeste, and Isabel are always asking me questions.  They were all sad today when I told them it was my last day.  I told them it was okay, not to be too sad because I'll be back with the CCPC group in November, which is only five or six weeks from now.  (I already am looking forward to that trip . . .)

Funny thing, by the way: After serving so many meals, I've learned the kids' eating habits by now.  Reynaldo is a bottomless pit and always wants lots of everything, especially rice; Diana always wants just a teeny bit of everything because she's super petite; Karen and Alexis really love fruit and always ask for seconds on it (Alexis loves his in a cup with some of the juice poured in); Isabel is an all-around fruit and veggie girl and always wants extra salad, watermelon, apples, or peaches; JJ is adamant about small portions of anything vegetable; Ana Lidia loves main dishes and will always choose more burrito, taco, eggs, or pancakes over more fruits & veggies; Leonardo is very controlled for a teenage boy and doesn't come back for seconds very often; Ricardo and Axel are very typical teenage boys and pretty much always come back for seconds; Celeste really likes corn tortillas and is usually the only girl to ask for three at once; Sammy Everett, when he shows up, will take three or even four corn tortillas at a time and then come back for three or four more.  I usually watch who is coming next and get my spoons and tongs ready with the appropriate serving size!

Helped Johnny & Amber serve dinner.  A nice surprise—Cristina had the girls make tortillas again, for practice, so we had more fresh flour tortillas for dinner (most of which were nice and round and just the right thickness this time!) with beans and some fancy oven-roasted carrots Juanita had prepped earlier.  With leftover birthday cake AND fudge-swirl ice cream for dessert.  A very satisfactory last meal here for sure!

Went up to the Everetts' house after dinner to say goodbye to Luke & Josefina.  They usually only come down to the chow hall for hanging-out purposes, not to eat—after all, they have their own house and their own kitchen—so I wanted to make sure I got to thank them.  Had to open the door and peek in and wave, since Luke is hard of hearing and Josefina is completely deaf and neither of them heard my knock.  (They might have a doorbell, but I couldn't find it in the dark.)  Both of them were really happy to see me and said thank you for coming and helping out.  I told them thank you for welcoming me, and that I'd had a really great time, and I also gave them the thank-you cards I'd made.

Down on the playground after that, the kids wanted to do exercises, so Johnny found something on his phone that ran through a series of 30-second calisthenic exercises.  How the kids (or Johnny & Amber) successfully did jumping jacks, push-ups, and crunches right after eating, I have no clue, but even though I was too full at that point to do anything that strenuous (not to mention I had on flip-flops, not tennis shoes), I did my best to join in, just for fun.  After we were done with the calisthenics, I started showing the older girls some different stretches, like butterfly, toe touches, arm circles, etc.  None of them could figure out how to do a backwards bridge, but Ricardo pulled it off, amazingly.

One last night of stargazing!  Constellations were absolutely gorgeous tonight—really sparkly.  Amazing how the stars glitter when the sky is really dark.  I took my astronomy field guide out with me and used it to help me find Draco, Perseus, Andromeda, Pegasus, the Pleiades Cluster, and Delphinus.  Cassiopeia, Scorpius, and Cygnus are pretty easy to identify—I can find them every night—but some of the others are a lot harder.  Finally learning to locate Polaris, the one star that doesn't move.

As I've said before, I have been amazed at how much sign I picked up in three weeks.  Sign is definitely easier than a spoken language, because it's so much simpler.  No verb conjugation, no articles to memorize, no pronunciation to worry about.  I've been making a wall decoration for my front room and adding to it each day: colored flash cards with drawings of different signs and what the word means in Spanish and in English.  Started by the door to the bedroom and worked my way around.  Was hoping to maybe make the chain completely circle the room, but it only went about halfway.  Still, I finished with 125 cards—that's an average of 6 or 7 words per day, which isn't bad at all.  Pretty cool to see all the cards in a rainbow of vocabulary up on the wall  . . . a bit sad to take it down, but of course I can keep them for reference on future trips down here! 

Flash card collage!!!

Okay, time for bed.  (So much for a short blog post.)  Will be back tomorrow with the saga of my trip home!

Because some days healthy eating just doesn't happen.

Eva on the playground with all the students during morning outside time

Evalynn turned 3 today.  She came in this morning wearing a very cute pink dress and even cuter pink headband with a big flower on it.  Her birthday was celebrated in typlcal 3-year-old-girl fashion, with pink everything—Amber even made strawberry cupcakes with bright pink frosting to serve at lunch.  The birthday girl also got a Pikachu shirt (she’s into Pikachu for whatever reason) and a Bitty Baby doll, so from what I could tell, she had a pretty good day.

I was planning to eat healthier today, but it didn’t really work out.  For one thing, I was expecting cereal because it was Monday morning, but Juanita made pancakes instead.  And far be it from me to pass up a pancake for generic-brand Cheerios with powdered milk . . . Then Janet, Peggy, and I planned to go to lunch at a place in Porvenir (the next town over, about a 5-minute drive beyond Guadalupe) called D’Marco.  Howard and Janet have kept telling me about it and saying I need to try it, but things have been busy and we haven’t had a chance to go.  Since I’m leaving this week though, Janet finally made an executive decision that we needed to go get lunch there today.  But we decided to go earlier, like 11:45, because Peggy had afternoon dorm duty and the new group from Porter Ranch was coming around RSM lunchtime. 

In the meantime, while we waited for 11:45 to roll around, Janet and I helped Juanita make sopes for the day’s lunch, which was exciting because it was a dish I learned about for the first time while I was down here and wanted to learn to make.  A sope is kind of like a thick corn-masa pancake, but with a little pinched raised edge (like the edge of a pie crust) so that you can put toppings on it without them falling off.  They vary slightly by region, but are popular all over Mexico.  The traditional first layer of toppings is pretty much always refried beans, usually followed by meat, shredded lettuce, and then maybe salsa, sour cream, or whatever else the cook wants to provide. They are delicious (after all, they’re made with corn masa—what’s not to like?) but take a while to make, because they have so many preparation steps.  Plus there’s all the time it takes to prep the beans, meat, and lettuce for the toppings.  So we spent probably an hour in the kitchen, working away, until it was time for me and Janet to leave.  I felt bad leaving, because this was one of those days when I think Juanita could have used the assistance a little longer . . . there were still so many masa balls to be flattened, cooked, and shaped.  Plus, all the sopes have to be cooked a second time (usually fried) once they are shaped.  So I hated to leave Juanita to finish it all herself.  But like I’ve said before, she’s a highly capable cook, and when we returned just after 1 pm, she had all the sopes done and ready to serve!  A true professional.

D’Marco was really good (and very affordable)!  The place is so small, with four or five tables and no written menu, that you’d never guess at its amazingness, but Peggy and Janet said there are actually a lot of little roadside eateries in Valle de Guadalupe that serve really good-quality food, because of the tourism from all the wineries along Ruta del Vino.  The cook at D’Marco will, apparently, cook essentially whatever you ask for (provided he has the ingredients for it), but I just went ahead and ordered the highly recommended dish Janet and Peggy told me about: the quesadilla especial, vegetarian version.  Janet ordered the same, but with beef, and Peggy the same but with shrimp.  It took about a half hour for the chef to make the quesadillas, but I could tell from my now-and-then glances towards the back of the restaurant that he was starting from scratch and prepping everything with the utmost TLC.  When the plates finally came out and I dug into mine, I knew it had been worth the wait!  The quesadillas are stuffed so full of veggies that they are about an inch thick— really more about the vegetables than about the cheese.  The cook also put in his specialty chipotle sauce, which made the quesadilla almost seem like a crêpe.  (I say a good sauce is the key to a good dish, and this food was proof.)  It was a rich and satisfying meal, and it cost me less than $5 US.  I was definitely impressed!

La quesadilla especial

Juanita wasn’t actually at the Ranch when we got back.  She had to go home because Griselda had another early (and I think false) alarm with the baby, so Janet and I served the sopes up.  I wasn’t intending to eat any sopes, at least not at first, but I ended up having a small one with some beans on it.  I had to try one—they just looked so yummy.  Juanita had embellished the masa dough with leftover enchilada sauce, so they were extra good.  Then Amber served the strawberry birthday cupcakes. I chose a small one (and for the record, I scraped off the neon pink frosting because I knew just by the color that it would taste like nothing but dye—ick). 

The Porter Ranch group arrived more than an hour late—they had been bringing a lot of stuff down and I think they got delayed at the border—so Trish and I served up the sopes we’d reserved for them, then did the dishes.  We also helped them put away the food donations they’d brought.  We didn’t get out of the kitchen until probably 3:15.  I was in there waiting around for so long in between tasks that I was able to bake that new batch of cranberry bars for school snacks.

This group is much smaller and mellower than the last one, by the way.  There are only nine or ten people, all adults, and their church, Shepherd of the Hills, actually has two campuses: one in Porter Ranch and the other one up in Agua Dulce.  I think they are the group that customarily brings the amenities for “Pizza Night.”  (Different groups do different things—for example, coming on Shoe Day, or in the case of our church, bringing ingredients to make at least one “American-style” meal like deli sandwiches or bringing equipment for Pinewood Derby in the spring.)

Spent the next hour and a half doing some random tasks in my room, and then went back up to the kitchen around 5 to help the group ladies and Trish prep the dinner.  The group had brought a bunch of oven-ready pepperoni pizzas from Sam’s Club, so dinner was fairly easy.  I added some more cabbage to the lettuce blend from lunch to make a salad, and the ladies put the pizzas on trays and baked them a few at a time.  The meal was a big hit.  Pizza is a rare treat on the RSM menu, so everyone came back for seconds and even thirds (which is normally not allowed, but we had to serve the pizzas little by little as they finished heating, so some people had to have their second round of slices one piece at a time).  I purposely selected two small slices because I was feeling like a very unhealthy eater by that point of the day.  Thankfully I don’t like pepperoni, so I wasn’t at all tempted to eat it.  I gave it away to all the pepperoni lovers in the kitchen.

Johnny and Amber hosted another game night tonight.  It was them, Trish, and me, like last time.  We played a bluffing game called Sheriff of Nottingham, in which one player is the Sheriff and the other players are merchants who have to try and persuade the Sheriff to let them pass customs.  It’s a challenging game because there are rules about what you can bring in, how much, etc., and of course there are also illegal contraband items to make it interesting.  I didn’t do so well since it was my first time, but it was still a lot of fun!

Final snack . . . I took a leftover peanut butter oatmeal bar out of the walk-in fridge for dessert.  (Hey, peanut butter and oats have nutritional value, don't they? . . .)  So yes, it was a blow-your-diet kind of day, but some days there is yummy stuff in front of you and you've just gotta go for it.

And I did do two walk loops in the morning after breakfast.  If it’s not too hot and I have time, I try to do two loops per day.

Slightly bummer news: I have to come home one day earlier than planned . . . boo!  Had been planning to go back across the border with the Porter Ranch group on Thursday, but it turns out they’re leaving on Friday, not Thursday, and my friend who was going to pick me up in San Diego couldn’t come down on Friday.  But my friend can come Wednesday, and Howard & Janet’s day off is Wednesday and they will be going Stateside anyway.  So the new plan is: I have to leave Wednesday morning, right around breakfast time, rather than mid-morning on Thursday.  I’m sad!  I was hoping for an extra day, not one day less . . . now that I’ve adjusted to the RSM routine, I’ve been enjoying myself a lot.  But life must go on, of course, so qué será, será, as the song goes.

Un día de fiestas y vientos

Ah, today was fun.  And also very windy!  For all you readers back in SoCal, think of Santa Ana winds—big, hot gusts coming from inland, blowing up clouds of dirt and making everybody sneeze!  They blew hard all day.

Tried to sleep in this morning, but couldn’t . . . just had too much on my mind thinking about all I’ve done & learned and about going home later this week.  Gave up on trying to fall back asleep and got up at 7:30, before my alarm.  Did two walking loops this morning and prayed while I walked.  Took a while to settle my thoughts down, but it was a good way to start the day.

After breakfast (Josefina and a couple of the group ladies made ham-and-egg breakfast sandwiches and french fries, which I wasn’t particularly in the mood for—it was so hot that I mostly went for fruit today—but I took a little, of course, so as not to insult Josefina’s hard work.  It was a beautiful morning and we had a nice time outside on the playground (the kids get to play before church while the kitchen crew finishes their cleanup).  Gladis was funny because she kept signing about the self-defense class yesterday, but it was all jumbled. I told Trish, “I have no clue what she’s saying,” and Trish said that Gladis’s conversations are always hard to figure out.  She started translating Gladis’s signs and I cracked up because it was literally something like, “Good, Karen, group, throwing down, funny, good, group, Celeste, Karen and Celeste, punching, throwing down, Axel, punching, good, me, group, me, good, funny, throwing down, laughing, funny, dogs, good, funny . . .”  I assumed it was just my limited sign that kept me from comprehending, but apparently that’s not always the case!  I love Gladis though!  She is perpetually smiling, laughing, being silly, and giving hugs or affectionate pokes to people.  I never see her look sad.  I don’t know what goes on in her head, but I think she must live in a simpler and much happier state of mind than a lot of us do!

Kayla, Trish, Gladis, me, and Diana enjoying the warm, sunny morning before church

Church was great this morning.  The group came and sat in the service (which is customary for groups).  Pastor Carlos came from Ensenada to teach, and he talked about us being sal y luz—salt and light—out of Matthew 5.  At the end of his lesson, he showed a video of a science experiment that was a great illustration of the concept.  The video showed a lightbulb connected to electrodes which had been placed in a container of pure water.  The wires were connected to a battery.  When salt was added to the water in the container, the lightbulb turned on!  He told us all that we need the “salt” of obedience to Christ being in our lives, or we won’t be able to manifest His “light” to others.  It was cool!

I was so proud of it . . .

The group left after church was done, and things were quiet again.  I did some art in my room for a while and took another half-loop walk while I waited for lunchtime to come.  Cristina (who taught our tortilla class) and her sister Stephanie cooked.  They did simple tacos made with shredded stewed beef (which was supposed to be like birria, a meat stew that’s especially popular in the Jalisco region—if you’ve ever been to Mexico and seen signs on a food stand that say “birrieria,” that means they serve birria) and served with beans and pan-browned zucchini & onions.  I wasn’t really in the mood for meat or beans with the hot day, as good as they were, but the zucchini was a special treat!  It reminded me of Mom’s oven-roasted zucchini.  We also did the Feliz Cumpleaños celebration at the end of the meal.  Johnny and Janet lit the candles and carried our lovely cake out to the birthday table, where Gladis and Evalynn were sitting in anticipation.  Everybody signed the “Happy Birthday” song, they blew out the candles, and we cut it up and served it.  I think it turned out a little chewy, which was a bummer considering that I was the chef, and the cherry frosting was uber sweet (like most Pillsbury frosting), but it did look great, and the sprinkles I put in made for a perfectly festive Funfetti cake!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, niñas!

Cristina and Stephanie told us about their recent adventures in Hollywood.  They got to be in a Spanish-language Coca-Cola commercial which was made for Spanish audiences.  Stephanie lives and works in LA and she had been doing other stuff, but through some of her work connections she landed the role in the commercial because she is pretty and is fluent in Spanish.  Coke was doing a special thing called “Sabor a casa” (“Taste of Home”) to celebrate Hispanic heritage.  Cristina and her mom were in on it, but the whole point of the commercial was that Stephanie didn’t know their mom was coming.  They recreated the Everetts’ house on a set in LA and Stephanie’s mom came and cooked chilaquiles, which were served to Stephanie on camera.  When she realized her mom was actually there on set, she was on camera and her reaction was genuine.  It’s a super neat video.  You can watch Stephanie and Cristina in the commercial at this link: http://www.coca-colamexico.com.mx/videos/sabor-a-casa-ytuzvmyw88nz4

Janet, Amber, and I were the only ones who were able to go to Griselda’s baby shower this afternoon.  We purposely planned to get there around 4 even though the invitation said it started at 3, to compensate for Mexican late-start customs.  Turned out we hit it just about right—the food came out only about ten minutes after we arrived!  Gris and Juanita both looked beautiful.  They were all dressed up with their hair done, and they bustled around saying hello and serving food to everybody. 

Lively conversation (and food of course)

So this was my first-ever party in Mexico, and of course my first baby shower in Mexico.  Funny thing—when Mexicanas have a baby shower, they don’t call it a “fiesta de bebé” or anything like that.  They call it “un baby shower.”  Seriously!  All the store-bought cards say “En su Baby Shower,” and my party invitation said, “Comparte con Griselda en la immensa alegría de su Baby Shower.”  I asked Juanita why that is, and she said she doesn’t know, they just never chose an equivalent term in Spanish.  So if you have a birthday, they say “Feliz cumpleaños,” if a girl turns 15 they throw a quinceañera, and if a woman is having a baby they host a baby shower.  Funny.  Anyway, the party was in the front yard of Juanita’s neighbor, whose son is Griselda’s fiancé.  There were a lot of ladies from the church there, including the pastor’s wife and some of the girls from the worship team, and the three of us sat at a table with Pastor Carlos’s sister Gaby (who used to be the RSM principal in the era before Johnny), her two daughters, and Jazmin (who is deaf and taught at RSM last year).  It was a fun reunion.  There were lots of traditional Mexican party snacks, including Cheetos-looking things, popcorn, watermelon and cucumber with fruit syrup and that orange season salt (can’t remember the names at the moment), and of course plenty of hard candy in fruity flavors (embellished by chile and tamarind, naturally).  They also served plates of rice, beans, and chicken with corn tortillas, and jamaica and horchata.  We had a (mostly) great time.  I say “mostly” because Amber and I got singled out for the games due to our being the only two blondes in the place.  Juanita wouldn’t 'fess up to rigging that, but I’m pretty sure she did.  The two of us got called up for the first game—what we were told is the classic Mexican baby shower game—in which we each had to sit in a chair and hold up one of those painted cutout cardboard things with a hole for you to put your face in.  They were painted like a baby on the front side.  Two other ladies were blindfolded and each given a spoon and a jar of baby food.  They had to spoon-feed the entire jar to us, and we weren’t allowed to give verbal directions, only make baby noises.  I was more anxious about getting a nasty flavor than anything else!  Thankfully the first bite that went in had a nice peachy flavor, and I ate it right down.  Pretty tasty, actually!  I think my “mamá” was peeking, though, because she put every bite in my mouth way too perfectly . . .  Anyway, I won and got to pick a prize from the prize bag (I chose lotion).  Then for the next game, they called all the pregnant ladies and Amber had to go up again!  This game was meaner.  They blindfolded the four ladies and gave each of them a diaper with some mysterious brown substance in it.  All was food, but it looked disgusting, being in a diaper.  They had to smell, touch, and taste it and then guess what type of food they had.  Amber got plum baby food, and I think Griselda got peanut butter something, but I wasn’t sure.  Poor Amber was ready to hide by the time they called ladies for the third game!  But it was kind of funny.  The best part of the shower came after the games.  Juanita asked the pastor’s wife to come up and pray for Gris and her new baby (they’re naming him Juanito, by the way, after his soon-to-be grandma!).  It was really awesome.  Gris was crying, and the pastor’s wife prayed louder and louder (over the noise of a car stereo, a revving motor, and shouting kids) that Gris and her baby would be blessed, healthy, and have strength from God.  Really cool.  We unfortunately couldn’t stay for cake and gifts because we had to get back to RSM for staff church, but it was still a very worthwhile two hours.  The three of us were so happy to have been able to support Juanita and Gris like that.  (When they heard the baby-food stories, Peggy and Trish were relieved that they hadn’t gone, because they probably would have been picked next!)

Amber (left) and Griselda (center) about be put to the diaper test!

Amber was highly apprehensive in this game . . . can you blame her?

Staff church tonight was great.  Luke, Lucas, and Joshua got back in time for it too, so Lucas led the worship from his iPod selection.  (They had gone up to LA for the Sigur Rós concert at the Hollywood Bowl—it was their first time going there and Luke said he was amazed at the size of the venue and that it was a super good concert.)  Amber led the group discussion after worship.  She is going to do an 8-week study series on conflict resolution (since that was something the staff struggled with last year), and this was the first week.  I’m bummed to miss the rest of the series—it was good stuff!  Really helpful.

I left Howard & Janet’s last, because I was showing Howard my sketchbooks.  He has been trying to improve his drawing skills and we were talking about art, so I ran and got my books to show him.  Both he and Janet have some artistic blood—Janet’s dad was a good artist and their daughter does these adorable drawings of all kinds of animals (her website is http://www.davieart.com/)—but Howard says he wants to get better at drawing and learn how to watercolor.  We looked through my sketchbooks and talked for a while.  I’ll have to ask to see Howard’s sketchbook tomorrow! 

Wind has finally died.  Brain is starting to lose steam too.  Tomorrow’s Monday morning, which means early breakfast again, and another group comes tomorrow, so off to bed I go . . . after what I’d say was a very satisfactory day!

Un día cómico

That means "a comical day," which it sort of was.  A lot of fun and funny things went on.

This morning we all were in a much better mood, ready to handle the extra demands of having the group here.  I was ready when they asked for coffee, and I had a fresh ability to focus and be polite while serving the breakfast.  It was still a lot to do (Josefina finally waved at me to sit down and eat--she's like a mom to everybody, not just to her boys), but this time I was at least mentally and physically prepared to take on the challenge.  Though I still was exhausted when I went back to my room after breakfast was finally over!  I had to take another catnap before lunchtime.

You know you have too many bagels when . . .

The bagels from that elderly couple are endless.  We served the sweet ones (fruit, cinnamon raisin, pumpkin spice, etc.) for breakfast along with the eggs, beans, tortillas, and fruit.  I didn't much care for the savory ones last night, but the fruit and nut ones this morning were awesome!  We still had SO many left over after breakfast though, plus all the leftover savory ones from last night.  Tonight we reincarnated some of the savory ones as garlic cheese bread with the spaghetti, but a lot of people still passed on them.  Peggy just threw the rest of those away after dinner.  But we still have two giant bags left of probably 20 each, sweet and savory.  We discovered during breakfast time that an onion sourdough bagel had somehow found its way onto the support screw of the ventilation hood over the stove.  The weird part was, it hadn't been cut as far as we could tell, but it was looped around that vertical screw, which is attached at both ends.  Nobody knew how it got there, and nobody would 'fess up to it, but a lot of us are pinning it on either Joshua or Sammy. 

Josefina was around all day today too, which made everything more hilarious.  She laughs a lot, especially when she or somebody around her makes a mistake, and she’s great at laughing with people rather than at them.  She makes everybody feel like they’re a part of the joke.  It was fun helping prep the lunch today, because she was in the kitchen working with me and Juanita and she kept telling funny stories and laughing at herself when she accidentally put the carrots into the compost bowl rather than the salad bowl.  When she went to cut the garlic cloves for the enchilada meat, I told her she’d better be careful not to put those in the salad by mistake!  She totally cracked up.

The visiting group did a lot of good work today!  The moms and kids cleared away brush and weeds in the morning and cleaned the walk-in fridge in the afternoon, and now both the walkway by the office and the fridge look WAY better.  Doug said the guys helping him up at the old auto shop (they’re clearing the floor in prep for starting a new building) worked super hard too, and some of the other ladies made new curtains and aprons for the kitchen.  Pretty incredible how much extra can get done with 20 more people.  I was thinking the kids seemed to be reasonably good workers and REALLY healthy eaters (they keep skipping the meat and bread at meals and asking for fruit and veggies instead!), and I found out tonight that they’re mostly homeschoolers.  That explains a lot!  (In case any of you happen to not know this, I was a proud K-12 homeschool kid.)

I spent the afternoon making thank-you cards (to give out later in the week), baking the birthday cake for tomorrow's monthly celebration (a job which Josefina commissioned me to do) and making more school snacks (I had to redeem those burnt cranberry bars and make a better batch so the kids don’t have to eat the blackened ones).  I thought I’d have a little bit of time to take a walk before dinner, but by the time I got everything done it was time to help Doug & Peggy make those garlic bread bagels.  So I sneaked in a walk after dinner cleanup was done.

Me and Janet showing off our little creations

The group brought a craft for all the kids to do.  It was these things called Shrink-Ups (I think), which were transparent plastic sheets you could draw on.  Everybody drew things and punched holes in them with a hole punch, and then Martha, one of the group leaders, put them in the oven on parchment paper and they shrank down to about 20 percent of their original size and got hard.  With holes, they could be made into earrings, key chains, window decorations, etc.  They were cool, but it took a long time to bake them all because everybody made so many!  A lot of them either curled up or wrinkled too, which sometimes made them more interesting but other times sort of messed them up.  I got inspired and tried doing a pair of earrings, but they curved a lot and I don’t think they would work as earrings now.  They’re kind of cool little art pieces on their own, though.  Anyway, I think everyone had a really fun time.  The sewing ladies hung up the new curtains (they brighten the kitchen so much compared to the old ones!) and brought in the new aprons.  All the dorm girls (especially Gladis) kept showing off and practicing their new moves from the basic self-defense class one of the ladies had done with them in the afternoon.  It was pretty cool.  Some of the group people invited me and some of the other staff to go get tacos in town with them afterward, but it was already getting late and I was getting tired, so I declined.  Turned out they started their group meeting so late that they didn’t leave for the taquería until 10:45!  I heard them come by to tell Howard they were ready.  Glad I didn’t agree to go, because it’s a bit late for tacos or tortas at this point . . .

Also helped Josefina frost and decorate the birthday cake.  I had made the white cake into Funfetti cake by adding sprinkles, and we used pink cherry frosting for the base coat and decorated it with purple frosting and more sprinkles.  Josefina wrote and drew on paper what she wanted the cake to say, and we put purple frosting in a Ziploc bag and cut the corner to make a pastry bag.  I wrote “Feliz Cumpleaños Gladis y Evalynn” and added some flowers, dots, and swirls.  It came out looking gorgeous—perfect for a month with only girl birthdays.  I’ll have a picture of it in tomorrow’s post!

Tomorrow is Sunday (which I think is my favorite day at RSM because of the dual church services), and also the Feliz Cumpleaños celebration at lunch and Griselda’s baby shower tomorrow afternoon!  Gonna be another fun one, I think!

Oh, and here’s some more staff people for you to meet . . .

RSM Staff Profile

Names: Johnny & Amber
Hail from: Ventura County, CA (Newbury Park & Simi Valley)
Kids: Juan José, or JJ (age 9), Evalynn (age 3) and Baby Thompson (coming early 2017)
Roles at RSM: Principal & teacher; interpreter & mom
Have been here for: 8 years
Favorite thing about serving here: They both like how they get to work with other Christians and how the job is always God-centered, not secular.
Fun fact: They met in acting class at CSU Northridge (which ironically has one of the best programs for deaf out of all the CSU schools, though neither of them majored in sign language or deaf studies!). They're also major board-game nerds.

La paciencia

Phew!  Today was crazy!  I'm thankful that God helped me through this one . . . theme of the day was patience.

The morning was beautiful (the sun is back) and things started off mellow--breakfast as usual.  (Bananas and Cheerios!  And a leftover cinnamon roll, yum.)  Morning devos and staff meeting were next.  Luke led them today.  He reminded everybody to hang in there because they are basically going to have nine days straight of groups being here (one this weekend, one during the week, and one next weekend).  I was going to take a walk after the meeting was over, but Janet was starting to freak out because she still had a bunch of tidying up to do in her house and the windows were filthy from all the rain.  So I volunteered to help out by washing the window exteriors, which she gladly accepted.  Right at 10, as I finished them, the group came rolling up the main driveway!  Perfect timing.  Janet went to meet them--this group is from Newbury Park in the San Fernando Valley, where Howard and Janet are from--and I went to help Juanita prep the food.

There wasn't a lot for me to do in the kitchen today, and the morning was sort of awkward because my brain wouldn't work.  Josefina tried to tell me something in sign, but I just couldn't make sense of it and finally had to ask her to write it down on paper.  Then I kept saying things wrong and Juanita was super confused.  Like at breakfast, I was saying something about doves (the doves here make a cawing noise like a crow!) but she thought I was talking about dogs, and then later I meant to say "mi hermana" (my sister) and I said "mi hija" (my daughter) instead.  Poor Juanita!  Thankfully she was gracious and laughed about it with me.  But as the morning went on and we talked about the frustrations of having people around constantly (the group was already there milling around, and the vibe was getting sort of chaotic already), she sort of opened up about how much her patience gets tested sometimes and how hard it is for her to be kind and gracious.  Everybody at the Ranch, whether resident, student, or visitor, passes through that kitchen and dining hall, and a lot of them don't speak Spanish and can't/won't communicate with her.  Technically Juanita is an employee, not a volunteer, so it is her job to be here, but she's also a Christian and wants to reflect Christ as she does her work.  So she said a lot of times she just has to pray and plead for God to help her, because she is at the very end of her patience with all the people and she can't ever get any alone time.  I sort of felt bad at that point, because I realized how much I must contribute to that sometimes.  Granted, a lot of people have told me my Spanish is decent and I do a good job, but I'm still far from fluent and I say weird things like "hija" instead of "hermana."  So I realized just how much patience Juanita has, to put up with people like me and Janet (who try to communicate but still mess up a lot of the time) and with the kids (who are always coming in and sticking curious noses and fingers into everything) and with the people from groups who come and either ignore her or are rude (which I've heard happens too).  Wow.  As the day went on, I started to realize just how much patience the entire Ranch staff has.

The group that is here has about 20 people, including junior high and high school kids.  Any time youth are visiting it's automatically crazier (I remember, with not so much fondness, our high school trips with CCPC . . . there was more drama than work happening), and Howard and Janet and Doug have to manage the projects the group is doing and answer all the questions and be constantly monitoring what is going on.  Lunch was crazy.  Meals have been so mellow since I got here, and suddenly we had 20-plus extra people, who didn't know the meal protocol yet, coming up for food in addition to the kids and staff.  Juanita had to leave a little early, so right after we finished serving the first round of food, she collected her stuff and left, and suddenly I found that I was the only person in the kitchen, fully in charge of running second helpings for 50 people.  Then, just as lunch finished, an elderly couple--who lives in San Diego and wants to visit the Ranch once a week to help out--showed up with two giant bags (giant trash-size bags) of bagels and a big kitchen fryer and a bunch of other donations.  They didn't quite know protocol either, and suddenly the kitchen counter was covered in stuff and a hundred bagels were being removed from the bags and sorted by type (they got them free from some kind of co-op thing, and it was a huge assortment).  Janet was excited because they hardly ever get bagels down here, but there were so many that everything turned into chaos while the boys tried to clean the kitchen (stopping every five seconds to look at the bagels) and we tried to figure out what to do with them all.  Then the group was calling for me to make a pot of coffee because they had gotten up at the crack of dawn.  Absolute craziness.  It was all I could do not to yell at somebody--and all I could do to find a minute to cram down the last few scraps of mole, chicken, and tortilla on my plate.  I think I reheated the plate in the microwave twice before I finally got to eat it.  Praise the Lord, He helped me keep my cool, at least on the outside, and I didn't do or say anything rude to anyone, despite my frustration.

The kitchen counter after dinner. Bagel disaster. Photo basically sums up day.

When the boys had finally finished their cleanup, Janet assigned the elderly couple to sort the bagels into different categories--savory and sweet--for different meals, and then excused herself and me to drive into town and go shopping for a baby shower gift for Griselda.  I didn't actually need to get anything--I already have a present, which I won't disclose until after the shower because I don't want to post anything that might be read by someone and ruin a surprise--but I could tell Janet was also nearing the end of her patience and needed some breathing room from the visitors for a while, so I just hopped in the car with her and went.  We had a good little talk while we drove the five minutes down the road.  I told her I'm so glad I came here for three weeks, if only to get a better idea of what daily life here is really like and of the prayer needs for the staff.  They need major prayer for patience, I think!  Hosting groups every weekend is like hosting our home Bible study for a whole weekend, but a lot of the time with strangers who have never been here before and who have to be instructed on so much.  I have a new respect for this crew down here!  They're hardcore!

Griselda's gift.  I was so happy with how the wrapping paper turned out!

After we got back from the store, I was tired.  But there were donations from the group that needed to go into the paper room, and since I now know where everything goes, I went to put the stuff away.  Josefina was putting away all the food donations, so I helped her for a couple minutes too.  She was having kind of a hard day too--she said this is one of those days when she gets frustrated with her body not working completely right--and I wanted to love on her a little bit, so I helped her finish.  Then I went back to my room and finished wrapping Griselda's present.  I made homemade wrapping paper and bow (and a card, of course) since I didn't have any.  It looked great, but I was worked after all that!  I had ten minutes before I had to help Janet serve dinner, which I used to take a cat-nap.  Dinner was crazy too, but less so.  The pig slop bucket overflowed though, due to having so many plates scraped into it, and we had to do extra mopping (and nobody would eat the savory bagels, so we had a zillion to put away.  Janet said she'll try to freeze them).  Phew!  Everybody played a soccer game out on the ball court after dinner though, which was fun.  I'm lame at soccer, but I joined in anyway.

It was with great relief that I came back to my room.  Did some more stargazing first though, at Trish's recommendation.  Beautiful!  The Milky Way was just as clear tonight.  God is so awesome.  I was glad to end my day standing under the stars, thanking and worshiping Him for being so good and wonderful.  Today was tough, but He showed me a lot about RSM and about myself through all the challenges of it.  (And I did get a bit of time to do some artwork for Griselda's gift wrap, which was super nice.)  So I'm thrashed, but still thankful.

Bedtime!  YAY.  Oh my bed, how I long for you right now . . . look out, pillow, I'm gonna crash hard on you tonight. . .

A new organization project

Yesterday's walk . . .

. . . and today's.  Same spot, same time.

Drastic and bizarre weather changes continue.  Today I woke up to fog and it was chilly and damp.  I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt over my tank top because I hang-dried all my laundry around my room for the night and the weather was so humid that my sweatshirt hadn’t dried all the way.  Juanita made sunny-side-up eggs for breakfast, which I learned are called huevos estrelladas (kind of translates to “starry eggs”) in Spanish.  Both names are fun . . . can’t decide which I like better.

Devos were good this morning.  Doug went over part of the Beatitudes out of Matthew 5 and I had plenty to think and pray about when I took my walk afterwards.  I couldn’t believe what I wore walking today versus what I wore yesterday, by the way.  Tank top and shorts yesterday, long pants and long sleeves today . . . and quite the difference in headgear.

Juanita actually didn’t need help with lunch today because it was a really easy-to-make meal, so I spent my day organizing the paper-supplies room, which is in the storage building across from the kitchen.  It was almost a bigger jumble than the linen room had been in (though with fewer objects in it), and it took a while to even get an idea of what was there and how to move it around without putting other things in the way.  They call it the “paper room,” but really it stores all the bathroom and kitchen items, which includes a lot more than just paper towels, TP, and napkins.  There are cleaning supplies, laundry detergent and bleach, spare mops and brooms, Ziploc and trash bags, plastic cutlery, disposable plates & cups, canning jars, Crock-Pots and rice cookers, coffee makers, and so many picnic coolers and dispenser drink coolers that it’s ridiculous.  But there is always at least one person on staff who prefers to keep things rather than just donating them or throwing them away, even if those things never get used.  And sometimes church groups donate or leave things that end up not getting used, like giant picnic coolers.  So there is only so much that can be got rid of, and the room has been in pretty bad disarray of late.  I did the best I could, but at lunchtime I was sort of at the end of what I was able to do on my own, and I enlisted Janet to help me on the next phase.  She fully tackled it!  I was getting tired, but she just jumped right in and started muscling stuff around, and before too long i got a second wind too.  Janet really seems to have a gift for organizing quickly and effectively . . . maybe it’s just because she has taken inventory of everything already and knows what she’s dealing with, so she has a good idea of where she’s going.  For sure, she gets lots of practice organizing and administrating through being here.  Anyway, by 5 pm we had it done, thanks to her!  It looked amazing.  I never thought we could get everything stored away and off the floor, but thanks to Janet, we did.  (And then after dinner she took Peggy in there to show her our handiwork, and the three of us ended up doing another ten-minute round of touch-ups.  With all three of our brains contributing, we got a few miscellaneous items repositioned to even better locations.  Praise the Lord!  One day, all done!  (Though I know Janet will go back and rearrange more . . . she gets OCD about her projects and always is thinking about how to make them better.)

The paper room BEFORE organization.

Got sort of chilly tonight compared to the last few nights!  The sky was clear though, and the moon finally is rising later, so Trish and I went out to look at the constellations for a couple minutes.  She has the Skyview app, and she has been down here long enough that she knows her constellations by now, so it was kind of fun.  She knew where they all were.  We found Polaris (the North Star), Mars and Saturn, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Aquarius, Scorpius (theme of the day was scorpions—I found another one today while cleaning the paper room, EEK), and of course Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.  We could even see the Milky Way!  It still wasn’t quite dark or cold enough for superb viewing, but they were pretty good.  Trish told me that in winter when they drain the little swimming pool, you can lay in the bottom of it to look at the stars because the pool edges block out any surrounding light.  Mental note for when we come down on the weekend trip in January!

And after.

After that, I went to Trish’s room and we watched Song of the Sea, which is a European film that came out in 2014.  Trish told me I would like it because I'm an art person, and wow, I did like it a lot.  It was unlike any animated movie I've ever seen--a feast for the eyes for sure!  Hard to describe the style exactly, very watercolor-ish and children's book-ish . . . it was like every new shot and scene was a beautiful and intricate fantasy picture book come to life.  The story is based on Celtic and Irish folklore and is about a boy whose little sister turns out to be a selkie, a mythical creature who transforms into a seal when she enters the water.  It was super cute and a very nice watch.  Highly recommended.  We ended up talking art and looking up different artists online, which meant I didn't even leave her room until 10 because the online art vortex is never-ending.  If you're an art geek like me or Trish, it's as dangerous to start looking up artists online as it is to go on Pinterest or Instagram for anybody else.  The vortex is like a black hole that will suck you in.  Anyway, we got sleepy so we finally called it a night.

Oh my gosh, Trish and I keep finding all these things we have in common.  Age 25, homeschooled, fashion sense dictated mostly by comfort, long-winded blogging habits, decaf coffee, love of sea animals, etc.  Now it's starting to get weird.  Tonight I discovered that her favorite comic strip in the newspaper is Pearls Before Swine and that she actually knows the "Age of Aquarius" song and has seen the ridiculous music video that goes along with it.  Like I said, very weird.  Maybe we're twins separated at birth?  Or at least twins in our minds?

I can't believe I only have one more week here!  The first week went by really slow, but this one was lightning-fast.  This weekend ought to have a bit more activity--Janet's old church from Thousand Oaks is the group coming down to stay--and Griselda's baby shower is Sunday!  Lots going on!  In the meantime, I must sleep . . .

Victory at last!

I did a lot today!  The biggest accomplishment was that I FINISHED THE LINEN ROOM!  Yay!  Janet and I were both so happy with how tidy it looks compared to before.

Juanita putting the finishing touch--the glaze--on her lovely roles de canela

 Cinnamon rolls for breakfast turned out beautifully and tasted so good . . . though not doughy like Cinnabon, more fluffy and dense like these other cinnamon biscuit rolls Joanna has made at home on Sunday mornings.

Played a couple of worship songs to go with morning devos.  I let Janet work with Juanita on lunch prep today because she finally didn’t have something else to get done, and I know she wants to practice her Spanish too.  So I did a double walking loop (ugh, it was so oppressively humid at that hour, but I got it done) and did a load of laundry.  Hung it up all over the inside of my room instead of on the clothesline in case of more unexpected rain.  After that I went and worked on the linen room with the intent of getting it done by the end of the day.  I finished organizing the blankets and made sure everything was labeled with sticky notes so we could make permanent labels later.  Finished that section just in time for lunch.

Juanita made “Chinese” vegetables, which was cooked carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, and chicken (she had a “C” theme going today, apparently . . . first cinnamon rolls and then that lunch!) in a soy-sauce-ish marinade.  It didn’t taste like Chinese food, but it was still good.  I’ve been all over the cooked carrots in these soups we keep having . . . most of the time cooked carrots don’t happen at home because certain members of our family have aversions to cooked carrots and to soup (I won’t name names, haha).

After lunch I went back to tackle the remainder of the linen room.  Janet came with me.  We brought her label maker, some cleaner, and some paper towels, and spent the next half hour or so scraping and scrubbing off old labels on the shelves and putting new ones on.  Janet had more office work to do and it was hot in the linen room (no fan in there), so she left after a while and I kept working until I’d finished getting all the old sticky stuff off. 

After that, I went to the kitchen for cooking class.  Eddie’s daughter Christina has been teaching the girls some homemaking skills, and one of the things they’ve been learning is how to bake different types of bread.  But the girls haven’t done cooking class in a couple weeks because Christina was on vacation.  So since she was back today, they were doing a tortilla-making session!  I learned from Juanita last week how to roll and cook a tortilla, but today I learned the recipe too, and got to watch a lot of tortillas go on the griddle.  Now I have a good idea of exactly what the dough consistency should be, how thin to roll them, how long to cook them, etc.  It was a lot of fun.  The girls made chili-bean burritos with the fresh tortillas, which Frances and I served with soup for dinner.  (For the record, Juanita made a cucumber salad earlier that was intended to go with the dinner too, so the “C” theme continued!)

Noemi, Ana Lidia, Diana, Kayla, and Cristelle (Christina's daughter) in dough-making action

The girls did a great job--their tortillas were looking pretty professional by the end! 

Look at this organ-i-zation!

Also made another school snack: layered cookie bars with cranberry sauce in the middle.  The trouble was, I put them in right before tortilla class, and then I was so busy monitoring the tortillas on the griddle that I completely forgot to take them out!  So alas, they got sort of burnt on the bottom.  I feel bad . . . the school snack is going to be marginal one day this week . . .

Went back to the linen room to put a stake in it after dinner.  I was so close and just wanted to be done.  Janet came in and she was so pleased at how clean it looked.  I had just vacuumed and bagged up the last of the donation items, so the floor was finally clear and (mostly) spotless.  Josefina came in too, and she got a huge smile and said thank you, it looked great.

Next I went back to the kitchen and cut, bagged, and labeled the rather-burnt cranberry bars for school snacks.  Put them in fridge/freezer.  Replaced empty toilet paper and Ziploc supply in chow hall.  Ate one more tortilla—a “defective” one that was nice and thick—and it more than compensated for any kind of dessert.  Didn’t need any late night snacks tonight after that!  Came back to my room and put laundry away.  Did another load.  Studied my sign language.  Took out other load and hung it to dry.  Very tired now.  (Need a shower because I’m covered in dust, dirt, and cobwebs from head to toe.)  Good thing I worked a lot today, because I ate a big fat cinnamon roll and probably the equivalent of four flour tortillas.  Yes, there are fruits and veggies here, but eating healthy is still so tough . . .

Una memoria hermosa

Today was fun!  It was cloudy and sprinkly all morning, and it’s been rainy since midafternoon. We’re definitely getting hit with the edge of the weather effects from Hurricane Paine down south.  Gracias a Dios (as Juanita would say), the rain has been coming steadily but pretty lightly the whole time, so it’s allowing the ground to absorb the moisture and the hillside buildings aren’t in danger of mudslides.

This morning Juanita did hard-boiled eggs, yogurt with fruit, and carrot-cake muffins, which made for a well-rounded and very yummy breakfast.  I was a tad late coming into the kitchen—I couldn’t get myself out of bed quite on time this morning—and when I tried to apologize Juanita told me I don’t have to feel obligated to get up so early every morning.  But I don’t mind.  It’s nice to get up and be in the kitchen early, when things are peaceful and quiet and Mark, Oscar, and Juanita (and Oscar’s dog Frida) are the only other ones in there.  We have coffee and chat, and it gives us all a chance to ease into our day.  I like that aspect (not to mention the killer sunrises most days) so I’m willing to get up a bit earlier while I’m here.

It was fun to watch Trish teach Bible class this morning.  I learned a lot more signs today—some animals and a few other random ones.  Also am trying to learn numbers 1-20.

Got to spend lots of time with Juanita this morning too, which was great.  My brain is now starting to actually get stuck in “Spanish mode” (I’m becoming like Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3!), and I keep accidentally saying English words with a Spanish accent or addressing my fellow English speakers in Spanish.  It’s great to know my brain is doing that.  Juanita and I talked plenty today because there was a lot of prep work to do (we had to do everything for the lunch and also for the dinner soup for later).  We also made roles de canela (also known as CINNAMON ROLLS!) for tomorrow’s breakfast.  Joanna, we did them just like they do at Cinnabon—I’ll teach you how when I get home!  Juanita had some worship music on, and a Spanish version of “Fire Fall Down” by Hillsong United came on.  I told her that I love that song because it always reminds me of the year at winter camp when God first spoke to me and revealed Himself to me.  I was in one of the worship sessions, and that was the moment when I realized God was real, that He was present in the room, and that I needed to follow Him with everything I had, for my whole life.  When I asked Juanita what her story was, she said that she was 28 years old and was at church with a friend, and while everybody was praying at the front, she heard the Holy Spirit speak to her in such an audible voice that at first she looked around to see who was talking to her.  She said God told her, loud and clear, that she needed to not go back to her life in Durango but stay in Guadalupe instead, because she needed to be like the nation of Israel when they were called to leave Egypt and separate themselves from the worldly influences there.  She needed to purify her life for God.  At first after she committed her life to God, her husband wasn’t a Christian, but as time went by he started going to church with her, and eventually he got saved too!  It was a pretty neat story.  We talked about how crazy it is to hear God speak to you like that, and how at the time you don’t always recognize the significance of what is happening.  But now, I told her, when I look back, I can see how that was the defining moment when God changed my heart, “y ahora cuando yo pienso en ese momento” (and now when I think about that moment), I told her, "es una memoria . . .”

“Es una memoria hermosa,” she finished for me.  “It’s a beautiful memory.”  That pretty much sums it up. 

I went to the distribution center after that, but Josefina was working in there today and she said she didn’t need any help and that I could have a free day because today is her day to organize things in there.  So I just let her have her space, because she has her own method of doing things, and it can be kind of scattered.  I figured it would be nice to have an afternoon off from linen room duty, especially on a rainy day.  A side note . . . I love Josefina so much!  (I love all the staff, of course, but she’s absolutely amazing Despite all the crazy things she’s been through in her life (not only is she deaf, but she had a debilitating brain hemorrhage about 15 years ago and only survived and recovered by God’s healing power), she is still so smart, and so sweet and affectionate and genuine to everyone.  Her smile lights up her whole face.  She’s one of those “shiny” Christians for sure—God’s love and joy just radiate out of her.

So anyway, I went back to the kitchen to make a new batch of school snacks, which kept me busy till lunchtime.  Poor Juanita kept trying to sit down and relax, but things at her house were crazy and her kids kept calling her every five minutes.  Made me think about all the house chaos I’ll go home to next week . . .

Get a load of this beautiful scenery! (about 10 minutes pre-downpour)

The sky was whited out with all the water coming down!

The afternoon was nice.  After I helped Trish and the boys clean up the kitchen, I decided to take a second walk (I had done one loop in the morning after devos) because it was so nice out.  Cloudy and humid, but cool enough to be pleasant.  I was really admiring the beauty of the hills with the mist and clouds behind them, and for the first five or ten minutes it was perfect walking conditions.  Praise the Lord I took my umbrella, though, because just as I reached the front gate it suddenly started dropping big fat drops.  I barely had time to get my umbrella unfolded before it turned into a full deluge.  My walk instantly turned into a puddle-jumping sprint, trying to hold the umbrella over my head, while I made a mad dash up the driveway (man, is it long!) and across the soccer field (which isn’t a field at all, just a plateau of dirt) to the shelter of the staff house.  I think I was out in the downpour for two minutes tops, but as it was, I got pretty wet.  After drying off, I decided I’d have to spend my afternoon indoors.  So I did some artwork for a while.  Super pleasant with the rain coming down (it didn’t let up for a long time, by the way, and it’s still drizzling now as I write at 9:12 pm).

Helped Trish with dinner.  Super simple . . . Juanita and I had prepped a jicama and cucumber salad and a chicken vegetable soup with carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and zucchini.  Delicious for a rainy night!  After dinner, the normal playground hour was used as a board-game hour in the chow hall.  Now here I am back at my room, writing this lovely little blog post.

Just for fun . . .

Meet some of the Ranch critters! 
(Sorry for no photos . . . they won't stay still long enough for me to get any.) Most of the pets at RSM are adopted street animals, so a lot of mutts here!

• Doug and Peggy have two dogs named Max (an ancient golden retriever) and Auggie  (a pit bull mix, I think).  They always bark and/or whine at me when I walk past their screen door or their side yard.
• Janet and Howard’s dog, Zuma, is a mid-sized mutt with pointy ears (like a coyote) who is also ancient and has arthritis.  He likes to bark at visitors too, even the ones he knows.  I call him "the doorbell," because he barks every time I come near Howard & Janet's door. 
• Johnny and Amber have a very mischievous pug-looking mutt named Buster.  He always, always finds a way to sneak into the chow hall and get in everyone’s way.  
• Oscar’s black Chihuahua, Frida, is the exact opposite of Buster.  She is a master escape artist.  Every morning Oscar tries to keep her inside with him while he has his coffee, but she always manages to sneak out the open kitchen door at least once.  The other day she got out and a falcon was eyeing her!  Oscar had to rush to the rescue before she became breakfast!
• Goldie is like the youngest child--everybody's favorite and probably the most spoiled.  When she first showed up at the Ranch she was still a puppy, but now she's reached full size (which is still not very big). Her name came from her short golden coat.  She doesn't "belong" to anybody, but there was a long list of regular visitors (including a couple from our church) who called dibs on her at one point or another.  No adopted family yet, though.  She just runs around, wrestles with Buster, and adds to the overall havoc of the menagerie.
• Three dogs live at Luke and Josefina’s house.  I can’t remember all their names, but the biggest one, a shaggy mutt called Java, is Sammy’s dog and she will defend him against anybody at any cost.  I know better than to get too close to her--she almost bit me once on a weekend trip when I got out of the church van!
• Mark has a dog named Roy, who lives in the yard next to the boys’ dorm.  The RSM cat, Diana, has been around for a long time and is most attached to Mark.  We all give her scraps from the kitchen now and then, but Mark is the one who shows her the most affection.  She is super cute--all black with white socks and a white-tipped tail, and she always sits outside the kitchen windows and meows to be let in.

Weird weather

Sunrise over Valle de Guadalupe . . . the start of a humid day

Today was bizarre.  There is a hurricane off the coast of Baja further down, so all day we had very odd weather.  When I woke up this morning, there was a beautiful sunrise with tropical-looking clouds, and once the sun was out it got super hot right away . . . you know, that kind of serious humidity that turns every molecule of air into a magnifying glass.  I took a walk after breakfast (and did a double loop to make up for no walk yesterday), but it was pretty nasty out (beautiful, but miserable to be in).  Then, around 9:45, a cloud layer came over and, though it trapped more heat, it at least took away the oppressiveness of the sun. 

I hit a new milestone today: first time praying in Spanish!  We prayed for the dining room and kitchen today during staff devotions, and Howard, Frances, and I went in the kitchen to pray for Juanita.  I decided to try doing it in Spanish, so Juanita could understand it better, and gracias a Dios, I succeeded!  Juanita was so thankful for our prayers, whether in Spanish or English.  She got all weepy in the middle and had to find a napkin to wipe her eyes.

At 10 am, Doug did a mandatory fire-prevention class for all the kids and staff.  Since they had the big fire this summer, he wanted to make sure everybody was educated about fire safety.  Everyone met in the chow hall first, where we learned about the basics of how a fire starts and is fueled, and then we all walked out to the dump at the corner of the property to see examples of how to fight different types of fires.  Johnny translated everything while Doug did the demos.  Doug had set up all his equipment beforehand, and he lit small fires of different kinds (wood fire, oil fire, gasoline fire, electrical fire) and showed us all the correct methods (and extinguishers) to put out each.  It was great . . . I learned a lot.  It’s been a long time since I reviewed any fire safety.

Everybody assembled at the dump for fire demos

Doug showing the process of an electrical fire while Johnny translates

I helped Juanita with both breakfast and lunch today because it was Kayla’s day off and Janet had dorm duty until she got back.  Juanita left not long after breakfast because her daughter Griselda had some pain and other symptoms and was worried the baby might be coming early, but it turned out to be a false alarm and Juanita made it back in time to prep the lunch like usual.  She made her special secret recipe for carne adobada (marinated beef), which was SO yummy.

The afternoon was long and sleepy.  A nice strong wind kicked up, so it cooled off some, but the humidity and cloud cover stuck around and we’ve had random raindrops and sprinkly showers since about 3 this afternoon.  So weird.  I worked in the linen room for a while after lunch, and then went to the kitchen and made some more popsicles out of leftover champurrado (Janet and the dorm girls were in there making cookies and I had a fun and ridiculous time trying to communicate with them), but after that I had to go take a nap.  Crazy how humidity just saps your energy!

A neat moment today—while I was in the linen room, Mark brought the boys to the distribution center to load up the trash for transport to the dump, and Reynaldo wandered in.  I waved hello, and he came up really close to me with a sort of unreadable expression on his face.  It can be really hard to tell what he’s feeling because sometimes his face doesn’t seem to match his emotions.  Anyway, I signed to him, “Are you doing okay?” and he suddenly leaned against me and gave me this big long hug that lasted a whole minute.  I’ve seen him do that with Frances and some of the other staff, but this was the first time he’d done anything like that with me.  I was surprised, but I’ve observed that sometimes he needs long hugs, so I just hugged him back until he was ready to let go.  After that he went back out of the room to look for Mark, and I resumed my work.  Random, seemingly, but I guess God let me be there to give a hug when he needed one.

I hung out in the kitchen while Johnny and Amber finished making dinner, just to help them by keeping an eye on the kids.  JJ and Evalynn are cute, but they’re definitely a handful (especially because JJ has some development disorders and Evalynn has all the energy typical of a three-year-old).  It was a tasty dinner: chicken noodle soup with quesadillas and canned peaches on the side.  (Maybe not the most nutritious ever, but the soup did have a lot of carrots.)

Johnny and Amber invited me to join them and Trish for a game night at their house at 8:15, and at first I wasn’t going to go, but in the end I decided to take them up on it, and I was so glad I did.  We had a great time.  The kids were in bed and we played a board game called Karuba, which was a “quest for the lost temple” themed-game (think Indiana Jones) that involved placing little tiles to make pathways through the jungle to the different temples.  There were little jewel prizes to collect along the way for extra points.  It was super fun!  I won the first game, and Trish just beat me in the second one.  Amber had made Abuelita hot chocolate, and she and Trish educated me on how to do a “Tim Tam Slam,” which she learned from her friend (and former staff member) Erin.  There are these packaged cookies called Tim Tams, which are made in Australia.  They’re like a sandwich cookie—two rectangular cookie wafers with a chocolate layer in between—coated in milk chocolate.  To do a Tim Tam Slam, you get a cup full of hot chocolate, and then you take a Tim Tam and bite off the two opposite corners.  Then you hold one corner in the hot chocolate and suck at the opposite corner to draw hot chocolate up through the whole cookie.  The cookie gets soft and melty right away, so you have to “slam” it and put the whole thing in your mouth at once.  If you’re careful you can do it in two bites, but it’s a bit messy and you always have to be quick.  I’m normally not much of one for packaged cookies, but I happened to be craving dessert really badly tonight and wow, did that combo hit the spot! 

Johnny gave me their Game Journal to sign when I left.  He said that he and Amber always document their group game nights—it’s a fun way to keep a record of what games they played with whom.  He and Amber (and Trish) are all self-professed “nerds,” which cracks me up when I’m around them because I’m so un-nerdy by comparison.  Just to give you an idea of the extent of their nerdiness . . . Johnny was wearing a “Visit Mordor” T-shirt tonight, there were art pieces on their wall containing quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring, and they had a ten-minute discussion about one of their favorite games in which the most recent “smashup” battle was between aliens and geeks, and the battle before that was between pirates and zombies.  I agree that Tolkien is pretty awesome, but beyond that it all goes over my head.  Another language more foreign to me than Mexican Sign!

Argh, it’s late again.  Sugar rush from the Tim Tam Slam is long gone.  Must.  Sleep.  Must.  Sleep . . .