Today in itself wasn't terribly exciting. The weather got hot again and the day felt really long. It's sort of lonely for me, especially in the afternoons, because everybody else is busy about their different tasks. But some cool things did happen today.
Today Gladis, one of the girls, had her 16th birthday. She is a really sweet girl who always has a big, goofy, happy smile on her face. When she came in this morning, we all gave her big hugs. A lot of the kids are pretty affectionate, but Gladis is particularly loving. She hugged me for a full fifteen seconds! Oscar showed me how to say "Feliz cumpleaños" in sign language.
I've been learning a lot of signs! This was the first day that I was able to communicate a few simple things and recognize a couple of the signs I saw being used. My Spanish is getting a little better too--I caught myself making a couple mistakes and realized as soon as the words came out that they had been technically wrong. So progress is happening.
Had some good talks today with Amber, Janet, and of course Juanita. I've really started looking forward to getting up early (yes, you read that right) and being in the kitchen, because Oscar and Mark come in early too, and they and Juanita talk while they have their coffee. It's nice and peaceful and I'm able to just listen. I can understand most of the conversation, even if I don't get every word.
Janet helped me with the next leg of organizing the linen room. Today we went through curtains, sheets, and other bedding. So far 14 big garbage sacks of fabric have been taken out of the distribution center, but there's still SO much stuff. Talk about a big project. I'll be lucky if I finish organizing the whole room before I go home in two weeks!
Turns out that tomorrow, September 16, is Día de la Independencia--Mexican Independence Day! I think it's pretty cool that I'm here for it. The traditional celebration takes place the night before, which is tonight. People get super dressed up and have big parties with traditional dishes like tamales, chiles en nogada (green chiles stuffed with white cheese and garnished with red toppings), posole (a soup with meat and hominy), or sopes (masa pancakes topped with beans, meat, salsa, etc.). They also serve a special drink called champurrado made with masa flour, chocolate, cinnamon, and milk.
Tonight in Mexico City, the president will ring the bell of the National Palace, then shout “¡Viva México!” three times and then waves the Mexican flag (la bandera). Today is called Día del Grito (Day of the Shout) because everybody is going to shout at midnight. At Juanita's church in town they are having a big celebration, and I would have liked to go, except that I'm already tired and I know they probably (in typical Mexican fashion) are just now getting started on their party. Plus I have nothing fancy enough to wear. I'd love to try all the special foods though . . . maybe if I find a recipe Janet and I can make champurrado for a treat at lunch. Tomorrow is a holiday and everybody has the day off, so Juanita isn't coming in to cook and the staff is in charge of food. Janet and I are planning to do patriotic enchiladas for lunch.
One other cool thing that happened today was that Josefina, Luke's wife, was busy and wasn't able to do her normal dinner duty rotation, so the lot fell to me. Juanita had made a soup and cut up fruit, so the prep was way easy, but I still had a trial by fire because when the girls came in before dinner to get started on the dishes, the PVC pipe under the drain popped out and water went all over the floor. I had to communicate with them as best I could in my limited sign language until Doug came to fix it. Then everybody was super-duper hungry at dinner--unusually so, considering that it was a hot night and we were eating soup the second night in a row--and I was the only one serving, so I had my work cut out for me staying on top of it. There was about 2 cups of soup left at the end, but everything else was fully dusted. I was really glad I had thought to pull out the leftover ham-and-cheese biscuits from breakfast! But it was good in the end, because I had to supervise the girls' kitchen duty until they had everything clean and then dismiss them, so I was forced to use sign a little more than usual. I did come down here to be immersed in a different language, after all! I think it's working!
No comments:
Post a Comment