 |
| A beautiful start to a very tropically humid 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 |
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!!! |
No comments:
Post a Comment