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!