Life in Mexico

2010-09-16T04:05:00.003-10:00

Dear friends,

Is it really September already? Wow! Sometimes life feels like its flying by. Most of you (hopefully) are aware of the changes that have taken place in my life in the last few months. If you aren't the coles notes version is that I got married on June 14, 2010 in Nicaragua to Errol Reymond Dixon Garcia, but he goes by the name of Sony. I left Nicaragua after a 3 week visit to return to Mexico at the end of June and started working on the paperwork for Sony to come to Mexico and after lots of hoop jumping we finally got his papers and he

arrived in Mexico on Sept 3. We are happy to finally be together and are settling into life, work and routine stuff.

Our plan is to be in Mexico for another year or so (God willing) and then likely we will make a move to Canada to work on getting Sony his Canadian passport. For now though we are both working at the orphanage. Hopefully you have kept track of progress on Jeremy's blog, if not check it out... www.childrenofhope.xanga.com , our construction funds are low at the moment so we are working but at a bit of slower pace than before.

In my 3 years in Mexico I have been extremely blessed and have had my full support provided the entire time, and have not needed to seek further support. However with this change and having the 2 of living on the same support amount things are a little tight. So my friends I am asking if you would consider partnering with us in the ministry here by financially supporting us. If this is something that you interested in doing, please send me an email and I will send you the details on how to get involved.

I would love to hear from you and find out how life is in your part of the world!

God Bless,

Skip & Sony

at the lawyers for the civil ceremony

With Sony's cousin Corby

our 2 witnesses, Corby and Pastor Ed

on the way to Tasbapauni (Sony's home community)

blah, blah, blah

2009-10-06T12:58:00.002-10:00

can u believe that it is October! I guess for those of you in Canada that have already had some snow it might be easier to believe. though i was shocked to see Christmas stuff out already... yikes.. does it seem to come out earlier each year?

but first we have to get through halloween and the day of the dead... yes you read that right, the day of the dead. Here in Aguascalientes it is a BIG deal and they "celebrate" for 3 days, cause halloween is on the 31st and the day of the dead is on Nov 2 so then they just keep going for the day in between. Essentially people give homage to the members of their families who have died and even go visit them at the graves etc but then they do all the halloween stuff to so it ends up being a little strange.

So we are making progress on the buildings though right now it feels slow because we are doing all the finishing work.. details! But it's good and the deadline is in sight now.. counting down to moving day. December the kids will be in and we will celebrate Christmas in the new house! yayyy!

Well that's it for now.. just a brief update.. have a great day!

where does the time go??

2009-09-09T11:00:00.006-10:00

well i wont say how long it's been because all u have to do is look at my last post to see... so lets just leave it at that and I'll catch u all up on what i've been doing.

well at the last post i had just headed to Nicaragua with a team for Samaritan's Purse and it was great trip, other than the fact that almost all of the team got sick. We spent time at a place called Tasba Pauni and in a city called Bluefields, doing some construction, children's ministry etc.

Well since then I have moved houses in Mexico and am no longer living in the "hood", my current neighborhood is lovely, quiet (most nights) and secure. It's close to the construction site so i can walk to work in about 10 minutes.. and it is uphill both ways (i too had parents that gave me the story of the school trek uphill both ways, though mine is not in the snow!) however in this next week I am moving yet again because my current landlord decided that she wants to move back into her house.

God is good though and He has provided me with another place a little further away but the rent is very cheap ($90/ month!) and it is a new place again in a quiet neighborhood. I am just in the process of painting before I move in.

Well what else has gone on.. we have had teams come and go which you can read about on Jeremys blog www.xanga.com/childrenofhope and see the pictures of the progress on the construction site. We are aiming to have the kids move in by December during their school break so we are busily working on finishing the dorm and getting the office and the shop/directors house up. My days consist of lots of painting, grouting or cement.

We said goodbye to Ricky and his 3 siblings in July as they went back to live with their mom and dad. It was sad for us but of course we want families living together so we are praying that God will bless and care for them. We are always getting new kids coming and currently have about 33 kids. It's exciting to see the older kids grow up and mature and go through life lessons though they are not always easy but I have really enjoyed getting to know them better.

People ask me all the time how long i am here for... and the answer is "until God tells me to go somewhere else". I am truly blessed to be doing this work, i love it. I also love being able to still lead teams for Samaritan's Purse and experience other places and cultures or return to other communities where I have built friendships.

In fact I just got back from Nicaragua again, and after my trip in March I had it laid on my heart to go back there and help in some way for a month or 2 though it wasn't clear in my mind exactly what that would look like. After this most recent trip though I am looking forward to going back and doing some specific work with them on hosting teams and maybe some discipleship.

Please continue to pray for me as I strive to work daily where God has me..

Enjoy some pics..

Blog pics

happy new year and then some..

2009-03-11T16:55:00.002-10:00

hey all, well can you believe that we are already into mid March 2009... where does the time go. I know that I have been very remiss about writing.... consider my hands slapped!

I took a trip home (to Calgary) in January... crazy I know, who leaves Mexico (nice and warm) to go to Canada (not so nice and warm) in JANUARY! Well my visa was expiring so I needed to exit and thought it would be a good time to do so. It was a lovely time, it was great to see friends and catch up with folks.

Since I've been back I've hit the ground running, there was a team here from Ontario when I got back and so I spent about a week with them and then on Feb 13, I was the team leader for a team that came here from Manitoba and I leave tomorrow to lead a team to Nicaragua for Samaritan's Purse.... yup a little busy :)

Well in other exciting news we had a wedding here on February 14 (all together now.. awww) and so that was fun. Marcos and Manuela, 2 volunteer staff at the orphanage got married.

Ricky is now living at the orphanage full time and no longer with us, sad for us, but he is doing fairly well.

Ok.. i know it's short but I'll post pics and more when I get back from Nica.. bye for now..

boom, boom, Merry Christmas

2008-12-03T15:47:00.003-10:00

i am waiting for the next boom to resound... no literally. We currently have just had aobut 4 canon shots in the last 10 minutes and it's hard to say if or when the next one will be. At least this time it's early evening instead of 2, 3 or 4 am like it usually is. I am not entirely sure what the "booming" is about though it usually has to do with some kind of Catholic holiday or tradition or to scare the demons away. (though why demons or "spirits" would be scared of canon shots or fireworks is again somewhat of a puzzle in my mind)

Christmas has hit Aguascalientes, which is a little odd to see as the days are still sunny and warm but alas the lights, poinsetta's and sounds have all begun. I will confess that even I have gotten into some of it. I have been decorating the kitchen at the construction site as we have a family and a team coming on Dec 12 and I thought they might appreciate a little bit of a Christmas feel.

I'll post a pic when it's all done.. other than that my life as a school chauffer continues, every morning I am driving 9 kids to school and have been picking them at different times too. I really enjoy this part of my "job" as it connects with at least some of the kids every day. Which can be a challenge as we currently have 38 kids... yikes. :) no just kidding they are all great and doing well.

Well it's a quick post but Feliz Navidad!

enjoy some random pics..

craft time with the last group.

craft time.. again.

Jose would u like a bannana?

Christian and me... what a sweetheart he is.. I love getting his hugs!

Can we say "sexy" coca cola ad.... way to go Enid!!

pics..

2008-11-15T16:32:00.013-10:00

read the next post first and these will make more sense....

Frieda got stung by something and swelled up like a cartoon dog :)

Me and some of the kids...

Ricky's 2nd birthday party with his siblings at Burger King.

Erin made Ricky a "cupcake" birthday cake..

The beach.... ahhhh!

Children of Hope staff in Leon.

Bullrider video

hellooooo!!... at long last!

2008-09-26T04:06:00.009-10:00

hey all..
yes I've been remiss at writing lately but here goes..
so what's happened in the last couple months? Well we have had a team here from BC and with them got the roof poured for the girls dorm, then a team from Ontario and we sealed the roof... there's been much more done so check out Jeremy's blog www.xanga.com/childrenofhope for more info on the project and pics..

September 16 is indepence day here in Mexico and this year it brought with it a round of chaos. A week before independance day there was a police officer killed (close to the construction site acutally, Duane and Juan heard the shots) and if that isn't disturbing enough he was killed by other cops! Well then on Monday Sept 15, the day that all the independance day partying takes place there were 3 more cops killed.... again by other cops. So last week Friday the military came in and took over. So currently we have no municipal police as they are under investigation as well as we don't have a government for our state because the govenor is also under investigation. This seems a little surreal to write it down but in reality it has not affected us much at all other than we've noticed less of a police presence on the roads.
Well enough about that drama....

We had our own little "fiesta" at the orphanage for indepence day and we volunteers set up tables and "sold" food, like tamales, elotes, tostada's etc.. for the kids, who were all given a page of tickets to use to buy stuff an of course music, including a kareoke machine!
Ricky had a birthday and he is now 2 years old and we know the meaning of the terrible 2's.. LOL! But he is precious and we wouldn't trade him for anything!

The staff from Children of Hope had a staff retreat in the city of Leon, about 2 hours away from Aguascalientes and we stayed in a hotel and enjoyed a great weekend together, we even got in some bowling!

I was able to get away for a few days in October to go to the beach with some fellow volunteers.. great fun and it was soo nice!

This past week Marce the director was gone and I helped out at the orphanage instead of the construction site, even sleeping there in Marce's room so there was someone around in the girls house in case anything went wrong. The week was spent driving, discipling kids, driving, making sure homework was done, driving, and keeping the kids from mischief and oh yeah did I mention driving!!! My busload" of kids to school in the morning is now up to 9 kids! so no longer will the little bug work and instead I drive one of the vans.

Life for me is normal... well relatively so, I still have challenges with the language of course though I am getting by much better than before. The best way to live life here is to be flexible especially when working with the orphanage so that's what we do and it goes so much smoother!
well I'll end with posting a tonne of pics.... cheers!

Independance Day Fiesta!

feeling a little philosophical

2008-08-10T16:50:00.001-10:00

warning... this post is not about mexico!

do ever wonder if our world is better with IM'ing or worse? i do... i mean online you can be anyone you want to be, you can be braver, bolder, more flirty, more cautious, more..... u name it. but is it all it's cracked up to be? i mean there's got to be some credit in the friendships that have been molded through time and trial and error right? it seems to me that in this age of "instant" stuff some of the consequences get shoved aside.. for example if i am chatting with someone and have typed something that gets misconstrued and the other person get's upset then if i'm the sort of person who avoids confrontation then all I need to do is logoff and not deal with it.

can u really know someone online? i'm not convinced... maybe u can take a friendship or a new friendship to certain levels but if we're talking soul bearing, tear jerking, finish your sentances kinda friendship then i don't think so. nope that kinda friendship needs to be done face to face or voice to voice.

so in light of all this... whoever thought that online dating was a smart thing? isn't dating hard enough without adding the equation of looking at your computer screen wondering if what "he" wrote is really him or just something easy to type in...

well that's it.. sorry for the rant but it's been that kinda night.. comments welcome!

scorpians and other creepy crawlies

2008-07-27T04:24:00.006-10:00

hey friends.. I know it's been awhile so let me fill u in on what's been going on. On July 5 I went to Costa Rica to lead a team for Samaritan's Purse. We had 28 people on our team and were in the jungle in a region called Talamanca in the village of Yorkin (pronounced Jorkeen). We went there to help build a classroom for a school. The government in Costa Rica will provide teachers once the community has set up the infrastructure for education (i.e buildings) so we were there helping out. The jungle is an amazing place and it's incredible to see how people live there. We first drove 5 hours outside of San Jose to get to Bambu where we took some motorized canoes to Jorkin. First we had to load all of our supplies / gear into the canoes by doing an assembly line down a muddy slope to the river.

(photo by Karen Hulowski)

As you can see rubber boots were a definite must! Well once the boats were loaded and after a few trips the last group finally arrived at about 6pm just in time for it to get dark. Then we hiked ourselves and all our gear up an extremly muddy path where you could loose a boot in knee deep mud if you stepped wrong... oh yeah and we also had to look out for snakes and the like on the way.

Well we spent 11 days in the jungle and got used to trekking the muddy paths with heavy items such as cinderblocks, cement bags, water jugs, and 4x4's for building. We also brought in some medical supplies to help the local doctors, held some eyeglass clinics and did a shoebox distribution.

It was a lot of hard work but the people of Yorkin were friendly and it was great to help out and put them a good month ahead on the building project.

A first for me on my list of experiences was the jungle and also being stung by a scorpian, I hope to make a once in a lifetime experience only...

(photo by Tom Foster) a 6foot snake that was 1/2 alive when they found it on the path...

Here are some pics.. enjoy.

The river where we cooled off and washed clothes... and our selves too.

The spa jungle style!

The muddy pathways...

fun at the beach stop on the way back to San Jose.

Queretero, Orphano's and a pink bug!

2008-06-18T18:24:00.008-10:00

So I went away for the weekend 2 weeks ago,to visit some fellow Canadian friends... Bobbi and Ira. They are a couple who work at the Pan de Vida orphanage, who is the sister orphanage to Dulce Refugio. It is in the city and state of Queretero. It was great to see it finally so now I know what people are talking about when they mention it. They currently have about 150 kids in their care and so their facility is quite a bit larger than ours is at the moment.

Pan de Vida is now split into to 2 properties, one that they have moved the boyover to is an old Hacienda with 80 acres of land. It is gorgeous and I am now convinced that if I ever buy some property here in Mexico it definitly has to has some old school mexican character! (pics below)

We have just siad good bye to a team from North Carolina, they were here for 9 days helping out, it was supposed to be 10 but they got delayed a day because of bad weather. They were a lot of fun and help. One of the guys on the team is an amazing artist and painted a great mural on the outside of the building. I didn't get a picture yet but check out Jeremy's blog and it has a partial one.. I'll post one sooon of the finished product.

The other exciting bit of news is that I have an opportunity to buy a car for about $1000, and it's a pink beetle to boot! How perfect for Mexico! It is really helpful to have a car especially if there is a team here cause I have to do a lot of running around with for / with them. If anyone want's to contribute to my car fund that would be soo appreciated and you can donate through Children of Hope.. contact me if you have questions.

Well it's short but here are some pics....

Queretero, the bridge like thing was the city's water supply for many years.

Bobbi and Ira!

The girls dorm at Pan de Vida

some of the kids taking it easy on a Saturday afternoon.

Pan de Vida

some beautiful flowers at the new Hacienda..

the front drive at the Hacienda

Inside..

an outside area for a garden / fountain.. personally I think they should convert it to a hot tub!

big ugly dead rat... nuf said..

water, kids and Adios Sarah :(

2008-06-10T17:23:00.010-10:00

I know it's been awhile but I will post lots of pics this time so hopefully that makes up for it! Well good news is that I did get a battery for Sarah's car.. not a used one but I got a good price for it, and she sold it to boot because sadly she is leaving to go back to the US tomorrow. Tonight we had a farewell party for her and it was a night of mixed emotions. Sarah's been a great help at the orphanage for the last 2 years and will be greatly missed!

Some days it feels like it's a revolving door around here as different volunteers come and go. We had a visit from 2 girls who were here last summer, Kerrie and Marissa, it was great to see them again and the kdis were so happy to seem them again too. There is another fellow here now from the US, he was here for a week in January with about 5 others . Jared is here for an undertermined amount of time depending on if he can get a job teaching English or not.

We start with our teams again soon and some more individual volunteers coming in July as well. It is all part of the life here and we love having people come down. we decided to take some of the kids to the water park last Friday, it was such a great time for all of us and I got some great pics.. well here we go with the pics as promised.

Marce the director loves to get people with spray foam.. Sarah got revenge.

At the water park with the kids... Hannah (from New Zealand) at the back of the water slide train..

Baby Jose loves to be naked! and he loves the water and Erin too!!

Ricky is not such a big fan of the pool.. but he's getting better.

Jose and Benjamin are sharing a crib at the orphanage for their afternoon naps.

We had some people from Soft Tech come help out for a few hours one Saturday.

Ricky helping us by tast testing the watermelon for one of Sarah's goodbye parties

ho hum....

2008-05-30T03:10:00.004-10:00

hey foks..
well this time round nothing very exciting has been taking place. I've had a nasty cold for 2 weeks.. not fun, but not exactly earth shattering news either. There is one story that I will share with you. Yesterday I drove my roommate Sarah's car, (an old beat up Nissan with a lightswitch in it to turn the motor fan on) to the work site cause she said she didn't need it. Well it was Thursday which means market day and it means that the driveway into the site is usually blocked by the vegetable truck, so I parked it on the street. Well at the end of the day I went to the car and noticed that the door was slightly open (ajar you could say) and I thought "that's strange, I know I locked it", so I looked around inside to see if anything was wrecked cause there really isn't much to steal in it. But it didn't look like anything was out of place so I tried to start it and no go. Well of course then I thought it was the battery and looked to see if I had left the "light switch" on but no that was off too. So I called over to Duane who was in the yard at the site and asked him if he had cables to jump the car and then proceeded to open the hood.... and the battery was gone! yup.. gone! not sure why they didn't steal the car but just the battery. So today I'll be hunting for a new battery.. well a used one probably but arghhhh to thieves!!!!
I've been told that I should add more pics on here. So I'll put some up, and start taking some more to add on here regularily.

Lolis.. playing with my sunglasses!

Sack race at Day of the Child

What's a party in mexico without a Pinata?

Jose, Juan and little Jose (who lives with us)

well that's all for today have a great one!!

Rats and other gross things....

2008-05-19T16:56:00.006-10:00

yup that's right, I saw my first Mexican rat this week.. or at least my first live one. Unfortunately it was too up close and personal for my liking! I was cleaning the house and had just finished mopping the kitchen floor so I headed outside to our patio to dump the mop water. We have two floor drains out on our patio that have cockroach covers on them (which we are very glad for!) Well so I lifted the cover because the water drains better with the cover off and I did not see the usual empty black hole but rather a furry brown back.. quite large in fact it covered the whole hole. Needless to say I very quickly started pouring the water down on top of this furry thing in hopes that I would drown it or at least poisen it with the bleach that was in the water.... ughhh!! Well my water emptying habits have now changed and I just figure I'll let the water drain the slow way instead of encountering furry creatures that live the sewer system.

So the other "gross" thing that happened, and those of you who are parents can probably relate to this, is that this week I was on baby duty ( the 2 youngest boys from the orphanage live at our house cause my roommate Erin primarily looks after them, but she is gone back to Canada for 3 weeks and so Sarah (I help out in the evenings) is looking after them). Well I was giving Ricky a bath and so I had undressed him in the room and then wrapped him in a towel to take him to the tub, well Ricky is not so fond of bathtime always and so he was putting up a fuss and started to scream when I put him in the tub. Well all of the sudden I smelled this very distint odor of pooh.. yup.. he poohed.. no diaper and on me... again I say ughhh!

There are other "gross" things here too but I won't go into detail about them and will just throw out a few to give you an idea:

decaying dead animals on the road
the smell of sewage at any given time / place when you are walking outside
the smell of the garbage bins in which people can and do throw anything they like
chicharon (basically it's deep fried pigskin that people eat)

well I think you get the picture....

So to end today's blog on a happier note, I'm going to put some pics in so you can "see" what I see.. enjoy!

Ricky... nuf said!

Christian grande (named by size becuase there is more than one)

Joanna - enjoying a ride at the fair

sadly this is the only kind of hockey we get down here.. (it was a station for the Day of the child fiesta that we had on May 3 - about 500 kids came through)

Police and broken tailights

2008-05-14T16:47:00.003-10:00

today was another scorcher, though for the past 2 nights we've had some rain, which help to cool things off nicely for sleeping. The rain brings with it interesting creatures too like mosquito's and huge spiders... ugh. Well as they say here ni molo (oh well).

Today was Marcella's birthdy (she's the director of the orphanage) and so we had a party at the casa for her. BBQ meat and a mariachi band, what more do you need for a birthday party! So I was sitting outside with another volunteer and some of the kids and I got a phone call from my roommate Sarah who says, "Skip there's a policemant by Duanes jeep (which I am currently driving cause he's away) and he's taken the plate off" so I run around the corner back to our house and sure enough there is a cop with the plate off the jeep and a lot of our neighbors standing around giving their 2 pesos as to what should happen and who the cop should ticket (though they were saying that I shouldn't get one because I am not from here). Well apparently I parked in a not so good spot and was going to be getting a ticket but my neighbor Flor came to our house to tell and Sarah went out there and explained things to the cop. So all said and done he put the plate back on, I didn't get a ticket but the jeep had been hit and the taillight broken... just a little.

So the lesson learned is not to park there anymore, and that not speaking spanish does have it's good moments... though they are few. It was also nice to see that even though we are considered the "rich white girls" living in the hood the neighbors stuck up for us. I guess the peeps in the hood stick together!

have a good one!

mother's day and random dogs...

2008-05-10T07:03:00.004-10:00

so yesterday marked another first for me.. a mother's day party at the casa. Yup Marce the director threw us a party (all of us "moms", the volunteers who help take care of the kids) so it was a surprise for us all and she had the kids all dress up in white tshirts and jeans and then the guy volunteers had on the "tux" costumes and served us supper. We got flowers, a red carpet and a Mariachi band. Then of course we had to play "games" you know the ones that you always end making a fool of yourself in..uh huh.. those kind. So the one that I had to participate in was one where we had to get a husband, so I had to convince Marcos to marry me in 5 minutes.. and all it took was a promise of him not having to work and telling him that I was rich! who knew it was so easy!!!

The other funny event that happened yesterday was that a random dog showed up on our roof. Most of the dogs in Mexico live on the roof because the houses don't have yards. So we were upstairs in Sarah and Erin's (my roomates) room and heard this big thud and then footsteps above us.. not usual because our patio isn't up there and Sarah's dog is barely bigger than a rat so wouldn't make that much noise. Well we decided to go outside and take a look and we look up and see this dog up there wagging it's tail and whining. It's a little confusing as to where it came from and where it has since gone to but it's another one of those things that happen in Mexico.

Well i'm off to do some tiling... have a great day!

tree's and strangers

2008-05-08T17:14:00.006-10:00

hot.. it is soo hot! but for those of you in Canada, I am really not complaining, I hear that Bragg creek has snow today! I love Monday's and Thursday mornings because I get to water the trees at the construction site.. there are about 50 of them that were donated and planted by a university group here in Aguas. So as I go about watering tree's people stop by and chat. One of the people who always stops is a fellow who sells ice cream bars out of one of those little push carts, he always has stuff to say and to my chagrin I don't always understand him... but we seem to get on ok in spite of that. Today he called me "mi guerrita" which means my white girl.... interesting, a little creepy but overall harmless. Besides there's a fence and we have a German Shepherd who is a very good guard dog.

Speaking of our faithful guard dog, meet Princessa (I did not play a part in the naming!) , she's the big one on the left... sadly the other one died by way of a really big truck tire.

Princessa is truly a mexican dog as she loves to play "futbal" aka soccer all day at anytime.

Well that's that for today.. good night!

about the title

2008-05-07T17:30:00.001-10:00

Part 1: Gringas

well my room mate tells me that I forgot to add some other juicy tidbits in the title but I think I will save those for some stories. Gringas are a mexican food that is highly addictive. It's basically made up of "pastor" which is pork meat on one of those rotating roasting things (like donairs) that is seasoned and than marinated with fresh pinapple as it rotates.... then add cheese, throw it in a flour tortilla and voila you have a "gringa".... this is not to be confused with "gringo's" who are "white people" or more specifically "Americans"

part 2 : The kids

well if you know me, and know what I'm up to you know that this refers to the kids of Dulce Refugio (orphanage) The 2 that I know the best are Ricky and Jose since they live with us. The other kids are awesome too of course and I will chat about them later on.

Part 3: The hood.

Yup.. that's where we live, the hood in mexico. My first week here was during the "Easter" celebrations, and I say "easter" in quotes becuase there were thing that took place that left me befuddled as to how they played into Easter.. things such as ogre costumes and Minnie mouse.

We also have a neighborhood drunk known as "Shakira", drug deals, fights and random partying.

Well as time goes on I will try to add up dates regularly and chat about life here. Please drop me a line if you want. I can be found on facebook too..