Ensenada Sunshine

So this Sunday Risa and I took the "micro" to Ensenada to do some grocery shopping. Beans and tortillas in every shape and form are starting to get a little old, and we are feeling a lack of variety in our diet. But don't get me wrong. I still love mexican food. So this bus ride was not nearly as sketchy, maybe the guy knew what he was doing, or else we are just getting more used to the way things roll down here. So we just spent the day at the beach after doing a little shoppin.
Right now I'm in shock and don't know what exactly to do with myself becuase the internet here is faster than I can handle.
Day by day Risa and I are feeling more like mothers. The other day we gave Oscar (13) a driving lesson. He was pretty good:) I gotta admitt he didn't scare me as much as risa does when she drives....especially the huge 15 passenger van.... HAha so I think we had the all time record of twenty people packed into our little aerostar van! That was some good times. And Dani and Andres actually fixed the sliding door of our van. "very nice". Risa also got attacked by the kids when she was taking a peaceful shower lol....Maria and Selene were pounding on the door, and just opened the door, becuase the door lock doesn't really work any more.. they were going crazy in the bathroom, and i had to come a rescue marisa, and convince selene who was laughing hysterically that she couldn't take a poo right then....

Thursday Risa and I got left with all the kids while Angela and Danni went to take their brother to the doctors. Well i guess we weren't all by ourselves since we had Maria, our senile house helper lady. The kids were fine. The boys made an extremely sketchy bike ramp out of a couple of pieces of plywood and mud, and were jumping off it on their bikes.... Viki was getting a little board of the girls and dolls so we made a pimp my ride mexican sytle video with viki dressed up as a cholo! prettty much one of the funniest things ever. I was dying lauging. Her personality and her smile with a missing/crooked front tooth was perfect. We have some great footage we've captured:)
Our house lady Maria is leaving to go back home in a couple of days and Risa and I are going to miss her extremely. sad day. She is amazing always giving us treats and stocking us up on food. Plus she has raging style. Her 80's nylon jacket, and her socks tucked into her pants - she got bit by a huge pinacate (beetle thing) the other day, and freaked out so now she has been wearing pants tucked into her socks. Marisa has been patiently trying to teach her to knit, and most of the time it juts ends in raging fits of laughter, becuase she can never remember what she's doing! She's a cutie. Losing here "hair oil" and pots all the time. And when she got frustrated knitting (oh with pencils by the way. that's all we have) she asked why she couldn't just use her "ganchos" (hanger..) so i ran into the room where she had left her unfinshed knitted hanger, and brought it out to here thinking she had forgotten where it was/it was easy to do than actually knitting. when i came out of the room, she burst out in laughter, because i guess she was asking for knitting needles, which are also called ganchos. lol good times .
For a craft with some of the girls we had them knit yarn around hangers to decorate them, but after awhile all the boys were extremely intrested and all begged to make them to. Last night I walked out of my room, and most all of the boys were sitting on the couches peacefully knitting! It was a spectacular site.
Last night Risa, Andres, Viki, and I were outside with the guitar, watching the stars/the kids skating, and we decided to hike up the hill to get a better view of the stars. It was beautiful, warm, and the stars were super bright. Viki the whole time was begging to go back home, and was scarred the cayotes would come out, and got extremely angry when we started howling like cayotes. The only thing I was sketched out about was that i was wearing flip flops and tramping through the brush...but i survived and it was definately worth the trek.

After dropping the kids off at Kinder one day risa and I took Frijolito and Jaunito to pick up some tortillas at the store, when this American Motorist guy approached us and said very slowly and clearly, "Do You Speak English?" Haha were starting to blend in with the locals yaha. We are catching some nice rays and spanglish is definately something that's occuring more and more.

Well that's more than enough for now. We're heading off to Maneadero to go to a street market to pick up some fruit.

MARIA MARIA

Another Sunday!! In Uraupan with really slow internet....
So ya know how I was talking about our sketchy bus ride....well we made it back alive. almost. Once we got to El Zorillo our tire blew out! But luckily we were really close to where our car was parked. the guy kept on driving like he didnt understand what was going on, so i was like "podemos bajar!"

So have have a couple new additions to the orphanage. to roosters. let me tell you worst day of our lives. They make obnoxious noises all the time...including in the middle of the night for some strange reason. and then constantly from 5 am in the morning. They're in the process of building a chicken coop that is even closere to our bedroom window so that's gonna be some fun times!

Today we went with a group for Oregon to town and to La Bufadora! Good to get out....We scored some sweet panchos and are now in a posse. We got stared down by some federales... we realized that we kinda appeared like the kkk....not so good.

The kids have been amazing and crazy and full of energy. Last night we encountered a ciempies in our house....a crazy snake centipede looking like thing that is aparently is pretty dangerous. Jose stopmed on it and took care of it for us as all of us were screaming and flipping out.....

The other day we had fun taking piejos (lice) out of selene's hair....marisa almost puked a couple of times....

K well of to a dinner at the mission thats not just going to consist of beans and tortillas!! woohoo

Whewww!

SO i have to write this blog really fast...but its just aquick update. We got about 6 more chicken/roosters...and my goodness what a wake up call. Plus the dogs bark outside my windows at all hours of the night! The group that was here from oregon left so me and sarah had a marvelous feist! enough beans and rice make bananas, fruits in general, eggs...seem like heaven. and SOY MILK! good times. We have to go pick the kidrens up at school now...We might be getting a "tramping machine"as sarah calls it...aka a trampoline. our english is getting worse, spanish better by the day. We are mastermines at spanglish! im tanner than the sun itself too...
marisa

Day Off!!

It's Sunday, OUR DAY OFF!! So Marisa and I decided to bus is to Ensenada for the day...pretty much the sketchiest bus ride of my life. The speedometer and all the other meters were broken and tweaking out in the bus, and we were swerving in and out of traffic at high speeds. And apparently they don't believe in bus stops down here, so they just pull over any where on the side of the road where people are chillin.
So just to set things straight about the soccer "futbol" situation, even though I don't really play, Andres and I dominated Marisa and Oscar in soccer straight up. Get it straight Risa.
We've been playing soccer a bunch, and the last three days have been ridiculously hot, and we've still headed out to the top of the hill where we play in the evenings. Last night after it got dark it was still super warm out and there were tons of stars out, ahh beautiful.
So we've been sore and super tired by the end of the night....lol heading to bed at 8 o'clock.
The kids have been practicing some authentic dances for "el dia de los ninos", so at night we go over to the mission were there is electricity and space and having dance parties. Fun times.
Yesterday was super hot, so after church we headed down to this little swimming hole, were everyone swam around, ran around trying not to get thrown into the water!
And Frijolito was running around naked and got stung by a bee multiple times on the face...poor guy.
So that's all the time i have for now. But the good news is that I've finally pretty much got my voice back, and am not sick anymore. Hopefully we'll survive the bus ride home.....
Love you and Miss you all!

Our Day Off!

NEW

Wow...its only been a few days since we wrote but i swear every day is like a week or two. So, forgot to mention all the kids! First, there is Oscar(13), Jose(12) Jazmin(11), Viki(10) Crisando(9)Blanca(9)Maria(6),Gino(8), Alejandro(8), Javier(9) Enrique(6), Selene(5), Martin(5), Juanito(3) and Friolito(2). Its pretty intense...especially when its just Sarah and I. But every day day definently been a learning experience for me! I'm getting darker by the hour too, goodness! Its our day off today(every Sunday) and we took an extremely sketchy"micro" bus to Ensenada...the driver looked 14, and instead of bus stops you just raise your hand on the side of the road and he swerves to the side....wow. Its been really hot the last three days, but i have been playing soccer games in the scorching sun despite that. Its AWESOME...and now I'm really really sore everywhere. We have at least a side of beans with every meal, and i think its taking a toll on me...I feel like i need vegetables sooo bad. But..its all part of the experience. I guess my brother is coming back from Guatamala in a month, so we shall reunite soon! Anybody can ask any questions, and well be happy to answer! and if Sarah is going to say she "dominated us" in soccer...its only half true...it was just me and Oscar and our other teammates were picking there noses...

Adventures...

What a crazy 2 weeks! We left seattle on March 28th and flew down to Los Angeles. After visiting our friend Matt Wachter till Sunday, we drove down to San Diego to meet up with the crew. We were supposed to show a group from Wenatchee how to get to the mission, but there bus broke down, so stayed the night at Darrell and Mareens for the night(the couple who run the mission). We arrived in Mexico on March 31st and had no trouble arriving at the Mission. We let the group settle in and then drove the mile and a half to the orphange. Sarah and I have our own room that looks out the back yard. We are on top of a mini-mountain and its so beautiful! There has been alot of rain this winter so its very very green. Urapan(The town were staying in) is small and surrounded by mountains.
The first couple days we just got on schedule with the time and mexico's lax-ness in general. We've been to the beach once with the other kids staying at the mission along with our kids. It was just me and sarah watching all 16 kids...just a taste of more to come. We thought we lost a couple kids but the other americans just took them without asking us...that was really cute of them! My spanish is slowly improving as a I remember things slowly. Sarah is just outta this world at speaking Spanish...She translates alot to me but the things is that its usually in spanglish so i have to re-translate it. Were making a movie now about the orphange and the kids are really getting into it. Alot of its just sillyness at its best, but so far its hilarious.
We go to sleep at 7:30 to 9ish, and wake up at 6:30ish. Its weird going to sleep so early, but were so exhausted by the end of the day anyways...its hard enough everyone except sarah speaking Spanish, but kid Spanish is hard to understand to, espeically when they have lisps(the youngins...( ; ) We have amazing house parents, Angela and Danny. They are both hilarious, and i have known Angela from coming down here before. I took my lip ring and nose ring out...and it was a good thing. We have been running or playing soccer everyday, or football with the kids. Sarah plays more with the girls and i play more sports with the boys, but sarah played soccer yesterday and we got rowdy.
The other night we were going to a "SURPRISE" trip. It ended up being in Ensenada, and we pulled up at a circus tent. The thing with me is that i really hate circus'...but i guess it was this akward on-ice show with random songs from movies acted out...this one part had these two clowns that just ATE IT off stage by accident...funnnyy. Then i took Viki and Maria to the outhouses and this crazy lady kept trying to open the door on Maria..i tried to to tell her, but she was just to loca. Maria was almost in tears when she came out...Then we forgot Friolito(little bean, the littlest one who is around 2) in the car sleeping. good times. well sarah or i will write later...until then!