Ixtlan! (and Guadalajara, Mazatlan, Culiacan, Eduardo, etc....)

Hola!

Hey, maybe I'll get this one posted on time!

First, and most importantly, I think this last Friday dressup was a little creepy, sort of French-ish, but hey, every once in a while you've got to experiment, keep things fresh, etc. Let's everyone know you're cutting edge.

Now then, Ixtlan! The trip overall went very, very well. No one died. The members of the road trip were: Bill and Joan, Ben, Uriel, Lily, Katie, Nora, Pau, Rohde, Jarrin, Geo (Pau's twin sister), Michelle, Lupita, Jaqui, Frankie, Fede, Karla, and I. There are lots of new pictures on photobucket (see link on sidebar), though if there seems to be a lot of good-looking women in there, I can't claim responsibility since Lupita had my camera for long periods of time and wants me to get married as soon as possible...though I might have encouraged her to find me someone...:-)

Details, then! First, we left early Thursday morning from CVE after finishing the national testing on Monday and Tuesday. The kids and some of the adults had prepared food for the way down, so we drove down through the states of Sonora (desert) and Sinaloa (like Iowa, really, lots of agriculture). We went through Hermosillo (2 hrs. away, 2 million people, roughly), Obregon (about 1 million), Los Mochis, and ended after 9-10 hours in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa and headquarters of the Sinaloa drug cartel (one of their men is currently running for governor). Like I said, I felt very at home there, given that there's corn, wheat, and other crops everywhere, very green, very developed agriculturally. Pau, one of our teachers, arranged for us to stay at a hotel close to her parents (her father is a pastor there). Very comfy, good food, and he took us for a quick drive around Culiacan, ending with a scenic lookout place beside a famous restaurant where you can see the whole city. Culiacan has it's own island, formed by a river that splits in two and rejoins. We think Lupita had pink-eye during this time...didn't seem to affect her or us too much.

On Friday, we left early again and headed for Ixtlan, passing through Mazatlan (big resort city, nice beaches, etc.), Tepic, and Guadalajara (third-largest city in Mexico, very historic, etc.) before arriving in about 10 hours. We got there in time for Jonathon and Bere's civil ceremony and dinner, which was in Zamora, about a half hour from Ixtlan, which contains a really cool, really big (3rd. largest in Mexico, I think) church. Baroque style, for those of you who care. In Mexico you generally have 2 ceremonies for a wedding since the church is denied the right to legally marry people (hence the civil service with a judge). The civil service is usually first, a small, very official legal affair, followed by dinner for the invited (absolutely awesome tasting, not sure what it was). Then, a day or so later, you have the more traditional, culturally-accepted, flowery, white-dress-and-cake wedding in the church. I was pleasantly surprised to find that in addition to Jonathon's family, Dick and Jeanette Graham were there! The boys (Fede and Frankie, Uriel, and Ben) and I stayed in the Betesda guest house, while the girls stayed with the Gonzalez family (Gloria used to work at CVE), the ladies stayed in Rudy and Rosario Troxel's house, and Bill and Joan stayed in a hotel in Zamora with the wedding party, family, etc.

On Saturday, we went to the Gonzalez family strawberry patch, had breakfast, and went to the geyser in Ixtlan, a generally continuous stream of water about 30-40 feet high. We swam (the water is like a very hot shower at the source), played volleyball, ate, etc. Afterward, we had a singing in the church, wedding rehearsal (the boys were ushers), played volleyball, ate, etc. This day was characterized by the boys waiting for the girls to show up, usually at least an hour later than planned, if not longer. How long does it take for a group of 10 girls/women to change clothes, anyway? Apparently somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 hours, 2 if they are really in a hurry...

On Sunday, we of course had the wedding (Jonathon and Bere were successfully married, in 2 languages), followed by a reception in a nearby hotel (open air, very nice), then went home and played volleyball, walked through Ixtlan (7,000 people, roughly), enjoyed the plaza, etc. I have decided quite firmly that Mexican cities at night are absolutely awesome...I forgot how much I missed walking through cool night air in an ancient Mexican-style plaza with all the walkers, sitters, vendors, musicians, etc. Very relaxed, very nice. I had also forgotten how much I love mango. Regg Beer, a single brother who works in Ixtlan, showed us a half-built, enormous church that was abandoned because one of the workers died. Magdalena also has an unfinished church building, abandoned for the same reason. Mexicans tend to be very superstitious and consider the buildings cursed.

On Monday, we left early for Guadalajara, stopping in Tlaquepaque, called the most beautiful small town in Mexico (it wasn't)(very nice, but not that great) to walk through the plaza, visit a church, etc. Afterward, we headed to downtown Guadalajara, with government buildings (toured the state government building), churches (closed to visitors at the time), museums, statues, plazas, etc. We ate in Mexico's largest "mercado," four levels of street-style madness, took a ride on the metro (to give the kids the experience), and took Jaqui and Lupita on their first-ever escalator ride. Quite honestly, Guadalajara was nice, but not half as fun as watching our kids (with adults, a group of 18) try to get on and off of the metro at the same time, before the doors all close. Joan almost lost a leg. The other passengers looked very relieved to see us leave after only a few stops! Overall, however, nothing was as fun as watching Jaqui transfixed and screaming at the top of the escalator, unable to take that first step onto the moving escalator (Jarrin and I had to lead her on to it...very fun!) Later, Bill and Joan and their group stayed to meet with some old friends from Costa Rica, while our group left for Culiacan (to stay with Pau's parents again and drop off Geo). We got stopped by the Federal Police once, for speeding, but didn't receive a ticket. Fortunately, our papers for the van were in order and we had written permission from the government to have the kids with us in the van! On the way, we stopped in Mazatlan to visit the beach, which was very cool, even though we missed the sunset by about 10 minutes and had trouble finding the road again. We got to Culiacan, ate pizza, and went to bed. Jarrin thought she had strep throat.

We left Culiacan, went back to Obregon and stopped for a bit to talk with a potential teaching candidate (Jaqui threw up while there), then continued on through Hermosillo and at last arrived in Magdalena in time for supper. Praise the Lord!

All in all, it was really neat to see the kids experience a different side of Mexico, take ownership of the trip, learn, and take a few steps closer to adulthood.

Now then, about Eduardo, the new boy...the jury is still out. For now, he's got a lot of learning to do about general behavior (he's been living on the street, abused, etc.) but he seems to be reasonably teachable. He's definitely not shy, and a bit of a clown, which makes him fun to be around but could be bad for him because he's cute and he knows it...if he gets into the habit of clowning his way through life and school, things could be very hard for him. Pray for his heart and mind, as this is probably the first time he's seen and heard the gospel, and for his sisters, who are still in the home he came from. Eduardo (Lalo, Eddie, etc.) is 8 years old, and also quite rough-and-ready. His second week here, he fell off a bike and cut/broke his little toe to the bone, so he's got a big bandage and limps around in a really cute way...he could earn boatloads of money begging on the street right now. He was riding (barefoot) on a bike the very next day! He's short, and pretty thin, too, so he should fill out rather rapidly in the next few months.

Thanks again for all the prayers!

Todd