Oh, Sunny Day!

It is Tuesday and there is quite a lot to catch up on! Well, obviously we were able to ride a bus to the village because we are here!. We loaded our luggage onto the bus in Orange, Mexico (I think) at 4 p.m.on Sunday and arrived in the village at 8:30-9:00 a.m. on Monday. After many hours and several bus stops, (they make you leave the bus for a while each time) I was beginning to hate Mexico because it was so flat and dull looking and bus stations and border towns are all I had experienced (which are pretty rough) until…I woke up in the mountains. Breathtaking! The village is nestled in these beautiful mountains which are terraced by trees and plants which are farmed by land owners. The bus seemed to be climbing the mountain for hours as we drove into the clouds before we finally got here.

We found spots in the new girls' dorm to put our stuff and sleep. There is no heat here at all and it was cold, damp and rainy yesterday, so there was plenty of mud. It seemed impossible to get warm unless you could cozy up to one of the cooking fires. There are two outside- one with a griddle to make tortillas under a roof-over and one with plastic strung over top for huge pots-and the propane stove inside which is usually covered with large cooking pots. We had sweetended oatmeal for breakfast with coffee yesterday and today and noodles and carrots in tomato sauce yesterday for lunch. Today we had beans, potatoes and tomato sauce with tortillas, of course. J

We four ladies share a room with Carla (who is 14 and has 2 children, Carlos (2) and Pablo (1); Theresa (16), Natalie (13), and an old woman who just arrived the day before we did. She is bedridden (her hands and feet are crippled and deformed with rheumatoid arthritis, I think) and we take turns feeding her and helping her use a bedpan. Just today, Nicole had the doctor's wife come out and catheterize her. Tonight, Nichole informed us that we would have to take the old woman back to her shack where her husband lives because they could be sued if she dies here in the village.

Carla's sister, Julia (18) is married to Erasmo and she has a little girl named Melissa (3) and is around 7 mos. pregnant. Daya (17) is married to Javier and has a little boy, Luis (1ish). There are three little boys here, the "ninos", Javier (11), Lencho (9), and Manuel (13) (not to be confused with big Manuel J). Lencho is Daya's little brother, Javier and Manuel are brothers to Natalie.