Oaxaca - The Start

I decided to start my own blog to make it easier to let everyone know how I'm doing as well as things that they can pray for as I live and work in the community here. I love living and working here.

For those of you who are new, I live and work in southern Mexico in a state called Oaxaca. It's beautiful here, and the people are wonderful. I have three roommates that I also work with: Natasha, Ellen, and Jennifer. We also have another girl who is working with us through the end of March named Sandi. So far, we have started teaching English classes, made weekly visits to a local children's home, and help in the local school that most of the missionary kids (MK's) attend.

The view from our apartment

Sunsets here are beautiful

The cutest 3rd and 4th graders that I get to work with at the school

The Fantastic Five: Ellen, Natasha, Jennifer, me, and Sandi

One of the adorable twins at the children's home that decided I was her favorite new person

Cuties from the children's home

God has been teaching me quite a bit about myself in the month that I've been here. I have learned that communication isn't dependent on a phone that's glued to my hand all the time. That is one thing I learned very quickly once I hit Mexican soil and turned my phone onto airplane mode! Though I sometimes miss having 3G everywhere (Like when I can't remember a Spanish word for the life of me!), it has been a lesson that I plan on carrying back to the States. I've enjoyed learning how relationships here in Latin America work- because they don't always work like what I'm used to in the States. There is a lot more face-to-face interaction over technological interaction. The Lord has also taught me that time doesn't have to rush every second of the day. Time and people move slower here, and it is teaching me that I don't have to be busy and doing something every second of the day. God has also been inundating me with situations that are teaching me patience, something that I certainly don't have much of most of the time! Because the people here go at a slower pace, me and my American self can get easily irritated with locals, until I stop myself and remember that I am not in the States. That has also been yet another lesson I have been shown over and over again. Though there are things that can be compared between Mexico and the States, I must constantly remind myself that I cannot imprint my American thoughts and assumptions on the culture here because it is not the same. But the lessons that I have learned here have been so important, and yes they have been hard sometimes, but they are things I needed to learn.

The people here are very friendly and love to ask us where we are from. They usually will tell us that either they have lived in the States at some point, or they have family who lives or had lived in the States. We stand out a lot when we go out, so we get a lot of stares and the occasional odd catcall. Our favorite places to go are to the local markets and to the zocalo, or the center of town. There are some amazing markets and places to eat near the zocalo! We have also bought hammocks to hang them on our palapa (roof/gazebo), and that has been probably the best purchase ever!

Our view from our hammocks

So to sum up, I love living here, and I am anticipating great things to be done in and through me during my time here. You can pray that I will be effective as we create relationships to share the Gospel, and that I will not forget my purpose here, which is to share the Gospel however possible. Thank you for all your support and prayers while I am here.