Three Weeks and Bittersweet

26 January 2011, 6:15 AM

I just realized that I’m going to need to check the self-appointed date stamps on stuff. I keep trying to date things 2010 and it is definitely not 2010. I’ve been awake for an hour and ten minutes and not doing anything. I just opened my computer to work on this and was blinded by it. I had the brightness all the way up (helpful when using the computer outside in the super bright sun) and wow.

Yesterday was a mixed bag for me. The morning was good: we went for our run, we did some work de-kerneling corn, and then we went for a walk to town. We got Gatorades and sat in the sun. Our walks this week are about getting some more sun before we head back to the frozen city. When we got back we read? Worked on something? I know we planned English and then ate lunch.

After lunch is when I started to hit a Mexico wall. Really I just needed some quiet time by myself not doing anything, but I was finding lots of fault and feeling really whiny. I was (and still am, really) read to be back in New York. When I’m totally honest and aware it’s about control and how much I lack here. The schedule’s looseness is starting to wear on my and stress me out. So after lunch I went to my room and just lay down for thirty minutes. I didn’t sleep, but when I got up I felt much better.

Homework time yesterday? All Google Translate. I tweeted that it was impossible. Armando was supposed to write a sentence about each of the four seasons, and I told one of the English speakers that I couldn’t help because I didn’t know about the seasons. Then Louis Fernando said (in Spanish), “In winter it’s very cold.” LIES! Not true at all! It’s winter now and not cold! But apparently they just had to be stereotypical sentences about the seasons and not real, so I wrote and translated them for him. The he wrote his numbers 1-100, then we did some addition and subtraction I made up. All of the subtraction problems’ solution was 4 or 8. Not sure how I managed that. Then we played the game on my phone.

After homework I was much more sociable and ready to be at a mission trip again. I think that should continue to today. I’m not running this morning because it’s Wednesday (and there’s more for later about that), but we’re not running Friday, either. The cool wind came back yesterday afternoon and I had to get pants and a hoodie. I’ve lost weight I can tell. Not just here, but cumulatively and it’s very exciting.

English class last night was lots of fun. We only had two people show up so we watched videos on YouTube. They are students who have pretty good English as it is. And we have started beginning class with a song in English. But we just all watched videos last night and had a blast. After class Ricardo, who works in the office and goes to school and lives here, told us that he wouldn’t be at class because he’s going home for a week.

Since he’s an office person he’s been soooooooooo helpful to us. So, so, so helpful. He’s who the CD I made was for, so we had to give it to him last night. We hadn’t gotten to decorate the front of it, but it was read to go nonetheless. And last night I realized that no matter how ready at times I am to be back in the City, I’m going to miss being here. I’m going to miss the kids and Dori and Pedro. I’m going to missed the relaxed atmosphere that sometimes makes me crazy. I’m going to miss telling Armando to sit down and to his homework. Last night I almost cried as we were telling Ricardo goodbye and giving him his CD. Maybe later today I’ll post his playlist. I went to sleep last night listening to it. I had to pause it and just got toward the end. Too bad that I did that, though. “Tomorrow we’ll discover what our God in heaven has in store,” would’ve been a great thing to hear last night.

Keep your eyes peeled for another entry later today, perhaps called “Giddy Part 2.”