Summary of a Million Days part 2

Friday Ciela, Madeleine, Marcus and myself went to a new mall they're building to do a bit of shopping and such, but other than that was pretty laid back. Saturday, I finally caught the dreaded cold that Alison had and we cleaned out the pool in the backyard (which we later came to find out had a leak) and had a good game of Mission Risk that night... Madeleine conquered us all. For Sunday we went up to Santiago (1 hr drive) for meeting. It's the assembly where the missionaries James and Nelly Dyck live. They had us over for lunch, but I was quite miserable with my cold and especially in my ears due to the change in elevation. We got home in time for Sunday School (4pm) but I decided it was best to stay home and rest up. Monday nothing too exciting except that we left for El Cora which is about a 1.5hr drive on the most twisty-turny road like, ever! Jason Wahls (another missionary in Tepic) has been having meetings and lets just put it this way to try to put it in perspective: the bathroom itself was an experience! Meeting was held outside under a few mango trees in someones yard and there were dogs and roosters running around our feet all meeting. I really enjoyed it though! Tuesday we kept the oldest of the Dyck kids (there's 4 of them) Levi, who is 4, while the rest of the family went on to Guadalajara for another appointment for Simon (the 2nd oldest). Simon has just been recently diagnosed in having 3 cancerous tumors in one of his eyes and had to have it removed, so this appointment was to have him fitted for a painted eye (not too many blue eyes done down here in Mexico) It looked great though when he got back! There was also ministry meeting that night and before that, we went took care of the kids while Marcus and Alison went out for lunch. Wednesday was the last day before Ciela left so we decided to go downtown one last time and get some amazing 15$ pedicures! We then climbed a big hill on the edge of town called: Cerro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross) which was quite steep at times, but if little Evelyn could do it, I guess I had no excuse. After that, we came back to the house to play the game that Ciela had brought for the kids called, Cadoo - version of Cranium. I couldn't believe that it was time already for Ciela to go home, but that's what we spent Thursday doing, was taking the 3 hour drive to PV and back to let her catch her flight. Friday, I was in the kitchen for most of the morning, making cinnamon rolls, an egg dish, a pastry thing with lots of strawberries and 4 loaves of bread for morning meeting. Then, us girls went to Freddy's house, a man in the assembly here in Tepic who has a children's work out of his house. He takes out his van to pick up the kids and they all pile in, quite the site to see! It's great for Freddy too because he has Polio so I'm sure it's quite the encouragement to him. After meeting the Wahl girls came over while Alison and Shelley went out to visit a lady. Saturday we went for a buffet brunch at Liverpool (a classy restaurant) and then headed off to another children's work out of Chuy's house. It was the first day for it, but still there were 22 kids out, 3 of which are from assembly homes! After the kids had gone home, Chuy brought out his parrot and I got to hold him! Sunday we went to meeting in Tepic and then had Freddy and his family over for lunch. After, we sat around the table and played Bible Baseball (a bible trivia game). Then went back for Sunday school (I go with the little ones) and Gospel meeting after that. That finally brings us to today, where not much is planned other than helping Sammy with his last few things of school and cleaning up a bit! Hope this brings everyone up to date and it's crazy that I'll be home in like 8 days! Yikes... 6 weeks goes by in a flash, when you're having fun! ;) Take care - love and miss you all!
Emily


Marcus preaching in El Cora (notice the horseshoes holding down the chart).


Simon Dyck .... can you tell which one is his fake eye?

Summary of a Million Days part 1

Well... I'm back home here in Tepic and I thought that I better get to writing again because of course so much has happened and I'm letting it all pile up! :S So, from the last time I wrote - we had our meeting that night and 50 people came out!!! It was so encouraging and something I've never seen the likes of. The next day we went to other ruins which were bigger but it was so hot out again (I guess some people just don't learn to not go at the hottest part of the day) The problem is, you go to one of these places and you run out of water (because there's no where to buy it there) or what ever water you have left is seriously boiling hot! The road into the pyramids was so long (aka 65 km) and twisty that we had to pull over for one of the guys. We rushed home after that to be on time for meeting in CDC. The next day I got to swim in the Golf of Mexico which was B-U-T-FULL!!! There was sooo many shells that were washed up on the shore I could have spent all day there. Ciela, Laura, Madeleine and I, then took a taxi downtown to do some shopping. There is no assembly in CDC so Sunday was quite interesting. We went for a meeting that was a mumbo-jumbo of prayer, ministry and singing. Next was Sunday school then some of the ladies made lunch for us all. Just relaxed the rest of the day and gospel meeting at night. We were planning to leave at 4 am the next morning for a 4 hour drive to one of the"Seven Wonders of the World" (another Mayan pyramid site). We were woken up at like 3 by a crazy thunderstorm. I've never heard one so loud in my life and it absolutely down-poured! We left on time, but at about 1.5 hours in on our trip we.... broke down :( So needless to say we didn't reach our destination, but Marcus came and picked us up to take us back to CDC while some of the other guys went with the van. We got back around 12-1ish and ate for the first time that day! We then decided to make supper for everyone that night, so we went shopping for supplies. The menu? Mini pizzas! :) They turned out great and we had a good send off for our last night in CDC (even though everyone was super tired!)
The next morning Ciela, the Cain's and myself left to go back home with a few detours, the first being to Palenque (another Mayan ruin site). It was pretty sweet, I must say! Much more touristy than the other places we went. Marcus "bought" a guide and although he spoke in Spanish, it really made the trip! After touring around the pyramids, we took the same guide for a tour through the jungle. There we heard howling monkeys, saw toucans and even ate termites (they taste like cilantro - no joke!) Before lunch we stopped at a cute little market, stuff is so cheap here so it's hard to restrain, but I did... somewhat. haha. Anyways, we went to an awesome restaurant after that, that kinda reminded Bagaboo Creek in the states. I had lamb, and it was yummy in my tummy scrumptious! We then traveled a bit more and stayed at a hotel. The next morning, we travelled to Chiapa de Corzo where we took this boat ride through a canyon del Sumidero, which was gorgeous! The tallest section was 1km! We saw crocodiles, spider monkeys and white cranes and believe me we took tons of pictures. From there we drove until that night and then spent the whole day driving (I don't know how Marcus does it) We spent the next few days trying to recuperate at home (in other words - sleep in!).

All of us swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.



When we broke down.... I was the supervisor.


In front of Pakal's tomb.


In the canyon of Sumidero.