Feliz Navidad, preospero año y felicidad

Hola,

We hope all our followers, friends and family had an exciting and fun Christmas and we wish you all a happy and safe new year. 

Keeping the kids busy making stockings ...........

and stuffing Piñatas

We were thinking of you all enjoying the roast dinners or the seafood platters while we were tucking into Frijoles y Arroz (Beans and Rice) on Chrissy Eve.

This is a photo of our actual Christmas Eve lunch - no joke, was frijoles negro, arroz y queso citijo (black beans, rice and cheese that is like a cross between cottage and parmesan).  Petrina is in vegetarian heaven.  Its cooked in stock so is quite flavoursome.

Christmas Eve in Mexico is a big one (huge fireworks at the orphanage etc - see photo below) and then most of Christmas was spent as a big family, eating and playing with the kids.

Stuffing stockings 1am Christmas morning with the other volunteers

Some of the stockings lined up in the Capilla (Chapel) ready for Christmas morning (photos below also)

Not even 'Snow White', la coneja (the rabbit that is the orphanage pet) missed out on presents Christmas morning

Aleesha (left) and Erin, other volunteers, opening presents on Christmas morning

Petrina and Junior, dressed up as a Shepherd boy all ready for the christmas eve nativity play during ´midnight mass´ (which was actually at about  8pm, shhh, don´t tell).  There are so many kids that they have their own church service at the house!

....about 2 minutes later....

Mary y Joseph (Their actual names are Maria and Jose- how cool is that?)

Griselda, 17 and Angel, 12ish.  Angel played the Angel in the play.............. of course.

Love Petrina and Steve

Personal Views on Our Stay

Hola,
This entry will be a little more about us, how we are going and what we are thinking here.

Overall things here are tough, hard work and mentally and emotionally exhausting.  We will need to re consider our leaving date to ensure we get some rest before returning to Australia!  We get a week off in January, we plan on going to Puerto Escondido - Mexican Pipeline.  The surf will be small at this time of year though, but in comparison to the Queensland coast will still be amazing.  We will then hopefully get another week off around March before taking a few weeks off on our way home. 

Challenges:
Everything from A-Z.  The kids don´t particularly take to us asking them to do things they are meant to do, which from their point of view is understandable.  They get these white people showing up to volunteer who don´t speak Spanish and don´t know anything about what tough times really are, who then try and tell them what to do (and to top it all off they then leave after a month or few)!  Most kids in Australia would be the same under the circumstances we think. 

Nothetheless, things have become a lot easier as their respect for us has increased as the weeks have passed by.  At the start especially, it was really tough when they would talk back to you in Spanish and just turn away from you, or ignore you altogether!  They boys in particular do not respect women much at all, so it is extra tough for Petrina.  Steve has sorted a few out with a bit of rough tatics though!  There´s a lot of ADHD type kids here, and there are a lot of fights, they (even the girls) know how to fight, that is for sure.  Breaking the fights up is often hard, but again the volunteer boys can use a bit of force, but it is hard for the volunteer girls.

To top it all off it is now school holidays for a few weeks so we are trying hard to come up with activities to keep them from general mischief! 
Joys:
The one-on-one time with the kids is so special.  They show love to you when their amigos aren´t around and are very cute.  Sport time with the kids is also a good opportunity to bond, Petrina´s soccer skills are improving fast as Mexican kids are obsessed with football.  Sunday afternoon is a ´family´ soccer game at the local playing fields (after the morning surf of course!).  There is usually enough players for 2 full-side teams!  So the joys are small and rare but they are good.

We also (thankfuly) are really enjoying living in a completely new culture, it is great walking around our new temporary town.  So colorful, so many characters and such nice locals.  They love their music and it usually starts up around 6am in the morning, blaring from every speaker a household owns.We are thoroughly enjoying trying out all the street food, ´sin carne´ (no meat) for Petrina of course!  Petrina plans to write a whole blog entry just devoted to food and nutrition in Mexico, as there is so much to tell on this subject alone!

Steve and Junior, 4 years.  The 1-on-1 time with the kids is rewarding, and Junior would have to be one of our favourites (shhh, don´t tell!).

Our Spanish is coming along slowly, its not as fast as we would have hoped though because all the kids at the orphanage understand English, even if they can´t speak it, so Steve especially has gotten lazy.  Hopefully as we venture out and about more and meet more locals we´ll make a few more leaps and bounds.

We miss you all!

Three photos

A quick post with a few photos. 

1. Petrina at The Italian Coffee Company - But it is very American, more like a Starbucks.  However it is our new hang out when we want something familiar or clean.

The Italian Cofee Company



Just a normal street photo

The Pan Man.  He comes 5 days a week (Pan means bread)

A day in the life............

Sorry there hasn´t been an update for a while, Steve has had a sinus infection and has spent a few days in bed.  This post will be updated over a few days to allow appropriate spelling editing by Petrina or maybe  not so sorry for the mistakes.  (The spell check is set for Spanish)

So as promised a little more about the orphanage.
The orphanage is amazing, so upmarket compared to their initial location that didn´t even have running water.  It is on a large block (just under an Acre) with high cement walls at the front and side, with two big automatic gates at the front, typical security for Mex.  (It is located in central Tapachula, only 5 min walk to the centre of town).  The house is made up of separate sleeping areas with the parents retreat in the middle.  The older girls have a wing off the side and all the boys and the rest of the girls are separated by mum and dad´s area and a few locked gates.  (The older boys live upstairs in a loft area overlooking the younger boys. ) There is an attached kitchen and dinning area with nice gardens and a kids play gym.  There was a small grassed area around the side but that is currenlty being dug (by hand) into a pool.  It will be a pool with attached music room and kids washing failities.  This all should be completed by Christmas or the New Year. 
Our days are broken up into two shifts shared among five volunteers, with more help arriving soon hopefully. 

Pool, dug by hand, being formed ready for hand pouring

Morning Shift - 5.30am - 2.30ish:  This involves getting the kids ready for school, quite a lot harder than it sounds and walking a few different groups.  The kids go to many schools in the area, some of them have scholorships and others go to public schools. The best part of the hectic morning is walking the two little ones to Kinda.  Everything is their playground and they must stop to look in the creek to see what is floating past.  Then the rest of the shift is spent around the house with a few kids who go to school in the afternoons or with others who don´t have school for the day.  The days involves cleaning, raking, gardening, tidying, organising or playing games with the ones who are left.    It is then time to pick the kids up from school and get them ready for lunch which starts about 2pm.  Schools finish before lunch to allow people to have a Siesta, i like this idea, if only the kids would have one though.  Lunch is their main meal and would typically involve Rice, Beans, Meat, Tortillas and a Salsa.  After lunch it is shift swap time. 



Afternoon Shift....
This shift is a little more full on.  After lunch it is lunch chores, they don´t seem to like the chores even though they know they have the jobs as its the same each week.  After chores it is homework time and then play time before dinner.  At 5.30 it is time to get the younger ones showered, another near impossible task.  Dinner is held over three meal times and dinner is Pan (Bread), the same each day.  It is a mix of sweet breads that gets delivered at 5pm each day. 

After dinner it is chore time again before bed time, starting at 6.30pm for the little ones.   Another difficult task.  Then its just the older kids who hand around doing their chores until about 10 or 10.30. 

All up very tiring. More shift stories and photos will appear in future blogs.

A bit more about our journey to Tapachula

A little more about the trip over.

After our two nights in LA we spent a night in Mexico City, after which time we mastered the phrases 'Repitir por favor' and ´Mas despacio por favor´ (repeat it please & more slowly please)

Flying in, Mexico City is.......well gigantic.  So thats what a city looks like when you cram in the entire population of Australia.   The airport is really nice though, kicks LAX´s butt. 

The next day we flew into Tapachula, a very different view flying in.  Its quite rural, green with huge mountains and a massive volcano which dominates the skyline.  The heat that hit us as we got off the plane (their Winter) - it was like stepping into a Sauna.

An inner-city Tapachula Street with the afore-mentioned volcano as backdrop.

The taxi driver from the Airport didnt know what a Surfboard was so fitting my double case into the taxi was interesting. 



Petrina securing the surfboard that went out the windows of the Taxi



Tapachula itself is very colorful, as you would expect from a Mexican town, most rendered walls are painted a vibrant hue or has a colorful advertisement painted on it, usually for Corona. 

Exhibit A

Exhibit B - Tapachula is one colorful city.

Exhibit C - This is a Piñata Store for all your Piñata needs.

Adios.

Next post should include more about the kids and the orphanage, stay tuned. 

Week 1

We have been here for about 4 days.  A lot harder than we thought, the language is a challenge and the kids stories are super sad.  The food is awesome and Petrina has managed some great Vegetarian food.  We have eaten at a few traditional local shops, litrally on the street, just little cooking area and a few plastic tables on the road edge. 

Our street side dinner.  Pam and Alan on the right, their Daughter nearest to the camera and Petrina is on the left with Moacir doing bunny ears.

We all went surfing today - 60 kids all in two vans, with about 30 surfboards all up.  Some of the little groms are awesome, 4 and 5 year olds stand up.  I dont think some can swim too well though. 

We are staying around the corner in a cosy flat, simple yet good.  Two bedrooms, cooking area and a bathroom.  But you cant flush loo paper here, you have to put in in a bin.  Yep, super fun. 

Just a short one, time to go and help cook a feed, BBQ tonight. 


But forgot to talk about the trip before we hit mex.  We left in style, Mmmm split screens (see below photo)....

Saying goodbye to our ´dos perros´ (two dogs) before heaing off to the airport in style in a split-screen kombi

LA was fun, we did the star tour and saw a few cool houses.  I found where we will be living in LA.  Its got a great view and just happens to be David Beckhams place.  I think we will be well qualified child sitters after this trip.

Super-sized pizza en-route to the start of our Stars Home tour.... (becaue it is half eaten already, this photo doesn't quite do the true size of the thing justice but note how the width of the crust at the top is wider than my head....Only in America...)

We also went to Universal Studios.  Super quiet day so the longest wait was 5 min, most rides and stuff we walked straight on.  They were filming a few shows on the day which was good to see too.
More shots from en route during the Hollywood Stars Home tour  and Universal Studios are below...

Then off to Mexico City, limited Espanol was fun, but we got through it with English and broken Spanish.

 Adios.

Before the journey

Pam Skuse (photo care of mission mexico)

Not long before we leave for our little excursion to Mission Mexico.  We are joining the most amazing kids for 6 months of..... well whatever comes.  The orphanage is operated by Pam and Alan Skuse originally from Queensland's Sunny Coast.  Pam and Alan left their own family to stay in Tapachula to look after the kids.  They have given so much and we hope to be able to bless them in some small way while we are there as well as show love to kids who know what 'tough times' are really about.  We aren't sure what two young married peeps from Qld can offer, but we look forward to being used as God would want.    Want to know more about the Orphanage?  Check out the Mission Mex link above or Somewhere Near Tapachula - the documentary that lit the fire in our hearts.  Or for a shorter clip by Wade Goodall check out his 18min doco.  

So what do we leave behind in Qld?  We leave behind two Border Collie dogs, two chooks,  amazing families, friends, jobs and pretty much everything that we take for granted. 

Snapper Rocks Qld -Will I miss 200 people on one wave?  Nope. (photo: S logan)

But we take two lives and two very excited hearts both looking forward to what we will encounter, what joy we can bring and what hope we can share.  I think we are set to find a lot more than we leave behind.  

Occy (left) and Possum - Yes we will miss these fur kids!

So if you are interested to see what we get up to feel free to follow our little blog.  Depending on what computer system we encounter will obviously change the frequency of posts.  We look forward to sharing our trip with you.  

Adios, Love Steve and Petrina.