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!