Hello family and friends
Well, as we alluded to in one of our early posts, we have reviewed our finishing date with the orphanage and are wrapping up our time here in Tapachula early.
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| We won't be sorry to see the back of this guy....The local 'basura' (trash) man - pay him 3 pesos and he'll take your rubbish and dump it in the river for you! |
Even though we knew in our heads that this would be tough and emotionally draining work, nothing could prepare us for the challenge that we have experienced in the last 2 and a half months. We are proud of the effort we have made here, staying this long is actually quite a marathon effort by volunteer standards (most of the orphanage volunteers stay about a month, and many many pull out early). We feel at peace with our decision, given that if we stayed much longer, we would probably need another 6 months off work back home to recover!
The reality of the work we have done here is that it really is an emotional rollercoaster...some heavy, heavy stuff being dealt with by some very broken children. While the highs were amazing, the lows are well, low...way way down there! It was dirty, tiring, stressful and thankless work. Nevertheless, we believe that God brought us to Mexico for 3 reasons - to bring us closer together, closer to Him and to refresh our souls. We have definately achieved the first 2 so far - we've needed to rely on Him and each other a lot more than we ever have before, and in the process, He has shown us some good things about us, the world, and most importantly, about Him. So now all that remains for the rest of our time away is to refresh our tired bodies and minds!
So, what are our plans in the next few months before we return to Australia? We will spend roughly the next 2 months travelling in Guatamala, Mexico and the States if all goes to plan - we are hoping this is where the relaxing and restoring of our souls comes in! So you haven't heard the last of us yet as we will continue to blog about our travels. We also plan to post some more about the kids of Mission Mexico that, even though we could've just killed them many a time, we will be super sad to leave behind.
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| Again on the trash theme, unlike the kids, dropping the rubbish at the local dump (where you have to PAY to dump it!) will not be something we'll miss! Soemthing that has really stood out to Petrina so far on this trip are the benefits to public health of a government-provided rubbish collection service! |
Lastly, we couldn't resist posting below some pics of what happened to be both our first and last meals in Tapachula - Quesadillas (kay-sa-di-yas) at the 'Quesadilla Rubita' - the favourite of locals in our area.
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| Check out the size of the things, a bargain for les than $3 AUD! The sides are salsa (tomato, onions and chilli in the red pot), chilli (green chilli paste - in the squeeze bottle) and onions (yellow pot). All is prepared (incuding the rolling of the tortilla) and cooked fresh before your eyes. Beuno! |
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| Petrina's order was always Quesadilla con queso, flor de calabeza y champiñones (quesadilla with cheee, squash flowers - the yellow things - and mushrooms) - veggo heaven! And served with plenty of salsa of course (the tomato looking stuff on the left-hand side of the beast!) |
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| They are made with cheese that is a speciality from the neighouring state Oaxaca, which is super-duper stretchy. The red drink on the left is a sweet, homemade juice called Jamaica (pronouched 'ha-my-eca') which is made from a flower not unlike the hibiscus. |
Love Steve & Petrina.
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