Anyway, we went to the Mexican state, Vera Cruz to the city of Orizaba and La Perla. Tomorrow it will be a week already since we left. It's hard to believe. I was a little nervous about going but when it was time to come home, I was quite a bit sad. I might have even cried a few tears, but my poor sleep the night before might have had something to do with that. At any rate, we had a great time w/our friends Adam and Krista Crumpton who are missionaries (Krista is also 9 months pregnant). I especially enjoyed having someone to visit w/all day long and Krista was a lot of fun. I was never alone and sort of forgot that I had kids... Yikes right? No, I shouldn't probably feel guilty. It was great to see our kids when we got back but it was also really nice to have a break. =)
We didn't do any touristy things; we mostly just helped them in what they needed done - packing, moving from La Perla to Orizaba, unpacking and cleaning. La Perla is kinda like a suburb of Orizaba and is closer to the mountains. It's more remote and small townish. It's also crazy Catholic. They had these weird processions for "the Virgin" which they worship. Krista said that when Catholicism started down there it got mixed w/their Aztec idol worship so they're pretty much worshipping Mary.
So anyway, they were moving from La Perla b/c no one was responding to the gospel and they wanted to live in town to have more of a community. Their house in La Perla was HUGE and the one in Orizaba wasn't quite finished when we got there but is mostly done now.
Friday: Crazy processional which pleases the virgin. The poor kids play drums and they march silently up the street. Oh yeah, it rained a lot. It was like a rain forest.
Friday: Our first visit to the new house. Terry is taking a shot of Adam and I through the roof. Adam is planning on covering this opening w/some sort of acrylic thing.
Friday: The view from the roof. The first opening is what you just saw me under, and the further one is another opening that they're leaving open. It's where their washer and dryer are. Apparently it's normal for Mexican houses to be so open like this.
Friday: The view from the roof. Orizaba is surrounded by mountains and was clouded frequently on during our stay. Half the year is the rainy season and half is hot. The rain was just beginning when we were there.
Friday: The view behind the new house. That is a shack leaning against their new house.
Friday: We got some really great tacos from this man, Constantine. They were so good.
Saturday: Kids class at the old house. We walked around La Perla for an hour to recruit kids to come to the final kids bible class. The woman on is Rachelle (we ate at her house later) and the man is Alex (we went to the mountains w/him and he taught this class w/his friend Ed).
Sunday: Terry was so nice and did the huge pile if dishes we had generated.
The church in Orizaba that Adam and Krista attend.
Tuesday: We went to the mountains w/a fellow missionary named Marcus, pictured here. They go once a week to evangelize these small, poor villages. He said in the video there are 40 villages in those mountains, they had visited 7 and only one person had accepted Christ... It was crazy poor. We visited w/a family and the two women had 17 kids b/w them and actually listened to the gospel message Marcus gave, which is uncommon. He will visit them again until they drive him away like they commonly do, w/the threat of violence.
Tuesday: Terry and I posing next to a small creek w/2 other men that accompanied Marcus to the mountains to evangelize. They are elders in the church, not missionaries.
Tuesday: The old house. We stopped on our way back to town from the mountains to get some more of the Crumptons things. Terry is in the door way.
Tuesday: Ray and Rachelle. We ate at their house on Monday. Adam made his special hamburgers. The beef down there is so lean that he adds bacon to it to make it more juicy. They were good. Ray also sang for us and played w/guitar. He was so passionate that it brought tears to my eyes. They said becoming Christians saved their marriage.
Tuesday: The view of the new house from the outside.
Tues.: The neighbor roof dog: Joker, as we so fondly called him. They have to keep the dogs on the roofs sometimes b/c there is no where else for them. Dogs are crazy down there. There are so many strays. We called this one Joker b/c he looked like he was smiling. Terry found it was b/c he had no teeth!
Tuesday: We ate at another church families house this evening - Allagandro and his wife Puela (?). She served us "stubborn mule tacos"... They were pretty good but made Terry sick the next day =( Puela complained that I ate only crumbs and needed fattening up. There was just so much grease and my appetite was just gone.
Tuesday: Here are our hosts.
Wednesday: The stubborn mules are working a number on poor Terry. That's why he's laid out on the love seat. There's Alistair, who is 2 and is their firstborn. You can see the stairs that lead to the roof. The door on the left is to the half bath and the door to the right is Adam and Krista's room. To the left of the bathroom is the entertainment room where Terry and I slept on the futon.
Here is the full bath, which is to the right of their bedroom.
To the right of that bathroom is Alistair's room. For now it's just a toy room.
Here is the view from Alistair's room. Adam is working on a new lock for the front doors. You can see the open area beyond him. The rain will just come in and there's a drain in there to take it away.
This is what you see when you come in the front doors. It's supposed to be for a car to park in... The window on that wall is to the room we stayed in. You can see Terry writhing in pain to the right =)
Here is the view to the rest of the house. Beyond those doors in the dining room and in the following room is the kitchen w/it's new cupboards a surprise for Krista, who has never had such a luxury in Mexico.
The dining room table and Krista fixing Alistair's lunch.
To the right of the table is this room. It's sort of a catch-all room now, but will be Krista's craft area.
Nice eh? I should menion that when Adam found this place, it wasn't finished and there was even plants growing through this window!
Another view.
This is the rest of the kitchen. It will be Adam's office.
Pregnant Krista. I told her I wanted a picture of her belly. =)
I amused myself playing paparazzi w/the making out neighbors. Krista said she was tempted to tell the girl to be careful or else she would end up like her w/a big belly.
Terry went to the market w/Adam while we were at a surprise baby shower at the church. He bought my mom a couple souvenir bowls.
See the bowls and the woman who made them?
And that is our trip.
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