a journey to the well

This past week, like the others before it, flew by. There were no "big" events this week, but we still managed to keep pretty busy and have fun. I'll try to share some highlights of the week...

- En Vivo had a great turnout on Tuesday. I didn't get to see the actual service (my job for the week was babysitting Jack, Angie and Matt's five-month-old son), but when I came up at the end, the house was packed. Several of us saw people there for the first time - a HUGE answer to prayers. The exciting faces for me were those of Kassie's two freshman roommates. We have invited them both to En Vivo every week since we arrived, and they had managed to turn us down EVERY week. Finally, they showed up. One of the is even planning to come to our retreat to Malinche (a nearby, inactive volcano) in a few weeks.

- I have two new language partners. One is Angie (but not the same person as our exchange coordinator)... she is a Chemical Engineering major, and a really interesting person. We met for the first time on Friday, and she asked me a ton of questions... why I came, what I thought about different issues, etc. She spoke mostly in English, and I spoke mostly in Spanish. It was really fun. The other is Stephanie... she is a freshman, and she lived in Ohio for about five years. She's scared of forgetting her English, and so she loves the idea of 10 random gringos who want to hang out and talk to her. Also, we found out that her parents own a shop/restaurant that we frequently visit. She invited us to come try the Mole Poblano (mole, a chocolate and chili sauce, was first made in Puebla, and so every family and restaurant has their own - they'll all tell you that they have the best recipe.) We're excited about doing that... Stephanie's mom is pretty strict, so we're hoping that S. will be able to come to more events if she knows the people inviting her.

- This coming week, we are having "Open Mic Night" instead of En Vivo. They do it once a semester, and it's a chance for students to play guitar, sing, read poetry, whatever. All the exchange students have to do something, so the five girls decided to come up with a skit. We're going to teach "classic gringo dance moves," such as the running man, the lawnmower, the sprinkler, etc. We planned it and put together all of the music today, and we think it's going to be hilarious.

Now for some prayer concerns:
- School... this week is exam week, so we have test/presentations/papers for every class.
- Langauge... we're still improving. Pray for people to talk to, ways to get better, and patience.
- The retreat... Oct. 13-15 is the fall retreat to Malinche. We're praying for a good turnout and for the speaking to have a real impact on the people that come.
-Health and attitudes... we're hitting the halfway point, and we're all pretty tired. Some people are getting sick; others are struggling to stay encouraged. Pray that those who are discouraged can remember why we're here, those that are sick can get better (and will go to the doctor, even if they're stubborn about it =)), and that the rest of us can do our best to encourage them.

My camera's broken, so I'm going to have to resort to stealing other people's pictures from now on. So, here we go...


This is a picture of the exchange team for the semester. I love these kids... it's hard to believe we've only known each other for two months, and it's even harder to imagine going back to school without them in two more months.


Since there weren't many "photo-worthy" events this week, I thought I'd show you a picture of who I babysat on Tuesday. This is Jack, with Nathan (the head of the El Pozo staff)


I'll admit... this photo is entirely staged. Kassie and I try to make trips down to Cholula as much as possible, and this is from our most recent trip. One of our favorite coffee shops is decorated as a old-fashioned train station (some now-unused tracks run directly in front of the shop, "La Estacion."), and this is one of the decorations.

posted by Audrey @ 10:41 PM