a journey to the well

This week flew by. I feel like I say that EVERY week, but it's true - the weeks seem to go faster and faster all the time. Anyway, this week was busy, and we also spent a lot of time unwinding/recovering from the retreat.

Tuesday's En Vivo had a pretty low turnout, and we were a little disappointed. Dan (one of the staff) gave his last talk at El Pozo, and it was great. Dan is leaving in December (around the time we leave) after serving his two-year commitment. He is engaged to a wonderful former CCFer named Betsy, and they are going to get married in the spring. A huge highlight of En Vivo was hearing a few of the students talk about the retreat. Nate asked three people to just stand up and say their thoughts. My language partner, Angie, even called it "one of the best experiences" of her life. We all had big grins on our faces, hearing that.

On Friday, we had a girls' event we called "PozoCine." About 40 of us made pizza from scratch and then watched a movie while we ate it. It seemed to go GREAT - some people we have invited to things but have never shown up actually came to this, and we all had a blast. Hopefully, they'll keep coming to things. The weekend stayed busy on Saturday... Megan and I went to Cholula and had tamales from a small tienda my cousin recommended to us, eight of the exchange students and one of the leaders (Ivette) went to our friend's orchestra concert, and we had "Fiesta Azteca," a party with barbecue and games after home football games. Some of us went to a movie that night, and others hung out and watched the GT vs. Clemson game. I was sad to miss the game... until I found out the score. (31-7, Clemson for all of you non-GT fans)

This week, we're having "En Vivo Tranquilo," a once-a-month, more mellow version of En Vivo. We're going to have a fogata (campfire) out in the front yard and talk about "removing the masks in our lives." Halloween isn't a HUGE deal here, but people know what it is, and it coincides with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the most religious/family-oriented Mexican holiday.

On Friday, the exchange students are going to Chiapas. We have Wed-Friday of the following week off for Dia de los Muertos (Nov. 1), so we're missing a couple of classes and taking a vacation. I'm SO excited about this... it's hard to beat Mayan ruins, waterfalls, jungle, colonial cities, zoos, and boat rides through canyons. It should be a great week. I'll try to update before we leave, and I should have plenty to say when we get back.

Here are some things to pray for:
-"Operation X": Angie (our mentor) challenged us all to come up with a way to impact the campus. Our events range from sitting in the library and offering help with English to going out to clubs with friends to playing guitar on campus. Pray that we meet new people and make new connections.
-Safety during travel: The exchange students are taking off for Chiapas, most students go home, and Sarah (a staff member) is going home to see her brand-new nephew.
-Students coming to events: We hope to have a better turnout this week at En Vivo Tranquilo, and we'd love to see some of the girls from the movie night at En Vivo.

Here are some more pictures from the retreat:

This is a picture of Elsa and me as high as we got on Malinche. The path basically disappeared, and we were inside of cloud, so we couldn't see where anyone before us went. Sarah, Elsa, and I decided to play it safe and turn around.


This was my "family" for the weekend. We had to take a picture of all of us, but with only half of us on the ground. Since Alex (not pictured) had his arm in a sling, we decided there were only five of us. (Half = 2.5 people)... if you can't tell, I'm the 0.5 person.

posted by Audrey @ 4:28 PM