One month already gone by

How do I begin a blog after being in Mexico for a month? I guess that's something I should have thought about when I decided to procrastinate on getting one started. In just a month I feel like I have learned far more about myself, a new culture, and my relationship with Christ than I ever could have imagined.

My first 3 weeks here were conveniently step up as stepping stones to prepare me for where I am right now. The first week, I had the Orangewood youth group here with me which was so nice having familiar faces around as I came to grips with the fact that this place would be my new home for the next 5 months. The following week, an intern named Virginia that had been at Casa Hogar with the Orangewood group as well had one more week with me before she left. That week was great getting to know her and really having time to get settled in but also really busy because 2 groups came in the same week that Virginia and I were "in charge" of. They weren't familiar but they were friendly faces that became another step in my adjustment. The following week 2 women that had previously worked at Casa Hogar and Sobre el Puente (a street child ministry associated with the same church as Casa Hogar) for 3 years came back for a visit. After living here for 3 years, they were obvioulsy very familiar with the city and were able to take me around and allow me to get a better feel for life in Acapulco. I was able to go to dinner with them multiple times and meet some of their friends that live here. I was so thankful for that because the more familiar faces in a big unfamiliar city, the better! Their departure brings me to week 4/beginning of week 5 which is where I am now.

For a while I was in kind of a limbo with what exactly my role here would be. I did not have any sort of schedule at all of where I should be or what I should be doing which made me feel useless. But in the past 2 weeks I have definitely been put to use. On Sundays I go to church with the kids and pretty much have a free afternoon to spend with them. Monday is my day off which would be today. I have been at Starbucks sitting in the AC playing on my computer for about 2 and a half hours and it has been delightful! Tuesday through Friday I work in an office at the church with a woman named Myrtille who plays a huge role in making the orphange run as it should. Unfortunately, it is quite a hike getting there. I have about a 10-15 min. walk down a mountain/hill to get to the bus stop, then I ride a bus, usually un-airconditioned:), for about 45 min.-an hour, and then on the other side take another 10-15 min. walk up a mountain/hill to arrive at the cool air-conditioned office! My work pretty much consists of paper work for the kids and filing which I do not have a problem with at all because I am able to see my progress and it is not physically difficult:) In the afternoons I go back to the orphange and help the children with their homework. Last week the middle schoolers started school and today everyone is in school. I have definitely become a useful tool when it comes to English homework. When the teacher sends home a take-home English test, I don't think they expect that an American will be the one helping! Saturdays are free to do whatever since the kids are free as well.

As far as the language goes, after living here for a month I can't help but know more than I started with. I am still so far from fluent but it is improving daily. I have also found people at the orphanage to talk to that know some English that are very helpful and very patient with me.

I have only had one little mishap with directions so far which for me, isn't too shabby. It happened on my way to work on the first day. This was my first time out alone so I was a little nervous but was fairly confident that I had understood the directions given to me, in Spanish of course. Well, apparently I was far from understanding and ending up getting off of the bus about 75 stops too soon:) So here I was on the main road in Acapulco standing on the side of the road alone. I did have a cell phone with me so I shamefully gave Myrtille a call and she came and picked me up. When I returned to Casa Hogar I was literally laughed at because I guess the directions should not have been difficult. The next day one of the kids was sent to go with me to make sure I arrived at the right place. Since that day I have made it to the office everyday all by myself and have not made that mistake again! Thank goodness!

This is my fifth time to come to Casa Hogar so I was fairly familiar with the place and people when I got here but I was also only used to being here for 1 week at a time. Being here for an extended time has definitely allowed me to see the good, the bad, and the sometimes really ugly. I've realized that my picture of the kids was unrealistic after only being here for 1 week at a time in the past. The kids here are the same as the kids anywhere. I love them to death but they can certainly be quite the little, ummm, rascals...This past week I have been incredibly convicted of how I love people. There are certain kids that I could spend hours with and never get sick of but there are also kids that I can hardly spend 5 min. with. I am realizing how incapable I am of genuinely loving these children on my own. I am seeing the importance of loving the "unloveable" especially in many circumstances where some of these children didn't even know what love looked like before coming to Casa Hogar. My job here is not so much to share the gospel in words because the already know what the Bible says but it is to actually act out the gospel and make Christ's love so evident that they can't ignore it. My constant prayer during my time here has been that I might be made invisible so that the children do not even see me but simply see Christ through me. My own sinfulness has become very obvious to me and I know that if I were here on my own, Christ's work would never come close to getting accomplished thanks to my impatience, pride, and flat out nastiness that I am without Christ. I don't think that I will come to a complete conclusion while I'm here on how to deal with the issure of loving others as Christ did. Actually, I'm pretty convinced that it is going to be a lifetime of learning but I just hope I can continue to make progress while I'm here and be able to apply it to my life back at home when I return.

Please excuse the length of this first blog. Hopefully I will be able to minimize the amount of paragraphs in the future. One last thing, I decided to name this blog "My time in between" because to me, that is exactly what this time is. It is the time in between high school and the rest of my life and who would have thought that I'd be spending it at an orphanage in Mexico...