oh, the stories i have to tell

so lets start with yesterday.
yesterday was the last day of construction. after hauling bucks of dirt and concrete across the courtyard for a week, shoveling dirt, and mixing concrete my body was rebelling against me. i was exhausted, tired, and my muscles we hurting. but during ciesta time ariel, who was here for three weeks and left today, asked if i wanted to go to the grocery store. i needed some things and i would rather have gone with someone (going with someone means a better chance of getting there for me) so i said i would go with her. we had to walk do this hill (and i use that term very lightly) to get to the bus stop. let me just say, god bless the ac buses! they are 10 cents more than the non ac ones and with a happy heart i handed over my 10 extra cents. i tried not to fall asleep on the bus and pay attention to where we were going because i was going to have to do this more than once. we get our groceries, get back on the bus (an ac one again), and get off at our designated spot. now came to real test- walking up the mountain of a hill of get to casa hogar... with my groceries in the amazingly hot weather. if a taxi drove buy i would have paid him to drive me up the hill and drop me off at casa hogar. but no, i drug my feet up that hill and we finally got to casa hogar. on fridays the kids put on a little show for the team that is leaving. then, they have a little dance time at the end. i left early and went to bed because i was so tired and my head hurt.
i am better today. and it was my job to go with aaron to the airport and see the team off. but that was an adventure in and of itself. aaron has been here for who knows how long is at casa hogar until september, i think.
so, the team leaves in thier air conditioned bus and aaron and i get into his blue vw bug and we will meet them at the airport. no ac. ok, i can handle that. the only thing this car has on the inside is a speedometer. and that doesnt even work, as i will notice later in this little trip. we get down that mountain of a hill i walked up the other day and realzie we forgot something. so, we turn around and get back. so, we are starting out late. no problem though. so i start to notice some things about his car. as we go around any sharp turns my seat starts to wobble. i think, this is great, i am sitting really close to the wind shield and my seat isnt secured to the car. good. as we are going up another large hill the engine is running at a dull roar. not a soft hum like normal cars. i hear a soft screaching noise coming from behind us... i hope the bumper is still on. then we get down the same hill and aaron says with a smile, i was going to tell you this when we got down the hill...but we are almost out of break fluid. at this point i cant help but laughing. this is great and i am enjoying the humor in it. we ended up missing the turn for costco(we have to pick up pizzas for the team so they have lunch) so we park and walk. thank the lord of ac in costco! we walked around costco while our pizzas were being made and ate the samples. ok. got the pizzas and walk back to the car. we turn around in the middle of the median, i am convinced that there was no road there. we are runnig late still and need to stop at oxxo (a 711 type store) and pick up drinks. aaron didnt want to go up the street and turn around so we settled for waiting at a break in the traffic and we drove on the wrong side of the rode for a bit to get into oxxo. good. got the drinks and now need to get to the airport. on the way to the airport the car makes a new noise and aaron turns and looks at me and says, well, i have never heard that noise before. well, we got to the airport and saw the team off.
they were a sweet team. and actually they were from chatanooga tn. and go to ccs. which is the shcool mr brower and mr arnold are at and and mrs vandergriff will be there soon. i told them they better take spanish becuase they will love mrs vandergriff.
anyway. we went to starbucks afterwards and i am now back at casa hogar. i dropped my cloths off at the lavanderia accross the street. i was about to cry for joy when i saw that it was open. there is no rhyme or reason when it opens and the closest lavanderia is down that mountain of a hill. if i had to carry my load of laundry up that hill i just might cry. there is no way. so there was a small victory... laundry is being done. hopefully i will be able to get it tom. there have been issues with being able to pick up laundry becaue we never know when this place is open. so this post was long but i think the whole thing was quite comical.

oh, if anyone wants to send anything to me or to the kids it is best to get it to my family or someone from orangewood coming down here. there is a mailing address here but the package or whatever you wanted to send might not get here before i leave. so best bet would be to give it to orangewood to get here.

next week there is no team and the week after that i shouldnt have construciton duty. yay.

one more day of construction...

friday is my last day of construction duty with the team. you would not believe how incredibly smelly my scrubs are. i got done today and layed on the tile floor of my room under the fan as i was waiting for the shower. i am sitting here in the computer room as the kids playfully shout english words that they don't comprehend at me. little things like this just make me smile and make my day.
yesterday i was talking to someone as i saw fernando come running across the courtyard with the biggest smile on his face and a hose in his hand. as he ran by me he stuck out his tongue and continued running. it just makes my heart happy to see those rare uninhibitted smiles of his. he has a tremendously sad story.
and let me just tell you about last nights dinner. i can can eat many things (as many of you know) and dinner last night was not one of them. i had to tell myself to not look at my food and it would go down better. the kids and myself had eggs with cut up hotdogs soaked in a hot chile sauce. i am cringing trying not to thing about it. so i wont be eating with the kids on wednesdays anymore. :)
the kids keep asking me when my group is coming! orangewood, they are waiting for you already. more of the kids remember me then i would have thought, which is encouraging. they language barrier is frustrating but i have to deal with it! :)
you can pray for lauren, who has been here for a yearish. she is leaving at the end of june. right now she is in the states because her grandfather is in a coma and not doing well. pray for wisdom to know when to come back to acapulco and strength for her.
you can pray for me that the little quirks of living with 7 other people with not overly frustrate me.

one more thing

if anyone sees emily rush you can tell her that lupe has been asking if she is coming this summer. when i told lupe yes she smiled as she said she was very happy!
derrick, nicole, and brittany... lupe also asked about you.
mom, you were asking about any good things to bring when orangewood comes... the kids really like board games. they love (and have here) monopoly and candyland. if you want to bring some games that are easy to play that would be great.

i am just laughing

yesterday i just had to smile at some things... i will relay them to you.
i got up and laughed as i got up and was angry at my shower for not giving me cold water. so i had to deal with luke warm water. not ideal but ok.
then i laughed as the interns went to the grocery store and i went and bought antibacterial hand sanitizer only to come home and find out it was antibacterial hand soap. i also needed sunscreen so i went looking for it only to find it behind a locked glass case. yup... locked behind glass, thats right. my best guess was it was one of the few things in the store over 50 pesos (5 dollars) so it was locked??? go figure.
once the team down here went out to play with the kids i brought out my playing cards and uno cards for the kids. marbella instantly asked for the playing cards and i got a group of boys to play uno with me. i laughed at the diverse group i got- jesus (15), george (12ish), roberto (13ish), guiermo (12ish), gama (10ish), and then the 3 year old (kevin) came up and wanted to play. i actually added guiermo into the game later and kevin sat on my lap as i told him what cards to place on the pile. you gotta love the 3 yr old trying to play uno.
i laughed as fernando is no longer pushing me (as he once did) but has taken to stickng his tongue out at me (which is an inprovement from pushing). it just makes me smile.
i laughed as the other rachel, myself, and some of the younger boys were trying to come up with a nickname for me becuase there are 2 rachels. osiel and roberto were making me laugh so hard... i will give you a taste of some of the names- michael jackson, looney toons, mosquito, luna, cara linda, texas, mexico, raquel china, and some other crazy and normal ones thrown in there.
yesterday was a good hang out day. today i am drenched in sweat and need to take a shower because i had construction duty with the teams.
oh, orangewood! i have an update on our green tiles... they have been moved and stacked on the other side of the courtyard. that makes me laugh every time i look at it.
off to a nice cold shower and a nice nap!