2/22/10

missed pictures


Here are the pictures that didn't show up yesterday. We spent the day Saturday house-sitting for the Casa 5 kids. Details in the post below.





Lunch time in Casa 5.



Yesterday afternoon we drove up to visit our friends on the hill in Santa Fe (the ones with the new red house). Nathanael had a couple quick finishing touches to do. It was nice to see how they had settled and moved into the house. It was really nice to have a place to hang out and visit with them , especially given the rain and mud outside. We were served supper much to my surprise. When we arrived Minerva and her mom were making tortillas and they re-heated a pot of beans to go with them. It was delicious. Fresh and hot off the new stove. I am still learning how to effectively eat a bowl of soupy beans with nothing but a tortilla for a utensil, but I managed to get it all in my tummy. She was rather generous with the portions though...I was bursting by the time I finished. It was a really nice time , eating and visiting with the family. I think it's the most we've seen and visited with Italia , the mother. She was very hospitible and friendly. It was good. She is doing well.
In that little new house there were also 4 cousins along with my 3 kids and her 5. The picture above isn't of our time there though. I didn't have my camera yesterday. Over our bowls of beans and fresh maize tortillas , three different languages were being spoken back and forth. Spanish being the main language of conversation but also a very fascinating native Oaxacan language, Triqui. It sounds nothing like Spanish at all. In fact I find Italias spanish hard to understand probably because it is her second language too. A majority of the migrant field workers in Baja are native Mexicans from the mountians of Oaxaca. There are many languages and dialects spoken among the melting pot of people that make up the Baja. Of course there were side conversations and intructions being given in English as well. When we are surrounded by people who don't speak English we try our best to use Spanish even when talking to our own children, but once the English still sneaks out once in a while....being as we are not yet fluent in Spanish. The kids understand quite a lot though.

I am so glad that in all this resurgence of rain that there was enough of a break to build a roof over their heads. Poor little Louisa has been running a high fever and coughing for 3 days now. Ramiro had quite the cough too but his fever was gone now. Minerva looked like quite the little mother with sick little Louisa wrapped around her on one hip and flipping tortillas with the other hand. I'm hoping that we don't catch whatever cold it is that they are fighting. I doubt our immune systems are as hardy as theirs.

Another reason to stay healthy is that we have a mini vacation planned for next weekend! We are going on a Mexican road trip with a couple friends here. It will be an adventure. Any guesses where?
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1 comment:

Valen and Carol said...

I love that you can give us real accounts of life in Mexico and Haiti and we are praying for both places. Our hearts ache for life in Haiti now and it seems that it will not change soon.