A Week to Settle In
The directors of Sonshine Hacienda, Gary and Karen, told Randy and I
to take the week to unpack and get settled. A week sounded like a long time to
us, but we’ve been extremely grateful for it!
Randy and I went out for brunch
and were surprised when the waitress brought Randy two hot dogs when he ordered
sausage! We went to the local market run by Wal-Mart, but ended up at the next
door grocery store when they didn’t have much by way of fresh produce.
In the afternoon we made use of
the communal laundry room and started to organize our apartment. We had a
delicious soup with the kids and are going to love the fresh tortillas daily!
On Sunday, Randy and I went to
the English service at church, where Gary is the pastor. The congregation is
filled with Americans who visit and live in San Felipe. We were introduced and
afterwards more people than we can remember came and introduced themselves to
us.
In the afternoon, Profesora
Norma and the padrinos (“godparents”) came to spend time with the kids. Norma
is a local teacher who has organized a group of business people to be mentors
to the children. The joy on the kids’ faces when they arrived proved how much
they look up to these adults, who are teachers, doctors, and managers at the
local mine.
The padrinos had brought the children gifts – chickens! The
largest supporting church for Sonshine Hacienda had recently built a chicken
coop (a chicken mansion!) and the kids were now able to fill it. Some were
scared, but others were brave enough to grab a chicken and release it into the
coop. We’re looking forward to fresh eggs down the road!
Once hands were washed, the
padrinos passed out new school uniforms to each of the kids, and the kids gave
thank-you gifts that they had prepared for their mentors. I took lots of
pictures and hope we can use them somehow as Christmas gifts for the padrinos. The evening ended
with cupcakes and lots of hugs.
Monday was another animal
entirely – our first day here with the kids being in school. Jovi and I went
out at 6:30 a.m. to take a walk and the first load of kids was headed off to
school. The daytime house moms were also arriving. One of the services offered
to the staff here is to be picked up for work and dropped off at home after
their shift is over. The day was very quiet compared to the weekend, with the
kids going to school in various shifts (their school day is only half-day).
Gary took Randy and I to the
local “MovieStar” to get cell phones (which will cost us $15 a month for
unlimited service!) and to the insurance company to insure our car. The woman helping us is originally from Paris, so
we told her we met on the nearby Camino de Santiago and she gave me a huge hug.
We haven’t yet figured out how
to get our stomachs on schedule with the kids. We went down at 6 p.m. and the
older kids were doing their homework. “Where is everybody?” we asked. “Showers,”
they replied. So Randy and I decided to go find a taco. Not hard in this town.
The place we stopped at was so good we will likely become regulars. Though
maybe they are all that good…
On Tuesday, Randy and I decided
to take a break and go for a drive. There are mountains to the west, the gulf
to the east, and the Border to the north, but we hadn’t yet explored south. I
asked Randy if we should fill up with gas before leaving town, but he said we
had enough to get to the next town, an hour away.
There was nothing between San
Felipe and Puertocitos but sand, gulf, mountains, and cactus. The road was in
various stages of pavement with lots of dips and bumps along the way. By the
time we got to Puertocitos, we were incredibly low on gas. But the one gas
station in town was closed. We saw a man walking so I rolled down my window and
asked, “Hay gasolina in este villa?” He shook his head no. “Cerca de aqui?” He
shook his head no again. “Gracias.” We had come to the end of the pavement with no gas anywhere nearby and
were forced to turn around, but weren’t sure how far we’d get on the little gas
we had left.
Crossing our fingers we headed
back to San Felipe. The scenery was as gorgeous as the roads were rough. The
scenery is the only reason we’d probably come this way again, except maybe to
stop at “Cow Patty,” a local hamburger joint. We thanked God that he’d called
us to San Felipe, where there are shops and gas stations and taco stands, and
not to a remote area like Puertocitos.
I was fully prepared to call
Bernardo to come pick us up on the side of the road where we’d run out of gas,
but we managed to coast our way into town with a half-gallon to spare. The one
thing that isn’t cheap in this town is gas. Twelve-hundred pesos later ($3 a gallon) we
were running on full again.
We stopped at a hamburger place
we’d been to before, wanting a hot dog or some sort of snack to get us by until
dinner. The menu was both in English and in Spanish, so we figured we were safe
to order a “melt cheese,” assuming it was a grilled cheese sandwich. When I
ordered, the waitress asked if we wanted flour or corn tortillas. Tortillas?
Si. That seemed like a weird offering to go along with a grilled cheese
sandwich, but we decided on flour. A short while later she returned with a bowl
of melted cheese. Not a grilled cheese sandwich at all, but fondue! And a fork.
And a stack of tortillas. We had no idea how you were supposed to eat it, but
dug in anyway. Happy to laugh at our mistake!
By Wednesday we were starting to
get a little bored, which we thought was a very good thing! We are ready to
start having some direction in our day and look forward to being assigned some
duties.
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