Montezuma and Mexicali photos

this is the longest it's ever taken me to post photos . . . 3 weeks! i have lots of excuses, none of which would interest you :)

my memories have become rose-colored for the most part. for example i don't remember it being as hot as it was. maybe i acclimated, or i've expunged it from my mind. somethings won't fade, most of which i've written about. a few lingering memories are;


there are no building addresses . . . no numbers. they just say on ocean street, on the right, past the alley, up the stairs, (a really cute clothing shop, by-the-way). or turn right at the giant oak (cut down ten years ago), 2nd house on left . . . and that's where the mailman would deliver a package. packages take a very long time, if ever, to arrive. i'd like to say this was the case in tiny little montezuma, but it's all of costa rica. the government tried to change it once and the people rebelled.

one night, while we were walking home, we saw flickering lights. we stopped and tried to figure out where it was coming from on the beach hillside. finally we realized they were fireflies! i saw a firefly once in tennesee. this was a swarm. i can't believe fireflies exist.


sadly a drunk has stuck in my mind. perhaps it's because i saw him on you-tube before i left . . . 'the montezuma drunk'. he would stand in the street and sing off key. he has a big fuzzy beard and a pot belly. one day while we were visiting with a nicaraguan family, we noticed him crawling across the sand to get to the bar. nobody seemed to pay any attention to him as they stepped around him. he crawled about 20 feet in a half an hour. when we left he'd fallen asleep on all fours. so sad.

one night at base camp in mexicali we heard the kids start chanting "eat it! eat it!" naturally this drew the attention of the adults. apparently a large grasshopper had wandered into camp and a boy picked it up bravely.
the youth pastor stepped in to control the situation by starting a dare fee . . . anybody who wanted the teen to eat it had to pony-up 5 bucks. 25 bucks later the kid popped the live cricket in his mouth. i didn't see because i was too busy laughing at the spectators. all the girls had their hands up to their faces and were making little squealling sounds. the guys were grimacing, but leaning into the circle to watch. the adults were shaking their heads and laughing while looking away in disgust. tim is such a good pastor :) a little crazy, but that works with teens.


the last day in mexicali was the usual 1000 plus crowd for the annual fiesta. this year we got to see our old ministry site family; jose, daisy, ashley, and shayla. they came to the fiesta to see us. ashley is getting so big and she is so full of energy.

lastly, i loved this little burrowing owl. it was to the left of our base camp gate. everyday, always at attention, it stood next to it's burrow seeming to pose for photos.

well thanks for your time and friendship. i loved all your responses to my blogs. i wish more of them had been done on this blog site, so all of you could read them! until our next adventure, hasta luego.

heidi and joe

home sweet home

we made it! my camera dock didn't! which means no photos until the youth group arrives tonight. i will send out a notice to let you know when i've posted the photos.

it was a different mission than usual. we had no idea that a big group of youth from nebraska would be there, and honestly we were a little ruffled at first. after the first day of watching them race around and
play in the dirt playground under the blazing heat, we were thankful for the nebraska kids. our seniors team could not have managed that for long:) towards the end of our time there over half of their people got sick, and they turned to us for help with a little translation. it allowed us to bond with them. now we look forward to seeing them next year.

terri and i stayed over at the women's shelter most of the day. our goal was to get to know the 4 women. i did about 10-15 haircuts, a manicure, and a pedicure on the ladies, their kids,
and the 15 orphans that took their afternoon meal and nap at the women's shelter.
terri did too many manicures and pedicures to count. by the last day it was like a big slumber party . . . all of us giggling and pampering each other. the final afternoon they made terri and i sit still, and painted our toenails with little daisies. unforgettable experience to have had the tables turned so neatly like that. i hope my daisies stay on for a long time to remind me of those women.

one lady took my heart. vanessa wouldn't speak or meet my eyes at first, but she warmed up after i cut her hair in long layers. she looked like a movie star. then i did her daughter's in the same style. she mentioned that her hair was dry from using bar soap on it. that night we made a walmart stop and bought two giant bottles of shampoo and conditioner. she screamed with delight and clapped her hands when she saw the conditioner. when i left behind my own orange nail polish they hugged me. i guess women are still women, even during tough times.


i fell in love with one boy who'd been abandoned by his mom, 14 years old, named leonzio. he showed such an interest in my cutting hair that i gave him the scissors and walked him through cutting terri's hair (not an easy hair cut). he did a good job! i figured i'd have to repair it later, but it was fine. the oldest boy in the house was ramon. ramon had a mohawk. when i left on wednesday 4 other boys also had mohawks:)


the women to pray for are lupita #1, lupita #2, vanessa, and jaqualine. this is first time in jaqualine's life that she's been united with all four of her children at once. they'd been there a week or so. lupita #1's been there for 2 1/2 years . . . the house mom. the amount of food prepared and clothing washed reminded me of the old movie "yours, mine, and ours". it was all managed with military precision:)

show mercy, do justice, walk humbly

hi!

we arrived at the mexicali border at about 10 pm sat night. seven of us in two rental cars. before crossing over, dan (our fearless leader)
followed his instincts and double checked the paperwork to confirm that we had the mexico auto insurance, which is required. he'd asked for it in san diego, but further scrutiny revealed that we'd not gotten the insurance. dan called fox car rental and they said "you'll have to come back to san diego or go to phoenix". let me remind you how late it was on a saturday night. after 1 1/2 hours he finally got insurance online for less money and we crossed the border. we were exhausted.


next day we set off for our new mission site to go to church. went the long way and arrived a little late like half the congregation. it was a great service! afterwards we went outside and were surrounded by a swarm of children. about thirty . . . mostly boys. a youth group from nebraska was there for vbs (surprise!), so we toured the facility that houses the orphans, and got a glimpse of the women's shelter.

our base camp is pretty much the same as usual,
thanks to the efforts of the base camp team who had to clean up and repair everything because of the massive earthquake that hit last year right after we left. apparently the upper parking lot split open and sulphur water bubbled out for 3 days. the huge trailer that houses our freezers and refrigerators slid of it's foundation. when we arrived it looked normal :)

today was our first day at the women's shelter. i did 5 haircuts and terry did 3 manicures and received a manicure from one of the teenage boys. incredibly nice people. basically four little families living together at the shelter. our sports team went out into the pueblo and invited the local boys to come play ball with them. at first no one seemed interested, but after a couple of kids joined them it opened the floodgates. they had about 25 young men from the community come out and play soccer, basketball, baseball, and red-light-green-light. of course this meant several young girls showed up to watch the gringos run around. i started weaving glittery curling ribbon in their hair (thanks lori and lora for the idea). next thing you know terry and i had a line-up of girls wanting ribbons. it was awesome!

lot's of hugs and kisses, heidi and joe

san diego

we are going through our usual culture shock, this time in san diego.

thursday night we stayed at double tree cariari in alejuala, costa rica. i highly recommend it. what a beautiful hotel. the bed was absolutely heavenly and the service was excellent.
they had a nice pool with immediate towel service and if you shaded your eyes the attendant would drag a huge umbrella over for you and set it to cover just your eyes. amazing! it seemed even more awesome following our little hotel. we had no windows, just screens to 'help' keep the bugs out. we didn't need our key because it was so easy to push open the screen and unlock the door. we had hot water one time and it was so hot we couldn't take a real shower. we stood to the side and splashed the water on ourselves. how odd that we should be so frustrated with the inconvenience of hot water! the water came out like a garden hose, but it would occasionally shoot out a jet of water. i swear there was a camera waiting for me to let my guard down! i had to ask for my sheets to be changed after a week because i could smell them =( definitely a different experience here at double tree!

now we are in san diego, california, at another hilton. certainly not the caliber of costa rica, but the bed was comfortable. the san diego marina is so pretty. they had a regatta while we were there and i thought the street mimes were excellent. joe and i felt like a couple of yokels because we sat and watched a cruise ship back away from the dock. it seemed so decadent.

yesterday when i was walking off the airplane i twisted my hip and now i hobble everywhere i go. i can't tell you how thankful i am that i didn't hurt myself in montezuma. it would have been disastrous . . . no exaggeration. fortunately i got a good night sleep. it didn't solve my hip pain, but sleep is always good for healing. last night we were starving and tired, so we went with the recommendation of the hotel and walked to this little drive-up mexican food place. oh man . . . it was the best mexican food i'd ever had. ever! or maybe i was tired and hungry :)

well now we head off for mexico . . . a bold and dashing adventure . . . right?

heidi

goodbye montezuma!

it´s our last day and i´m blogging because it is blazing hot outside and this is about the only place with air-conditioning in this town. it costs 1000 colones-about $1.50 for an hour. maybe i´ll pay for another hour and just lay on the tile floor.

we just came from the waterfalls by our hotel and stopped here on our way through town.
when we finish here we´ll head over to joe´s favorite beach for some wave action, then maybe we´ll go over to the other little red rock river. maybe we´ll find time to stop at ylang ylang for a glass of malbec. tonight looks like it will turn into a farewell party for us. trying to squeeze as much as possible into one day.

joe got stung by a jellyfish yesterday. we were pretty worried about it because it seemed severe, but it just faded away in about 3 hours. he´s lucky.

tomorrow we´ll head over to san jose and stay the night. friday morning we´ll catch a plane to san diego and stay another night (our 31st year anniversary for when we started dating). on saturday our church group will pick us up and cart us off to mexicali for our annual short-term mission trip. we´ll be there one week. the computers are sketchy at best, so we´ll see if i can write. our ¨plan¨ is to work at an orphanage that also has a women´s shelter. not far away is a men´s shelter also run by the same church family. it´s different than usual and we are very excited about the change.

for awhile i was distressed over the lack of any apparent people of faith here in montezuma. as i mentioned, the only church is closed except for funerals. i prayed a prayer of sorrow for this. the next day we went past the soccer field, and there was a church gathering on the field. the next morning the hotel housekeeper noticed joe's bible, and started a conversation about how she and her bible study group were studying revelations.
later we were sitting in town admiring a hand-painted sign and i noticed, next to the signature, was a fish and in cursive it said Jesus Christ lives. a huge map of the town has a little note in the bottom right hand corner ´God bless montezuma´. that afternoon as we walked down the beach we came across a man carving a massive totum pole with writings in six languages on it. he introduced himself to us as luis.
we asked if he was the same luis who painted the map and sign. he was. we exchanged blessings and smiled pretty big as we walked away. last night a tourist asked us to explain why god let bad things happen to good people . . . right in the middle of the street! i wish people would ask easier questions:) we said ¨shit happens¨ on earth, but heaven would be better. i told her that God understood her anger and would love to hear from her, and she started bawling. i think this town is ripe for a major revival.

like i said, don´t know if i´ll write again or not, but i probably will.

love ya´ll heidi and joe