Saturday, May 21, 2011

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