Thursday, December 17, 2009

Mexico City

We were blessed to be able to take the SMCA kids and families on a 5 day trip to Mexico City! Some of you prayed for our travels, safety, and the money to make this possible. Thanks for your prayers -it was a success and we had a wonderful time! The trip was packed full of exploring the city and learning more about Mexican history and culture. It was so fun for me to see the kids so excited about learning and experiencing some of the things that we had been learning about in the classroom.
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Day 1 was a day filled with travel. With 5 cars, 8 hours of driving, and 18 kids, we decided that it would be wise to break up the trip with some stops along the way. So we took a couple of hours to explore the city of San Luis Potosi.




We also saw some interesting sights on the car ride! These were snake skins for sale!



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On Day 2 we headed out of the city to the Teotihuacan Pyramids.

The Pyramid of the Sun.


On top of the Pyramid of the Sun.


Juan Porto is one of the teen home parents on our campus and he grew up in Mexico City. He kindly offered to be our tour guide and teach us about all of the sites that we would be visiting. Above is a picture of Juan explaining to us the history of Teotihuacan.


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On Day 3 we toured the Palace of Chapulepec, explored the Museum of Anthropolgy and ended the day hanging out at the Children's Museum. Below is a picture of Hope, Jessica, Chloe and I in the palace.



Above is all the kids with the palace in the background.


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On Day 4 we walked around downtown and visited the Federal Palace.




Inside of the Federal Palace.



Mexico City is built on top of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. In the heart of downtown is el templo meyor. The is the site where the top of the largest pryamid is being excavated. It is incredible to think that while I was walking through the city, an entire ancient civilization was buried under my feet. Mexico City is also built on what used to be a large lake. Due to this, many old buildings have begun to sink. If you look closely at many of the buildings you will notice that they have a slight tilt to them.



Downtown we found many beautiful buildings! Above is a picture of the Theater and Architecture Museum.

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Throughout the trip we also ate some delicious... and unique... Mexican delicacies!


Jessica and I ate grasshoppers! The flavor was not too bad, they tasted mainly like salt and lime! However, the picture below will show you that it wasn't easy!



Here are all the flavors that you could order for the inside of your churro!!

The market where we did some shopping!

These are the Voladores de Papantla. They play music and spin around the pole.

Here is the historic symbol of Mexico City. You may have seen her in photos.

And just to prove that the trip had an educational focus, here is a picture of the kids writing in the travel journals that we kept throughout the trip. They used their journals for notes, sketches and reflections throughout the trip!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

November!!!!!!!

Wow! The whole month of November has slipped from me...Here are some snapshots from November...

SMCA field trip to the puppet museum

Fall Festival!




SMCA Thanksgiving luncheon

Back2Back community Thanksgiving


Saturday, October 24, 2009

baby Velasco

God has given me a talent that I am getting to use more here in Mexico. I have painted in several of the bedrooms of the staff kids here to give them some joy. Gabo and Kelly Velasco are going to have a baby any day and asked if I would help make the nursery special. So this is what they decided upon.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

PureNRG

Last week we had the privilege of having the music group PureNRG here at Back2Back. These teens are popular in the US and have 3 CD's of music for kids. PureNRG consists of Jordan, Carolyne, and Caroline.
They took time out of their schedules to take a mission trip here and they all loved it. They told me they wanted to come back every year!
One night we had a mini concert for all the children in every Casa Hogar we serve. We used a local church and everyone piled in!! Each Casa Hogar had a chance to 'perform' and they each sang a song and Douglas girls played their tambourines. It was such a fun day to have all the children there. Even though PureNRG sang in English, it didn't matter. The children's eyes were glued to them and they were so excited to be there.

Imperio de Amor performing



PureNRG performing

Carolyne and Caroline

All the girls loved Jordan!!!

Sunday mornings

The girls at Douglas church are learning routines with the tambourine...It is so fun to watch them perform!!

Our school has a blog!

Miss Jessica created a blog for the students to share writing. My class will occasionally put things on it too. Check it out:

http://www.smcakids.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 15, 2009

My birthday 2009

Well, most of you know I don't like when my birthday comes cause it reminds me of my age...This year I felt truly blessed and happy! I love where God has chosen to put me right now in my life and I am thankful for all the friends I have here and back home. I had a great celebration and a few surprises...
At midnight, the night before, I had singers at my door again. It is a huge tradition to have mariachi bands play on the night of your birthday.


Sunday, was the day and at church the little girls from Casa Hogar Douglas kept coming up and saying "Feliz Cumpleanos"..It was so sweet that that was enough to make me happy!!
After church, Hope, Becca, and I spent the day having lunch, walking around the mall, and getting Starbucks - a very American afternoon..
I got home to find a package that had been delievered from my mom so then I talked to my family on the phone.

That night some of the teen girls came over to wish me a happy birthday and the staff women all surprised me and told me we were going somewhere. We went to a cute, new restaurant and had some snacks! It was a wonderful day!



But it wasn't over...the next day in school the kids had cards and a party for me. That night I was taken out to dinner by some of my guy friends!
Plus, amidst all this I had encouraging notes from friends back home!
Thanks to everyone for blessing me with your friendship and for loving me!!

Zacatecas, Mexico

We had 2 days off school so Jessica and I decided to explore a little. We heard about a cute little town and so we made reservations and got a bus ticket and took off. Everyone travels by bus in Mexico. You can leave every hour for anywhere. It took 7 1/2 hours and 4 movies in Spanish to finally arrive! It was well worth the ride! It was such a cute city with history and neat architecture and little squares with fountains. You can pretty much walk anywhere. We shopped, ate at restaurants, took the gondola ride, toured a mine, and met a ton of people from many different countries. It was a wonderful break from teaching and a fun adventure.










My favorite candy shop!!!



The bakery we went to in the mornings for coffee and sweet bread.