Wellcome to Mitla

Hello! I thought of doing another postcard-type post, but I just can't choose which picture to use. So, perhaps I can take you on a photo tour of Mitla instead. Ready?

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Wellcome to Mitla - where you can walk through archaeological ruins and buy handicrafts of Oaxaca (traditional clothing, weaving, wooden animals, black pottery, etc.)

Here is our group of explorers - JoEllen Reaves, me, Kris Boggs, Wes, and Sarah in front. Behind us is the base of some large ruins that you can see in the following picture.

These structures were left by the Zapotecs, it is believed that these particular ruins were constructed around 1300 A.D.

A close up on the wall above shows the intricate designs used by the Zapotecs.

One of the pictures I like in particular. This is a pathway to a courtyard.

When you find an ancient tomb, what other choice is there than to go in it? In truth, I didn't want to go in for fear of what might be living in there, but Wes and Sarah kept 'wow'ing and it got my curiosity going.

In the background of the picture below, you can see a Catholic church built right on top of the ruins. This was done quite often, supposedly to show who was more powerful.

We'll end this tour with a stop for souvenirs. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Earthquakes, spiders, and independence

You may recall that last October I was disappointed to miss my first earthquake - well, no longer! This morning I awoke at 5:30 to find my bed moving. As with many minor quakes, once I figured out what was going on, it was over. I wondered if maybe I'd dreamt it, but I could hear lots of dogs barking in the city so I figured it'd really happened (checking the USGS website later confirmed it as well).

I feel kind of bad mentioning it, in view of the recent earthquake in Indonesia. But, feeling your first earthquake is an experience. It's made me ponder the earth we live on - albeit, briefly ponder - no new depths of thought were actually reached ;-). I thought of writing a poem though...

Another adventure awaiting me this morning was a very large spider on a curtain in my 'living room.' After clearing everything away in preparation for battle, I gathered my broom and a sturdy shoe. I paused to take a moment to draw up courage and to make sure my reactions would be quick. But, I soon discovered that it wasn't easy to knock that spider down - in fact I broke the handle of my broom (don't ask). Halfway through I began to feel bad about killing it, it was just chilling out, after all - and it turned out that it was missing 2 legs. But, I continued on and in the end the spider was no more.

So, that was part of my morning. I spent time this afternoon exploring new parts of the city, and knew roughly where I was almost the whole time. Yay ;-). Side note for those of you who don't know: I am rather severely directionally challenged - but I am actually starting to get a grip on directions now - maybe someone's been praying for me ;-)

Tonight is Noche Mexicana, when they do the Grito (shout of independence) at 11:00. Tomorrow is Independence Day. So, may I be the first to wish you an early happy Mexican Independence Day!

Broken Windows

This morning as I was riding a bus to the children's home, I noticed that the windshield on the passenger side had some rather large cracks in it. The driver had even stuffed a piece of cloth through a large hole, I assumed it was to keep it together somehow.

About halfway through the hour long ride, I saw that the driver and his assistant were discussing the broken windshield. I couldn't catch what they were saying - other than bits of stories of what happened on other buses when the windows broke. Hmm...

Then the assistant suddenly hit the windshield with his fist. That didn't seem like a good idea to me, but the driver told him to pick up a spray can and hit it again. I couldn't help but jump a little each time he hit it. As I sat there in my front row seat, I did my best to trust that they knew what they were doing. Maybe there was some sort of physics to their method...

Pretty soon the whole window had cracks in it. The sun was shining bright and the wind was testing its strength, and I worried that the window would break completely. I'm very happy to report that it actually held up for the rest of the time I was on the bus. Who would've thought. Most people who have used public transportation in other countries have a good bus story, but I haven't heard one like this before. It certainly made for an interesting ride ;-).

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"'Glass shines brighter when it's broken... I never noticed that.'"

"The more I think about the meaning of living and acting in the name of Christ, the more I realize that what I have to offer others is not my intelligence, skill, power, influence, or connections, but my own human brokenness through which the love of God can manifest itself."

From Gracias! A Latin American Journal by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Prayer requests

~Please pray for me~

Right now I am struggling with finding a balance between what I'd most like to do and the desire to fill needs - along with working out a good schedule to accommodate it all. Above all, I want whatever I do to be according to God's will.

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~Please pray for Cristo por su Mundo~

This is the home for children that I will be working at a couple days a week. They are soon to become really short-staffed, so they need prayer as they look for good housemothers for the children.

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~Please pray for Oaxaca~

Pray for the unity of the Covenant church here in Oaxaca. Also, Jo Ellen and Cindy are at a national meeting in Cuernavaca right now, so please pray that God will be with what goes on there, and for a safe journey for them.

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A prayer from Paul:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more

in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern

what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ

—to the glory and praise of God.

Phillipians 1:9-11

Thank you!

Oaxaca photos...

Today I returned to the Zocalo (city center). Last year, I only visited it 3 times, and those were hurried and rather tense walks because it was occupied by protestors. Today as I walked around it, I noticed how well they had erased the traces of the destruction that occurred there last year and how safe it felt. There are hundreds of potted plants sitting all over, to soon replace the ones torn out by protestors.

To the average tourist, it probably looks like a great spot (which it certainly is), but I couldn't help but recall what it looked like last year too. It was a good though, to feel the freedom of just being a 'tourist' and enjoying myself. The photo below is of candles lit for prayer in a nearby cathedral. Beautiful!

And, three is a good number, so I'll include one more picture - this one is of my landlord's little puppy on my doorstep. Cute! :-)

Small adventures

Alright, I've settled ino my apartment and have already had my few first adventures...

-The first was moving into my apartment. I had no idea how much stuff I had left down here, and getting it down a small, wet, spiral staircase proved to be an interesting task. My arm took one for the team when an old laundry basket of books broke apart. OK, ok, it wasn't too major, just a scrape, but it stung! ;-) I had help getting the stuff up into my apartment, so no complaints there.

-Cooking has also proven to be an adventure. I apparently lack the fine tuned skill of lighting a gas oven. I'll keep working on that though. And, I can't seem to set things I'm cooking low enough to simmer - this stove just seems to have the boil-over setting ;-). But, I'll keep at that too. I will triumph!

-Today I went to a Casa Hogar (a home) for children, and it looks like I will be working there a couple days each week. It is a beautiful facility with friendly people. I'll be working one-on-one with a boy with special needs. How amazing to see the skills I learned at Laradon already be put to use! The boy is eight and is super lovable. It'll be a bit of a struggle to get him to respect my authority, but we should have plenty of time to work on that :-). By the way, the website for them is www.ffhm.org.

I still need to get out an explore Oaxaca again. It has been pretty rainy so far, but that makes for nice and cool evenings. And, now that there aren't protestors who are afraid of me being a journalist, maybe I can take more pictures of the beautiful city and post them. So, stay tuned for more :-)

Well, I better get going - my pot of eggs boileth over.