Of course the kids remember me!

 It's been a year since I last came to the orphanage.

I questioned if the kids would remember me, that was silly to think! Of course the kids remembered me! The children are like family and I'm like an Uncle that they get to see once or twice a year. They all greeted me with excitement. Unfortunately I disrupted the devotional time that they were having. I remembered some of their names, but fortunately when a child asked me their name, the other kids had no patients and blurted it out. Later I told the leader that I was sorry for interrupting the devotional time, but she said that it was no problem! Here, relationships are way more important than any class that is going on. That is one of the things that I love about Mexico.

These are two of my many favorites here

Last September there was an earthquake (centered 2 hours south of Colima) that shook my friends here. Earthquakes are a real fear for the people that live here. In 2003 there was one that killed 29 people, injured 300 more, and another 10,000 were left homeless. Apparently there was one 20 minutes away at 4AM today, but it was only a magnitude 3.6 (I don't think anyone felt it, I only know from looking on the internet for info on the last one).

September earthquake

There is a volcano here that is the most active volcano in Mexico. When our team was here in 2015 the volcano was going off every 20 minutes or so. It was like "oh, there it goes again". They stopped air travel over the area due to the debris in the air. At that time I decided that a volcano that was huffing and puffing was way better than one that was plugged up and building pressure. The last time it erupted was January of 2017. Hmm, should I worry? Not today, I have work to do.

Volcano de Colima 19 miles away

The only damage here (at the orphanage) during the September earthquake was that a stone wall fell down. 

Photo of the wall in 2018 behind some of our team that were playing with the kids

So one of my first projects was to build rebar forms (for the new concrete pillars) that the team from Michigan will need when they come to build a new wall.

We also had to dig deep holes for the new concrete pillars.

Honestly though most of the day was just spent resting and relaxing. I think that is what I do best in Mexico. In a previous post I wrote about what a Sabbatical is and what it means to me. That can be found here:

https://danoinmexico.blogspot.com/2022/02/im-home-end-of-my-sabbatical.html

Basically, it's a time of rest. A time to stop your normal activities and be still. Some might call this a vacation, however vacations are full of busy activities. The idea you will hear me repeat here (often) is that in Mexico, I am a human "being". When I'm at home or on vacation, I feel like I am a human "doing". As I get older, I like the human "being" more and more. 

My prayer requests for today: 

• Balance with laziness, work, relationships and study/growth
• That my mind can comprehend and learn Spanish so that my relationships can be awesome

Praises:

• Gratitude for friends that care enough to pray for my trip
• Thanks for safe travel
• Thanks for a friend here that gave me a better pillow for the second night
• Thanks for a family here that welcomed me with open arms