Crazy Weekend!

This past weekend all the leaders (except me) went to a conference in Juarez. I had the fun job of staying with all our older girls. The little girls and little boys were here too, but the church in Juarez had said they would send some of their youth to take care of them.

Well on Friday night they did send some youth, three teenage boys! They were supposed to entertain our younger children. They were no match for Obed (5 years old), and various others of our kids, who seeing that the leaders were gone decided to take advantage of the situation by converting themselves into little maniacs. I finally took pity on them, and went over to the chapel to help them out. It was chaos! The 3 teens were really trying to do a good job and play games with our kids, but our kids were enjoying their new found freedom by going through several boxes of donations. After I had spanked several of them and put others in time-out, it finally settled down. I did appreciate the spirit of those boys. They really wanted to serve.

Later on some women from the church came to spend the night with the little girls, and the older girls and I were able to enjoy an all night talk fest/junk food consumption/ and movie night. I think we finally all went to bed at around 5:00 AM Saturday morning. It was a really wonderful time of bonding.

Danielle and Erica (young ladies who have served here before) are here for the week, and I am so enjoying their company. I really wasn't sure if I would see them again before I left in February. We stayed up Saturday night talking, so now I am really running on caffeine only! I need to get some rest.

I have 30 days and counting before I come home. I am excited that I will be able to see Joy in some horse shows, take Caleb and Josh to Boy Scouts, and reconnect with old friends. I am about 2/5 packed now.

Anyway it is time to get back to work,
La Gringa Loca

Waiting at the airport

In my 2 1/2 years of living here in Mexico, my boss has asked me many times to pick up people from the airport in El Paso. It's quite funny because I never know what they will look like unless they have come on a previous trip. Even then, I have a shady impression of a face because I meet so many people from so many groups.

I was thinking back to the various people I have picked up, and how silly I always feel waiting for them and trying to guess which one of the various people walking into the waiting area they might be. For example, I was supposed to pick up an 18 year old girl last month from the airport. Dean says "She has olive skin." In a city of Mexicans that is not very helpful!!!! You stand in the waiting area and watch people go by. Probably some of them are waiting for people who they don't know to pick them up, so they give you half a smile and both of you start to wonder, "Is this the person?" You half start to speak, but then they continue on. I don't know exactly at what moment you know that this is the person you are waiting on. I think it is when you both start to say "Are you .."

The latest person I picked up is the woman who is going to be replacing me as secretary. All I knew about her was that she is from the Philippines (later I found out it was her father who was from the Philippines). At the airport, I was waiting for a short, little woman to come walking through the door. I almost asked a couple of women if they were Lee, but decided against it. Finally a tall, dark woman came through the door and she saw me and said "Are you Erin?" Just goes to show you can never really judge how a person will look before you meet them.

Anyway I am still trying to pack, but I am least 1/5 of the way through! I continue to cry every night, but I know the Lord will give me grace to leave. Talk to you later,La Gringa Loca

Tragic

Why do young people always think that they are invincible? We had a tragedy in our small town of Guadalupe last weekend and it has affected everyone, especially our older girls.

On Monday, Sonia Edith came to my room weeping, and she couldn’t talk for quite awhile. When she finally could talk, she told me the story of what had happened. Sunday night 5 boys (whom our girls know quite well from their high school) had gone out drinking and partying. Alonso (who was only 17) was driving and he managed to get 3 of the boys to their homes with no problem. He and the last boy (who was 21 and about to get married) were headed home, but Alonso was driving too fast and apparently he spun out of control. The car rolled many times. The other boy was killed instantly. Alonso managed to crawl out and signal to a passing bus, but by the time the driver of the bus got there he had already passed away. It is so sad that these two young men were taken from this life so young. Sonia Edith tells me that Alonso knew about the gift of salvation, and so I can only hope that in his last moments he repented.

It really has had a sobering effect on our girls and the entire community. I hope some good will come of it in the end, and that the youth of Guadalupe won’t take such crazy chances with their lives.

This week has been a sad week for me. I have tried to start packing many times and always stop in the middle. I know I am going to have to do it eventually. At the moment, it is just too hard.

The days are going by too fast, yet at moments they crawl by. That doesn’t even make any sense!

Anyway this weekend I am going to a competition on the book of Acts. Leydi’s church is having a competition with various other church youth groups on the book of Acts. There are 8 participants from each church. They wanted me to be one of their participants, but I didn’t think I would be able to remember the names of everything in Spanish.

On February 3rd, I will be sharing my testimony( in Spanish) at Leydi's church. I am so nervous. I know that I am going to get up there and forget everything I have learned about this language!!!!

Anyway I have to get back to work.

La Gringa Loca

Yo gane! (I won!)

I am so excited! I finally beat my good friend, Leydi, at air hockey. I have tried for two years to beat her, and I never have until today, oh glorious day!

Today is one of the last Saturdays we will both have free before I leave (holding back the tears and trying not to think about it), so we are spending the whole day doing things we like. We played at an arcade, went to the movies, turned the music up really loud in my car, and are now at an internet cafe. We'll probably wander around the mall and then head to church for a youth service. I am so glad we can spend these last times together. They are very special.

Yesterday, Coleman and I went to Sams and Wal-mart to buy the groceries for the Ranch. It is always a huge amount of stuff. When I go alone, I look like a freak! We also bought a TV and VCR/DVD for the girls dorm. I wish you could have seen us loading the TV by ourselves. Finally, after fighting to get the old T.V. to work for a year we can watch a movie without it simply refusing to work or lines across the screen. Last night we watched "Ever After."

Here is the list of meat we bought yesterday at Wal-mart. This will be gone in 2 weeks. It fills more than one cart. This doesn't even include the Sams' list. By the time we were done, the entire back of our 15 passenger van was completely full.

18 bags of chicken leg quarters
16 big tubes of hamburger meat
40 pckgs of weiners
2 big things of cheese
6 enormous tube things of bologna

Anyway if anyone really does read this blog (besides my brother), even if I don't know you, please post a comment! I really want to hear from some of you out there in cyberspace. Hopefully I'll be seeing many of you in person soon as well.

Hasta luego,
La Gringa Loca

Reflections!

Ok, I am so happy to be able to post this morning! I am discovering that once I start blogging again it is easy to get addicted. I like being able to share my thoughts and experiences with all my non-exsistent readers! :)

Anyway I was thinking about many things yesterday, and realized that I haven't listened to any music in English in quite a while unless the girls put it on. For some reason the girls like to listen to music in English better than in Spanish. I have quite a number of cds now in Spanish and they are all I listen too. I know you won't know who these people are, but my favorite singers are Jesus Adrian Romero, Alex Campos, Lali Torres, Vertical, and Annette Moreno. It will be hard not having anyone to enjoy my music with when I go home. I am going to have to find some Spanish speakers, because my brothers and sister don't appreciate my Spanish music or me speaking in Spanish to them.

I love Spanish worship songs especially. They sound so beautiful. This is one of my favorites translated into English. It doesn't sound as pretty in English.

The only motive to live
Is you Lord
The only reason for my adoration
Is you Lord
My only truth is in you
You are my light and my salvation
My only love Is you Oh Lord
And Forever I'll praise your Name.

Chorus
You are all
Powerful
You are big and majestic
You are strong and invincible
There is no one like you.

Reflecting on music, I realized the influence Veggietales has on our lives! Yes, I know that sounds strange. I had never really watched Veggietales until I came to the Ranch. It is hilarious to hear our girls singing the silly songs with a very strong accent. They drove me crazy with the "Pizza Angel" song. They would even come and stand outside my door and sing it. We also like the "Where is my hairbrush" one. I sing that one to the girls when they are whining about how they always lose their brushes.

Last night to illustrate the bible lesson at church, Dean divided the kids into four groups and had them present it in drama form. It was quite funny. The lesson was about David when he was king, and he was looking for anyone left from Jonathan's family and he found the crippled son. I won't even attempt to spell his name at the moment. Coleman, Tita, Leydi, and I were the judges. I ended up voting for Hermano Jorge's group because they were just too funny. They put David (one of our 15 year old boys) in the role of David. He was absolutely hilarious. Instead of sitting regally on his throne, he sprawled out and put his legs up on the table. To call his servants he would be like "You, come here." When the crippled son finally came, he looked at him and said "What's up dude" (Que paso carnal?). You would have had to be there. I wish I had videotaped it.

We have done drams before. One time we had to choose a bible story and present it. Callan and I were in the group that chose the story of Lot. Someone wanted to be mean to us, so they put us in the roles of the townsmen who bang on the door and want the angels to come out. I could hardly do it without laughing. We had to shout out "We want the men" (Queremos a los hombres!)

Anyway last night, Coleman, Leydi, Tita, Joseylin, & I went and got a pizza at 9 at night. It was quite crazy. We stayed up till 11:00 just talking about life. I will miss these times when I leave.

Tomorrow is my day off!!!! Leydi and I are going to spend the whole day together doing whatever we want too! It will be great.

Since no one wanted to try and translate my Spanish sentences the other day, I'll try a trivia question. You can try and guess it, Caleb!!

What book is this from and who said it? My only clue is that it is also in the movie!

"And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess!"

Anyway I am off to Sams and Wal-mart today for groceries for the Ranch.

La Gringa Loca

Computer Mayhem!

Quiero escribir en español este ves. Es una lastima que ustedes (excepto Rebekah) no pueden entender este idioma tan hermoso. Ya es tiempo que todos de ustedes hablan y entienden español.

I am so happy to be back writing on my blog. I only have roughly 41 or so days left at the Ranch, so I wanted to write about all my experiences in these last 2 months. I can't talk about leaving too much, though, cause I start crying and then my good friend, Leydi, starts crying and then we're all crying. I really can't believe it is going to happen. I try to pretend it's a dream most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I want to see my family and I am excited about starting a new phase in my life, but it kills me to leave my friends and my kids (even the annoying ones!).

Today I taught computer class to 2nd through 6th grades at our school. If you think waking the girls up is a feat, you should try to explain Microsoft Word (in Spanish mind you)to 16 4th graders all talking at once. They think they know a lot about computers when in reality they really don't know much. One of my little boys just about erased everything on his computer and then told me that my instructions were wrong! I just had to laugh.

Today we learned about turning the computer on correctly, double clicking on things (this is very hard for them to get for some reason. They click once and wait and wait thinking something is going to happen.), opening Word, and then going to File, Open, clicking on a folder, and opening a document. You wouldn't believe how tedious it is for them to get. By the end of the class, though, they had a basic understanding. We also learned how to turn the computer off properly because typically they just push the button and turn it off without going through shut down.

I do love these kids so, and how they make me laugh. Today they also got to play around with various functions of word such as auto shapes and word art! I felt so sorry for one little boy named Salvador because he made this whole elaborate page with hearts and flowers and then in the middle put "Salvador y (and) Susana (one of the girls in his class), but he didn't think anyone would notice. Well soon the entire class was gathered around his computer giggling, until I took pity on him and got him out of the program. His entire face was red and he was so embarresed.

Last Saturday, I went to Armando's graduation (he is the brother of my good friend leydi). It is funny that most of the music was in English. I just had to laugh at the end, when everybody threw their hats up in the air, they played the song "We are the Champions".

The first person (Rebekah, if she reads this, cannot participate, nor my mom or pastor) who can translate what I said into English, gets some kind of special prize (I'll think of something, if someone can do it)!

That's all for now,
La Gringa Loca

A Quiet Morning???

Tuesday is my morning wake all 20+ girls up, make sure they do their chores, get dressed, have their hair fixed, and all go to breakfast. It's very difficult some days. We have had at various times bad attitudes, frozen water, sick, vomiting girls, sinks that don't work, and twice, a flood in the dorm! My goal for the past 2 1/2 years has been that all the little girls have their hair fixed before breakfast (I have come to think of this as a Herculean task) and that all the older girls attend breakfast. It never seems to get there, but today, Praise the Lord, it finally happened.

I made up my mind this morning that it was going to happen. I repeatedly went into the older girls' rooms and shook them till they got up. I actually brought the little girl whose hair they were responsibile for to them. We had many mutters of "Hermana (sister) Erin wants us to be miserable!" and many groans and whines about it being "way too cold to get up", but in the end the little girls trooped out the door with their hair sprayed into place and the older girls reluctantly attended breakfast. With the Lord's help the Herculean task has been conquered! Now to do it all again next Tuesday!

Today I am working in the office finishing up the little year end stuff that has to be done. I have enjoyed working here and I know that I will miss it dearly. My boss says that I will be bored with a 9 to 5 job, and I kinda think he is right.

I found out today that my Jess is not coming back. It saddens me greatly and all I can do is pray that God will protect her wherever she is.

That's all for now.

La Gringa Loca

An American???

One of my favorite little stories with the kids happened a couple of months ago. There were a group of Americans here, and I was talking with one of the leaders (in English) when Sergio (age 7), being the inquisitive little boy that he is, came over to listen to what we were saying. When the American walked away he turned to me and said with a look of amazement on his face "You can speak English?" I laughed and said, "Of couse, I am an American." His little face got even more confused and he said "You're an American?" I love how children are. He had completely accepted me as just being another Mexican leader completely overlooking the very white skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Oh to have the eyes and heart of a child! :)

Well I am back to work and am in the process of getting out the contributor statements for the year 2005. There are quite a few of them so it is a long process. I am very glad we are getting to it earlier than we did last year, and that for once I am caught up on office work. Why does it always happen that right when you are about to quit a job, you get really good at it and everything gets caught up?!!! For those of you who don't know, I am leaving to come home for a season in February. I am excited to see what God is going to do in that time.

My Jess still has not come back and I am really sad. I miss her so dearly and am praying that she is safe and healthly. Child Protective Services of Mexico has been notified and are supposedly investigating why she was not returned, but I don't hold out much hope of them doing anything.

We have a group here working at the Ranch, and for the first time it is a Mexican youth group here serving their own people!

I have been thinking lately that after 2 1/2 years of living in a dorm with 20+ girls, it's going to be very hard for me to adjust to living alone. If you have news or you are just bored there is always someone to talk too. There are pillow fights, wedgie fights, practical jokes and lots and lots of noise. I will probably wake up just from the silence when I am living on my own. Movies won't be as fun to watch by myself without the girls all talking at once over the dialouge! Even though they drive me nuts sometimes, I will miss every single one of these precious children.

Anyway that was a lot of varied commentaries! I hope everyone is doing well. I'll write again soon.

La Gringa Loca

Back To Work

The ghost of children's laughter hangs over the still and silent ranch today as we wait for our children to come back! Today is the end of vacations and the return of all leaders and children to the Ranch. I am excited to see all of them again, especially my precious Jess.

I have started back to work here at the office and there is much to be done.

This is just a little post to let you all know that I am still very much alive! I will post more when the office work has died down a little!

La Gringa Loca