I arrived safe and sound in Mazatlan but certainly not without incident. My plane had come from Phoenix the night before and had sat at the Edmonton airport all night. We were idling down the runway when we suddenly stopped, for a very long time. Apparently there were some parts that were frozen even though the pilot told us he had started it early and let it warm up longer than usual but being a desert plane it could not deal with the cold....I can relate. So back to the gate where some mechanic did his magic but of course by then we had idled away 2 hours worth of fuel so we had to refuel and by now it was snowing and we had to de-ice, meanwhile I missed my connecting flight in Phoenix. So the airline put me on a later flight and I asked “has my luggage been informed of the flight change as well?” The lady said “don’t worry your luggage always follows you” hah.....it does.....but a day later. So I arrive wearing long black pants, a t-shirt that I’ve already worn for 2 days, wool socks in closed toe hiking sandals and a black hoody and a heavy knitted wool sweater that would keep an Eskimo quite toasty.....yup..I now have a new travelling rule (new to me) always have an extra change of clothes in your carry on. I know the experienced worldly travelers have been saying that to us newbi travelers forever...do I listen? noooo. I will now, it was 27C this morning at 9 am when my black pants and I were having breakfast.....and no, I did not race to the beach as I had planned, I would have looked like a retard.
The next morning after my favourite breakfast of huevos Mexicana (look it up, I’m not going to explain everything to you) and cafe con creama....yes real cream, none of this 2% or 10% or even 18%......100%, so good....hey, don’t be shaking your head at me and I know you’re imagining how cute I’ll look coming home...needing 2 seats to accommodate my creama lovin body, I can totally justify this, I walk lots and lots when I am here....well, not today or yesterday, but I will....soon. Anyway, after breakfast I stopped at the church where I will be doing some volunteer work to meet with the volunteer coordinator, Kathy. We decided I would head to Casa Damasco (link on the left of this page) with a lady named Bobbie tomorrow. I have agreed to help out there as much as I can, what exactly I will be doing there I will find out tomorrow. I pray that God will lead me and use me in some amazing way so that I can make a difference in these people’s lives. God will really have to talk to me in a very loud voice and lead me with a very heavy hand because I have no idea what I am doing or what I have gotten myself into. You all thought I left High Level with a plan, didn’t you, haha, I have no plan. (Except having cafe con creama every morning.)
While I’m at the church I need to use the bathroom, I could not use the toilet in the office because you need a bucket of water to flush the toilet and they were out of water so I go across the street to the church part (separate from the office) as I go into the bathroom stall I smash...yes smash, not hit, my head on the door. The Mexican people are for the most part shorter people and in the past they built their buildings accordingly, so most old building have lower doors that do not accommodate this Canadian moose very well, I had my sunglasses on top of my head which went flying into the .......oh you know where, the toilet. After I discovered that my head was in fact still intact, and I still had teeth, I proceeded with the unpleasant task ahead of me.....I couldn’t leave them there!
From there I head of to meet Jackie, the “champion” of the school that I will be teaching at. My champion is my “go to” person at the school. The FOM (link on the left of the page) sponsor 6 schools in Mazatlan, these are all schools that are located in poor colonias (neighbourhoods) of Mazatlan. Of the 6 one of them is located in Fransico Madero, known as the tolerance zone, this is a colonia where the local authorities look the other way at any criminal activity, they feel that if it stays in one area it will not seep into the rest of the city and it is working. The city of Mazatlan is for the most part, taking some normal precautions very safe, except for Franisco Madero. Guess who is the new grade 3 English teacher there...yup, me. I start on Thursday; I was given my curriculum and lessons today. Am I scared? Nope....I believe there is a reason why I was chosen to be there, I just hope that reason will be revealed to me soon....would be nice if it was before Thursday. I am comforted though, I am reading a great book (thank-you Pastor Ray) it’s called “Chasing Dragons”, it had been given to my friend Lydia 4 days before I got here, she hadn’t even read it yet, I spied it on her book shelf about 10 minutes after I walked in.....coincidence? Not! It’s all about trusting God in situations where you don’t have clue or a plan of any kind.....sound like some we know?
No comments:
Post a Comment