!Estoy aquí! (1)

(2) !Saludos a todos! I´m sorry that I have not had a chance to write yet; but to make up for it, I´m probably going to write more than usual, so please bear with me. First, Friday was a long day of traveling and sitting in (3) los auropuertos. I traveled with John Gibbs, who is here to give a class on Hebrews. Our flight from Atlanta arrived in Mexico City around 2:00, and we were supposed to take the next flight to Tuxtla Gutierrez around 3:15. We walked quickly and hurried through customs, but by the time we reached the Mexicana counter (the airline for our next flight), take off was less than 20 minutes away, and the attendant told us they had already closed boarding. So we had to wait for the next flight--another two hours. Even though both of us have traveled internationally before, neither of us had the sense to put any emergency contact numbers in our carry on items! So I had to call home first to get a number; but not until we had spent an hour searching for a phone card and a place to exchange our money. Supposedly all of the money exchange places were outside the airport, and after inquiring at about 20 stores, we were finally able to purchase a phone card with American money--and get pesos back. Finally, around 5, I was able to reach Mr. Enlow (director of Global Missions), but by that time our ride had already left to pick us up at the airport. To top it all off, our plane that was supposed to leave (4) la ciudad de México at 6:30 was an hour late. It´s times like these when I feel especially grateful to know Spanish, and when I can really appreciate the value of a (5) teléfono celular. Luckily the boys at the Tuxtla airport helped us retrieve our luggage without any problems and our ride was still there waiting for us after 3+ hours--both of which would have probably never happened in the States! But we did not arrive in San Cristobal until nearly 11 p.m.

Then we woke up early on Saturday to go visit the Sat. school in Ococingo, a town about two hours away. In addition to the main school here in San Cristobal, Global Missions has also established a few "Sat. schools" in the area, where the preachers-to-be take classes for eight hours on Sat. to earn credit instead of taking classes throughout the week. I know it probably sounds confusing right now, but hopefully everything will make more sense after I have posted more blogs (so I am not going to spend too much time talking about it (6) ahorita). Even though this particular school just started at the beginning of May, they already have close to the limit of 30 students attending the classes faithfully. It just so happened that Mr. Enlow was already here checking up on things when I arrived. He had intended to say only a few words to the students but ended up preaching a 2-3 hour sermon. Next we met briefly with Antonio (the director of the school in Ococingo), to remind him about some of his responsibilities. We are going to try to purchase desks or tables for the students there, and more materials for the teachers.

Sunday, of course, was (7) iglesia day. I was amazed at how clean and comfortable the building was compared to other places I have visited in Latin America. The congregation here is also different in that they have two Sunday services--one at 10 a.m. and the other at 4 p.m.--just enough time for the members to go home and eat their big (8) almuerza before going back. I spent the afternoon with the family of Chantel´s boyfriend (Chantel is my roommate/co-worker). The preacher and his family were out of town, so Mr. Enlow again preached. Because there are no (9) muchachos\(10) hombres in the congregation who know a lot of English, Chantel had to translate for him, while I translated for Mr. Gibbs on Sunday night. Even though we know of no scriptural basis against it, both of us felt pretty uncomfortable to be in that position. Luckily we made it through the sermons without any problems and the members responded very well to each message. One of the younger couples from the congregation gave Mr. Gibbs and I a ride to the hotel after the evening service (where the two men are staying), and then we visited with them in the hotel while we waited for Mr. Enlow and Chantel to return from another congregation. They really enjoyed talking with Mr. Gibbs more about some of the things he had discussed in his sermon and hearing humorous stories about his childhood. Since Mr. Enlow had to leave early (11) esta mañana to go back to Mississippi, he bought us all supper at an American cafe to close out the day.

Random thoughts:
--I tried goat meat yesterday. It was not bad!
--Chantel and I discovered that not only did we both study Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, we also participated in the same (12) viaje de misiones in the same area in Venezuela (just not at the same time). So we have mutual friends not just from FHU, but from around the world--what a coincidence!

Well that mostly brings you up to date. I will write more about the (13) escuela/(14) casa/city later. I´m also hoping to post some pictures by the end of the (15) semana, so stay tuned...

Thanks for reading all of this!
Elizabeth

1. I am here.
2. Greetings to everyone.
3. airports
4. Mexico city
5. cell phone
6. right now
7. church
8. lunch
9. young men
10. men
11. this morning
12. mission trip
13. school
14. house
15. week

Los Colores:
verde
rojo
azul
negre
blanco (white)
gris
rosa
pùrpura
amarillo
naranja
castaño