Living Life Together

A big part of discipling others is learning about God's Word together.  Our Thursday night studies on the Life of Christ is exactly for that.  We enjoy going through Christ's life chronologically, and seeing how His teachings apply to our lives.

Another part of discipling is just living life together.  This means walking together through the good and the bad, the fun times and the sad times.  Thankfully, we've had the opportunity to share a lot of fun times with our discipleship group! Going out for tacos, to the movies, to play "futbolito" (fooseball), to hang out in the homes of the other group members, etc. 

 

Some of us drinking hot drinks on a cold afternoon

 

Having an improptu fooseball tournament after watching Avengers!

We are thankful to be able to have these good time with this group of people that God has allowed to become great friends!

Championships

The Queretaro Major League Soccer team, the Gallos Blancos (White Roosters, yeah, everyone thinks the name is lame) got to the final games of the Mexican League soccer championship this year!  This is a first for the Gallos, only ONCE had the team ever even gotten to the playoffs before, so this was big! 
The first half of the final game (it's a 2-game final) was held on a Thursday night at the same time as our discipleship group, so we used the night as a time to just hang out and watch the game!

Here we are at Brenda's house, enjoying dinner and the Gallos game!

The Gallos lost that first game 0-5, yikes!  We won the second game 3-0, but it wasn't enough, the Santos Laguna team was champion.  But it was fun to see the local team in the finals, and to get a chance to scream at the TV for 2 hours with friends!

El Animooooo de Queretarooooo!

Animo (AH-nee-mo).  It's a hard word to describe in English.  "Encouragement" is a close approximation of what "Animo" means.
There is a man in Queretaro named Pedro who goes all around town throughout the day screaming at the top of his lungs "ANIMOOOO"  He's some crazy guy (although people who don't know him think he is), he just decided many years ago that there was enough sadness in the world so he would encourage others.  People who don't know "El Animo" as Pedro is usually called, may get scared by hearing him scream ANIMO almost in their ear while walking down the street.  He also has a habit of not letting people continue on their way until they have scream ANIMO in unison with him!  He's a funny guy! 
Not everyone thinks El Animo is funny, he's been arrested on several occasions for driving down the street with flags hanging out of his car that "obstruct the view of other drivers," (the current governor of Queretaro paid his bail for that one), and for yelling Animo at President Fox several years ago.  The president's body guards don't take kindly to some random guy screaming at the president.  haha! 
El Animo was JP's neighbor for a few years before we got married.  So we know him fairly well.  One night, JP had parked a borrowed car in front of his house and someone came and pounded on his door saying the car was on fire.  JP stepped outside, and saw that it was actually the Animo's car that was on fire, but that was parked right next to the car that JP had borrowed from a friend.  Photographers from the newspaper soon showed up and took pictures of the Animo standing in front of his fully engulfed car smiling and holding up peace signs (his typical picture pose).  Someone who didn't like his cheerful attitude came in the night and set his car (that was painted bright yellow with the word "ANIMO" painted all over it) on fire. 
Anyone who's lived in Queretaro for a couple of years or more has certainly had a run-in with the Animo.  He's like Queretaro's answer to Portland's Uni-Piper.  Lisandro, a friend from Costa Rica met him a couple years ago when the Animo picked him up and yelled animo at him when he wasn't expecting it.  (I couldn't find that picture!)  And my parents met him a few months ago, he didn't try to pick my dad up though, haha!  He's quite a character!

 

Pedro the Animo is standing on top of his truck behind a cardboard cut-out of his preferred candidate for governor.  Me, Marcia, JP, Luis, and Cynthia are in the truck bed

 

Elections

It's that time again, election time.  It comes once every three years - every six for president, senators, local and federal representatives, and mayor, and every six years (three years difference of the other elections) for governors, mayor, and reps (mayors and representatives serve 3-year terms, everyone else serves 6-year terms). This year is the governor elections. 

There are two main candidates (there are NINE political parties here!) for governor, and they both have their fans/campaigners out in full force in the stop lights doing songs and dances in front of the drivers.  I'm not even kidding. 

Above you can see the people dressed in red are supporting one candidate, and people in blue another.  The good thing is, all the posters, signs, people in the streets have strict dates that they are allowed to be in campaign.  Campaign time last for three months every three years, June 1 every poster, sign, bumper sticker, etc. must be taken down.  Voting happens on the first Sunday in June. 

We have had the opportunity to meet and be in contact with former government officials and current candidates from four different political parties.  It's interesting the way the Lord has put these people in our lives.  The two former officials are from two of the main parties, and they are still heavily involved with those parties.  We pray that the Lord continues to allow us to share with them.  They (and the current candidates) have the opportunity to have some influence on our city and state.  It's common to hear Christians basically give up on anything political - our whole government system is so far in the toilet it's hard to want anything to do with any candidates or anything.  But PEOPLE are not un-redeemable. 

Blessings from Costa Rica

In 2009, a few people from International Teams Costa Rica came to Queretaro and did a short training on the Life of Christ discipleship (which is where we are pulling our chronological study of the Life of Christ from for our discipleship group).  Among those who came were Luis and Marcia.  They are near our age, and we became friends with them.  Ever since Luis and Marcia were in Queretaro the first time, they have had a burden to come back long-term/permanently to disciple men and women here.  As I know we've mentioned many times, there are very few people in Queretaro who have a relationship with Christ.  

The beginning of 2014, Luis and Marcia began meeting with JP and I going over the Life of Christ study and discipling us.  Well, the end of February 2015, God allowed them and their daughter Valentina to move to Queretaro!  They are working with another I.T. team in the coffee ministry, and we are so happy that they are here!  They will be a blessing to the coffee team, and we are excited to be able to meet with them face to face too!

Over the past year, JP and I have showed MANY pictures of our FAVORITE taco place to Luis, Marcia, and Valentina... This past Sunday, we got to go there with them.  They said the pictures we showed don't even do the food justice, it's WAY better than they could've imagined!  haha!

They also accompanied us to celebrate Judith's (JP's mom) 75th birthday.  Judith has been praying for this family for the past 5 years that the Lord would allow them to come back to QRO!

When My Parents Came!

A few pictures from when Rick and Barb were here in Queretaro with us in February!

Judith (JP's mom), Barb, Rick, Me, and JP at Bernal!

Mom and I on the hike up the rock.

 

In the mouth of the Santa Brigida Mine in Pozos Guanajuato

 We both turned 34 in February!

My parents and I in downtown Queretaro

As always, we had a good time with my folks, going to cool places in and around Queretaro, and eating WAY too much yummy food! 

La Casilla

"La Casilla" is the polling place for elections in Mexico.  The process for staffing las casillas is similar to jury selection in the US - you get chosen and you go serve.  If I understand correctly, each election year they choose a letter (or a couple of letters) and people who's last name begins with that letter get hunted down and told that they're serving in la casilla.  Ok, "hunted down" is an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like...
This year is election year for governors (at least in Queretaro) and federal representatives.  Once every 6 years we have presidential and senate elections, and once every 6 years (three years removed from the presidential elections) we have governor elections.  Every 3 years we vote for representatives and mayors.  It's nice because we don't have to deal with elections ever TWO years, AND commercials, flyers, and signs for candidates can't go up until the beginning of April (elections are the first Sunday in July), so we only see all that stuff for 3 months.
Anyhow, las casillas.  If you get selected, you go from 5am until whenever all the votes for your casilla are counted (voting stops at either 8 or 9pm).  About this time of year, a person from the election commission will stop by your house and let you know you are selected.  Every Mexican over 18 should have a voting card (which is our main form of ID) and your address in on that, so they know where to find you.  The only thing is, SO many people never change their address that the election commission doesn't know where to find them.  JP and I actually have our correct address on our cards, so we're a little nervous that one of us may be "it" this year.  But we'll survive!  haha!
This will actually be the first time in my life that I go to a polling place to vote - Oregon started using mail-in ballots about the time I turned 18!  So that will be a new experience.

Yo No Entender...

I've been in Mexico almost 9 years now.  And I wouldn't trade the experience of living here for anything!  But there are still those moments that are so unbelievable you just have to laugh.
For example, I don't particularly stand out in a crowd in Queretaro.  Yeah, I'm "blonde" (read: "don't have dark brown or black hair"), and I'm a little taller than a lot of women, but haven't reached the magic 5'9" that makes you "freakishly tall."  People generally know that I'm not a native-born Mexican once I start talking - my grammar isn't perfect, and people tell me I speak Spanish with a German accent (what's with that?)  Anyhow, in general, people don't focus on the fact that I was not born here.

But a few times per year I'll get a totally different response from people.  I may be going to a small store that I'd never been to before, or using a service that I haven't used before (new dry-cleaner, etc.)  And it's like the person attending the business sees me coming, and they must think ahead of time that I am a foreigner so they won't be able to understand me.  Because when I walk in and ask a question (and it always seems to happen on a "good Spanish day," when I know I spoke grammatically correct, AND without much of a foreign accent), they give me a blank stare and say in Spanish, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."  I'm confused as to why they didn't understand "how much do the tomatoes cost," so I repeat myself.  I know they understood this time, but they still kind of stare for a moment before responding, "Esteeee ("um" in Mexican Spanish) 12 pesos per kilo."  It used to really bother me that people would like mentally freak out upon having to deal with me.  But now it's just funny.  I still don't understand why this happens.  Especially when people from other parts of Mexico assume that I'm from maybe Northern Mexico, or somewhere that isn't where they're from.  This has only happened in Queretaro.  In fact, no one bats an eyelash in Mexico City when I'm asked where I'm from and say "Queretaro."  They just know that I'm not from Mexico City. 

It's just a funny thing that comes with the territory of living in a country that you weren't born in! 

The Market and the Pilon

The beginning of each month, I go get about 20 pounds of fruits and vegetables from the market.  This lasts most of the month, with the exception of some fruits that don't last long, I need to buy those again later in the month.  So I take my market bag and head off.  The place I go has really low prices (a head of broccoli for 20 cents US, 2 pounds of tomatoes for 50 cents, etc).  The thing that some people don't like about this particular place is that the guys who work there choose your produce for you.  You ask for a half pound of jalapeños, but they get to put them in the bag for you.  But I have rarely been disappointed - it's rare that I get any produce that I wouldn't have chosen myself, and you can see the produce displayed so if you see that tomatoes are squishy, maybe you shouldn't buy them that day. 

I tried taking a couple pictures of the produce place without being noticed, because people just don't take pictures of the produce place, that's weird!  haha!

Here are the market bags for sale, as well as bananas, tomatillos, oranges, mushrooms, cilantro...

And this one really didn't turn out well, but there are boxes of carrots, onions, broccolis, zucchinis, and cactus leaves.

This stuff comes straight off the farm, so it lasts for a couple weeks in the fridge since it didn't spend 2 weeks in a truck or grocery store!

Then there's the "pilon!" (pee-LONE)  They don't give a pilon at this particular market, but the lady who owns the little store on my street gives me the pilon frequently.  A pilon is: when you buy 10 eggs and she gives you an 11th for free; you ask for 1 pound of sugar and you get 1.1 pounds; buy quite a few things in the store and the owner asks you if you want the half head of lettuce that someone bought the other half of.  It's like your freebie for being a good customer.  I even got a free churro once because I was there when the churro delivery guy (yes, that's a thing here!) came while I was talking with the store owner. 
JP and I really miss the punch card system in cafes, restaurants, and stores in the USA.  But we have pilones here, so even though it's not a formal "buy 10 get one free" card, and you never know when you're going to get it, getting a pilon is always a treat!

Little Did You Know...

There are a few things that I sometimes forget to tell "first-timers" to Queretaro about.  Yeah, everyone always tells the person traveling to Mexico, "Don't drink the water!!"  Actually, in Queretaro, most likely nothing will happen if you drink a glass of tap water.  (It's kind of like drinking river water in Oregon - you shouldn't do it, but we all know you didn't let that water boil when making your ramen noodles for dinner while camping, and seriously, who doesn't accidentally ingest like a liter of water while water skiing?  Maybe that's just me...)

But there are some things that have become so normal, I just quit thinking about them!

• Don't flush toilet paper in public restrooms.  There is a garbage can next to the toilet for that - public toilets get clogged up ridiculously easily.  Lots of people from the States are grossed out about this one.
  
• "Rinsing" lettuce doesn't cut it.  Lettuce, raw spinach, strawberries, grapes, and any other leafy or tiny vegetable or fruit needs to be disinfected with an iodine or bleach solution.  Smooth fruits and vegetables (apples, carrots, etc) should be washed with soap.  Ain't nobody wanna eat themselves some non-disinfected lettuce!
• Another bathroom one - many public restrooms don't have toilet paper (or soap, or paper towels, or toilet seats...). 
• AND, you generally have to pay to use a public restroom, like between 25 and 40 cents USD.  Some friends of our road-tripped down from San Diego to Queretaro several years ago, and I remember one guy said, "Dude, I've paid like 30 bucks on this trip so far just to pee!"
• About the water...  You can brush your teeth, wash dishes, take a shower, etc. in our tap water.  For regular drinking water there's the 5 gallon water-cooler-type jugs.
  
• Just go with the flow when it comes to riding in a car.  We had 4 adults and 5 (not very young) kids in a Honda Civic to go to lunch the other day.  If you need to use a taxi, the driver will not wait for you to install your un-expired car seat (what's with THAT? that's the craziest thing I ever heard of!) in the car.  Just get in, sit down, and... yeah.  heehee!
  
• If you are gluten-free, vegan, paleo, etc. well, have fun with that.  CHEESE is the way of life in Queretaro.  
• Sadly, our city is totally unequipped for people with physical disabilities.  It's irritating because it's not like there's no one here in a wheel chair or with a walker.  There are wheel chair/stroller ramps in some places, but half the time they are too narrow for a chair to go up/down, or they don't give enough space for the person to turn the chair at all after going up, orsomethinglikethat.  

It is always fun to have people visit us.  But flexibility is the name of the game.  My friend Apryl is great example of that - the first time she came to visit, I had to be at the church at like 8am for a few hours and there wouldn't have been anything for her to do, so she stayed at my house.  I called a taxi to go get her, and she handed the driver the address of the church (she doesn't speak Spanish) and he took her.  She had never been to the church before, and just kind of trusted that it would be around the corner from where the driver let her off at.  (It was, by the way!)  Apryl was also totally cool getting tamales for breakfast from a lady riding by on a bike who was selling them.  Our families were wary when we told them where the tamales had come from!  heehee!

Anyhow, after 9 years of living here, it's weird to go to Oregon and drink the (cold, non-chemical-tasting, yummiest ever) tap water.  I automatically look for the trash can to put my used tp into in bathrooms, and think going to the bathroom in a mall without paying for it - and you get FREE toilet paper too! - is awesome.  It' amazing to see people in wheel chairs driving and going everywhere independently in the US.  And yes, unless you have an actual food allergy, I WILL roll my eyes at your list of things you "can't" eat.  (The finger quotes are of utmost importance around "can't" in this situation).  But I love my home, and I love going home from my home whenever we get the chance!