Tuesday

We started our day with hotcakes and fresh cantaloupe to fuel our workday. Once we arrived at Ministerio de Vida, we swept the sanctuary floor before painting it with a beautiful sage green epoxy. While waiting for additional supplies, we ate a delicious snack of pico de gallo with Oaxaca cheese, fresh cilantro, tomato and jicama. When the new 5-gallon bucket of epoxy arrived, we finished the first floor and headed upstairs to paint the walls. This brought us to lunch - one of our favorites so far - fried snapper, shrimp soup, rice with peas and carrots, and salad with avocado. We finished the day sanding chairs in preparation for painting, and washing the upstairs floor to be ready for a coat of epoxy tomorrow. We also touched up all the spots on the floor in the sanctuary after applying the first coat....no matter how hard we tried, little bubbles appeared after the paint soaked in. Needless to say, our work clothes are now decorated with sage green and white!  With the day's work complete, we headed home for a shower (cold!) and siesta. While some napped, others sat on the veranda discussing the day - joys and concerns. I will admit, I have grown to  love this aspect of Mexican culture. Taking time in the middle of the day to rest and recoup gives time and intention to pause for these  "productive and efficient" Americans. However, I will tell you all, these hours have been one of the most productive times of my day. We were able to simply sit and be together, without distraction. Having the conversation with fresh minds is a priority during the day, rather than waiting until the end of the day when we're exhausted. How often, at home, do we wait until right before bed, when we are physically and emotionally exhausted to discuss our day?  I will tell you, having time in the afternoon to reflect on your day makes for much better sleep at night.  It is amazing what happens when we take time to pause throughout our day. And then of course, being cradled in a hammock helps us rest, too.

We ate a dinner of chicken sandwiches then headed into town for corn from a street vendor stand owned by Omar, a dear friend of Omega's. Omar's corn was delicious. With the kernels cut off the cob and served in a cup with all the fixings, it's called esquites.Otherwise, it's eaten with the corn still on the cob, coated with mayonnaise and Cojita cheese with a drizzle of lime and chili powder. It may well beat State Fair corn. Well, it's a close second for us Wisconsinites! We had quite the adventure getting to and from the corn stand, in a city neighborhood far from home. With no Caamal driver available for our second vehicle, Steve stepped up! He drove like a pro, even with speed bumps, really high speed bumps, and Omega often forgetting he was following behind. For our piece of mind, we tried to enter the address in Google Maps to get back home, but the translation was too difficult to enter so we just set our destination to the grocery store near the Camal's home. Forgetting our GPS was set for the store, we missed seeing Omega turn to her home. It was a small victory when we finally pulled up to the house. The day ended with us working together to prep crafts for the evening church gathering on Valentine's Day. Anyone who has ever planned church crafts would be proud of us...we are ready even though we do not know how many children will show. 

We finished our day as always with devotions. Our approach is to use the Daily Examen, so we share both consolations and desolations, things that filled us and things that emptied us, with the realization that our days hold both. Our sharing proved that the language and cultural differences, shifting plans. and unexpected changes in the work crew leadership due to personal matters provide unique challenges and lessons. The last step in Examen is to give these things to God. We are continually reminding each other to do just that.