Outta my lane!!

Agressive and defensive.

No more cautious and courteous driving

Two words that describe how you need to drive in Mexico.   

Stop signs? Mere suggestions. Lanes? Who has a lane. Speed limit? Forget about it. As our initiation to our new home, we were immersed onto the roads immediately upon arrival. Weaving in and out of traffic, we successfully made it to the grocery store and back! We even found mostly everything we were looking for--minus a few staples of ours that are more difficult to find such as brown rice, liquid coffee creamers, adobo seasoning, etc.

Other new things we've learned: you order 30 centimeter subs from Subway and not a foot long (we need to learn the metric system ASAP--how much is a half kilo of turkey lunch meat? Or 200 grams of almonds?), eggs aren't refrigerated at the grocery store, the attendant at the gas station pumps gas for you, you tip the grocery store bagger, if you don't want the whole cantaloupe or watermelon--you can buy just half of it (they'll cut if for you), and grocery store receipts will scare you at first glance. On our first trip to the store to stock up on food and necessary supplies, we spent $1,596 pesos. Did we just spend all our money!?! 

Nope. Fortunately, that translates to around $122. 

What does our daily life look like right now? We have done more than just go to the grocery store, we promise! :) We started training last Wednesday for the different areas of ministry here. Because of the core focus on relationships and going deep with the children, there's much to learn, but it's all so worth it. 

We had our first all day experience at a children's home today. We were there when they woke up for school at 5 a.m., helped get them ready for school, worked with them through homework and chores afterwards, ate dinner, and rewarded them with some late night swimming at the pool. Ever wondered how many teenagers can fit in the back of a 2005 Honda Element? At least 11. 

And so it begins.