Casa Hogar Del Norte: Meet Martha Rojas

Meet Martha!

This is our dear friend Martha Rojas. She is the director of Casa Hogar Del Norte (Children's Home of the North), where we spend most of our days here in Mexico. Allow us to share a little bit about Martha with you.

However, to best be able to understand Martha, we must go off on a small tangent first. . .

Okay, let's talk about. . . Retirement.

When you envision your retirement, what does it look like? Are you playing golf? Traveling the world? Sitting in a recliner in front of the 903rd season of “American Idol?” Driving your flying car (would the verb still be driving)?  What words come to mind? Rest? Relaxation? Peace? Quiet?
Whether you've thought a lot about it or not, I'm sure you can at least forecast in your mind a picture of what that post-work season of your life will look like.

Okay... did any of you in your retirement vision decide to battle against government officials for the land to build a home for screaming children whose parents can't/don't/won't take care of them? You didn't?? Shocking.

Enter Martha. A 77-year old RETIREE (nurse) in charge of caring for what currently totals 42 lost children (ages 3 months to 15 years). Martha had quite a vision when it came to building a safe haven for these children. When something like a children's home is built in Mexico, the land is leased from the government. However, obtaining the land isn't always easy. About 17 years ago, with much persistence, Martha would visit the government offices every week to explain her vision and ask for the land to build a children's home. Every week they would  make it more difficult, telling her to do "this, this, and this" and then come back--fully expecting that she would not return. Well, there she would return every week. After TWO YEARS of  determination, relentlessness and consistent trying, she FINALLY got the land. Normally these plots of land are leased for 15 years and then reassessed. Martha was given the land for 90 years.

She's done more than many can even imagine at her age. Yet, she is incredibly humble. 
EVERYTHING that Martha says and does, is so that the children will know who God is.  Here is a video that features Martha. Even hearing her voice will give you a better picture of who she is.

James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Martha is a widow, helping orphans. Talk about going beyond the call of duty! If that isn't the heart of Jesus, then I don't know what is.

“And I think that's what our world is desperately in need of - lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about.”
― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

I never met Mother Teresea. . . But I got pretty close when I met Hermana Martha.

 

-Whitney

 

 

Laugh a Little

Before the older kids came back from school, we were playing on the swings with 3 of the youngest. We couldn't help but share this video with you. 

Want to have your heart stolen? Watch this video. 

If it doesn't load here for you, you can also watch the video on YouTube here. 

As always, thank you for partnering with us and allowing us to be here. We hope to share with you a thousand more laughs. 

Left...No, Right!

"Me das un push?" Jonatán kept repeating. 

It took me a second to realize he wanted me to push him. I always get thrown off when English words are thrown into a Spanish sentence. Oh Spanglish. 

Today, I pushed Jonatán up and down the sidewalk outside his casa hogar (children's home). Of course, he didn't get tired because he had the plastic baby bike without wheels--so he wasn't doing any of the work. But his job was to steer with the wheel, which I noticed all the other kids did pretty well (even the younger ones). 

I soon realized he didn't know his left or his right. When I told him to turn left, he either turned right or didn't do anything. As I tried to teach him what direction is left and which is right, I realized you can't use the same trick you use in English. When learning my left, I remember my teacher having us hold up our left hands as she traced an L from our index finger to our thumb. 

But izquierda doesn't really work the same. So I didn't have a trick to help Jonatán remember which way was left. I was stumped. 

Fortunately, repetition works pretty well though. By the end of the day, I think he started to catch on. At least, we ran into less walls and didn't end up on the grass. 

On a different note, have you ever seen a more fancy Wendy's? Yep, even Wendy's has made its way to Monterrey. And it tastes the same! 

You have to dress up to go this classy Wendy's. 

Have a great week everyone!

--Nathan 

OUR PLACE

 Bienvenidos a la casa Reiter!

 Welcome to our humble abode! We have finally moved from our temporary living quarters to our permanent living space. So now we can share it with you all. Who will be our first dinner guest?! Just kidding :)  But, since you can't be with us in person, allow us to give you the virtual tour. Try to play along. 

There we are up on the second floor, waving you in! Don't you see us? Look closer. Closer. CLOSER. JK. We aren't really there. Don't you feel silly! Just how close did you move your face to the computer? Okay, we promise, the mean tricks are over!

The Colorful Kitchen

My oh my! You are out of breath. It must be the two flights of stairs you climbed to get up here. Try doing it with 10 bags of groceries! Well...WELCOME! Not too shabby, huh? Was this what you were expecting Mexico to look like? We love our new little place. Thankfully it came furnished with all the necessary appliances (oven, fridge, stove). We got a little tired of the pantry doors always falling off their hinges though, so we replaced them with a curtain. Behind those white IKEA curtains is the land of food. 

Faith. Love. Coffee

The kitchen is most definitely coffee-themed. And appropriately so. If any of you don't drink coffee, yet are still friends with Nathan, count yourself lucky. He's pretty snobby when it comes to his love for coffee. :p It is also very colorful, with mostly red and orange accents. Everything is more colorful in Mexico! It is a perfect contrast to the neutral concrete walls. There's no punching through these walls if your angry! They'll punch back!

I think our water dispenser needs a name.

This is our fine comedor (dining set) of mismatched chairs and wobbly table. Normally, that wouldn't sound good, but it means another fabric/craft project for Whitney to make all the chairs matching. She won't mind that! You can also see our trusty water dispenser. Yes, the one thing you can actually believe about Mexico is that you shouldn't drink the water, so this is how we replinish. The garrafónes (jugs) are actually very well priced at about $2.50 a piece. 

Don't hit your head on the lamp!

If you ever visited our apartment in Dayton, this all may look very similar to you. Since all the big stuff (couch, entertainment center, bed, etc.)  was was provided to us by Back2Back, when we moved we were able to fill our car with mostly clothes and decorations that we already owned. That way, it feels more like home!

Our television is pretty small for the entertainment center. It doesn't look as comical in the picture as it does when you are across the room and trying to focus on the rectangle of light and sound inside of the giant square. That's our living room! The windows are nice and big so it lets a lot of light in during the day. We love it. Except for siesta time which comes around 3 o'clock. Just kidding, we don't take too many siestas!

Just a little collage of love. Not too much to say here.

And now off to... the baño! Again, bright and colorful. We love the shelves that were already in place. With the concrete walls it's not as easy to hang things. No simple nail and hammer task. So, we really appreciate the holes and screws that have already been drilled into place! Can you smell the scented toilet paper? Yup, toilet paper is scented in Mexico because in many places you can't flush it. We will probably put about 45 candles on our Christmas wishlist.

Time to sleep!

And last but not least, our bedroom! It's a pretty narrow living quarters, but plenty cozy. While the big windows are great in the living room, they aren't always as practical in the bedroom. You're up when the sun's up. 

And there you have it! Our casa. which is obviously su casa too. 

Who will be our first visitor?

Next installment.... You will meet a kid or two!

--Whitney

Huele a fall

So it's the first week of October already--how did that happen?! Being in Mexico, this month would probably go by as an ordinary month.

Except for one small detail: 

Fall is Whitney's favorite season. And you guessed it--we're not really having much of a fall here in Monterrey. The temperature is still anywhere from 80 to 90 something during the day, but there's a mental block that still makes us want to have a bonfire, eat pumpkin roll, wear hoodies, and roll around in the leaves. 

In order for us to feel like it's really October, we've been searching for fall-scented candles, but haven't found them anywhere here. But listen to this, yesterday a medical team arrived to work with us for a week. One of the group members approached Whitney and our coworker Jenn, explaining that she brought a few donations, including some candles for staff. What scent were they? I'll give you one guess. 

Yep, they're fall-scented. So, now we have "mulled-cider" and "warm apple pie" ready to make our home feel like fall. Many times, it doesn't take a whole lot to make us happy. Now tell me God doesn't work in even the smallest of details. :) 

Here's more of what our fall is looking like at the moment. Hope you enjoy this short clip of a group of kids from a casa hogar (children's home) nearby. They literally can't get enough of the pool. 

--Nathan

Take a Walk

With our unprofessional and amateur video skills (aka, walking around with an iPad), we wanted to give you a brief visual tour of what the Back2Back campus looks like. In the video, you can see our main dining area where groups and volunteer teams eat when they're here, the elementary school on campus, the teen homes, and a few other buildings and areas here. 

Check out the video here! 

We move into our apartment next Sunday! We are suuuuuper excited about that, especially since we've been traveling nomads since May of this year. After that, we'll upload pictures so you can see what it looks like. 

It's going to be another full week here as we officially step into our roles as children's home captains. The previous captains just moved this weekend to another city in Mexico, so Whitney and I now are transitioning as the captains there. Two volunteer teams from the States are also coming this week, so we will be helping them with several projects and responsibilities. 

Come back to the blog soon for another update. :) We miss you! 

Dios te bendiga!

--Nathan