Mexico City is Big. Really, really Big. Mexico city is so big that the plants that grow in the south are different than the plants that grow in the North because the clement is different. Yah, BIG! The city is different than I imagined. There are no clean air machines on the street corners as someone told me, the traffic is much, MUCH crazier than I ever imagined possible. I do like the small corner of the city that we are in though, it is quieter than other parts of the city. The streets in the city block are named after different types of beer because back in the day the houses were built by the workers of the beer factory. The next district is named Pastors. This is funny because the church I work at is in the beer district, and not in the pastors!

So far, my favorite Mexico City saying is “this part of the city is so tough, even the dogs carry knives!” This cracks me up, it really does! Fortunately, we live in a part where the dogs play with ordinary sticks like the country dogs. It is a nice part of town.

Today was my first day at work with Huberto. He is a really great guy and we share many commonalities. We have a similar sense of humor (for example, we both like to play on the shopping carts at wal mart), and we both have a passion for working with kids. We are really excited to about what God is doing in Mexico, and especially in this part of town. Why this part of town? Because there are many youth here who are troubled, or worse, board and interestingly enough, open to the gospel (at least, they are not hostile toward it, so keep praying). And why Mexico? I will try to keep this short. In brief, Mexico culture divides the age groups of peoples very differently than in the U.S. We have K-5, Jr. high, high school, collage age kids, young adults, young married couples, and the churches have ministries directed toward each of these groups. Not so in Mexico, there are little kids, and Jovens (young people). The problem with this is Nicolle and I are Jovens, the 14 year old girl that lives above us is a Joven, and the 29 year old guy I know in Cuernavaca is a Joven. All of us are in very different places in life, all have different needs, but are lumped in the same group. Can you imagine being the only teen in a small group of young adults and newly weeds? Or a 29 year old hang out with adolescents? This is assuming that the church even has a ministry for Jovens. As you can imagine this is not an effective way to minister to people and their needs, and the church in Mexico is has realized this and is training ministers to be ministers of youth. The man I work with, Huberto, is literally the first Mexican minister to graduate with a seminary degree in youth ministry. God is doing amazing things here in Mexico, keep praying!

Our apartment is so cool! God has really blessed us with a great land lord, a furnished apartment, newly refurbished, and for less than half of what we anticipated. There were a few things we had to go buy yesterday, like…food! And a few other cleaning supplies ect. Fortunately there is a store called Waldos that Huberto helped us find that is the equivalent of a dolor store. Everything in the store cots 11.75 pesos interestingly enough, this is just about the exact conversation of pesos to dollars.

last day

Interesting food for fact...Mexicans find it more insulting to be called “unhappy” than “loser”

(Right: me and my favorite teacher at language school)

Even thought it is an absolutely beautiful day this Saturday is bitter sweet for me. Yesterday was my last day at school, mi ultima dia! I can’t believe that one month has gone by already. Tomorrow Nicolle and I are going to Mexico City after church, and even though I am REALLY excited about going and working with Huberto and the Kids I am sad to leave our host family. They have been really kind to us, bending over backwards to meet our every whim. And their kids have been really nice to us too, never missing an opportunity to play, and helping me with or help me with my home work. And even though Terrible tried to eat my Spanish/English dictionary I am going to miss him too, and Caspian, the by-lingual dog. Such is life.

I believe that my time here was well spent. I am now much more confident with my Spanish. I do not speak perfectly but I can communicate ideas and understand a lot more than just three weeks ago. I had a great time with my teacher and I plan to stay in contact with a few. Check out my photo bucket for a few pics of school and my teachers.

Today, relax. Tomorrow, church AND MEXICO CITY!

Jon

Silver, and caves, and my boss; oh my!

I cannot call this adventure a complete success for two reasons: one, we didn’t buy a magnum bar, which, if I haven’t told you is the best ice cream bar on the plant. And two, w did not get horribly lost, which was a trend we set on our first few adventures. We did have a fantastic time on our weekend adventure to Taxco. We decided beforehand to do a two for one outing. As I mentioned, our destination was Taxco, a town known for its high quality and low priced silver. On the way we stopped at a town where there was supposed to be some really cool caves. Let me tell you, they were just that and more! I have been in several caves and copper mines in the States and none of them were as big as this cave. IT WAS ENORMOUS! The caverns were so big that you could fit a foot ball field in most of them. Likewise the formations of stalagmites and stalactites were quit large as well. Yes, there are some pictures so check em out!

Our tour gook us 2.3 Kilometers into the cave wher4eupon we met a formation that acted as a curtain on a giant stage, baring the way top to bottom and side to side except for two small openings about the size of a door. Our tour guide said that in the past exploring groups have ventured into these holes NEVER TO RETURN…no really, but I thought it sounded good. In actuality, these explorers made it as far as 16 Kilometers. It may be deeper, I can’t say for sure. It was difficult to understand our guide because, well, we were in a cave and echoing Spanish is very difficult. This is a shame as apparently our guide was quite a ham and she had the group laughing quite often. Thought I did not catch all the jokes I was quite amused when she pointed out formations that looked like elephants, pandas, dolphins and allsorts of other creatures.

Taxco was something else. If you check out the pictures on Photo
Bucket (see my blog for a link) they may remind you as it did me of the crazy market scenes in the old Indiana Jones movies. Some kid wanted to sell us gum for one paso, and when we said “no thank you” he went away and pretended to cry. There was also a large assortment of “boot leg” DVD’s for really cheep. I bought some DVD’s of movies that just came into the theater! (Chris, guess what your getting for your birthday!)

The silver was cool, we really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the artists products. I have never seen so much silver in one place before. Before we left we went to the Grand Cathedral and it was really cool, very ornate, and simply beautiful. I did not get to explore it and take as many pictures as I wanted thought because there was a wedding I.P.

So, after almost missing our buss because of having to work out a problem with our tickets we headed home and considered it a day well spent.

Today I am entering my final week at language school. It was a bitter sweet Monday. I enjoyed my classes, and I like all of my new teachers. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am excited and nervous at the same time. I am nervous because I feel like I have so much more Spanish to learn, and a bit sad because I will miss my friends at school and our host family. Yet I am really excited about going to Mexico City and starting work with the church, especially after having met with Huberto this last Sunday! He is really great, and the two of us get along really well. We spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon getting to know each other and discussing our thoughts about the next few months. I am going to be learning so much as he has much more experience than me, and his youth group is in a completely different cultural setting than anything I am used to. I am also excited because the beginning’s of a whole new era of youth ministry is underway in Mexico and God has placed me in the middle of it. Please pray that God would guide Huberto and I in everything we do as we literally lay the foundation for a youth ministry at his church.

More to come later! God willing, the next time I send a news letter, it will be from Mexico City!

Jon Reid

Vista, and I don't mean the one from Microsoft!

Dear friends and family,

There are many beautiful things in Mexico, and one of my favorite is the mountainous vista. I am blessed to be living with a family that has a flat roof…well, most people have a flat roof here…But none the less, I love it because I like to go up there and relax, think, pray, and read the Bible. Here are some pictures of the view, I hope you enjoy them.

In other news, I just finished my third week of language school. I have but one left, and I must say I am going to miss studying here. It is beautiful, I like the school, and I am learning so much I just hate to leave. But Mexico City calls! Speaking of which, I may be meeting with Huberto (the youth minister I will be working with for the next few mountains) for the first time this Sunday. I am pretty excited about meeting him and will tell you all about it mondayish. Also, around that same time there should be more pictures on photo bucket as Nicolle and I are planning another adventure this weekend.

Peace!

Jon

DOES ANYONE READ THIS THING???

Cultural differences Part two

Friends and family,

I learned more interesting cultural differences in my situational Spanish class today. We were talking about the drinking habits of Americans and Mexicans, collage age people in particular. I learned that Mexicans think it unusual to hear of college students dying of alcohol poising. My teacher thins the reasoning for this is that Americans slam shots, really fast, and the blood alcohol level rises too quickly. But Mexicans, whom he thinks drink just as much, tend to savor a really good tequila, drinking slowly. He also said that—and by the way, all of this is speaking in general terms—he said that usage of other illegal drugs in Mexico is not as great as in the states because in Mexico it is considered very shameful, and probably a weakness.

In other news…well, I had other news on the bus this morning. But, I did not write it down and I do not remember what it was. Tomorrow I will right down my ideas as they come to me.

Faith, Hope, and Love

Jon

It is DEFINITELY the rainy season!

Cuernavaca, Mexico...

Rainy and really super foggy here-a good start to the rainy season. I had a first today struck up a conversation with a man on the ruta (bus). It was a first because I generally do not start conversations in noisy areas such as buses as this adds to the difficulty of understanding. However, today I understood about ninety percent of what he was saying and spoke fairly well myself. I credit this to my learning lots of Spanish in the last two weeks and his using small words! HAHA
I learned many interesting things about Mexican culture today in one of my classes. Mexico has different social racism and social class problems than America. In Mexico, racism is not the larger problem, largely people are discriminated by class not race. The largest population is in poverty with a smaller percentage of middle class and an even smaller percentage of upper class. However, everyone is trying to look like they are in at least middle class or even upper class. One difference my professor pointed out between Americans and Mexicans which applies to the above is that Americans carry their cells in their pockets and Mexicans carry them on clips on their pants (outside, where they can easily be seen). The latest cell phones, shoes, fine clothes, fancy cars, etc. are status symbols which separate people and thus provide the division for classes. As with racism, opportunity for jobs and services depend on what class you are in. And even though the color of the skin is not largely involved...moving from one class to another is very difficult.
It's still raining...
PRAISE GOD, he has provided us with a car that is not dying, to drive when we return to the U.S. certainly an answer to prayer! Also, God has provided us with furniture for our apartment, which is good because previously all we had was a love seat... which can get kind of cramped for two. :) Thank you for your prayers please continue to pray...
We would learn lots of Spanish
We would be prepared to go back to the city
That we would stay safe here and there
That we would be used mightily for Christ and Kingdom
That our financial needs would continue to be met
That Nicolle can get her semester abroad worked out

FAITH HOPE LOVE
Jon

I was reading the other day and this passage in Isaiah really blew my mind!...
Isaiah 40

June 9th newsletter

Hola!

Dear friends and family,

This weekend Nicolle and I went on another adventure to Xochicalco! Personally, I think the mountain ranges of the last ruins were a little more interesting (because we were in them!), but the hike was far easier than last week and the pyramids were much bigger, much more intricate. The difference between the two cultures and the uses of the summits was strikingly obvious. The first site we visited last week was for monks to offer little sacrifices and live in seclusion. However, here at Xochicalco, the priests not only controlled the calendar and the water, but made sacrifices for the people and spoke with the dead. This I found most interesting. The way they did it was to burn pieces of paper soaked in human blood (some kind of sacrifice) in ornately decorated clay pots and look for faces of deceased relatives in the smoke. If someone they recognized poked their head in, they would ask about the future. Now why hadn’t I thought of that?!?!

In other news, I played soccer with some friends on Saturday. Mexicans are really serious about soccer, and everyone knows how to play. I played with seven other guys, ranging in age from eight to thirty something. It was quite fun and I look forward to playing with them again.

Here’s a funny story for you. The day before yesterday it was about 80 degrees raining like crazy! Now I needed to go outside to the garage to get some ingredients for making cookies from the fridge. Not having an umbrella I just put on my flip flops and ran out and back as fast as I could! I still managed to get considerably wet because of the torrential down pore and when I came back to the steps Nicolle stopped me and said “you are giving our host mother kittens! She thinks you are going to catch pneumonia or something!” She kept asking me if I was cold and if I felt alright. She was wearing jeans and a sweat shirt, I was bear foot and in shorts. HA! Where I come from this is considered warm, but for them it was quite cold and called for hot cocoa and a blanket. Hehehehe!

School is progressing slowly but surely. This next week I am starting past tense verb usage. This has really been a crash course in Spanish! I wish I had more time to study more thoroughly but the requirements of my internship require me to get back to Mexico City and begin working with the kids. I can hardly wait!

exciding events

Today was exciting for the activities that Nicolle and I got to participate in. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there are optional classes in the afternoon that you can sign up for. Some of them cost extra, but others are free, such as today’s dancing lessons! Nicolle and I learned a little bit of meringue, and salsa! It was really fun! Next week may be more dancing, a trip, or art.

Yesterday was also pretty fun because there was a celebration and welcoming party in Cuernavaca for all of the students attending the language schools. There was food and drinks, and a live band playing Mexican style music and some covers of American oldies. Most exciding off all were the dancers! There were a couple of groups dancing with bright colored dresses, and large hats. It was great!

Keep your eye on the photo bucket sight. Nicolle and I are planning on going to another Ruin called Xochecalco. It is supposed to be REALLY cool and I will probably go nuts with the camera. That is all

Jon

P.S. I am dreaming in Spanish. Well…ok, so maybe it is closer to spanglish, but that’s a start, right?Save Now

Interesting conversations on the homefront (Nicolle)

I was able to have some very deep conversation with my host mom and oldest daughter. It started out with her asking about my mom and how she was doing with me being so far away. I was trying to get the point across that it is hard, but she's not miserable like people seem to expect and ended up getting it across that I live 3 hours from my parents and we live 2 1/2 from Jon's. It is definitely different from the culture down here.
Anyway, we ended up talking about how she lives in a different state from her family and how she was married at 17 pregnant at 18. We talked about the culture here and how it is common to have a lot of kids and I asked why have so many kids if you don't have a lot of money and she told me it is kind of a machismo thing. The more kids you have as a man, the more manly you are. I said that was funny because they don't do all the work, they thought that was funny.
We also talked about how young children are having babies and shoe sizes and just the difficulty of living in Mexico. It was very enlightening conversation. That is all on the homefront...it is long and repetitious days for me :)

Vicious dogs and Pavlov’s turkey

This Monday of the new week brought me three new surprises. When I arrived at school today I found out that I can sleep an extra hour because I have been placed in one on one classes. These don’t start until 9:00am but I can still accomplish much because I am the only one in the class!

Secondly, I have all new teachers this week! I kind of miss my old teachers, but it is nice to have some new faces and meet new people. The purpose behind this is to force students to learn different voices, which, as you may or may not know, voice quality has a large impact on the level of understanding. For example (por ejemplo in Spanish), I can understand one of our teachers very, very well. I think it has to do with how clearly he speaks, the speed, and how he uses his body language. However, when I get into a store, or try to talk with a bus driver it is sooooo much more difficult than someone I am used to speaking with every day.

The third surprise wasn’t really one of great magnitude for today, because it happened yesterday. The dog, who’s name is Terrible, TRIED TO EAT MY SPANISH/ENGLISH DICTIONARY! Yes, that’s right. Next to my Bible, my most prized book, the same book I use like five billion times a day! Yah, a corner of it is pretty mangled…but life goes on, I can still read it.

Bye for now

Jon

Oh, I almost forgot, your probably wondering what the Pavlov's turkey is all about. Well, if you remember from your psychology classes in College (or for some, maybe that was a purple haze...) Pavlov was that guy that got a dog to drool by wringing a bell. Well, there is a turkey here at our host family’s house who will gobble every time your wistle at it in a certain way. It is really funny! If I can figure out how to load videos I will put in on this blog. Until then, use your imagination!

June 1st newsletter

Hola!

Dear friends and family,

As you can see from the above pictures Nicolle and I have gone on our first excursion of ancient ruins. The school offers such trips but they were quite expensive so we opted to go by ourselves which worked out really well…until we had to try and find the bus to go home! (Using public transportation is always an adventure; more to come on that note in the future!) Climbing to the ruin was VERY difficult. The altitude in Mexico City is some 8,000 feet, and though Cuernavaca is not quite as high, it is right up there. The altitude makes any kind of labor difficult (and cooking, as our cookie adventure taught us!) because of the lesser amount of oxygen. Another reason it was difficult was because we climbed a mountain to get there…really! Some spots were so rugged that I thought we should have ropes and harnesses. Difficult as it was, our two hour assent was rewarded by a breath taking view of the land below, and the opportunity to climb all over a shrine that dates from 1200 AD.

In other news, language school is going well. Slow, but steady. I have made the biggest gains in understanding. It is super cool to be able to listen to a conversation and understand what is going on. It is sometimes frustrating though because I have an idea what is going on, but do not know enough words to participate very well. But the more I practice, the better I get!

Speaking of practicing Spanish, I had an interesting conversation with a beggar in a wheel chair in town. I was on my way to the post office to male some things and I ran across this gentlemen which struck me as interesting because I have seen him twice before begging at the Cathedral. I stopped to ask him why he wasn’t at the Church and ended up talking to him for 10 minutes! Turns out he is pretty educated and knew some English. I found out that he studied electronics some time ago but there is no work for him, so he begs.

So far, one of my favorite activities is hanging out with the Jr. high aged kids down the street and at church. There is a very talented group of jr. high and high school kids at church that play in the band and I enjoy playing music with them.

That is all for now. Much love from us to you,

Jon and Nicolle.