"Replace the small disgraces...

of the times and places that I never really left" -Innocence Mission

(if you're skimming, at least read Don't Tell Her and Private Conversation. HAHA.)

Sometimes I just like to listen to my girls talking and playing, it’s sorta eavesdropping, ok, it IS eavesdropping. But today, it was hilarious! The things they talk about and do…
At first they were talking about pregnancy?! then it turned into…

“Do you want to dance cumbia?”
-“yeah”
“No, let’s dance rock and roll!”
puts hip hop music on
“Jennifer is listening!!!”
“it’s christian, don’t worry.”
Then they proceed to change the song every 15 seconds, ending up on the show tune, “I love you tomorrow” from Annie.


FOOD
Our friends have a fig tree, so I had some fresh figs the other day! So yummy! I want a fig tree. I also tried Guava (it’s not just a gelato flavor!) Saturday we had ceviche of tuna (meat), and tuna(fruit) for dessert! I wanted to call it the “tuna tuna” meal. But I didn’t, that would be corny.

SCHOOL
Today and tomorrow are school holiday b/c tomorrow is the independence day of Mexico. We have 2 different parades that our kids are involved in. I’ve been very impressed by one of my children’s school teachers. He’s got “2 grades” in his class, but I’m sure his kids aren’t just in two levels of understanding AND he’s the principal of the school. Last year whenever I was there they were doing group work, and he was doing emails or paperwork. This year, I have visited 3 times already, and all three he’s been instructing. I better stop coming in the middle of the school day! One of those days they were listening to Vivaldi while he explained a math concept.
Our school had outhouses until maybe 5 months ago, but they have SMARTBOARDS. I think I would take a school without a proper restroom to have a smartboard. If you don’t know what a smartboard is, it’s connected to your computer, and you can use your finger to do all the functions a mouse would, change the values in a document, scroll to a different part of a chart, but it’s a GIGANTIC white board. (That you can also write on with dry erase markers when you aren’t using it.) I hadn’t written about the smartboard yet, because I had never seen it be used. I went to a parent meeting about the school budget, and rest assured I didn’t take my eyes off of the numbers and chart.

SPEAKING OF BEING IMPRESSED WITH COOL TOYS
When our newest girl (11) came here, these were her words.
Pointing at the pool
Her-“do people swim in that?”
Me-“yep.”
Her-“Do the kids get to swim in it?”
Me-“only ones with clean rooms!”
Pointing at the trampoline
Her-“Is that a toy?”
Me- “Yep”
Her- “What’s it called?”
Me- “Trampoline”
Her- “What do you do?”
Me- “Jump on it.”
Her- “ohh.”

WORKING, HERE (culture)
If you work in the fields here, you only have to show up when you want. A bus from the ranch comes to your neighborhood and you get on it, and it takes you to work. They also drop you off in the afternoon. If you don’t feel like working, or are sick, just don’t go to the bus stop, no harm done.
We have a loud speaker on the hill that I’ve told you about phone call announcements, or raucous music, well, I’ve noticed it also giving work announcements detailing how much per day, what kind of crop, and where you should wait if you want to work there.

PRIVATE CONVERSATION. HAHA.
I was talking to another adult, asking them a question about a discipline situation, and one of the children interrupted me asking ME about what I was asking.
V-, 10? (I can’t keep their ages straight), said to the interrupter “It’s none of your business! Why are you asking? It’s their private conversation”
The child walked away feeling bad about what they had just done when V- says to me.
“Soooooo, what are you talking about?”
hahaha.

Hawks and Horses
I’ve ran to the beach and back twice now. Yay! I don’t have any straight answers on how far it is. Some say 2.5 miles, some 3, some 4. I want to measure it next time we drive to the beach. When I lived in the states I felt a little guilty about going tanning, and would often only go as a reward if I’d exercised that day, but here I have to put on sun screen before I exercise and I still get darker. I think about my high school gym teachers every time I jog or ride a bike, like I’m proving them wrong or something. That needs to STOP. The cool thing about exercising outside is the connection with the wonder and the beauty of nature. I saw a hawk stay in one spot in the air the other day. It almost seemed like it was hovering, except it didn’t have to use its wings. From up on the hill, I saw 3 horses chasing each other across the field, the dust billowing up from under their hooves. I felt like I was in a movie or something. I take my girls running to the beach. One is steady, she gets ahead of me and always has to loop back around to me. The other one sprints and then walks, sprints and then walks.

Don’t Tell Her
This is a actual conversation from the lunch table the other day.
Son-“Dad where does jello come from.”
Dad -“well, it’s in horses hooves.”
Son-“oh”
Dad-“when a horse is old they take it’s hooves and use them to make gelatin”
Me-“they also take horses to the glue factory when they are too old to race”
Dad-“or to they use them to make dog food.”
Daughter-“but they don’t KILL them, right?”
Room goes silent, new topic begins

There were horses at the circus. They did unnatural things like stand on two feet and twirl. Gag. Part of the reason we ended up at the circus was because my friends ran into a lion tamer, and some other performers at the beach.
I think the conversation went like this…
Confident male speaks
“I work with the lions in the circus, what’s your name, are those your friends?”
In the end, 2 of my friends got chosen to be part of an audience participation part. They were supposed to run and jump onto a horse, and then stand up on it while it ran around the ring. They were harnessed in, and neither were successful ☺ I don’t remember going to the circus when I was younger, but we seemed pretty close to the action, which was ok when it was acrobatic work, but maybe not as ok when it was the lions. Eek.
It smelled very gross, but they had someone run around the ring and spray air freshener twice during the 2 hours we were there.
There was one blond/non-mexican looking lady in the circus. I think she was their hired minority, their exotic beauty, their black sheep, their...yeah I'm done.
Being invited to come to the last night of the circus reminded me that people don’t show up to things b/c they think they have to, but because they want to. If you invite someone to church/a party/play chess/a book discussion group, they will come b/c they WANT to. I don’t know why I needed to be reminded of that.

Tonite I will be filling egg shells with flour for the parades tomorrow. Should be fun!


Books I've finished recently: Whose Bible is it? by Pelikan, Life Together by Bonhoeffer, Davita's Harp by Potok, Numbers, and I'm rereading Traveling Mercies by Lamott


I was going to post half of this today, and half tomorrow, but maybe YOU should just read half today, and half tomorrow yourself. ;)