Discada

This week an American work group is at my Mexican church for a construction work trip. They arrived last night, and we welcomed them with a traditional "discada". It's named this for the disk that the meal is cooked on. The disk is a tractor disk, with a few extra pieces welded on.

This is Judit and Sarai's mom getting the onions started.

My Mexican father (Judit and Sarai's dad) cooking up the onions.

They gave me the tools for the photo, and since the guy before me had been stirring, I started stirring. I was scolded! "No! Just for the picture!"

As the meat is cooked, more things are added: ham, cilantro, tomato...

And the most important step, warming the tortillas! All Mexican stoves have a center-piece which is used for warming up the tortillas.

Me with my first plate of discada

Rous is helping me with my Spanish, and I help her with her English. We're having a lot of fun together, and enjoying our mistakes!

La Fruteria

On Friday, my language helper Claudia and I went to a fruteria to take pictures for class--and by some fresh fruits and vegetables. It's more common to buy from a vender near your house than to go to a larger store, like Walmart (yes, we have 2 Walmarts in town!)

The purpose of the pictures is to get "action verbs", so here I am "squatting". I'll find out Monday how to say that in Spanish.

Most of the produce was outside the store. This picture will give me the term they use here in Mexico for checking a cantaloupe (or hopefully any produce!)

The owner was really great, and even posed for us when I paid too quickly for the picture. He was slightly confused at first when I tried to give him more money! He's definitely honest--he was so confused about the extra peso, which is why we're laughing.

So what did I buy?

4 Roma tomatoes

2 potatoes

2 avocados

4 bananas

What did it cost?

25 pesos

...or...

$1.87

Rain, Rain

So what does my guard dog do last night during the electrical storm?

She gets scared and has to cuddle!

Today she just waited at the door about 30 minutes before she finally stepped outside.

What good is a scaredy-cat guard dog? She has adjusted well to her temporary home, but seems to be very afraid of the thunder and lightning. It's been about 5 years since I lived full-time with a dog, so I'd forgotten they don't usually like storms!

Girls Night Out

Tonight was my last visit with Dr. Paquot, the doctor who removed my tonsils. He is very nice, and released me to "lead a normal life." I'll do what I can!

I asked my friend Becky to take me to the appointment, and afterwards we went out to eat and grocery shopping. It was a fun night out on the town, just the two of us!

Here I am at "Super Salads": a BBQ Salad and Steak Pitas

Becky had an amazing Hawaiian Salad and Steak Pitas

Here's a better view of the food: It was amazing!

House Sitting, Dog Sitting

This summer, I not only get to house sit, but I have a few opportunities to dog sit, too! As fellow missionaries take brief furloughs and vacations, they often leave behind empty houses and dogs needing food and especially water! I am getting to house sit, and today I got the first of three dogs for the summer.

This is me with my pit bull for two weeks, Sophie. She's very sweet, and seems to be exhausted--she's fast asleep on the floor right now! The first day in a new place is always the hardest. :-)

A Week for Directions

This week the lesson focus is "directions". So after we got to class, we got directions from our teacher to a lookout point in town. It's a pretty large mountain in the center of town. We started in the north part of town at the school, and headed down a familiar road. We had directions to turn left at a statue of a woman. When we turned, we ended up on a dead-end road. After asking a traffic cop how to get there, we arrived without any problems!

A small part of Chihuahua...yes, it's so sprawling it fades in the distance!

This man is halfway up the mountain, and he is huge!

A Healing and A Visit

Thirteen days later, my throat feels much better.  The scabs are practically all gone now, and there is very little pain.  Thank you so much for your prayers throughout the tonsillectomy and healing process!  I have one last doctor's visit in one week to check on the healed tissue.I'm grateful for all the visitors I had--Judit and her sister Sarai came to visit me on Tuesday to check on me and make sure I was eating enough popsicles!

My mom came on Saturday to visit me for a week.  What a blessing to have her come and experience where I live and what I do here in Mexico!  We went for two days to Creel, Mexico to see Copper Canyon, Cusarare Falls, and Basaseachi Falls.

Mom and I at Copper Canyon

Jason and Mom crossing the suspension bridge over a part of the canyon

A Tarahumara house near Cusarare Falls

We had a great time visiting, eating "mom food", and just being together!  Thanks for visiting, Mom!