Hola!
Last Monday I mentioned laundry, so
when we went up to the roof to wash our clothes, the water was nasty and brown
so we couldn’t do our laundry. It had rained and had been really
stormy the night before and apparently that makes our water dirty. All
the water from all of our faucets was brown. This was a problem and
you can’t rewear any of your clothes between washes because they’re gross after
like an hour of wearing them because it’s so hot and humid. I’m
mostly better now health wise but I don’t actually know if it is possible for
my weak American stomach to ever totally accustom. I haven’t talked
a lot about our investigators, but we have two getting baptized this
Saturday. It’s super exciting. One of them is married, but her
husband who is a member is working in Utah right now. She wanted to wait
for him to get back so he could baptize her, so its been tough to set a
date. However we had an awesome lesson where her husband skyped in
and we taught about temples at the end, and then we had a date set in
stone. Super Awesome!
On Tuesday we had a multi zone
conference. President George and his AP’s (Assistants to the
President) and all of the surrounding zones got together for a day of AC (air
conditioning) and spirituality. It was good and was a little reunion
of some of my CCM (MTC) family. Also Hermana Juarez told me my
accent isn’t too bad, not sure if she is just saying that or not. In
a year or so when I come back you guys can be the judge of my Spanish. We
taught a crazy lady and there was a lot of finger waving and what not. I
opened my mouth to speak and she was like, “If you’re more comfortable speaking
English you can. I lived in Canada for a couple of years.” I think
that was the #1 top condescending thing that’s been said to me thus far. Probably
because she didn’t even let me speak first, just saw that I’m American and
assumed my Spanish was terrible (she assumed right). This isn’t new
for me to teach in Spanish, because we teach lessons all day every day in
Spanish and somehow I survive. Plus if I speak in English for a
lesson then my companion won’t understand the things I’m saying.
The #2 top condescending thing that
happens is when someone says something to me and I don’t understand part of it,
usually the object or noun. For example, a member asks me if I like
a certain type of food, but I don’t know what the food is so I’m sitting there
thinking, I don’t know. Is it more dangerous to say yes or no in
this moment? Is it the food I’m eating right this second?” And
the member takes this thought process as me not understanding so instead of
saying it again or slower, they’ll use super simple English plus the word or
type of food that they’re talking about and then I’m still confused and it’s
basically a mess. In general, the people here are very nice and
they’re just trying to help. It’s hard not to feel like everyone
thinks I’m stupid when I don’t understand though.
The
funnies moment of the week was with a super old menos activo (less active
member). He was talking really quietly
and slurred words together a lot so I was not understanding anything. No
context, and then I realized he’s talking about a little butterfly walking on
his leg and I was so confused but it was so funny and I really wanted to laugh
because he kept saying “mariposita,” and using his fingers to show it
walking. We also got to attend a baptism and the kid had to be
baptized three times because he kept not going all the way under. Also
the most terrifying moment this week was when I had something in my eye but
couldn’t find it and it was really bothering me. I guess the
investigator lady noticed that I kept touching my eye because she asked me
about it and then was like “a ver” which basically means “let’s see” and she
walks over, opens my eye and gets really close. I thought she was just looking
closely but she put her mouth almost on my eye and blew really hard a couple of
times. I guess it’s supposed to help but it was more gross and
terrifying than anything else.
The water in the bathroom with the good
toilet randomly stopped working for a couple of days so that was rough. It’s
all part of the Mexico experience, I guess. All in all, I’m doing
well. Things that at first seem terrible and strange are becoming
less so. Like when your water is brown for a week but by the end of
the week you don’t even care and it’s just another part of life. Some things to
note, it’s hard to describe things here, everything is different, from the way
people greet each other to how full they fill glasses of liquid. Here
is a taste of my life: The cars honk at nothing for no reason,
completely unprovoked and I don’t know why, but it’s is the weirdest phenomenon
and drives me crazy. I am absolutely covered in mosquito bites on my
legs and feet. I wear two different types of bug spray one being 98%
deet, and nothing holds the bugs back. The thunder here is
apocalyptically loud and it feels like the sky is falling when it storms. People
sell stuff from carts, but the best is the ice cream. Tortillerias –
they are shops that literally ONLY sell tortillas. It’s amazing that
no one wears seat belts ever. A lot of people ride scooters or
motorcycles but they don’t hold onto anything or each other and I am dreading
the day I see someone fall off.
For our pday (Preparation day) we also
went to the beach and it was amazing! It was so warm with a breeze
and we were allowed to go in the water up to our knees. I took a nap in a
hammock and it was basically the best thing ever! I hope everyone has a great
week! Thank you for your prayers and support.
Con amor, Hermana Dangl
Taco time!
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