Today I am in a peak of the emotional roller coaster that is my life right now. I always want to start writing starting with the most recent thing that happened, and backing up, but I realize that is probably horrible for a reader, so I'll try to organize myself.

Friday we went to a workshop downtown on teenage pregancy for November's theme of Women's Reproductive Health month. There were 2 speakers. The first gave lots of stats about pregnancies in Mexico and in the world in general, and all about the consequenes. It was done in the light that education is necessary, and we all have responsability to help make this better. The second person was a motivational speaker basically encouraging people to take more responsability for our lives and how we approach relationships and work. He was very funny, and it was very theurapeutic to laugh. Linda, Laura, Paula, and I went to a mexican restaurant for lunch after the workshop. I took the metro and buses back to Fomerrey 35 for choir rehearsal at 4pm, stopped to use the bathroom at the clinic, and went home. I chilled out which was much needed.

Saturday: Slept in, made a big breakfast of french toast, grilled ham, eggs with onions, and yogurt! Then I read for awhile (I'm reading "The Poisonwood Bible" which is a story of a baptist preacher that went with his family to Africa and tried to impose a lot of things on the people there. It is a neat story to read that helps me to examine my attitudes that I bring here. It's like a "what not to do" book. ) I went to Fomerrey 35 to sing with the choir at a wedding and afterwards I went over to Isabel and Franciso's house. They are the adopted grandparents that I especially enjoy. Their grandson nextdoor was celebrating his 24th bday. I have now met all of their kids, and many of their grandkids. We had coffee and toast (I am drinking coffee more often and would even venture to say that I like it as long at it has a lot of sugar and milk/cream in it). Isabel has a sewing machine, so I'm supposed to bring a couple pairs of pants that I have that are too long that she's going to help me hem. It always brightens my day to visit them. I took the bus home about 6:30pm. Kame (he's the son of Dra. Granados- the one I used to think was named Camo in a previous blog entry) and I had planned on seeing a play this weekend, and he sent me a couple of messages about setting something up. So, when I got home, I called him and we decided to go to various things that he had been invited to rather than go to the play. First we went to a Chinese Restaurant for one bday party. I met another Andrea and we talked the whole time we were at the restaurant. She's a law student with Kame, and she spoke english very very well, but we mostly spoke in spanish...(it feels like I'm getting better at Spanish, thank God!) Then, Kame and I went to a bar which was a lot like the Backer (which was hands-down my favorite bar in South Bend for those who don't know) except it was huge! There was karaoke, and it was a mix of 80s, 90s music and stuff that is popular now in english and spanish, and salsa too. So, I didn't know anyone except for Kame and he kept pushing me into the group of girls, and that was awkward for me. It was fun overall, though. Kame and I danced Salsa until we were both dripping sweat and I was dizzy from so much spinning and dipping, and I kinda met some of the girls. We stayed until like 1:30am. Then, I was hungry! We went to the house of another friend of Kame's which was in a gated community...very fancy. Those friends had just gotten home from being out and obviously had been drinking quite a bit. (Kame and I didn't drink at all when we were out which felt really good.) We stayed for like 15 minutes at the house, then we left to go get food. Kame, one of his friends and I went to a taco stand and we had WONDERFUL steak tacos. We took the friend back home, and then Kame took me home at like 3am. It was very fun, and I enjoy his company very much. He's a lot like me in many ways. His going from one place to another with different groups of friends is like me, and he was a missionary too. He will be finishing his thesis for law school this month, so he's excited about that. He's been really good to us as far as trying to help Mike and me get out, and better our living situation. (He invites Mike to play soccer with his friends most Sundays.)

This morning, I got up at 8:45 to get on the bus at 9:30 to make sure to be at church by 10:30am. I prayed the rosary on the bus. Each "hail mary" was dedicated to a family member or friend that I am grateful for. It was quite the beautiful experience because it helped me to think of all of you by name, and remind myself of how fortunate I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. (I am trying to pray the rosary 46 days in a row until Dec. 12...the feast day of la Virgen de Guadalupe. So, I'm not doing that well, but today, I did it. I have a little sticker to put on the crown of Mary with each rosary that I pray to keep track. ) I got to church with 20 minutes to spare before I had to be there, so I thought I'd browse some used clothese that this sweet little girl was selling in front of her house like 2 blocks from the church. The interaction I had with her was wonderful. I found like 5 things, and we just talked. I asked her if she could watch the clothes for me while I went to mass. After mass, she tried to give me a top that she had picked out. The total price for my 5 items was 35 pesos which is less than 3 dollars. Just a 20 minute walk from there, the woman I bought stuff from before charged me like 40 pesos per item. It seems ridiculous that the buisiness of the family is to sell items of clothing for less than 40 cents a pop. How can they possibly eat with that kind of income?

I sang with the choir from San Marcos' church for Sunday mass for the first time. Afterwards, the drector's mom who is also in the choir, told me that she'll let me use her guitar while I'm here!! Lugging the other one (that belongs to a Christian church near the clinic) back and forth when they didn't need it was very inconvenient. Also, when I went to her house to pick it up, the three of us chatted for awhile about the choir. The director studied music in college, but doesn't know anything about how to teach harmonies or warm-ups or to help voice coach. So...there are many ways that they would like me to help out with that! I feel so happy and fufulled singing with that group of women. Another woman joined when I did and I am getting to know her a little. Her name is Fabiola, she's 30 years old and has a 13 year old, 9 year old, and 5 year old. She and her husband just separated 3 weeks ago because he was abusive, so she is trying to raise the kids by herself now, and joined the choir to try to have some sort of peace. Fabiola's mom won the raffle at mass today, so that was really exciting. They're going to use the winnings to buy medicine for 3 sick grandchildren. Anyways, Fabiola could really use prayers right now. I give her really big hugs, and I know that it means a lot. I can see us becoming friends. I invited her to do this pilgrimage from the parish to downtown Monterrey to a Guadalupe cathedral on Nov 15th. We will begin walking at 11:30pm and go until about 6am when we'll have mass. I guess we'll take the bus home afterward, but imagine the majority of the people will have to walk home. Mike and I are doing this pilgrimage and Fabiola is going to try to come with too.

After mass and my time with the women from choir, I got on the bus with my new guitar, my purse, and a bag full of clothes that I had bought. I got a lot of looks carrying the guitar....or maybe it jsut seemed like more looks than normal. I got home and cooked a vegetable noodle soup with Paula (it was our cooking date) and it was wonderful! Then I tried on my new purchases and discovered problems with each thing, except the sweet pair of jean knee shorts (someone had cut a pair of jeans and turned them into these wonderful shorts). One of the tops is a maturnity shirt and 2 dresses were awful fitting on top, so I'm going to see what I can do about turning them into skirts and take the belly in on the maturnity shirt (I certainly won't be needing that anytime soon!). All in all, it was fun, and now I have to get down to business. I wanted to write a blog, and I have a "to do" list for tonight. We will have choir 3 times this week (2 rehearsals and another wedding on Saturday...this time at the cathedral downtown). Thursday we will presenting our program on visiting terminally ill patients to the board of directors of the Fundacion that controls the clinic. Sor Beatriz has been sick since Thursday, especially because of the stress from the presentation.

So...Paula reminded me of something from our orientation while I was telling her about my day today. Meg had described the stages of being in mission (ie the roller coaster). Paula told me that I am in the "I am mexican, I understand the culture, I fit in here" stage...which is funny. Obviously I have a lot more to learn, but it feels refreshing to have expereinces where I kinda know what I'm doing here.