Cenote Time

Cenotes

Cenotes are deep natural pits, or sinkholes, characteristic of the Yucatan peninsula, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings. The term derives from a word used by the low-land Yucatec Maya, "Ts'onot" to refer to any location with accessible groundwater. We will show you just a few of the cenotes we have visited recently.

Zaci cenote is located in Valladolid, half way between Merida and Cancun. It is huge and magnificent with bats flying all around in the top of the cave. We ate at the restaurant at the entrance so they allowed us to swim for free. Down below, you can slip into the cool water for a refreshing dip. There are also places to jump off into the water for the brave at heart. Mike jumped off the smallest one.

There were blind catfish in the water. They didn't bother us though. There were ropes you could sit or stand on while in the water as their didn't appear to be any bottom in this cenote.

Dzibilchaltún is just north of Merida. There are also ruins here.

San Ignacio in Chochola in Yucatan. Down the deep tunnel with the bees nest up top. I borrowed the picture below as none of mine turned out this nice. Wow, it is stunning!  

This is one of three cenotes at San Antonio Mulix, about an hour from our house in Merida. We have been here a few times and it never gets old. After swimming, we eat traditional Maya food at the local restaurant.

This is another at San Antonio Mulix.

We welcome our Friends and Family to come enjoy the Yucatan with us. There is a ton of fun to have and plenty of work to do in the English preaching field here in Mexico. And it is really reasonable to live here too. Let us know if you want more details.

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Low-German

A trip to Hopelchén and  Dzibalchén Campeche

There are two Low-German (Aleman-Bajo) congregations about three hours south of Merida in the state of Campeche. The friends in both congregations  witness solely to Mennonites who live in colonies and operate farms in the rural areas. Mike was invited to give talks at both congregations in the same day. First we traveled to Hopelchén where we met Tobias and Christiane, from Germany. They fed us a delicious lunch and then we all walked to their Kingdom Hall. Mike gave the talk in English and Tobias translated it into Low-German. In case you noticed, yes the brothers are not wearing suit jackets. The hall has no air conditioning so the brothers are not required to wear them.

This is the entire congregation in Hopelchén. Mostly local Mexicans who are learning Low German to preach to the farmers. Some friends have relocated from Germany to help, they are also learning Low-German, it is quite different than High-German. The ministry is challenging for these friends. They may spend years developing friendships and cultivating interest before a real Bible study is started.  But they are seeing good results for their hard work, patience and determination. Approx 18 publishers.

After the meeting in Hopelchén, we had German pudding back at Tobias and Christiane's home, and visited with them until it was time to travel south to the Dzibalchén congregation, about 45 minutes away. Slightly smaller as you can see, only 12 publishers. There were a few missing on this day. This was a very small Kingdom hall, notice the plastic chairs!

Here Mike is again giving the same talk in English, this time translated into Spanish by Jorge. Due to the small number in attendance, and many of which are fluent in Spanish and just starting to learn Low-German, the brothers felt that Spanish translation was appropriate this day. Again, no ac, thus no jackets. The Low-German congregation shares this hall with a Maya congregation. There is no Spanish congregation in this town, as is the case in many of the peninsula's small towns.

Here is a great picture of our small congregation learning Low-German to preach to the locals. Approx 12 publishers.

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The local Mennonites drive their tractors to town as cars are not allowed for many Mennonite colonies. We saw many tractors equipped with extra seating for the family. It was a sight! The colony's minister dictates which modern conveniences can be used. He may allow rubber tires, cell phones, microwave, or not. Just in the state of Campeche you will find widely varying uses of technology among the Mennonites.

After both meetings, which meant 2 Watchtower studies in High-German by the way, we were mentally drained and very tired and spent the night with our new friends Jorge and Desi. He is Mexican, she is from Germany. They are a young newlywed couple who we affectionately refer to as "the kids". This is the friendly pig living outside their home. They live in a very simple house with no kitchen sink. We thought we were roughing it in Merida. Wow, we now have a new appreciation for the few things we have.

The next morning, we joined them in the ministry. It was Sunday and as we approached the territory, the Mennonite's church services had ended and dozens of buggies were filling the dirt roads. We pulled over to give them the right of way. As you can see, the kids were very curious about us because we were driving a real car and obviously "not from round here".

Jorge took Mike to visit one of his students.  Our entire car group of 8 were invited to join this family for their simple lunch of hot dogs. They were very hospitable and had many questions for us. The children wanted us to take their pictures on our digital camera so that we could show them what they looked like in the screen, a first for them. The adult males spoke very good Spanish, but no English, so we struggled to speak to them, but had several translators.  What a nice family and beautiful children.

Our car goup! Way too many people for one Ford Explorer. The next pic shows Mike and Jorge piled into the cargo area.

Here's the story of Jehovah's blessing our decisions to put the kingdom first and visit these dear friends. When we were asked to travel and deliver these talks, we had just enough money for the rest of that month, no extra. Mike told the brother "I just don't see how we can make it happen". The brother replied, "Jehovah will provide." To make this trip though, we would have to rent a car for 2 days, buy gas, food, etc... So we talked about it, prayed about it and decided to put Jehovah to the test. If he wanted us to go encourage our friends, he would make a way and that he did! The very next morning after making the decision to go, we were paid from a client for past due invoices, that we never expected to receive. Wow! Now we had the money for the trip, and one more month of expenses! Our goal was to encourage these isolated friends, but we were the ones who were built up. Learning of their sacrifices and the difficulties they face in their assignment, how Jehovah sustains them and the joys they experience, was very faith strengthening for us both.  We are grateful to be here. We hope that all of our readers will have similar experiences when putting the kingdom first. Gracias a Jehova!

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Foods of Merida, Part 1



Starbucks! We really try to avoid this place, it is as
expensive as in the states...but with less choices.
They have nice air conditioning and many foreigners
frequent it so we still go there.

MMMM Mcdonalds. We did this one time when we needed to remember home.
Tastes the same, even in Mexico! Can you tell we enjoyed it?

Burger King delivers! So do every other food establishment..
...always by motorcycle. Don't worry, we have only ordered pizza at the
house, but a Whopper Jr delivered to my door is quite tempting!

This is half of a very large Chipotle Bacon Crispy Chicken sandwich from
BBT Wings. A very American themed restaurant, a favorite to the locals.
We shared the sandwich and still brought some home for a second meal.

Our young friend Eva and I were preparing stuffed
cabbage, not so Mexican and a first for her! See, we
do cook at home.

One night we lost power for a very long time and had to make dinner by
candle light...not as romantic as it sounds. We were really hot because the
fans were not on..but we have a gas stove so I made nachos! And here is the
beginnings of guacamole. 

Mexican sushi! Yes this one is entirely breaded or "empinizado". 
At first sight this roll may look like sushi, but many of the ingredients
are very wrong. But we enjoyed it very much!

OK, OK....enough with the sushi!

Yummy Enchiladas with Mole.
 Prepared with love by a dear sister in the congregation.

Not sure what to call this. It was quite delicious! A German woman in
Celestun prepared these assorted dishes for us when we visited her recently.
She has been in Mexico over 25 years and is quite fascinating. Her cats
run the kitchen...but we still ate and enjoyed!



Cats in the kitchen...wild things really!



More kitties taking a nap. Guess where? ....the kitchen!

How could I forget...PASTOR! Yes, it is a very traditional style of

taco, the meat is marinated, then stacked on this upright spit...very

much like lamb for a gyro. In fact this method was first

introduced to Mexico by a Greek..but using pork of course.

Well, this little pastor taco stand is literally 2 blocks from our house and

one of the cheapest places around. Two tacos cost 14 pesos ($1) and

they will bring you extra tortillas for free, so you can make 1 or 2 more!

They pile the meat so high, you have to make more. What a deal!

And guess what? We have never gotten sick here. Just want to add

that point. And below you will see that we have gotten the other

friends from the hall to join us from time to time. They all love it!

Notice the red plastic chairs and Coca Cola tables??

We made a deal early on here in Merida that unless it was a special occasion

or the friends invited us...we would stick to dining out only at places with

these very chairs and tables. Silly? Not really, see this style of seating is an

 indicator that we can afford the menu! And we have never gone wrong since.

Fried fish anyone?

Yes, this is fried fish...I was almost horrified, but got over it.

It was quite delicious once we got past the carcass.

We spent the afternoon at a beach home of one of the friends, and the guys

went out to buy fish...this is what they returned with. Below is our

hungry group feasting!

The  Mexican friends laughed at us...this style of fish is normal to them.

We made fish tacos with the tortillas, salsa and lime!
"It's the best!" (say with an accent)

Not sure what all of these are called, but the round ones are Panuchos. Made with

turkey meat. These were a sampling of Yucatecan foods prepared for us after

touring a cenote.

Ok, that's all the food photos we have for now. As you can see, we are not going hungry.

Maya Bethel



Watch Tower (literally "lookout tower")

We live in Mayan country here on the Yucatan. That is partly why it has been said that the culture here is a bit different than the rest of Mexico. Mayans primarily live only on the Yucatan, so this is the ideal location for translation offices. The Mexico Branch set up translation offices here in Merida a few years ago. We have visited these offices twice now since we arrived in January. The first time we were given a tour and were guests for the noon meal. We sat at the table with Manuel and Wendy, who are in our congregation, learning English and doing quite well, and a couple from the Mexican Sign Language congregation that shares our Kingdom Hall and speaks almost no English. What fun we had trying to discuss the meal. We had Panuchos and Salbutes, two traditional Yucatecan foods, much like local tacos, but with different ingredients. This was a very nice privilege for us. Our friend Coral was visiting both times we visited, and another friend Wendy the second time.

We ate it all! Nothing left.

This extension of the Mexico Branch operates like any other Bethel, just smaller. There are 25 Bethelites here on site living and working to translate literature into Maya for this large population. They experience great challenges in this work. We struggled to completely understand how it is done, but it seems that much correspondence comes from Puerto Rico or Mexico City in Spanish to be translated into Maya, and other correspondence from New York in English. This may be time sensitive material that cannot be translated first into Spanish, that is why several of these brothers here in Merida are learning English to do just such work. What a fine effort they display! During our second visit, a team of local brothers from Maya congregations all over the Yucatan were on site to review some recently translated work. They were to see if the translators had done well in there interpretations of thoughts and phrases.

Example of the many challenges

See, Maya has fewer words than either English or Spanish so many challenges arise. Like the word "marriage" in English is translated into Spanish as "casarse", but there is no word like this in Maya, rather the idea must be conveyed using several or many words, "Ts'o'okol beel", in Spanish these words translate to "el fin de su camino".. translated back to English they mean "the end of his road". I know, that one seems bias...here is one more, "finger" in Spanish is "dedo", into Maya it becomes "Yaal k'ab", or literally "hijo de la mano", back into English it becomes "son of the hand", So there you have it, translation in a nutshell. Confusing huh? There is much work to be done.

We also learned that because the text grows in length when translated into Maya...many more words than in English, some ideas or thoughts must be condensed or cut out completely in order for the material to fit into the prearranged space. Like in our Examining the Scriptures Daily...if every word and idea were translated completely to full length, the booklet would become a thick book. They use MEPS here in this office so the composer must make the material fit into the same space as if it were in English.

Our tour group

 We have heard endless experiences of Maya speaking individuals who learned the truth in Spanish many years ago but it didn't reach their hearts and so they failed to make progress. Once the same life saving information was finally available in their mother tongue however, they made rapid progress. All this has happened in just the last 10 yrs! Similar offices are accomplishing this same work for over 47 other indigenous languages in Mexico alone.