Mexidonia Needgreater: A Typical Week

Many of you wonder what our routine is like here in Mexico, well, it varies somewhat, but here are the basics. Prepare yourself, it is not that exciting...

Our meetings at the Kingdom Hall are Tuesday at 7pm and Saturday at 4pm. Meetings for Field Service are held Tuesday through Friday from various homes at 8:30am. We used to meet at the Hall everyday, but it is currently being used for Elder School during the week. Service is from the Hall on Saturday and Sunday for our service group. There is no meeting for service on Monday, typical here, as well as in other parts of Central America.

Our lovely Kingdom Hall

The culture here is for the locals to observe some form of daily siesta. We don't know if there is a standard for this, it seems that it can range from going home to have a large meal with your family midday to hanging out in the park with your sweetheart on your break from work. Some businesses close from 2pm-4pm, or even longer, reopening until late into the evening. We find that it is difficult to preach during this time, at least from door to door. Not only is this the hottest part of the day, but householders feel this is a special time to be home with their families and we try hard to respect that.

So service starts a bit earlier, 8:30 as I mentioned, and may stop as early as 11am depending on the day. We go in the ministry Tuesday through Sunday usually, sometimes off on Thursdays. Our schedule is ever changing according to the needs of the students we have. But that is roughly the routine. We have enjoyed evening work, after 6pm when it is much cooler. During this time we may make return visits on interested ones at there homes, or walk up and down Montejo, a popular avenue for walking, searching for foreigners or anyone else who speaks English. We always keep some material in Spanish and Mayan with us so we can be prepared to share the good news with anyone. Two young students come over two nights of the week for dinner and studies, this is a highlight for us. I will write more about them soon. Mondays and sometimes Thursdays are laundry days...that is another story, I will post about that soon too.. fun, fun!

We may go grocery shopping any day that it seems convenient, sometimes after service if we end up near the Walmart or Chedrauri (local chain of food store, the name is not Mexican, Lebanese I think). Or we will walk from our house to one of these stores, 25 minutes walking, good exercise...lots of sweat! Usually we catch a taxi home because of too many items to carry. The taxi costs 20-30 pesos depending on how far out of the way the driver feels like taking us to rack up the tab, but really the difference is nothing when you convert that. The cost is $1.40 -$2.10...we try not to argue over $.50. We find it interesting that the drivers keep trying to trick us, we know where we live, do they think this is the first time we have ever taken a taxi home and have no idea what it should cost. We keep reminding ourselves that we stand out and unfortunately at times are a target for taking advantage. Overall, this is rare and we do not feel taken advantage of very often. We hope that as our Spanish improves, these things will get a bit easier.

So that is our basic routine, we do take time for recreation if the opportunity arises. But primarily we try to stay focused on service and having balance with our rest. We do not want the heat to get the better of us, so far so good!

Portable fans are our friend!

Staying out of the heat is kind of a dream here, seldom a reality. Getting home may not mean cooling off. See, we don't have air conditioning in the house, only in the bedroom and we only use that at night if we absolutely have to, electric is very costly here. So we find that laying in a hammock, after taking a long cold shower, with a fan blowing directly on you is the closest thing to staying out of the heat. And it is usually so effective at cooling us down that we find ourselves needing to turn off the fan! (Gasp!) We may take several cold showers in one day, I think my record was 5, but that is not typical. As I write this, we are experiencing one of the hottest days so far, the forecast said high of 100, but it has turned out slightly cooler with a high of 95 and a "feels like" 98. You gotta love the Weather Channel. Currently our indoor temperature is 89 (don't laugh Coral), much cooler than yesterday which was 92 indoors. ( I don't have an obsession or anything, just a need to know) These temps may sound shockingly warm, but we have adjusted quite well to not having ac, and not having a car has helped us adjust. See we walk a whole lot, and I really don't know how to explain it, but walking in this heat changes a person. You haven't been truly hot and sweaty until you realize you are sweating from every square inch, yes, every one of them...and then you lift your arm to fan yourself and your elbow drips! Did you know elbows sweat...ours do. (hence the 5 showers in one day) Is this too much information?...too graphic? So coming home to the shower/hammock/fan scenario is quite refreshing. And for those of you who may be inclined to feel sorry for us or think we are crazy or both...please don't worry about us, we are just fine, and enjoying every minute of this sweaty adventure!