oye!

Oye means ¨hey¨in spanish! Wow, already I am learning so much. The group from IWU went home today so I´m the only American left! But I´m doing great- everyone is so nice and helpful. There is so much I could write!

The Beach

We´ve been at the beach for the past two days- it´s about 30 minutes from Merida! Even though I slathered myself with sunscreen I still got a little pink but I´m feeling better already.

This is the beach! Nice and private.

This is the beach house where we stayed for 2 nights. It´s huge!

When Angela and I were walking along the beach we ran into some fisherman who had crates full of these things we had seen washed up on the beach the day before. So we stopped to ask what they were - pepinos del mar- sea cucumbers! They told us that they export them to Japan where people eat them! They thought it was hilarious that we wanted pictures with the pepinos!

The Prison
Going back a few days, Monday and Tuesday morning we visited a women´s prison in Merida. We visited the same prison when I was here last year with World Impact and the women remembered those of us who were there before! They appreciated our visit so much. There are amazing things going on there- a young woman named Ingrid who works for Atheletes in Action went to the prison two years ago to have a basketball camp. There she met Bette- the sports director for the prison. She began telling Bette about Christ and Bette accepted Him as her Savior. This is incredible because not just anyone can go to the prison so the fact that Bette, who works there every day, can share Jesus with the women is soo cool. The women all call her maestra and wanted to share with us their testamonies of how Bette had lead them to Christ. They are of course sad to be in prison but all say that they know God brought them there so that they could meet Bette and Christ!

The Food
On a different note- the food here is sooo incredible. Paulina´s mom (my mexican mom!) is such a good cook. The other day she made us Chicken Mole which is a chocolate-chile sauce. It sounds weird but is delicious. This morning, I slept late because we had to take the IWU team to the airport very early. Paulina was at work and when I woke up, as soon as I got out of the shower her mom had breakfast for me! It was ham and cheese quesadillas, an omlet thing with chives and corn meal and this amazing banana-milk with oatmeal mixed in (because it´s good for your stomach and your cholesterol!) Her mom is so great because she speaks slowly and explains things when I don´t understand. Here are some pictures of my mexican house (Paulina and I are going to have a key made for me today! I´m also getting a cell phone!)

This is the front of the house- it has a great porch!

The dining room

My and Pau´s cuarto (room)

I guess that´s about it for now. Pau is resting and I´ll probably go read for awhile (my spanish book). I´m posting a bunch of pictures on flickr (the link is to the right). Leave me a comment and let me know you´re reading! Hasta luego (see you later)!