Today was kind of slow due to the lack of things to be done. By the time I woke up, Madre Heno had already finished sewing two pieces together. The problem was, they were the wrong two pieces. I spent a couple of hours taking out 22 feet of stitching and then helped with the sewing to make sure the correct pieces were going together. It was an example of how delicate differences in language are. I had explained what I needed many many times, and still I wasn’t getting exactly the correct thoughts across. For technical projects, I will be drawing detailed pictures from now on.
As soon as the first large piece was done, the rain came. After that there was absolutely no project to work on. I volunteered to pick the girls up from school (they were extremely excited about that) and take Miriam, one of the oldest, to work. She is working at a dentist’s office as part of her curriculum to become a dentist. I was nervous for about an hour straight. In Mexico, no one stops at stop signs or red lights and no one has any regard for other people driving. Close calls are the norm and no one seems to care. It doesn’t help that most people walk and that means pedestrians all over the already poorly maintained roads. Another problem is the lack of planning in design. There are no big roads to help get places. It’s all small roads with no rhyme or reason. Getting directions from someone who knows NO English, while dealing with all of that, was a hell of an experience.
The Colonias trip was cancelled due to the rain. The roads are hard enough to drive when they are dry, but when they are wet they are impossible. So, the rest of the day dragged and I spent a lot of time talking to a few of the girls and trying to improve my Spanish. Tomorrow I plan on trying to learn a lot more so that I can begin holding conversations with the people I will be working with on the construction of the gazebo.
Buenas noches.
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