145 topes to San Cristobal! I counted...

Hello again everyone!

I am back from a few days of traveling. On Thursday, July 12th, we left in the morning for San Xavier. As expected there were lots of curvy roads. But, the one thing I noticed is that even though I have traveled around a lot... I am still amazed at the view of the green, lush mountains.

We arrived in San Xavier, which is a village of Lacandon people. They speak Maya, which is said to be the closest dialect to the original spoken Mayan language. They language sounds very angry all the time. If someone was speaking Maya, I had to look at his or her face to make sure they weren't scolding someone or something. Traditionally in their tribe, the men wear plain white dresses (more like cloaks). I also thought it was interesting that lots of men had long hair. This is because if a boy wants to be chief some day he can't cut his hair. I am not sure about the details on that though.

The church that we arrived at was quite small. It has about 7 families and individuals. In this village, Christians have only been aloud to come in and evangelize since the year 2000, when the chief converted. Interestingly, there is a Tzeltal family "running" the church that are missionaries to the Lacandon people of the area. I personally, really look up to and respect this family a lot, and it was a pleasure to be able to meet them. I got to see the families pet spider-monkeys, and I also got to see a really pretty bird that was similar to a parrot. At the church, we hosted a VBS for about 30 kids.

We left San Xavier and headed down the road to the village, Lacanja. When we first arrived, we were showed to our rooms where we'd spend the night. I laid down in my hammock and enjoyed listening to the rain hit the metal room. It was very relaxing, and hammocks are very comfortable to sleep in! We had a church service, and I had the job of translating the sermon. What a task that was. One of the group members, Jeff, preached, and beforehand I went through his sermon and basically wrote out the translation. So that was definitely a new experience, and it was very cool to be the most bilingual person available... although, sadly, I am not fluent.

We came back to Ocosingo on Friday, and had a birthday party for Maggie, and spent the night here. Saturday, we headed off the San Cristobal and Tenejapa. This time on the way to San Cristobal, I counted the topes, because I was told 120, but I am wanted to know how many for sure. So... the total came out to 145... give or take a few... 145 "speed bumps" with in a ride that take less than 2 hours! That is... more than one per minute on average? We went to Tenejapa, for a great big Presbytery meeting, with lots of people. The church was really nice. We basically sat around outside talking for three hours, waiting for the meeting in the church to end, and had a service and dinner. I guess it was important for us to go to represent the school and the health clinic being built... to show our dedication to the project, because elders from the Presbyterian church from around are asked to come help on the clinic. It was cool to see some men dressed in the traditional clothing from the area.

We spent the night in San Cristobal, which is probably one of my favorite places here in Chiapas, and today we dropped the group off at the Tuxtla airport and came home... back to Ocosingo. A group of 27 is coming in tomorrow, which is the biggest group ever, I think. And as far as the clinic, I think we are getting ready to pour to roof soon!

I apologize for the long blog, but its been a few days... much love, and peace from my heart.