Up the mountains to Tzajala!

It has been such an amazing week... I praise God for that!

Tzajala sits somewhat in a valley way up in the mountains... the drive there was incredible. The road is gravel and bumpy. We would drive for a long time without seeing any people, or barely any. Then we'd come across a village, and it wasn't Tzajala... but we arrived at the 3000 person village on Tuesday the 3rd. The girls ended up not sleeping in hammocks, but the accomodations were nice... I had never used a toilet that you had to pour a bucket of water in it to flush. I also have never had such a beautiful view from the shower... which was a hose, by the way.

On July 4th, I thought about my American friends who were probably watching the fireworks from the bridge in downtown GR. But, I had an awesome day that day. We mixed cement and poured a walkway for the addition that the church is adding. I enjoyed talking to the kids from around the community too. It is really cool because their language is Tzeltal, and our language is English, but Spanish is the gap between the two. Once students enter middle school they learn spanish. So a lot of the kids and the adult males knew spanish. I also especially enjoyed making tortillas with the women in the kitchen. Rebecca, one of my friends from the group that was here, and I had such a great time, learning to roll the "dough" and flatten it in the press and put it on the fire. It's harder than it seems cause you have to do it right, or the tortillas don't puff up... the ladies in the kitchen enjoyed laughing at us as we tried to make tortillas... they didn't speak spanish, so they just had to show us. We ended the day with a church service, which I really enjoyed. The Tzeltal language is beautiful... full of tic's and ch's.

On the 5th, we worked again in the morning and at 3 pm we headed down the road to host a Vacation Bible School for about 150 kids. After VBS, six teenage girls asked me if some of the Americans wanted to go play soccer. I would like to add that it was so cool to be able to communicate with them in spanish... so anyways me and five other girls from the US loaded up into a cattle truck and headed down into a valley to a soccer feild. Playing soccer was so much fun. I got to know a girl named Zorayda, and enjoyed talking with here. It was such a great coss-cultural experience. It showed that the American foreigners had something in common with the Tzeltal teens... a great lesson for both sides.

I have been thinking a lot about different things about mission trips, and about the American interaction here... and have been struggling with a lot of issues... but forming my own opinion about them. I have enjoyed talking to Ginny, Andrea, and others about different cross-cultural issues, and I am really enjoying learning about missions.

Friday, we worked and had VBS, followed by a service. It was cool to be able to see the floor of the kitchen with concrete at the end of the day. Saturday morning we departed the group, and headed home.

So last night, Andrea (who is here for just one more week), Maggie, and I treated five of our guy friends from around the school to a night in Ocosingo. We went to a taqueria and then to the circus... YES... a Mexican circus... quite the experience. We couldn't pass it up. It was pretty good actually... We saw the most amazing juggler I have ever seen... there weren't any animals though, just an anaconda that they brought out at the end.

We have another group coming in tonight... and a full week ahead! Peace

The first picture is a view near Tzajala and the second is off two of friends in the village named Margarita and Griselda... who laughed the entire time they braided my hair... which they are doing in that picture