Monday, August 28, 2006

You Deserve an Update

Not a whole lot has changed since I last blogged but here is an update. The teachers are still striking, and now many of the Oaxacan people are in on it as well. At night many people set up barricades at the end of their streets so that the plainclothes policemen can not get through. The policemen are the only ones with guns, because it is illegal for nationals to own one. So the policemen go out in the wee hours of the night and shoot their guns and try to intimidate and break up the protestors. There has been at least one person killed this way and several others injured. We do not have any of this on our street but about 5 streets over from us they have their barricade and burning tires.

For now we are laying low. We stay home a lot and when we do go out we are careful to avoid crowds and dangerous areas. We also do not go out at night or too early in the morning as these are the hours when things get rowdy.

In fact tomorrow, Tuesday, most of the businesses in Oaxaca are closing in order to raise the governments awareness of the situation. Because of this our marriage group wants to go have breakfast up in the mountains on their unexpected day off. We will see if we end up going or not...

We are praying that this situation resolves quickly and that peace returns to Oaxaca.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

More Oaxaca News.....

Oaxaca is getting a bit more scary....Yesterday Michael and I ventured out to take pictures and came up with these. The teachers that are striking got angry Monday when several plainclothes policemen tried to take back a television and radio station that the teachers had taken over. They began burning buses, blocking more roads, and making more threats. School was set to begin Monday but the teachers put a stop to that. Even the private Christian school here is postponing opening its doors for a week.
The top two pictures are not ones we took, they were sent to us by friends, but the others are ones we took ourselves.
Please pray for Oaxaca!!!!
I encourage you to Google Oaxaca and see what comes up so you can get a more complete story.







All of the unrest has made us a bit uneasy so Michael went to SAM's yesterday and stocked up on a bunch of groceries. We figure that if we do not end up needing them we can give them away as there are many people here who are being financially affected by this situation.

Monday, August 21, 2006

More Micah......

Micah has recently said and done some silly things so I thought I would share.

Recently he came out of a guest room we have and I asked him what he had been doing. His reply was...Oh just checking my e-mail!

And just yesterday we were over at my mom's house eating lunch. My mom asked for a napkin so Michael passed her one via Micah saying,"Pass this to Mimi." Micah says ,"Yes Sir." and then proceeds to wipe his own mouth with it and then pass it along nonchalantly to his grandmother. We all died laughing and Mimi was a good sport!

Friday, August 18, 2006

I few pics. of the kids to lighten things up



When you think it can't get any worse.....

Last night we had our Bible study and our conversation turned to everything that was going on in Oaxaca. Michael and I always have lots of questions and our friends have either answers or theories.

Last night they said that today the striking teachers planned on shutting down all major businesses incuding banks, Sam's, grocery stores, and more. And they also said that if people go out they are threatining to remove them from their cars and burn their cars. I am really hopping this is not true because I really need to do some shopping because we are having Micah's birthday party Saturday and I still need some stuff!

I will let you all know what really happens.....

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Pray for Oaxaca!

Oaxaca, the city in Mexico that we live in, has not been very peaceful lately. It all started on May 22nd when the public school teachers decided to strike. Now the teachers here strike every year in order to get a pay raise, but it normally only lasts a couple of weeks and they get what they want. But this year it has been almost 3 months. At times it has even been violent.

Now we have not directly experienced any of this violence, just heard about it. One thing that happened was the riot police came and tried to kick the teachers out of the town square. They had helicopters, tear gas, and guns. Three of the teachers were killed in this attack but they still came out on top. So now no one will do anything against them and crime is running a bit rampant. People have been robed, banks have been robed, and people have been assaulted.

For now we are just using wisdom, praying for this city, and trying to stay informed of the happenings. Also tourism is a big money maker for this state and because of all the problems, revenues from tourism are down like 75%. This situation is affecting all of Oaxaca, many of our friends are not making the money they need in order to provide for their families.

I will try to keep everyone updated on what is going on down here. I wish I had photos, and will try to get some soon to show you.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

What a hard day!

Last night as my children and I were going through their night time ritual I had an interesting conversation with my almost 3 year old. He was on the potty as this is #1 on our bedtime ritual list.

Micah: Man, I had such a hard day.

Me (trying not to laugh and wondering how this could be possible):Wow, are you sure, didn't you play a lot?

Micah: Yah with Madeline( friend not his sister) the girl, you know. We blew bubles and you know and stuff.

Sometimes I am amazed at the hilarious things kids say....What are your kids saying?

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Baby Charlsie's Due Date

Today was the due date of our daughter Charlsie Grace. I know she could have been born a few days early or a few days late but this is the day I will be remembering her on as well as June 16, the day she was born still. It has been almost 8 weeks now. I do not know how people do this with out Jesus! He has been a comfort through this all.
I have really been doing well with all of this up until last Friday when I started getting a bit more emotional. But I think that feeling and remembering has been good, it is good to "feel". The other day I read this poem and thought it was very appropriate. It really spoke to me

Child

A tiny life is growing
Inside a cozy place
His arms and legs are flailing
A smile is on his face.
His mother feels a tiny kick
Upon her rounded tummy
And waits impatiently for the day
When she becomes a Mummy.
The baby’s smile is fading
But his eyes are open wide
He knows that he’ll be leaving soon
But will never see outside.
There aren’t so many kicks now
In fact there’s none at all
Gran says that baby’s sleeping
And keeps knitting up his shawl.
His life is draining quickly
But no-one knows a thing
A tiny smile fleets his face
When he hears his Mother sing.
He knows that he’ll remember her
And the things he heard her say
Peacefully and happily
The baby drifts away.
Mummy knows that something’s wrong
And is at the clinic before too long
A scan is done and Doctor says
“I’m sorry, baby’s gone”.
The grief is overwhelming
The sadness takes its toll
Friends and family gather round
As he’s buried in his shawl.
As time goes by and lapses on
His Mother sheds a tear
And hears these words inside her head
“Mum I’m always here,
I’ll never ever leave you
Although you may not know
I’ll be beside you every day
Through laughter, joy and woe.
You’ll never need to miss me
For I am in your heart
And though we’re in two different worlds
We’ll never be apart”.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Lunch in the Village

We recently were invited to the Junior High graduation of the mayor's daughter in one of the villages we work in. We were excited about this invitation because sharing Christ's love is all about building relationships for us. We arrived a bit late to the school but in keeping with Mexican tradition they had not started yet. We were asked to sit with the mayor and the city council members. We enjoyed the ceremony which was very different from the ones in the United States. The girls all wore elaborate pink dresses and the students recited poetry and danced to regional music.


Maddie gave a half time show when they had a bit of an intermission, they turned on some music and she decided she wanted to dance. So we had all these village people starting at our daughter who was the only one clapping and dancing with the music.

After the graduation we were asked to eat at the mayors house. Now mind you being the mayor of a village is really more of a title than anything else. This particular guy's house had dirt floors, the pigs were right by the bathroom, and they cook over an open fire. While we were waiting for the meal to be served my kids found some fun things to do....Micah played with some of the kids and Maddie decided that her favorite thing to do was pick up the bottle caps from Corona bottles. I was not too thrilled with this activity but was at a loss for stopping her with out seeming rude so my little girl smelled a little like beer and so did I because she enjoyed passing the caps from a chair to my hand. Ahhh yes what fun!
Then we were served the delicious molé coloradito. They brought out fresh hand made tortillas and that is what we ate with, tortillas and our hands. I had not done that in a very long time, it was fun and the kids had a blast.
After we ate lunch the kids ran off to play and some how found a tub of water. Let me tell you my children have an incredible ability to find water anywhere. I do not really appreciate this ability fully as it usually means I have to clean them up. But non the less they got wet so their father thought it would be a good idea to strip them and let them play in it. They had a blast so there was really no harm done but it was a littleembarrassingg to have my kids naked at this house.
Soon after that we dried them off and went home. We had an hour and a half drive home.