4-22

I’ve been keeping really busy the last few weeks. In the last post I was about to leave Tapalpa and go to Tesistan. I spent about 5 days in Tesistan, it was a really cool Casa Hogar. It was quite different to be in a house that has less the half of the kids as the previous one. All the kids were pretty welcoming to me. So of to smaller ones were a little shy. I’m kind of sad that I didn’t get to spend anymore time there. You can only get to know someone so much in only 5 days. This Casa Hogar is pretty close to Guadalajara. As you can tell from the pictures that I posted Guadalajara is huge and the traffic is ridiculous. I had the pleasure (haha) I driving in the city. It’s like 10 times more dangerous than driving in Houston. That might be a little over exaggerated but that what it felt like at the time. I did enjoy walking around Guadalajara and see all the shops and huge buildings. I went to the Cathedral in the plaza it was huge! I actually went a couple of times to downtown. Some of the kids invited me to go with them it was really fun. It was with a bunch of girls the first time so they went shopping for underwear. So yea, I went to other stores, haha. It felt very Americanized in Guadalajara which was kinda of a bummer, I saw lots and lots of tourist. At the same time it still had it own culture though. You still saw the little taco stands and old me playing guitars every now and then, which was cool. Also while I was in Tesistan I went with the kids to a water park, which you can see my photos. This is the time when I drove, we had to take two different vehicles; a man that’s been helping out with the kids in the Casa drove the other car. He speaks a little bit of English. He’s pretty much like a big brother to the kids, which is really cool to see that they get that kid of companionship. I really enjoyed my time there I was to go back, maybe I will before I leave again. They were all asking if I would return(or “regresas”). Angelle if you ever come back here you should definitely go check out some of the other Casa Hogars. They’re all packed with cool kids .

Last Friday I came back “home” to Tepatitlan, I call it home because it’s truly what it feels like. Chito drove me back which was nice of him. He stops by in Tesistan every now and then because that’s where Madre Yan Franka is now which was the Mother Superior in Tepatitlan when he grew up, he raised him up from a little baby. I really love hearing the stories of how the grew up in the Casa Hogar and it’s great to hear how important the Madre’s were to their lives. I can’t stress it enough that I have so much respect for what the Madre’s in Our Lady of Sorrows are doing. So when I came back Friday, Chito invited me to go with him and his Girlfriend to a concert. So of course I went, how can I pass up live Mexican music! It was really great! I really have came to love Banda (which is a genera of music here, it’s kind of like upbeat mariachi music). Larana, Lucero, and Lucil (or Mucho Lucho, haha it’s here nickname) were all there. We all danced, well I tried to anyway, and had a blast. I hadn’t seen them in a few weeks so they were all complimenting me how much better my espanol had gotten, which was cool of them. We didn’t get back to really late so I crashed on the couch for the night. But not before we eat some great taco’s, from what I am told Tepa has the best Taco’s in Mexico, I’m not arguing they’re really great.

The other day me and Pepe went see a piano concert in the plaza it was really beautiful. The guy who played was amazing. Every song he played was really impressive. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever been to something like that, it’s really peaceful an relaxing I liked it a lot.

Yesterday me, Lucero, and Larana went to see and Mariachi band play. But before they had a few cock fights, which I don’t find to interesting but it really seems to be a crowd pleaser here. Anyways, the band was soooo amazing. They preformed better then any band I seen before in my life and there were so many members. My personal favorite was the violins, oh and also the harp! I have pictures of all this stuff it’s been great fun . Oh the pictures of the fireworks and stuff are from the plaza, every night for the fiesta is a huge firework show. I’m not kidding every single night for like over 2 weeks.

By the way Angelle I had a Super Loca Burger. It’s AWESOME., I actually ate one tonight as a matter of fact. Roberto works at El Flaco now, he started yesterday. I believe it’s his first job.

One last thing, I wanted to thank my Mom, Jennifer, and Angelle for reading and posting on my blog it really means a lot to me to get the contact from back home .