Hello again!  My plans changed slightly after my last letter and I ended up in La Ciudad del Carmen, a beautiful island city two and a half hours from Champoton for a week.  I stayed with Mirma (Margarita’s daughter), Emmanuell, and their two month old Giezy Sarai, the happiest baby ever!  They are active in their church and are on the worship team.  I went to all their practices and quickly became attached to the group, who are mostly my age.  They invited me to their gig, a 15 años party (which are big here—like Sweet 16 but more significant) and took me to play soccer on the beach one night.  I also met a Deaf woman named Esther who introduced me to a ton of her Deaf friends and gave me a book of Mexican signs—I’d been looking all over for one!  I have since found a woman who works at the internet café in Champoton who is an interpreter.  We are already teaching each other our respective countries` signs!

In Carmen, I got homesick and felt a bit of culture shock.  Mirma lives in a one room apartment with a bathroom that is a small stall with a toilet and buckets of water for bathing.  The apartments are owned by Emmanuell’s cousin, was kind enough to let me sleep in her son’s playroom next door… but I had possibly the smallest, roughest hammock ever!  One night I actually opted to sleep on the linoleum instead.  The days were unbearably hot and the nights were muggy at best.  My fellow classmate in Merida, Chris, told me once that “Women don’t sweat.  Horses sweat, men perspire, and women glisten!”  Well I’ve never glistened so much in my life!!  I spent a lot of time out back washing clothes because I was showering so much—on the up side it did give me a chance to observe the wildlife!

I had started feeling a little self-conscious about how much I stand out here and wouldn’t you know that I would have two of my most embarrassing moments that week?  I had practically worn holes in my flip-flops and the tread was completely gone, but I kept putting off buying new ones.  So one day I was walking alone on a main road, after a nice rain shower, on my way back to the apartment… when my flip-flops failed me and found myself sitting in a puddle, in front of cars and buses full of people who were surely already looking at the jolly blonde giant… at the very least, the two schoolgirls behind me had been because they burst out laughing.  I promptly stood up, kicked off my flip-flops, and walked briskly home, barefoot, covered in mud, and red as a beet.  That evening, I bought new flip-flops.

Oh, and that 15 años party I mentioned?  Well, I made a nice grand entrance there!  When the taxi pulled up in front of the party, the contents of an entire thermos of water spilled all over… my backside, of course!  This time, however, I didn’t have the option of running home to change, and I happened to be wearing a very orange, very fluffy ankle-length skirt, which you wouldn’t imagine would be see-through… but, alas, I found myself in yet another attention-grabbing dilemma.  Luckily, we were there early to help the band set up, so there was time to deal with the situation.   Betty, one of the band members, gave me a jacket to wrap around my waist and rushed me to the Quinseñera`s (birthday girl’s) house around the corner.  It might be worth mentioning here that I‘d never met this girl or her family.  Nevertheless, I swiftly found myself naked from the waist down in their bathroom, waiting for Betty (who I barely knew) to finish ironing my skirt and undergarments (I guess we’re more than acquaintances now!).  Thankfully the iron worked like a charm and dried my clothes in no time, so I was able to allow the poor girl to continue getting ready for one of the most important days of her life!

I’m back in Champoton now and already busy!  The kindergarten class I visited in May invited me back so I went Monday for a few hours.  The kids were great and we are already attached.  Too bad I can’t understand half of what they say because they all talk to me at once… this will be good practice for me!  I have been working on some drawings for a 14-page packet for a Vacation Bible School program Margarita helps run every year.  The other teachers liked my work so I’ve been commissioned to do a second packet for the older kids.  I have started taking spin classes again at a local gym.  I’m hoping to drop a few more pounds while I’m here (I already lost 25 pounds in 3 months in Merida doing spin classes on weekdays and soccer on weekends).  A couple of my team’s soccer games got cancelled but we play tonight and our new uniforms should arrive any day!  My writing is still slow, but chugging along; a few pieces are starting to take shape.  My Spanish isn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be but maybe I’ll hit a breakthrough one of these days.  I haven’t learned much Mayan but I’ve picked up a few words and phrases.  And now I have Mexican Sign Language on my To-Learn list too!

I have also started planning for the last 2 weeks of July, when Shaun will come join me in Mexico to celebrate our 5 year anniversary (July 21st).  We will hit 3 states and several cities, visiting people and doing touristy activities, like diving in Cozumel and checking out ancient Mayan ruins, and a few other surprises!  This will be Shaun’s first time in Mexico and our first time seeing each other in two and a half months so we are both excited!  This trip has been a wonderful experience for me in many ways, and I have already learned so much… but the hardest part has been being apart from Shaun.  He has been so supportive of me and has respected the fact that I needed to fulfil this dream of mine, but I never want to be apart from him for this long ever again!  He agrees that this is a good idea!  ;)

At the bottom of this email is a link to my “webpage,” which is really nothing more than a place for links to my online photo albums, but it does its job well, I think!  I am still working on putting new photos up but the going is slow because the internet here is less than cooperative at times!  So keep checking back!  :)  And write to me when you have the chance!  I would love to hear from you, and I will write back!  Promise!  Take care!

-Kelly