{Durango}

happy monday! it is very sunny and windy in mexico today. i was talking to my family and they told me that the weather in iowa is rainy and cold. i realized today, how much i actually miss rainy weather. the last time we actually had rain here in mexico was in march or april, right after i moved here. crazy how time flies.

since we do activities every saturday with the ninos in different communities our weekends are sunday and monday. sooo... today is my day off and im filling my time with getting some things done that i keep putting off until LATER. {u huh} cleaning my fridge, practicing worship songs on the guitar, learning {spanish folk songs} on my violin (haven't told you all about my new adventures at the nursing home i've been visiting. but that will come soon), going out for a run, cleaning and vacuuming my room, and watching {50 first dates} in between all that. my awesome and amazing seester found me this website that i can watch movies here in mexico for frEEEEE. but the only down side to this is that it takes all day to watch a movie. i wait for it to load a 15 minutes while i do my work and come back to watch 10 minutes of movie. sigh... the things i will do.

since i spend most of my week in this little community of {durango}, i wanted to give you a bigger glimpse into what it looks like.

i love this place. its an odd mixture of tiny brick houses and quick shelters that consist of garage door walls and blue tarps for roofs. we work with about one hundred and fifty families. all with real needs. some more then others but all with one common need. {Jesus}

depending on the time of day you may see no one around or lots of kids in the streets kicking a soccer ball, moms sweeping dirt,or boys pushing strollers with water jugs. its fun to drive in and wave and here the kids call out our names.

on tuesdays through fridays we tutor around thirty plus kids ranging from six to twelve. unless of course mom and dad are both working in the fields and baby brother has to tag along. usually we always have a baby and a few dogs accompanying us during our classes.

i usually work on addition with the kids. we give them a simple {addition by one} math quiz with eight problems on it. if they finish it within ten seconds they get to move on to {addition by two's}. if not we do the same quiz again next week.

i also help the little kids with simple number or letter recognition activities. it's so cute how {into it} they get.

we tutor for about two hours. the first hour we work on creative writing by asking the kids a question like; "if you had a magic wand, what would you do with it?" or we read a short story to them and have them write down the three main parts. a lot of these kids struggle with writing just one sentence. the schools here push kids along before they even get the very basics. the first hour we also try to teach the kids a new math concept. the second hour we help the kids with any home work that they've brought along.

i think one of my favorite parts is keeping the little ones entertained while their older siblings are wroking on homework.

coloring always works!

every other saturday we have play days with the kids here in durango. all of them are invited so anywhere from thirty to sixty kids show up. we bring sports equipment and coloring books and just play. we put on a skit which teaches a bible concept. crafts are always the kids highlight.

here are a few smiles from last saturday.

that's a day in the life of {durango} folks.

as a side note: my bestie {laura miracle greer} came again this weekend. love when she does that. can i just say... i love her heart for mexico and the ninos! and plus she rocks my world with all the little things she brings for me on a regular basis. this weekends toy was {miniature table ping pong} how adorable!