::culture::

 

good evening my beautiful friends… 

don’t these balloons just make you smile???  they do me…  ahh---  {I love balloons}

last night I Amanda and I put on a birthday bash for a little five year old niño but…  that’s getting ahead of myself. 

performances---

first of all…  bright and early in the morning… we went to the little country school in {durango}, to watch our  kids put on a dance performance,

we found out AFTER we got to the school that the dancing was in honor of the Mexican holiday [día de los muertos] wich is [day of the dead]. WONderful. haha. love this holiday. despite that morbid fact, I found it to be a very cultural experience and still thoroughly enjoyed myself.

[día de los muertos] is basically equivalent to our [memorial day] but not.  it has more cultural and religious aspects involved.  some people really only look at it as a time to remember loved ones. while others sacrifice the little they have in order to awaken the souls of the dead and hopefully make them happy and satisfy them.  they go to family members graves and decorate little alters of flowers, food, toys, candies, jewelry, anything that the souls of their loved ones might enjoy. the goal is to encourage visits from the souls, so that the souls might be able to hear the prayers and comments of the living directed to them. celebrations last up to three days.

as I was driving today I saw bunches of flowers being sold, people kneeling at alters, and offerings of food. I thought once again of the awesome privilege I have to show these beautiful people Christ's love through having a relationship with them and just getting into their lives even if it means going to a [day of the dead dance].

I love the fact that I just get to love on them by telling them about Jesus.  right now, twice a month, we are doing a saturday activities with the kids in {durango}.  each week along with a bunch of organized games, coloring books, and crafts, we are teaching on one of the major stories of the bible in chronological order.  {it’s only gonna take us one hundred years to finish.} 

won’t it be awesome to get to heaven someday and see all the lives that are being impacted by just simple acts of love???

the niñas were dressed to perfection.  complete with big grown-up earrings, colorful ribbons, and lots of make-up.  I couldn’t help but drool over them, nor stop my {snap-ity snap finger}.  they were quite obliging.

   

my favorite dance was the pineapple dance.

I’m not exactly sure what this dance was but…  there was about fifteen kids bent over, hobbling with canes like old people, wearing hats with rainbow streamers, dancing little jigs here and there.  quite hilarious.  I think it might have been the dead dance…  morbid I know.  haha.

I’m not for sure, but sometimes, I think I know what it must feel like to be a mom.  clapping like a crazy woman, beaming from ear to ear with pride after I see them succeed in something, being able to give them the {evil-mom-eye} and they know exactly what your talking about.  seriously some days…  I feel these niños are mine.  

   

and of course…  no fiesta is complete without comida. 

tamales are where its AT!  yum…

parties---

there are three guys who live at our ranch to watch over it during the winter months when we are only there on occasional weekends.  Enrique, [one of the head guys] has two kids, who now live with him after he came clean from drugs and alcohol.

Amanda {my bestie that I get to work with} tutors Rita twice a week and both of us take the kids out every once in awhile since they lack on good quality {girl time}.  when we found out it was Angels birthday we quickly transformed the house into a {birthday wonder} complete with helium balloons.  {YA}

note the awesome house built around an RV.  {su-wee-t}

one BIG happy family   

sorry about the awkward lighting.  horrible lighting in that little house.  {flash or no flash that was the question}

in mexican culture its tradition after the birthday song is sung to chant {mordida, mordida, mordida} which is basically like a bribe to take a bite.  when they go in for the bite someone pushes their head into the cake.  my favorite part of last night was after we sang, or course we started chanting {mordida} and before we could push angels face into the cake he had done it himself.  PRICELESS!

    

did you know that 1 minute of laughter boosts your immune system for 24 hours???  so laugh a lot!!!

night