Un Temps à Garder , A Time to Keep

dimanche, août 04, 2013

Day two

Don't worry, I will not post about everyday of our stay. But the first four days are a good example of how many interesting experiences our days have been filled with.

For lunch, remember at 2:00 pm, or later like today at past 2:30, we had a picnic in the spacious backyard. As a matter of fact no one else has a backyard in the neighborhood.

A sister coming down the steps that test your trust. No support for this one piece of cement. Same thing for the inside steps.

Look Sister Martha without her veil. She didn't wear it the whole three weeks she was here. But just wait for further posts on the unveiled personality of Sister Martha. She is quite a hoot!

My lunch, the closest thing we've had to American food. The steak was truly delicious. The cactus was something to get use to.

Sister Claudia, the only time I saw her with her veil. She's a hoot too! She was singing and DOING the chicken dance just before lunch.

Maybe Daddy needs his glasses to eat his lunch.

Sisters of St Brigid. I didn't tell them we once had a cow named St Brigid. I probably wouldn't have been able to anyway.

Quite exotic. For us anyway.

They have a woodpile too. But I don't know why. There is no heating system whatsoever in the building, although it does get a bit chilly in the winter

Neighbors

We see a bit of the garden.

Late afternoon, Michel and I took a walk. We went to Superama, which is own by Walmart. We had our first exposure to this city of contrasts.

Every house in the neighborhood owns a front gate.

I think Emma would like that one.

Or maybe this one.

Daddy wants this door too. He has a thing for doors, don't you think?

Right around the corner is this children's party place. They have a huge inflatable play space inside. On another walk we saw a huge dinosaur piñata in the garbage outside the building. I know all my grandchildren would like this place.

How about that?

Nice Superama!

Eggs! Not refrigerated! Shocked! You just wait till I post about the following Sunday and our visit to the market, THAT was shocking.

Back home through the little door. Don't trip. Oops he did!

Inside the gate. The building has two wings. We were on the right (you can't see it), as yesterday (8/3/13) we are now on the third floor on the left.

The chapel is in the tower. Behind is the right wing.

samedi, août 03, 2013

La Cocina

To be immerse in the language I have been helping a bit in the kitchen, la cocina. Cooking here is vey labor intensive. Everything is done from scratch, with very few kitchen gadgets. Vegetables are cut in minuscule cubes, beans are chucked, cheese is shredded by hand in hundreds of fine threads, and so is the chicken. It took me an hour to shred a chunk of cheese the size of a cantaloupe.

Sara is cutting chicken, you better not mess with her. Not really, she is a very sweet lady.

Beni is doing dishes. I feel very tall when I am in the kitchen. I am a head taller then most of them.

Do you notice how they scrub these plates? They take the same care in wiping them. No kidding, actually they take longer to wipe them. I had never seen the dishes done this way. Boys, take note.

Washing dishes you saw Rosi, Beni's little sister, and Kristi. Behind Kristi was Jonny. Drying dishes was Emanuel, and Anayeli.

Carmelita is grinding peppercorns, she is the Queen of the cocina.

Sara is cooking the chicken.

Beni is cutting carrots in wee cubes to be added to the rice. Notice the bag? I cut the onions in very fine slivers. They were burning my fingers, they had been charred beforehand. After that my fingers smelled like onions for more then two days! In the background is Enrique, Quique for short, talking with Carmelita. He is the head of the household helpers. When we arrived from the airport with father Paul he greeted us with a live chicken resting on his arm.

Carmelita cooking on the gas stoves.

And this is where Daddy spends most of his time, unless he is cutting a tree; more on that later. The kitchen is on the other side of the wall.

Day One in Mexico, in the evening

It's been busy, busy, but it should slow down a bit now for the last few days. We are now nearly alone in this huge building. Classes are done, everyone when back to their parish. As promise here is a brief account of our first evening.

We had dinner in the big dinning room.

Notice that I was sitting at a table with three sisters and three priests. How joyful!

Michel's table was more subdued.

Nighttime view from the fourth floor.

samedi, juillet 27, 2013

¡Hola! From Mexico

It's been ages since I posted here. Many wonderful celebrations have gone by. I feel a bit guilty to write again after so long but hey, I miss my family. I like to hear from home on Lydia's blog and also on the Munkles' blog, so I thought maybe family at home in the Carolina and even in Quebec might like to see what we are up to here.

It's been and still is quite an experience to be here in Mexico City, or to be more exact in Naucalpan.

We arrived in the evening of July 16, the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We had dinner at the usual dinner time here, which is 8:00 pm. Michel and I just can't get used to the meal hours in Mexico. Breakfast is at 8:00 am, lunch at 2:00 pm and as I said dinner at 8!

Here is a picture of our room. Makes me appreciate my own room at the Manor (for whoever don't know, our house in Bailey has been named "The Manor", I think Sara and Clark came up with this name).

We are on the fourth floor, by ourselves.

There are eight of those to get to our room. Up and down up and down, we getting a good workout everyday. ;o)

I have found this little spot near our room to be a good place to knit and read.

Here is the view from one of the windows in the hall.

On our first day, July 17, we went to visit the seminary and had lunch there. It is also a pre-seminary. Young boys go to school here and are encourage to consider a vocation to the priesthood. The young boys and young men were having events that day, and for some reason only known to them they were covered in mud!