As of today, we have been in Mexico for a complete week. What a week this has been!! With everything that has happened, it seems like we’ve been here for at least a month. Though when I try to communicate in Spanish it seems like we’ve only been here a day. And when we think about our friends and my family back home, it feels like 4 ½ months.
Everything here takes longer. The first 10 miles of our trip into town takes about 50 minutes! Let that sink in a little bit. That’s 50 minutes of slow going-bumping-braking-watching for livestock-yelling at the kids to sit down-dusty-fun! The next 10 miles are smoother on the paved highway, yet still exciting, as we learn to deal with the Mexican speeders passing us, and the dreadfully slow-drivers that we have to pass, all while watching for vehicles come at us from the opposite direction. Yikes! So, the trip into town is an event that takes time and planning, especially since you have to plan not to be on the road after dark.
Since our last post, the “Miracle Mobile” has been sitting outside our casita not starting. Somehow, that night when we returned from town, we left something on and drained the battery. Sadness. The next morning I got up and learned an important lesson. Don’t ever wave down the first Mexican tractor driver you see and elicit a jump. He quickly took the small battery out of his tractor, hooked the jumper cables up to it and to our van, and the van wouldn’t start. He then took our battery out and replaced it with his too-small battery. The van started for a moment, coughed a little bit, and then died. Long story short, after a couple days and many different opinions, I convinced one of the ranch hands named, Senor Rafa, to go borrow a bigger battery and try it before he took any parts off, which he wanted to do. The bigger battery worked. He took our original battery into town, had it properly recharged, and then the “Miracle Mobile” rode again. The AC Compression unit has been making funny noises since we started this trip. Does anyone out there know how important that is?
One of the struggles we face here is “Gringo Prices.” They see the color of our skin, equate that with wealth, and charge us out the wazoo. Not fun. However, after Smith, Zaisy, and I went fishing last night, we drove into one of the small villages and went to a small shop for some supplies. We bought 30 eggs, bananas, a bag of tomatoes, 3 boxes of milk, a big chunk of fresh cheese, 5 suckers shaped like corn, and 2 pieces of gum for only $113 pesos. That’s something like $11 dollars. I was pleased.
The ranch where we are currently living is beautiful. It is a spread of 2500 acres owned by Don & Ginger Smith. Don is a sweet man who retired down here from Houston about 24 years ago. He reminds me a lot of my late Great Uncle Jess. Ginger is a bit younger than him and has an endless amount of energy. I asked Don how he keeps up, and he said, “By Motorcycle.” They haven’t had kids out here in quite a while and they’re always trying to spoil ours. They have orange trees and lemon trees that we love to harvest the fruit off of and make juice. I know my brother Dave would love it!
Overall, our first week here has been quite fruitful. We’ve already picked up a lot of Spanish, we’ve grown closer as a family, and Rachel has had many, many opportunities to get over her dislike of spiders, insects, and especially ticks. As a matter of fact, today Rachel was making the bed and found a dead lizard under the mattress. It was a big one, about 6 inches long. Yuck!
One last story: One day I went for a hike, and one of the ranch dogs, a black lab named Shadow, decided to tag along. I’m glad she did. We were going along enjoying our time when I looked up the trail and saw two wild boars blocking our path. Yikes! Shadow took off after them and scared one of them into the woods. The other turned on Shadow and chased her back down the path toward me. I was scared, but quickly unsheathed my knife and stood ready to defend my ground. The beast got within about 5 feet of me and decided to call it quits for the day. He probably didn’t want to fight the team of angels standing protectively over me. It turned, went back up the trail, and followed its companion into the woods. No ham sandwiches for us yet.
We love this adventure, yet feel a physical ache in hearts to be so far from everyone. We hope to be somewhere where we have more frequent communication ability soon. Keep praying for us as we say goodbye to our comfort zone every day. God is so good to us!
Love and miss you all,
Except you, Carl,
Just kidding,
The Nagels
Everything here takes longer. The first 10 miles of our trip into town takes about 50 minutes! Let that sink in a little bit. That’s 50 minutes of slow going-bumping-braking-watching for livestock-yelling at the kids to sit down-dusty-fun! The next 10 miles are smoother on the paved highway, yet still exciting, as we learn to deal with the Mexican speeders passing us, and the dreadfully slow-drivers that we have to pass, all while watching for vehicles come at us from the opposite direction. Yikes! So, the trip into town is an event that takes time and planning, especially since you have to plan not to be on the road after dark.
Since our last post, the “Miracle Mobile” has been sitting outside our casita not starting. Somehow, that night when we returned from town, we left something on and drained the battery. Sadness. The next morning I got up and learned an important lesson. Don’t ever wave down the first Mexican tractor driver you see and elicit a jump. He quickly took the small battery out of his tractor, hooked the jumper cables up to it and to our van, and the van wouldn’t start. He then took our battery out and replaced it with his too-small battery. The van started for a moment, coughed a little bit, and then died. Long story short, after a couple days and many different opinions, I convinced one of the ranch hands named, Senor Rafa, to go borrow a bigger battery and try it before he took any parts off, which he wanted to do. The bigger battery worked. He took our original battery into town, had it properly recharged, and then the “Miracle Mobile” rode again. The AC Compression unit has been making funny noises since we started this trip. Does anyone out there know how important that is?
One of the struggles we face here is “Gringo Prices.” They see the color of our skin, equate that with wealth, and charge us out the wazoo. Not fun. However, after Smith, Zaisy, and I went fishing last night, we drove into one of the small villages and went to a small shop for some supplies. We bought 30 eggs, bananas, a bag of tomatoes, 3 boxes of milk, a big chunk of fresh cheese, 5 suckers shaped like corn, and 2 pieces of gum for only $113 pesos. That’s something like $11 dollars. I was pleased.
The ranch where we are currently living is beautiful. It is a spread of 2500 acres owned by Don & Ginger Smith. Don is a sweet man who retired down here from Houston about 24 years ago. He reminds me a lot of my late Great Uncle Jess. Ginger is a bit younger than him and has an endless amount of energy. I asked Don how he keeps up, and he said, “By Motorcycle.” They haven’t had kids out here in quite a while and they’re always trying to spoil ours. They have orange trees and lemon trees that we love to harvest the fruit off of and make juice. I know my brother Dave would love it!
Overall, our first week here has been quite fruitful. We’ve already picked up a lot of Spanish, we’ve grown closer as a family, and Rachel has had many, many opportunities to get over her dislike of spiders, insects, and especially ticks. As a matter of fact, today Rachel was making the bed and found a dead lizard under the mattress. It was a big one, about 6 inches long. Yuck!
One last story: One day I went for a hike, and one of the ranch dogs, a black lab named Shadow, decided to tag along. I’m glad she did. We were going along enjoying our time when I looked up the trail and saw two wild boars blocking our path. Yikes! Shadow took off after them and scared one of them into the woods. The other turned on Shadow and chased her back down the path toward me. I was scared, but quickly unsheathed my knife and stood ready to defend my ground. The beast got within about 5 feet of me and decided to call it quits for the day. He probably didn’t want to fight the team of angels standing protectively over me. It turned, went back up the trail, and followed its companion into the woods. No ham sandwiches for us yet.
We love this adventure, yet feel a physical ache in hearts to be so far from everyone. We hope to be somewhere where we have more frequent communication ability soon. Keep praying for us as we say goodbye to our comfort zone every day. God is so good to us!
Love and miss you all,
Except you, Carl,
Just kidding,
The Nagels
8 comments:
Yeah! Finally word from our son! Hearing from you right now is like opening the best Christmas present, finding the best bargin and discovering a five dollar bill in a forgotten pocket. We love you and ache in our hearts too. Dad and I both have dreams about you that wake us up and make us pray harder for you. I'm glad you're safe and have food in the cupboard. (unlike my dream last night) The kids look good but where is AX? We miss you and love you and will keep praying for you.
Write soon. Love you forever, Mom
I didn't know how much I loved you guys until I saw the pictures and almost teared up...Is it time for a furlow yet? We have a basement that is ready...you can come when you want and you can be as late as you want. What adventures you are having...never forget this time of ministry. Love you...pray for you every day! Kiss the kids...
Dave, Christina, Herbie, Allie, Baby
Almost teared up? Dad hasn't stopped crying yet. Help--we need some tissue!!
Don't know how you are getting rid of the ticks, but my mom used to use either baby oil and slide them out of the skin, or light a match, blow it out and then touch it to the tick. They hop right off when they feel that burn!
Love you guys and praying for you,
Lacy
tisk tisk.... you are so gonna get it next time you come this way!
We sure love you guys and I am glad to hear that everything is coming together.
I might be in Mexico for a few weeks with Compassion later this summer. I might just have to take a small hiatus and come and hang out with you a few days!
Take care guys!
oh man we miss you guys! I just won an "office party" at Cowboys country bar, and got to take as many people as i want. I immediately thought of you guys, and then I was sad cuz you're GONE!! And Oo course, everyone else was busy or working, so we hung out with Kim I and a couple of her single friends, and spent more money that we would have if we'd had to pay for our dinner! :) Anyway, we miss you, and love you and are praying for you. Give the kids lots of love from us, okay?
Love, Becky and the Cremos
Why does it seem that countries south of the U.S. take so much longer to get something done???? I completely understand you on that...it took us about a month to get a car we bought in our possession. :) I can also sympathize with Rachel and the "critters", I'm fully used to all of them now.....even the big lizards. :)
Ohhhh...please tell the WONDERFUL RACHEL...I said HI!
Spiders and bugs are gross and transition is always interesting...but, you ALL look like you are handling it like pros! GOD IS IN THIS!!! It's so much fun to watch!
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