geuss who got to live with a random mexican family... this guy

so resently i had the privlege to stay with a maxican family for 11 days it all started with a viset to lo major del trigo (a mexi church) to meet my family for the first time. luckly josh's family was from the same church so me and him get in a truck and drive about 30 min out to get to the church (mind you all the other churches are like 5 to 10 minets away) so we get all the way out ther and hang out for the serves after the serves the paster introdoused us to the congrogation dont forget im in mexico ther not speking a lick of english the pastor was taking josh in and then he says that the sala cortez family is taking me in and a mom a dad and 2 little girls stand up( the mom back hand her other hand jokeing around like she was gona woop me) my new family alfrado my dad sara my mom bresa 10 my sis and nitalea 7 my other sis me and josh then go back to the dorm. wer scedualed to start the home stay the fallowing weekend. so the next weekend our family is saposed to come pick us up but they forgot about me and josh so we drive out to meet up with joshes brother eli who takes us back to his houes and i was going to meet up with my family the next day but that night josh's family took us out for pizza that night ther was only one day... so me and josh shared it. the next day after waking up next to josh we rolled out to meet up with my family so we piel up in to our truck and take off and we head out even farther from the dorms and up in to a bunch of hills in the middel of no where and im starting to think im gana be liveing on a ranch out here in the middel of now where when bam a random setelment of identical town houses apear a full on city with rodes and big stores and every thing but the only way to get to it is by a coupel small dirt paths. not im like 50 minets out from the dorm we get to my houes and i get so se my room ill be staying in for the next week and a half andits coverd in prinses crap the bed the dressers the lamp the walls the every thing... prinses. the rest of the time was rather un event full i wouled hang out with the family that weekend then comutit back to the dorms for work and then chill the next weekend with them then come home. it was a ton of fun and i was confuesed most of the time. but i lerned soe spanesh and made a ton new frends

well its been prity chill down here

well its been prity chill down here latly. we had a group come down from Hawaii that was prity awsome and i had a ton of fun chilling with them. they even invited us to come viset some time so i might have to take them up on that. other then that we have been taking a class online so iv just been doing a lot of reading like a lot of reading like i think thats kinda all iv realy done latly wich is kinda a bummer but o well prity soon here im going to be liveing with a mexican family for about a week and a half so i shouled have some fun storys about that later. but for now im just reading and trying to learn a few choreds on the ukulele.

road trip/ cultuar days

Hey guy so I forgot totell you guys about my rode trip back down to mexico. It was prity grate. Alex and cj flew in to Portland and me hung out ther for the day hikeing and then vodo donuts then we drove down to san fransisco and met up with Emily we went to 3pier 39 and hung out ther did riplys and a mirror maze and some gigantic virtual zombie shooting game and I got the high score (just some shamles bragging) then we drove all the way down to mexico the next day all in all it was prity rad.

We had a cultural day the other day and have to find a university, the cecut, palaseo,a gigantic military flag ,and an old cathlick church we had to find all of this without taxies or minestry cars so we brok of in to our teams and hoped on some busses my team got of the buss to soon because of ether bad derections or the more likely option mis communication due to specking 2 completely different laguages so we walked for a bit and then went in to a office bulding that turned out to be a news paper the resepshenest was very nice and spock English her name was silvea and she was a life saver we busted out our map and she drew all over it telling us wher we were and wher all the stuff was she gave us her card and toled us to call if we needed more help and thet she was going to worrie about us we sead our good buys and took of on a nother buss we made it to the cathedral and took some pics then we couled see the gient flag off in the distens so we took off for that now when I saw gigantic I mean GIGANTIC this bad boy is 250 kilos (like 600 lbs) and 300 meters by 500 metters (984 X 1640) next we looked for the palaseo and got a little lost but aventualy founed our way thanks to silvea drawing on our map and other peoples help the palaseo is a government building and at the moment they are collecting food to send some wher down south that flodding and has some big storm  going on then we ate lunch and headed out for cecut wich is a museam of Mexican culture and history I hope to go ther agen it looked prity cool but wail we wher ther we ran in to the speshel events cordnater and he gave us I quitk touer and by that I mean we stood ther wail he pointed out different atrations the museam had and he gave us his card and offered to set up a full guded touer of the place with an English specking tour guide last but not least we set out for a university cheked it out and then went home all in all it was a good day of getting out and being in the culture

Today alex cj jackooby tylyn and I took buses to rosereto wich is on the cost and plaed in the waves for a bit wich was like so totally wicked man I wish I had my boogie bord thes wave wer massive like over my head by like 2 feet massive then we ate luch and did a little suven ear shoping for frends and family lifes been good me and I don’t see that changing any time soon im having the time of my life and making friendships thet imsure will last a life time well that all for now im going to go play murderer in the pich black

ashton

IM BAAAAAAAACK!!!!

Well guys and gals im back in mexico I have been for a few weeks now but every week we have a new and speshel rule that we have to abid ( we call them diseplins)by this last week was no contact with the out side world meaning no internet or phone calls or letters or any thing and of cores that’s the week my prago sister/ niece disided to be born. But it ok I found out eventually and dang let me tell you that kids cute althou a may be byest. Probly not tho.

Sens being back its been farly normal we don’t have groups comeing as often now its mostly just day/ weekend groups so most the time we are working around the dorms the water went out at one pouint wich wasn’t to bad sens we have a ton of filterd water and and gient like million gallon back up tank of water but I did have to fors flush the toilet after droping the kids of at the pool. Our new disiplen for the next two weeks is that we are no aloud to drive the trucks/ vans for personal ues. This means that for the next two weeks we have to walk/ get a taxi/ ride a bus. The busses down here are called calafia and let me tell you you think the public transit we have up in the states is in tens well this got nothing on the calafias. So this is how they work calafia drivers own ther own bus and the more people they pick up the more mony they make so thers all ways more room on a calafia and do to this fact the drive fast and hard they zip around and squiez in a 2 foot gap. They will littraly race to pick up passengers befor other calafias. the busses that they drive are little tricked out short busses and befor I hear any jokes yes im ridding the short buss and yes I am speshel but I diegres back to the calafias so by tricked out I mean the put LED lights all over them and gient spoilers and cool rims and they’ll put stuft animals in the grill and put stickers all over the dang thing and they play what ever music the driver wants at what ever vollum the driver wants. Now to a big fat gringo like my self the pathes and routs that they take seam meaning les and arbitrary but to the traned eye (meaning a former staf who helped explane calafias to me and a frend) they are actually quite organized. In the driver side window/ the winshield the right were they are comeing from and going to with a few stops in the midel all random places iv only heard in pasing but with the halp of  sevearly broken spanes and a little knoleg of teajana geography we got on our first calafia and made it to our faveret tacorea casa blanca and hung out with chom and poncho the two chefs of casa blanca then we made our way home on anoverly packed calafia. All in all it was rather un eventful. The next ride was a longer distens and to a place that we where not 100%of the name so we hoped on a calafia and took our chanses. Luckly we gambeled right and we got off right where we wanted to be wich was a nashenals home that we had built for him erlyer in the summer this guy is and amazing man and its crazy to see how little him and his family have but how willing they are to give to us and others he always tells up “my home is your home come and stay any time 1 day 1 month 1 year 2 years 5 years it dosent matter my home is your home your always welcome here” they are a grate family and we wanted to invite them over for diner some time so we hung out with them for a bit and then went to go try and find a calafia home. This is wher it gets fun. It takes us a bit to figure out where a stop is to get on once we find it with a little help from a local we get on a party buss this bad boy has blue LEDs every where and I bigold spoiler spiny rims gient exost pipe sticking up the whole 9 yards we get on and the driver is braring snoopdog normaly its just a driver but on this one we had a driver then a guy sitting on a specer next to him right in the midel of the buss controlling music and the door then standing in the door/ half leaning out was a 3^rd guy telling every one where the calafia is going. We sit down and look around and notes that the every one eles on bored are young kids in ther school uniforms going home for the night rocken out to snoop-dog the music shifts slitly to Mexican gangster rap wich wasent to bad well only becus I dident know what they wer saying but none the less it was desent we rode the party buss for a bit then got off at our stop and walked the last few blocks home. That’s just the begening of calafia rideing ill have to ride them a lot befor I come home. Now that we don’t have a group every week we will be doing more cultural days and diveing deeper in to Mexican culture. For exapel we will live with a Mexican family for 2 weeks some time this fall that shouled be fun. But I shouled get going its my day off and its getting late so ill tak to you all later. Feel free to wright to me or send me care pakeges if you really love me if you do I promes ill wright back or at leats scribel on a post card and call it wrighting like I ushualy do

Peace out brothers and sisters

long time no blog... sorry guys

Well I know its been I wail sens my last up date we got prity busy ther for a wail. But im doinging grate. We had a masize group come down 150 ish people from like 7 different churches. That was prity hecktic then we had staf retreat wich was epic we whent up in to the mountens in sothern cali and hung out we did a ropes cores we went tubeing and we had a super hero movie marathon with some light karaoke. After staf retret wev had a steddy stream of groups comeing in and I met some prity cool people. We had a small brake not to long ago and we went up to the states again to go to a drive in movie theater and then we wen to a church to sleep for the night but they forgot to leve the keys out for us so its now 1 oclock in the morning and we had just spent 5 and a half hours in the border line then wached two moives so every one was pooped and just wanted to sleep so we wanderd around trying to find the keys or at least a way in but we had no such luck. So we disided to go find the chepest htel we couled find and we all cramed in in the morning we took off and whent to this place called sky zone. Sky zone is a biig trapolien park with dodge ball and basketball hops and a fome pit. That was a lot of fun. Today we went to a sketchy Mexican water park. This was a ton of fun the slides wer all old and kinda rickety looking but they help strong. However I did not make it out without an incident. At no falt to the park however. Wail swimming in the wave pool (with the waves off mind you) I gently grazed the bottem of the pool with my tooth cosing it to chip.  Luckily im comeing home on brake on the 28^th so ill be abel to have that crazy expencive dentest apontment soon. All things consider dim having a blast down here and I am loving the work im doing nothing beats the look on a nationals face when they see that the blue tarp tent they called a home has been replaced with a actual struckture even the is less then what we wouled call a shed its ther home and they are over joyed to even have a small 12x12 room for a family of 8 or some times more. realy puts stuff in to perspectiv and make you relize how we live in a world of excess

pedro

Well the brake is over

Well the brake is over and we got back to work. Ther was no goup here tho so we where working on an extenchen on the derectors house. This was a lot of fun. It was some good old fashend hard work. I dident have to tell any one what to do I just did as I was told and it was fantastic after we framed and stood up the walls amish styel me and another guy where up working on the rafters getting them in place and all that jazz. Then we put down the sheeting for the deck. This was fun because we where walking around on the rafters wich wher 2x6s on edge about 16 inches apart. It was prity sckechy walking around up ther and it took a lot of balenc one wrong step or you loes your footing and you might not be having kids if you know what im saying. The other guy steped on a bord wrong and fell but some what luckly caught him self…his vois is still a bit highr pich then normal. But ya that’s all iv been up to sens the last post. We got another group comeing in tomarow and then wer of and rolling agen for a coupell weeks till staf retreat.

pedro

la bouf

Here we go again. This week was prity liget the group was awsome and a few are even thinking about comeing on staf (that wouled be awsome) I ate an entire hoanaro peper seeds and all. That was fun I sat ther drinking horchata for the rest of the night. But hey I wasent about to let some punk groupos shop me up so I had to eat one. However after the group left is when the fun started (no afens guys but its true) we went to a camp ground called la boufadora, and no that is not spellt right but that’s ok don’t wory about it. The camp ground was basicly on the ocean fort only instead of a nice sandy beach with prity women sunbathing and ripped men trying to show off for them we had cliffs and gigantic boulders to clime all over it was probly the beast beatch ever. So for a few days we all scaled clifs with no ropes and scrabeld up boulders and tryd to get as cloes to the frothing waves at the base of the clife we cot some crabs thro some rocks and got stabed by cactuses. Oh ya did I mention that ther wher cacti every where I steped on like 3 of them and stabed my hand how knows how many times. I hung my hamic in the back of a truch to sleep in but it was to windy and I dident have my tarp with me so I had to drop done ti the ground wich in this case was the truck bed when we woke up tho the wind had blown so much salt water thou the air that we wer all drenchet which sucked but hey if egos on so we explored some more and climed around then packed up and come back home to teawana. I still like saying that even after 2 months its still exsitying to say I live in mexico. But any way so we get back and go to wash all our salty and soking wet cloths and stuff at the landry mat and on the way back a swer pipe had over flown and ther is literally a strem of poop flowing down our rode. Man the smell of that more poo its just rank but then bake it in the hot Mexican sun… daaaaannngggggg thers no escaping that I tried the whole shirt over the noise trick… dident do I thing. For diner that night we swiched it up some and whens for chiness food. 62 pesos witch is like 5 or 6 bucks got me a massive mound of chow main and fried rice wich wasent to bad for being mexicanized amaricanized chiness food. Oh and I all most forgot that truck I was talking about in my last blog his name is shadow and I got to drive him all week me and him every day and I was doing a lot of solo builds so it was realy just me and him. And we got to know echother prity well I fixed out his lumber rack and had to gary rige a new E-brake lever but he was good and he got me wher I needed to go. The bummer was we wher boroing him so I had it give him back to the owner up in the states but chek it hes coming back I get him agen for next week so bam the bros are getting back together.

That’s all for now check out the pics (I finly got my camra so more to come) and ill talk to you all soon

Shaggy/Pedro