Memorable Moments (pt. 1)

I've been keeping a collection of memorable moments or things I feel are worth mentioning instead of writing about every single thing like before. So, here are my Memorable Moments. I'll post them every week or whenever I can, depending on if I have access to the internet or not.

At the least, skim through these and read the things you find interesting. There's quite a bit, so I don't blame you if you do this. Check out my other Memorable Moments as well!

Sept. 4
Carlos called me his best friend.

Tuco, Gavi, older Carlos, and Claudia keep forgetting my name :( Hopefully after being here for a month, they'll remember.

I taught the kids how to fake slap. Bad idea, haha.

Sept. 5
Older Carlos gave me a picture of him when he was 6. Gavi gave me a marble and some shiny blue rock.

I got in a tickle fight with Carlos, Estefani, and Karla.

I got the chance to tell Claudia I loved her, after the fact that I had it up to the ceiling with her.

I played ninjas (karate) with Jesús and Kevin.

Sept. 6

I went with Carlos's parents to Centro. His dad said it was an hour away. I thought he was joking. We started off walking, but then we took a taxi-van-thing. Thank ya, Jesus.

I realized that showing the kids the games on my iPod was a bad idea.......

I had my second random nose bleed. I have no idea what's causing it. Possibly the water from the store around the corner, but I'm not sure. I'm going to start buying water from the supermercado from now on.

Older Carlos called me his dad and was telling the other kids that I am. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Sept. 7

Older Carlos got the other kids calling me papa, haha.

It's gotten to the point to where I had to walk away from the kids and pray that I don't freak out. Pero, es solo Claudia y Gavi y Kevin. Solo estos tres niños have caused me to have to walk away. Esto es no bueno.

I found out that Gavi is actually Gabi. Oops. In my defense, the b's and v's in español sound pretty much the same.

I had a drawing "contest" with Karla. I don't remember how it started, but it ended up with Karla drawing me with huge feet.

I started teaching Blanca English. She needs it for school, and her dad asked me to teach her. I offered to do it everyday, so now, everyday at 8pm, I teach Blanca English. I'm really teaching Blanca, Carlos, Karla, and Estefani, but mostly Blanca.

No mas random nosebleeds. I only drank water from the supermercado, and my nosebleeds and my sore throat went away. I think getting prayed for last night helped, too. Unfortunately, I'm out of water :/ I know God will keep my sore throat and nosebleeds away.

Sept. 8

I'm now teaching Yaneth English as well as Blanca. Yaneth needs to learn a song in English so she can get a scholarship to go to a college in Tokyo. Well, that's what I gathered. She wants me to teach her God Of Wonders by Third Day.

I started making the kids bracelets. It started with Carlos, but I'm pretty sure all of the kids want one now. Good thing I got all of that extra string a couple months ago.

During teaching Blanca English tonight, Karla was acting muy, muy loco. She kept on saying Blanca was playing different instruments in the street for money and said something about Blanca shaking her butt in the street. I'm pretty sure it was because she was muy, muy cansada. All of us were cansado. In other words, not much teaching happened.

Sept. 9

At first, it was just because Carlos wanted me to come outside, but now it's routine. Every day, after I pray, I go outside and read my Bible and do worship with Carlos. It's in English, but he says he doesn't mind. He makes sure to remind me every night before I leave his house.

Today in church, Carlos wanted to draw in my mini-notebook, so I let him. The sermon usually isn't for kids, so I thought I'd give him something to do. Then Jesús wanted to draw, so I told Carlos that he had to share with Jesús. He didn't want Jesús drawing, but after me telling him about three times that he had to share, he finally gave it up. He got really upset and said that I wasn't his friend anymore. And he meant it. That really hurt me. It's bad enough when the other kids get mad over something little and say they don't want to play with me anymore and also force their siblings to leave, too. That kind of bothers me, but I get over it in like 5 seconds. This was different. Not only was Carlos one of the nice kids, but he considered me his best friend, and to go from best friend to not a friend at all was really drastic. I consider him as my best friend, too, so this made me pretty upset. He sat the whole rest of the service without saying a word to me or making eye contact. After service, he just sat in his chair. I tried to get him to at least look at me, but he wouldn't. I stood there and waited for him to do something, but all he did was sit there. I didn't know what to do. The church was setting up for a luncheon thing downstairs, so I decided to help with that. Once I walked away, he got up and walked to behind his house. Once I finished, I found him and sat down next to him. I saw a tear rolling down his face. He was just sitting there ripping up a box. I did my best to tell him that whatever I did to make him upset, I was sorry about it. He continued ripping up the box. Another tear rolled down his face. I then said, "Carlos, no me gusta cuando tu eres enojado en me. No quiero tu estar triste. Yo quiero tu estar feliz. Tu eres mi mejor amigo." More tears rolled down his face. Now he was just sitting there. I almost started crying. I said again, "Tu eres mi mejor amigo." Still nothing. "Tu eres mi mejor amigo. No mas llorando." He then leaned over and hugged me. He placed his head in my lap while tears rolled down his face. I just held him and told him, "Esta bien. No mas llorando." After a couple minutes, I asked him if he wanted to go inside for the luncheon thing. He said he did, so I wiped the tears from his eyes and carried him on my back to the church. After this moment, I think our bond has strengthened even more.

I walked home from Calimax, the supermercado, with Carlos and his family. 5 lt. of water gets pretty heavy after 25 minutes.

I think I set my own personal record of hurting myself in one day: cut my knee when I jumped on this mattress with Carlos, scraped the same knee and my elbow when walking home from Calimax, and hurt my big toe when I slipped on this pile of dirt/rocks. Total number of wounds: 4.

Sept. 11

It apparently rained again last night. Everything is still muddy and wet. No me gusta en todo.

Since there is lodo everywhere and everything is mojado, I spent the morning in Carlos's house. I read my Bible and had worship there, which Carlos and his dad enjoyed. I also watched this cartoon in español, which was pretty weird, haha. I don't think it helped that I couldn't understand most of it.

Just found out that I can make phone calls in Mexico. Yeah boi.

Carlos had another episode with me today. When it was getting close to the time for church, Jesús was coming up to the church. I saw him, and he motioned for me to go to where he was. Carlos was with me, and as I went to where Jesús was, he kept saying, "Ya, no Jesús." I asked him why he was saying that, but he just kept saying it. As we approached Jesús, he heard what Carlos had said, and he then replied, "Ya me voy." I asked him why, and he said it was because Carlos didn't want to play with him. I told him that I didn't want him to leave, so he stayed, but Carlos was mad that Jesús was there. I was really confused. I thought they were friends, but I don't know. If something happened between them, I have no idea. It then escalated to Carlos saying that all the kids were my best friend except for him. I asked him why, but he wouldn't say. I ended up walking away, and he played with some of the other kids that were there instead of me. Later on, I told Pastora Berenice that Carlos was mad at me, but I didn't know why. She said it was because Carlos was jealous of me playing with the other kids, and since at the Cruzada, when I first met him, I played pretty much only with him because he was one of the only kids I knew. Now, he wanted me to only play with him. That's what I understood. What I didn't understand was that he only got that way once Jesús walked over. Before that, he was fine with the other kids. I really hope there's nothing going on between them because they're two of my favorite kids here. After a while, Carlos was back to his normal self, which was good. I really hope Carlos doesn't do that anymore. It really makes me upset.

So, my bracelet fell off when I first got to Mexico, but then I fixed it. It fell off again today, and I have no idea where it went. Sadface.