For our first few class days, we took trips to all sorts of places in order to gain a better picture of the culture of Mexico. We made a delicious Mexican meal with one of our language teachers today, and yesterday we took the public bus system down to a huge city park where we ordered fresh squeezed orange juice from a little juice stand (you could also order flavors like beet-carrot juice …"Ahorita no, gracias").
Last Friday we drove downtown to an open-air produce market, where we got some awesome chiles, which I used for making chile rellenos with friends. Yum!
Last Thursday we drove up a mountain to get a great view of this huge city. Officially, we have been told that Chihuahua has about 750,000 people, but we are thinking that maybe the city limits must be much smaller than the Chihuahua we drive around. We think the population of the greater city is probably over a million people, and maybe pushing two million. It was fun to get up on a mountain where we could see a lot of the city (though still not all of it). We saw the statue at the top that supposedly watches over the city. Tomorrow we will go as a class to a nice restaurant for a meal, and that will be our last "immersion excursion."
At each excursion we take lots of pictures and try to make as many cultural observations as possible. There is so much to learn! When we are finished with our "immersion excursions," we will use those photos to gather and practice language information with our language helpers in the afternoons.
What do our kids do during excursions that aren’t kid-friendly, or when we are in class? We are so grateful to God for Liliana, a sweet friend from our church here in Mexico. She knows a little English and has a four year old boy named Aram (Wesley’s favorite friend down here). The boys have been having so much fun with their babysitter! They go there for three hours a day, four days a week, and they love it. I told Liliana to use a lot of Spanish with them, except when they are sad, confused or in trouble. We are amazed at how much Spanish they are learning!
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