rain and tacos: reflections on our first three days

We are finishing up our third full day here in Ixtlán, and so far things are going well. But, before I proceed, I must admit that for the first time on the blog, this is Grant writing. It's great how God brings different skills and talents into a marriage, and I have thoroughly enjoyed letting Hannah use her talent of writing in our marriage in absolutely every way I can think of (blog posts, e-mails, signing guest books, thank-you's, you name it). But, I have been asked by my wonderful wife to write this post, and after everything she's done for me, I couldn't turn her down, so we'll see what happens.

Let me think of a few things that will help sum up the last few days...
- rain
- information overload
- exhaustion
- peace
- tacos

Rain
So...we are in the rainy season here in Ixtlán. This means that it rains nearly every day in the late afternoon, but that also means cooler temperatures and beautiful mornings and evenings. It's really a great time of year down here. No complaints about the weather, especially since we left a hot and humid Illinois.

Information Overload
There is just so much to learn: the Spanish language, the Mexican culture, the Spanish language, the way of life, the Spanish language, how to limit how many tacos I eat, the Spanish language, how to be a Christian example, the Spanish language, etc. I'll let you take three guesses on what the most overwhelming task for me is. In addition to the list I just provided, we also are learning life lessons, such as "never leave a computer on a table in front of an open window during the rainy season in Mexico." Yes, unfortunately, we found Hannah's laptop in a puddle of water on Tuesday afternoon. I would say that it bit the dust, but I think the situation was too wet to use that phrase. However, her computer has been laid to rest for the final time. In all seriousness though, we are extremely thankful that the hard drive wasn't damaged and Jimmy (the local computer expert) was able to recover all 86.2 GB of her information (all her photos, student teaching videos and documents, etc.) Don't worry, we learned our lesson, and will start backing things up now (and closing windows).

Exhaustion
From an outsider's perspective, it would appear that we are trying to completely confusing our bodies' natural clock. We arrived in Mexico on Tuesday after a long day of traveling. By the time we got to bed it was fairly late and on Wednesday morning, we had basically no energy. I hate to admit it, but we really didn't get anything done before noon, besides eating breakfast at 9:00 and then going back to bed. Wednesday night was pretty normal (about 11:30 - 7:00), but then we both were shot by Thursday afternoon, so we took a nap and fell into a really deep sleep from about 3:00 - 4:30. Believe it or not, after a nap like that, we laid awake for a long time that night listening to the the chickens, the music, the donkeys, and the kids (who seem to be allowed to play on the street until after midnight). After finally getting to sleep, our alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. and we left to take Matt & Ruth and Regg & Bev with their families to the airport. We got back home about 9:00 and slept until about noon. So, our bodies really have no idea what time of day it is or what's going on at all, but don't worry, they'll figure it out soon enough.

Peace
It's been amazing to feel God's peace on us through this transition. Thanks for all your prayers. The peace we feel has been an incredible assurance that God is with us, that we are His children, and that we really are supposed to be here in Ixtlán. It really does pass all understanding.

Tacos
Yep, I just love them.