My friend, Amber, and I have been trying to plan a trip to Ixtlan for a few years now. Amber, for reasons associated with her position as HarvestCall Missionary Care Coordinator, and for me... it's home (refer to the first four years of this blog). Let's just say very minimal finagling was required on behalf of Amber to convince me to join her as not only friend, but translator and tour guide! She offered a few dates that worked in her schedule, and looking at mine there was only one that didn't conflict with hospital responsibilities and coincided with a time Jake was away for training. We grabbed last minute tickets and left Chicago at 3am (no I would never recommend that to anyone!)
On arrival to GDL, we picked up our rental car and decided to drive into the city first before heading to Ixtlan. I found the mental maps that I had formed over a decade ago had faded, chipped, and cracked to non recognizable sometime in the past decade. But when you've got the time, driving circles can just be the whole adventure. I did manage to take Amber to my favorite panaderia (bakery), and to our sad surprise it didn't open until 12:30!
Elsa invited me into her classroom at the primaria (primary school), to talk to the kids about Togo.
With the Gerber kids and Katie (summer intern and English teacher at the primaria).
Sitting in on Katie's English class for the morning.
Volleyball at Friday night kid's club. Brought back memories of Saturday night jovenes. The volleyball still gets stuck on the roof over the vehicles. Some things never change.
Swimming at the geyser!
Good to spend an evening with Lupita.
Watching the wedding in Princville after church on Sunday.
Corona de Cristo
It was very hot and dry while we were there. Not much color to show Amber on her first visit to the area, but it's still there when you look around.
Got home from Mexico at 4:45am Monday morning. Just enough time to shower and nap before heading into the hospital for call starting at 7am. Totally worth it.
I also started a class on global health and tropical medicine this past week. I can't make all of the designated zoom class meetings, but those of us involved are from all over the world (African countries, Phillipines, and all over the United States) so they expect that. Lessens the guilt for not being on time or present to some extent.
Needless to say I'm dusting off my juggling skills this summer.
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