girls night "out"

Ok, so last night I headed over to Arrayanes, BY MYSELF!!! I had to drive one of the trucks there and it was not only my first time driving around here (which believe me is no picnic), but also my first time really finding my way around AT ALL in Arrayanes (a town about 3 miles away). I went over there to hang out with Sandy (19) and her sister Mili (16) and their cousins Faviola (Favi for short--20) and Lupita (23). What wonderful girls! I'm having such a good time getting to know them. They are totally girly and yet not superficially so all at the same time! What an amazing evening it was. I took my computer so I could show them pics of family and friends back home, and we also had a good time looking at pics from teams that have been here since I arrived. Then we had dinner..they made pancakes FROM SCRATCH! I was amazed because when this was decided, they sent Sandy to the store to get all the ingredients, and they just knew off the top of their heads what ingredients they needed AND how much of each!!! WOW!!! That's just crazy talk!

So, one of the things we talked about was really quite fun! I had been tagged on MySpace to do this little blog quiz where you write 6 weird charcteristics or habbits you have and then tag 6 other people to do the same. Well I had needed help cuz I couldn't think of any, so I'd asked my sister, Heather to help. One of these (#6 below) came up last night while I was hanging out with the girls, and when I explained the background behind it, they had fun going around and saying weird things about each of them as well as helping me come up with some (after the fact of course, so I have TWO blogs about this--one has the 6 that my sister and I thought up, and the other is the Mexican version..hehe). Anyway, here's what they came up with:

1. My eyes change color (they've been seeing that for themselves lately and they think it's so weird and so cool all at the same time!)

2. balbljablablakbalbalbhablalbhalbh --this is what I say to them when they are talking to me too quickly for me to understand them because that gibberish is exactly what I hear...I told them the really weird part of this is not that I say it but that they understand exactly what it means ("I'm trying to understand what you're trying to say to me, but I can't because you are speaking far too quickly for my gringa mind to process the words! Slow down!"--this is what ablablhbalhablhalbhalbha means, but I say that so fast that it sounds like blabhlabhlabhalhbalhbalhblahb).

3. I can't cook, not for real cooking anyway...If it comes with directions I'll probably be ok, but if there is anything like "season to taste" or anything else fairly subjective, them I'm toast! Last night we had pancakes for dinner, and when that was decided upon, they sent Sandy to the store with a list of what was needed to make them...FROM SCRATCH....I was amazed at how they didn't need to consult a recipe card or buy a box...they just KNEW off the top of their heads what ingredients and exactly how much were needed to make HOMEMADE pancakes!!!! Um....WOW!

4. My hair--it can be curly and poofy/big or straight and flat--they think this is so strange...and honestly it probably is, but I like it! Options, my friends..it's all about having options!

5. Apparantly, when I get embarrased and blush, my ears blush...but they were telling me that it's only ONE ear that blushes and gets really hot....this I did not know, so I cannot really validate its truth...but if it is true, then it is obviously weird and therefore must be incorporated!

6. I am "muy amigable", which literrally means very friendly, but it's significance is greater than that. This one they aggreed to after I told them what my sister said. My sister had told me that wherever I go I make sisters, not just friends, and she made her point by saying, "I bet you already have a group of really close girlfriends there, right?" To which I had to reply in the affirmative. I shared this with the girls last night when we were hanging out after they shared that they don't have friends here (all of them are related in one way or another) outside of their family and that they have never had a friend like me (a real friend that they can trust and be honest and real with) and that I'm an answer to their literal prayers....And the resulting weird thing was that I am "muy amigable". Talk about HUMBLING!

These girls are such a blessing and an answer to prayer! They have basically incorporated me into their inner group of friends, which is extremely honoring and humbling and joyous and sad all simultaneously! Now I think I have a glimpse into what it must have been like for my exchange student friends in high school....I came home last night completely joyous and ready to do a little dance for how thankful I was to have real friends here, but at the same time I just wanted to cry because every minute I spend with them is another minute that I love them more, and yet it's another minute closer to the day when I have to tell them goodbye...and at least for right now I have no idea if that goodbye will be permanent or only temporary. I just wish that my heart didn't have to be broken one way or the other--come back or stay home--either way part of my heart is going to stay very far away from me, and that is just way hard when it's a distance not easily traversed when the missing gets too hard.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next week or so...we've made plans already for three days coming up which include me accompanying their home group on their regular weekly outreach to Mojocuautla, a Cora Indian village in the mountains nearby; making a kind of Mexican cookie a week from today; and a pijama party next Friday during which we will EAT those cookies and do lots of girly things while we stay up all night having fun in my appartment (assuming that's approved by Dave)!

God is just so good!