Once we heard a sermon with this title: Expect the Unexpected, and it has been kind of a running joke ever since. Because it really doesn’t make sense… unless maybe you are living in a different country and have only been here for a few weeks and are trying to get used to a different culture and way of life and fitting into a ministry???? Ok, then perhaps it does make sense. Let me give you a sample day this week.
I will actually start with the night before. Gabe said to me,” Oh by the way, so and so bought us tickets, so we are all going to the Xolos (pro soccer) game tomorrow night!” That was a surprise to me, but ok. So the next morning, we had plans to meet with a staff person right after breakfast at the other site. We got up early, ate breakfast and put the kids in the car with school bags, and headed out there.
We arrive at the other site, and the staff person is not there. Like, he is not back from the States yet, and we are not sure when he will be. So Gabe decides to work on our church list, but of course, the wi fi is not working.
Meanwhile, i decided to wash our towels in the bathtub before I start school with the kids so that the towels will have time to dry in the sun. (We do our laundry at a laundromat in the US when we have to cross for something else, but it was still a few days til we were going.) Anyway, I get the towels nice and soapy, and then there is no water to rinse them. That’s right, the water is gone and we have to wait til the water truck arrives.
I start school with the kids and realize we left a few crucial things at the other site, so I tell them to just do what they can.
Gabe notices that a van has pulled up and goes to see what it is. Turns out there is going to be a staff meeting with some of the admin staff from the other site plus all the staff living there. Well, for a week and a half we had been asking to either attend a staff meeting or that they schedule a special one just to introduce us to the staff and let the staff tell us about what/how they do things so that we can be helpful and not in their way. Did anyone tell us about this meeting? No, but we asked if we could come and they said yes. It was in Spanish but we managed to understand some of what was going on, and did get to briefly do the intros between us and the staff that we wanted. So that was good!
After the meeting, we went down to take some pictures of the kids. The first half of the kids had already eaten, so we went back to the house to wait for the bell for lunch with the rest of the kids. Apparently they did not ring the bell, because we never heard anything and when I sent the kids down to check, we had totally missed it. Luckily, we had 4 ramen noodles left so the kids had lunch.
Later, the staff person did show up, we had a productive meeting, and then it was time to head to the soccer game. We paid him back for our tickets because there are six of us! We found out they sold tacos at the stadium that were about $1 each and they were awesome! So our family filled our bellies for a great price, and the game was fun. It was an experience for all the kids (the boys had been to one other one) and even Kiersen, our non-sports fan- liked it.
Back home to bed!
So, most of the day did not go according to plan, yet we accomplished a lot and had a unique cultural experience at the soccer game! That is kind of life here so far. Maybe it will become a little more routine once we have been here a while, but then again maybe not. I don’t even know what to expect… the unexpected maybe???
