Mi Casa es Su Casa

I have a great host family here in Tehuacan, Puebla. I mentioned a little about them in a previous blog post, but I'd like to go into more detail about what great people they are. 

the family, minus Martin

First there is Gaby, the mom. She doesn't speak any English, but she's patient with me and is always looking out for my best interest. She cooks me breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday - and of course it's always delicious. 

Then there is Martin, the father. He's a great man and talks about the United States with me quite often. He is willing to share his opinions about things with me, which I respect. 

Then there is Daniel, the son. He is a hyperactive 12 year old, just like any other in the world. He's been great to hang out with though and we're very good at speaking Spanglish with one another. He is ALWAYS trying to feed me something, even if I tell him I'm not hungry. If I come back from Mexico 50 lbs heavier - blame him. 

And finally Gaby, the daughter. She's been so helpful this first week. She speaks pretty good English so she helps me if there is a language barrier with her family. She also has been riding the bus with me this week and trying to show me the ropes of getting on and off. I'm sure there are better things a 16 year old could be doing with her time, but she's gracious to help me when I need it. 

typical breakfast for me - eggs on a tortilla & a chile

memelas

goat meat!!

We live in a fairly nice house on the other side of the city. As I mentioned before, it's about a 20 minute bus ride to the school from here, but I'm looking at it as a good learning experience for me. I share a bedroom with Gaby, which she gave up half of for me - yet another reason why she's so great! 

The front of my house! 

neighbors

down the street

where I walk every morning to take the cambi to the school

behind the gate - the actual front of the home.

mine and Gaby's room

my bed :)

closet

both sets of stairs to the first floor and the third floor

the shower

Something a little crazy happened the other night. I was about to hop in the shower when we got home from a taquito run. I get in the shower with the water on and everything and then all the lights go out. I was really surprised, but I just turned the water off and went out to the hallway to see what was going on. All the lights in the house were out. Gaby & Martin were getting candles for us while they were fixing whatever was wrong. I decided I would just wait till the morning to shower since it would be pretty difficult in the dark. So, took a candle and changed into my PJ's for the night. Daniel also took a candle into his room with him. I finished getting ready for bed and then I was out likea light bulb. The electricity did come back on before I went to sleep, but I was in the room with the lights off so it didn't really matter. So I wake up in morning earlier than usual so I can take my shower. I head to the bathroom, not really noticing anything. Turn the shower on. I hop in, but the water was either wayyyy too hot or wayyy too cold so i tried for a few minutes to adjust it, but then the water basically stopped all together. So once again I got out of the shower and went downstairs to tell the family that something was wrong. I noticed, however, there were ashes everywhere. Then I peeked into Daniel's bedroom - his whole mattress was gone and his headboard was burned pretty badly. I asked Gaby about it and apparently her brother took the candles into his room and sometime during the night they must have knocked over and his bed caught on fire!! I saw the mattress and it's totally burnt to shreds. It's just springs now. I was realllllly surprised because I didn't hear any of this last night. Gaby said that her mom even came in the room during the night and said something, but I literally didn't hear anything. That makes me a little worried for what would happen in an emergency that I needed to get out of the house for. Anywho, apparently Daniel is fine. I am just so surprised about the whole thing. 

Daniel's headboard from his bed

Cutting the rosca with the whole family! 

the wall in the garage where the fire was extinguished 

Tonight my family celebrated a Mexican tradition “Rosca de Reyes”, which my family tried to explain to me and I still don’t fully understand what it was. They had a giant circle of bread with toppings, or rosca, and each person at the table has to cut a slice of it. When you cut your slice you are supposed to check if there is a muñeca, or a little doll, inside which is supposed to represent baby Jesus. I was the second one to cut into the rosca and what do you know. I found a muñeca!! It is basically supposed to represent good luck and something about tamales, but I didn’t quite understand that aspect of the tradition. There were lots of family members here that I got to meet and talk to. It was really nice. They talked to me about the United States and asked me questions about my life. Everyone has been so nice to me here and has really made me feel welcome. Afterwards, I played some games with the little kids, like monkey-in-the-middle or “salero”, and twister.  

my piece of rosca with hot chocolate & my muñeca !!

playing twister with Daniel