for the last couple of months I have been teaching 
Paco and Leslie english at there home in Revolucion. there other sister Esmeralda comes to our after school program and this is the family that I try and help with various things from time to time. We bring them food as much as we can and maybe two months ago I brought over some chickens. just yesterday they were telling me that the chickens have 12 chics, which is great news as hopefully in the near future they will have some pollo asado (grilled chicken) for dinner. also I hope to bring a water filter over next week for them which will save them some money monthly as well. I am just waiting for confirmation on my last bacteria test. praying I did everything correctly. it’s been a joy to serve this family and I look forward to how things will change over the years. in this photo is the youngest daughter Ashley. she’s a cutie.
yesterday I spent sometime in Revolucion with the kids from the after school program. we hadn’t met for almost two weeks due to the H1N1 thing that was a scare for a little while. and it was nice to see all the kids again. we spent a while reviewing and to my surprise the kids did pretty well. right now I am thinking and praying about what kind of changes we need to make to the program. we have about 15 kids or so come each week and we really need to break them
up into groups and get them to start practicing more. so we’ll see what develops over the next few weeks.
After class I met up with some friends in Revolucion to talk about an upcoming trip we have at the end of the month to head down to Aldama, MX.while I was driving back into Revolucion I saw this. the things you see in Mexico. this made me laugh.
as you all know H1N1 is on the verge of being classified as a pandemic. there are several cases in Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen that are currently being tested to confirm whether or not these people are infected. I decided yesterday to keep Otto home from school and his therapy sessions that are held twice a week. I also decided to put our work in Mexico on hold for the moment due to the spread of this flu virus. the people in Mexico are worried and scarred and have no desire to leave there homes. atleast those that we know in Revolucion and Matamoros. we as a family are trying our best to be cautious and extra hygenic (Owen and Otto) during these times. meanwhile I am still busy working on our water filters and I am half way
through the process of testing the water for bacteria. I tested a sample of the water I get out of the canal that is close by to our home and today the results were: contains bacteria. this is good to know as now I know for sure the water that I am working with is unsafe to drink and this Friday when I test the water that is filtered through our filter it can be an accurate test. I will keep you posted as to how that test turns out. here’s a picture of our canal. we appreciate all your thoughts and prayers during this time.
I have been testing our Bio-Sand Water Filter for the
last week or so and I ordered two bacteria tests that should arrive in the mail today. In this process of filtering water through the Bio-Sand Water Filter there needs to be a biological layer that forms as the first layer of filtering. it takes about 1 or 2 weeks for this layer to form properly. I have been gathering water from our canal thats close by to our house that is not drinkable water. I will probably run this canal water through the filter for the rest of the week and test it on friday to see whether or not the filter is eliminating the bacteria that is in the water. as you can see in the photo that the filter can take very dirty water from our canal and filter it clear. my hope is to be able to deliver three filters next week to Martin, his church and another family in Revolucion. UPDATE ON TRIP TO EL PLOMO: we will be traveling to El Plomo, MX the last weekend of May and we hope to bring with us 12 water filters. we will bring all the supply with us and build them there which will make it much easier to travel with. it will cost roughly $150 to buy all the materials for 12 filters and if you would like to contribute to this project please visit our contact/donate page on this site. things are coming together real nicely for this project and thank you to everyone who has had a part in it.
everytime i travel over to Revolucion i pass by this house. this house is not finished and has no signs of an owner or someone who wants to finish it and live in it. I LOVE it. the first time i saw this house i said that I wanted to live in it one day. I want to buy it, fix it up and live there. just a little something you all can be praying about. this may seem like a juvenil thing to pray for but I am serious. I will buy this house one day. check it out.
for some time now I have been working on getting a hold
of some Bio-Sand Water Filters so I could travel down to Aldama, MX and visit some mountain villages and hopefully meet a need. In these particular villages several miles up into the mountains it is very difficult to come across clean drinking water. most people will get there water from a well or nearby creek. either of which are NOT safe to drink. you can get clean filtered drinking water in town but that is a several hour trek which is extremely difficult for many families. I have been praying about this project that I have wanted to get started on and I have a trip planned for next 
month to travel to El Plomo, MX and survey the need for clean drinking water. I wanted to be able to bring one filter with me so I can show it to the people and leave it with maybe the school for the kids through out the day. the filters I found online were $170 after shipping costs. I really wanted to find another way to get ahold of these filters. so I decided to do some research online on how to build your own and see if it was possible for me to do so. I found great instructions and have successfully built a Bio-Sand Water Filter. it cost me $25. this is such good news as I will be able to destribute more of these filters at a time. keep us in your thoughts and prayers as I prepare for this trip and will be heading south later next month with a friend of mine who lives in Matamoros who is a Missionary from Georgia.
today Owen came with me to Revolucion where I teach two teenagers english. we also brought a large load of beans, rice and flour for the family. it was nice to bring Owen along, he really enjoys going to Mexico and playing with the kids or chickens. and because he’s so cute people always give him snacks. while I was teaching Paco and Leslie, Owen walked around the yard playing with the chickens and then would come and sit over by me to eat more crackers and drink his juice. he had a good time. it was a good lesson today with Paco and Leslie as we spent alot of time reviewing and I got a chance to really see how much they know. surprising they did well today. I had been wondering if they were studying and apparently they are.
as you drive through Mexico you will notice lots of trash blowing around on the
streets or in the fields. it’s unfortunate but it is very normal. people in Mexico think nothing of it to just throw there trash out the window of the car or just on the ground after unwrapping there favorite candy. it’s tough but we try and teach it to the kids there in Mexico to throw away the trash in a trash bag. just simple things can make such a big difference.
I teach an english class on tuesday afternoon each week
with Paco and Leslie. they are brother and sister and are doing fairly well with there english. I have been helping there family out with some things from time to time. I brought them chickens and maybe once a month I bring them a large load of food (beans, rice, flour). I look forward to this time with them as it gives me a greater amount of influence in there lives being that it’s just us three and we meet every week. it also really tests my spanish which is awesome. I need the practice. the other day when I was leaving I grabbed this shot of a lonely house in the country side of Matamoros, Mexico. I am hoping to possibly add another day with them or maybe a couple of other teens from the village. we’ll see how that goes. on another note please be thinking of us during this month as we will be very busy with our schedules. Jenn at the University and me in Mexico. Thank You.
this evening we were in Revolucion for the after school program
and the kids seemed to be a little extra hyper. we had a good time teaching some new words and a new song. they really got into this one. where, where, where…. there, there, there…. where, where, where….. right here. where is the toilet? over there. where is the piano? over there. where is the teacher? right here. where is the store? over there. I told the kids in the beginning of the class that if they participated well and payed attention we would play a game. well they do good enough and we played arrona (tag). this was nice because it totally wiped them out. as you can see they had a great time and it helped their attentiveness for the rest of our class. it been great getting to know the kids and we are really building a good rapport with them.
a few weeks back I shared how Martin had built a room
in the back of the church building for the kids. so they could do sunday school and have a separate time just for the kids. he had built everything but needed to finish it up. spread stucco on the walls and paint. I told Martin that there was a group of people coming in March to do some work and if we could get the stucco done they would paint the walls with a Noah’s Arc Theme. I asked him if he had the money for the stucco and he said that he did not. I asked how much it would cost and I was able to get the money from a family in Michigan within a couple of days. the group was here this past Monday and Tuesday all day long. they had a great time and Martin and his wife were great hosts. they fed us taco’s on Monday and Tamales on Tuesday. I also had the kids come from the after school program on both nights to spend time with the group. the kids from the after school program had a blast and were sad to see the group leave. check out the pictures of the room it turned out great.
