June 19, 2015

SPANISH:  This week has been busier than last week.  Once a week, Neal teaches (well, he would say, he talks) with one of the Latino interpreters for Devotionals   This man speaks very well; but he wants to refine his English.  I’ve taken a couple of Spanish one-on-one classes with a darling young nurse, Katty.  She is such a lovely person.  I’m not too motivated, even though we feel continually frustrated that we cannot understand. 

FHE:  The conversation part of FHE was almost entirely in Spanish this week, except the lesson, which was classical (mostly, music).  I have never heard of the performing conductor.  His name is Andrew Rieu.  He is a Dutch violinist/conductor.  The Calls had a 3-disk set of “100 Greatest Moments in Music” ranging from Mozart to Edelweiss.  It was gorgeous.  This performer is on a quest to bring classical music to the common man….no penguin suits—the ladies wear beautiful ball gowns, dancing in the aisles, etc….kind of like the Piano Guys mode with different beautiful European backdrops.  They found some of his concerts on Utube.  He had a young child (she looks to be about 8 years old) sing. . . oh my!  She has a gorgeous, amazing voice.  Her name is Amera Willighagen, and I think she sang, “O mio Bambino Caro” again on Utube.   We also watched Stephen Schwartz sing “Through Heaven’s Eyes” (Prince of Egypt) with the Tab Choir again.  I love that!...the beat, the Israeli influence.  Just a really neat performance.  We ended with Apple pie, grapes, and drink. 

THE WORK:  We had our 3^rd panic attack (collapsed to the ground each one) in three weeks.  It is really an upsetting phenomenon.  I just have never experienced these in my own experience either self or client.  I really feel for these young women, who are so anxious to do their best, and just cope in ways that have worked for them before by shutting down.  I played for Choir, for the Tuesday Devotional; but the next couple of weeks we have a piano performance major missionary here, and she will play.  I love it when they play, because I remember what a thrill it was to play in the MTC 50 years ago, and I think it is neat when the young missionaries can have that chance. 

SEEING MEXICO—P-DAY:  We got up early.  Neal ran, then we did the wash, cleaned the apartment, breakfasted, and we will leave momentarily for a visit to  Tepotzotlan, which has one of the most ornate, all gold cathedrals in the world.  We left as four couples: the two doctors & spouses, the Mission Counselor & wife, and us. 

LOVELY LITTLE TOWN:  We traveled about 45 minutes and came to a small town with a lovely quaint market, park, convent and cathedral/museum.  The street from the parking area to the main street in town was all cobblestones (quite large round ones).  The plaza/park was lined on one side by a fancy outdoor café, and a across the street by street vendors.  We bought some trinkets to bring home later.  We paid about $4.50 each to enter the museum/convent/Cathedral.  It was filled with many old Spanish-looking trunks, some oriental pottery (because of the old trade and commerce with the Philippines), and of course, a lot of Catholic memorabilia.

The Cathedral is something to see….all gold leaf I guess…I don’t really know how much was solid gold and how much was paint…..There were several huge chapels…all gold

with large (bigger than life) statues depicting Catholic Saints and the Trinity.  Again in almost every room we saw the Virgin of Guadalupe…remember the picture of the Virgin  that was emblazoned on the clock of the peasant, Juan Diego, who brought her flowers.  It is the same image we saw downtown at the huge Basilica of Guadalupe. 

After the museum and shopping in the plaza, we went to lunch upstairs in the convent.   It was really, really nice…crystal and lovely silverware.  Neal had salmon and I had fish fillet…both were just delicious.  We try to be VERY, VERY careful what we order to make sure it is NOT PICANTE!

While shopping at the vendor booths, we came upon one manned by members of the Church.  They were darling girls.  We made their day by buying quite a bit.  They gave us good prices.  We had a lovely visit with them.  Their mother makes the articles we bought by sitting straight-legged on the ground weaving on a loom.  

SUCH GOOD PEOPLE:  At the end of the patio-street—cobblestones, we saw a large market.  We only got as far as the entrance where we could see a little old, bent-over lady in a large hat.  Her long braids were laced with bright colored yarn. She looked Bolivian.   She was asleep leaning over some small cloth dolls laying out on a dirty rag on the pavement.  I leaned way over to try to talk to her.  She told us her price, but we couldn’t understand her, nor could she understand us.  We continued to talk to her.  After a few moments in all noise and confusion around us, a man approached us.  He had been watching our exchange from his motorcycle.  He was quite a large Hispanic man and asked, “May I help you?” in English.  He then proceeded to help this little old lady countout her coins and negotiate the sale.

Neal did not have the correct change and there were some coins to be returned to us.  The man handed the coins to us, and I offered them to him for helping us.  He backed up and said, “Oh, no, no!”  We thanked him very much, and then he handed the coins to the little old lady.  It was just a tender experience.  Some of these people are sooo nice.

After our excursion, we got lost coming home.  It is very easy to do so.  We also got stopped by the police, who simply checked Dr. Gill’s license and other documents and then waved us on. 

SHOPPING AT WALMART:  is always a challenge!  We don’t always go to the same Walmart, so finding things is interesting.  This time I had a new experience.  I wanted to see what makeup/fingernail polish they had because I’ve never seen the cosmetics before in one of their stores here.  I finally did.  They had blocked off one of the side aisles, and put cage-like wiring around the back so there was no exit.  The aisle was very tight….hard for 2 people to move past each other.  The offerings were pretty sparce…Maybelline was about all I recognized.  A desk barred the front entrance to the aisle, behind which stood a clerk, checking anything picked up inside.  I bought a bottle of fingernail polish.  She stopped me as I left, took the polish, placed it in a plastic box with a lock on it.  I could then put it in my basket (outside the enclosure) and take it to the check-out, where an aide to the clerk took it to the service desk to be unlocked.  The same thing happened at the pharmacy.  I asked the pharmacist for Calcium.  She gave me the right stuff (I think)  I took the box and started down the aisle.  She ran after me and gestured that I needed to put it in one of the lock boxes to take to the check out.  Interesting method.  It works I guess.

Here you tip the bagger, and the man who whistles to help you back out your car, even though you’ve backed out your car on your own for 50 years:)

Movie Night for the Couples:  We watched “The Gifted Hands” about Ben Carson, the Brain surgeon who separated twins joined at the head.  They mentioned tonight, that Ben Carson is now running for Pres of the USA.   We didn’t know that.  We had carmel corn, chocolate covered almonds, and grapes for dessert.