Security system in Mexico

Part 2

Our house #1

The first of three videos of our house!

FYI: In this video I asked someone what their last name was. It was not because I did not know their last name but because we had been pronouncing it completely wrong for months leading up to formally meeting them when we arrived in Guady. I know it seems like a odd question.

Some pictures

A taste of the mountains right after we cleared the border. I love the mountains!

I had to take this picture when we passed this sign. Guadalajara was where we were heading and Aguascalientes was where I grew up as a missionary kid. The sign declared my past and my future.

You would not believe how dirty kids get in Mexico. Most Mexican homes don't come with bath tubs, so Lillian was getting a little bath in the sink just after we arrived.

We now have Internet

After three hours of four different guys hooking up our phone line and Internet, we now are on-line. It is such a relief to no longer have to depend on the Internet cafe or our friends to get on the Internet. Jessie and I both agree we did not have much of a connection with the news here. We don't have a TV and I don't understand the newspapers for the local news. I can say that we are starting to settle down a bit. It seems like we have been here for so much longer than 15 days.
School is starting to take more time as I am studying Spanish 3 hours in class and a couple hours at home. When I come home from school at 12:30PM, it feels like I should be going to work or going somewhere else. Nope, that is all I have to do, go to school and study. Needless to say, that is not always the case when you have three little girls who are happy to see you home after their nap. We are trying to adjust to that a bit. Jessie has been so great. Every day I come home, some thing has changed. The house looks better and better.

Still no internet at home

The car is up and running again! The noise it was making was terrible and we believed the back needed an entire new brake job. Turns out our emergency brake system will no longer be working and I don't think it had worked in a long time. The emergency brake system runs behind the rotors in the back (I have now lost the interest of all female readers) and when the mechanic removed the rotors, we watched the emergency brake parts fall out in small shattered pieces.

We still have no internet and I'm sitting in our slightly furnished house watching the girls get dirty in the front patio. Life is so different and no matter how much I knew about Mexico before I came, I'm still shocked by it all. It's almost as if I have even more culture shock, because I was so unprepared to experience any. Does that make any sense? There is really nothing here that is easy to do. The locals don't seem to mind the hassle that is attached to everything, but it's so opposite to our American culture. Take for example paying a bill, such as your water bill. First, the way you find it is truly odd, the delivery man chucks it over your gate into your patio much like a paper boy would do in the states. It's not in an envelope nor does it come with instructions, it just a bill waiting for you on your dirty patio floor. To pay it you have to go down to the building and stand in line and wait your turn to hand over your money. I used bill pay online in MN and never put a bill in the mail box. Paying my bills in the states was a click of my mouse. Like I said, nothing is easy around here.

Andy started school this week. He is enjoying it and I'm learning a lot by helping him with his homework. In a few weeks Andy will have a long weekend and we hope to make it down to Autlan. I have yet to see Autlan and I hear it is very different from this busy Guadalajara.

First week completed!

We have no internet at the moment, so as I write this, I realize it might be a few days before anyone reads it. It's Sunday and we have been in Guadalajara for a week. It has been a very long week. So many things happened this week. At about 6am the morning after arriving we awoke to the car alarm on our key chain going off. Andy ran to the window and was confused because the car looked fine. Later in the morning, we realize someone had stolen a side mirror off the car. It was one of those really nice heated mirrors. The car is also giving us some trouble so we are not driving it at the moment, until we can get it fixed.

We house hunted for days last week as well. We just drove around with the Rodgers looking for signs outside of houses that say renta (for rent). The day before the Rodger's headed back to Autlan we found a place. It's a bit rough looking and it will take weeks to get it clean enough to live in, but the price was right. It came with a stove, other than that the house is empty except for our air mattresses and suitcases. I have no need to unpack right now, because I really have no place to put anything.

We are in Mexico!

That is right! We managed to make a four day trip into a three day trip. We drove hard and long hours and are happy to say it was well worth it. We got up early, crossed the border and were driving down a Mexican road by 7am. We arrived at what we thought would be our end-of-the-day destination at 1pm. It did not make sense to stop, so we continued on to Guadalajara. We arrived in Guadalajara at 8pm. The size of the city, as we drove down into it, took my breath way, I had no idea it was so big.

At the border: We were up by 4am on Sunday morning and out the door at 5am. The border was just minutes down the road. We knew that we needed visas and to register our car, outside of that we had no idea what this process looked like. We drove over the Rio Grande and were not stopped at the check point. The guards were all standing off to the side talking to each other. I guess it was way too early in the morning to bother with us. Within seconds of crossing the border, we knew we had done something wrong. Not even a block after the border, we were surrounded by residential housing. Andy looked in his review mirror and said, "We must have missed something, I think we were suppose to stop at that check point for our visas." It was too late now, behind us was only one way streets heading in our direction. We had no way to turn around. We found a border patrol officer who told us we would have to cross back into Texas and come back around. We waited 40 minutes on the Mexican side of the border in line with Mexicans entering the U.S.. Believe it or not, this was what took the longest. So, once again, we made our way back to the river and crossed into Mexico. This time the guards were a little more alert and gave us a red light to stop for inspection. We were both just fine with this, because we had no idea what we were supposed to do next. Why do these things have to be so confusing!! We were directed to turn left and drive several blocks down, get on the highway and at the lights make a U turn for immigration. OKAY! All the signs were in Spanish and I woke the part of my brain that stores what little Spanish I have and set it in full gear. We arrived at the highway with the help of a few Mexicans and found ourselves at the U turn the guard had spoken about. We made the U turn and found ourselves behind a slow moving local police vehicle. In seconds, he turned on his lights and pulled over indicating for us to do the same. I was sure he was just seeing if we needed directions or something, but that was far from the reality. He told Andy in broken English that he had turned on a red arrow. Oh…no….this just cannot be happening! We both knew that Andy had not turned on a red arrow. The officer said he was going to take us to the police station to pay a big fine for what we just did. Andy tried to explain that it had been green, but the officer just kept on with his talk of fines and poor American driving. Since my Spanish was up and running, I tried to speak to him in Spanish, explaining that we were heading to get our visas and we know we turned on a green light. This did not stop his attempt to scare us by threatening a trip downtown that he kept making clear was in the opposite direction of immigration. My heart started to slow down to a controlled state of rage. We both knew what was happening. This was a well known game in Mexico. We were being asked for a bribe! He was hoping we would slip him some money, so we could get on our way. We had no intentions of playing this game and so we did not bite. He was going on and on and I was done with it. I said, "We know we did not run a red light, so if you want to take us to pay a fine, LETS GO!" I was unnerved when he agreed to do just that and Andy started turning our stuffed SUV around, away for the immigration office. We followed him for a good ten minutes and he drove extremely slow. Maybe he thought we would change our mind. We said nothing to each other. All that could come out of my mouth was a prayer for the deepest part of me. I prayed, "Jesus, at this moment we surrender our lives to you, we surrender this moment to you. We surrender our control, our fear, all to you. Have Your way." Finally, the police officer rolled his window down and directed us to turn around and be on our way. I allowed myself to cry with relief, as we thanked the Lord. Immigration went really well and everyone was so nice to us due to the three little girls with us that smiled at everyone who looked at them. Then 40 miles down the road, we hit the second check point. This was the one we were sure would give us a hassle. Many times they stop you, inspect your stuff and try to get some money. Our nerves needed a break at this point and they gave us one. They asked us where we were headed and then let us go on our way.