Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We were thinking of breaking with tradition here, down in Mexico... and going out for Chinese for Thanksgiving. So, please, have a bite of Turkey and stuffing for us, and we´ll say a big prayer of thanks for all our blessings.
This last weekend, we started with the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá. We were walking down to the Zócolo one afternoon and happened into the most beautiful building, with green domed roofs and all. We found out it was the old theater, and that there was a musical festival going on the coming week. We finally made it down to a concert on Friday. The theater is absolutely beutiful from inside to out. The performance was a Marimba performance. Not the traditional symphony performance we were expecting, but very wonderful.
This Saturday the Salesian Sisters were on their way back from a Conference in Chiapas and so we decided to journey up into the hills with them. Well... we missed our connection but were savy enough to figure out the buses... with a lot of help from a Taxi driver. Our first stop was Ayutla de Mixes. It is, as far as we can tell, a main city about 2 1/2 hours into the mountains from Oaxaca, Oaxaca. From what we gathered though, the town is only has about 5-6,000 inhabitants. It is here that they have the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, the bishop, a few volunteers and Sisters Conchita and Isabel.
One of our goals for our trip was to see the kind of work that the different sisters are doing here in Oaxaca, so our plan was to go to a catechism class in a small town close by, and then return to Ayutla for a Youth group. It just so happened though, that it was the feast day for St. Cecilia, who is the saint of music. So you can imagine the Fiestas they were having in the towns. Needless to say, there was no Chatechism that day, or youth group... just fiesta. Which is nothing to snub your nose at. The towns all had their municipal bands which was compromised of young 4th-5th graders, all the way to accomplished older gentleman.
In the evening as well as the next day, we were able to spend time with the sisters, to relax with them, to go to mass with them, and to talk to them about their prayer life. It helps bring a sense of peace to this journey we are on. We still are not sure where we will be going for our year in service, but now we have had the chance to meet and spent time with the Salesian Sisters, and get a better feel for the routines of what it will be like to live in community.
The Sister´s hospitality was joyful and endless. We spent the night in Ayutla, and traveled the next morning to a very small town about a half an hour away called Matagallinas. There the Sisters have a Boarding School for junior high aged children. There are about 135 students from the surrounding areas who come to study. The setting is beautiful, tucked into a mountain valley, with trees and mountains for as far as the eye can see. Sister Amelia is the cook there and she gave us the whole tour, and we helped her practice her English. It turns out that she has seen more of the United States than I have. After about 25 years in the US she returned to Mexico where here alergies do not bother her so much. We met Father Ignacio who works with the Boys at the school, and also keeps them supplied with 400 lbs of Tortillas 2x a week. The kids were mostly shy, and laughing among themselves, and I think very surprised to see us visitors. It was a wonderful experience all in all.
Well, our trip is more than half way over now. We will be returning to the states in 16 short days. We´re working on making the most of them. Sending all our love to EVERYONE! Hugs and Kisses, Matt and Janelle