Adios

We spent most of our last week in Cabo preparing for the early Christmas celebration we had in one of the barrios. Last Tuesday, after we we took the men in San Jose Lunch we went with Donna to buy all the food for the gift bags, plus some extra to take to families that day. We bought milk, sugar, and a bag of rice to go into each of the food bags. As we were leaving the store, Jen got a phone call saying the people were at the house ready to pick up the Acura and take it to San Diego....four weeks later it finally left Cabo! Jen left to take care of the car and I went with Donna to an outreach. We went to the barrio where Luis' family lives. We handed out food, clothes and some of the candy bags we had made to many different families. Luis' mom came up to tell us goodbye and that she had to go to work. When she left I walked over to her house to find four of the children home alone again. The 6 month old baby was laying on a bed. The other three children were sitting on another bed eating their candy and playing with toys. I sat and played with them until we had to leave. I wanted to load them all up and bring them home with me! That night Jen and I prepared the 80 bags of food and tied a Christmas prayer with ribbon on each one.

The men in San Jose waving good bye to us

Too freakin' cute

I'm so excited!!!

This little boy was in charge while his mom was at work

Our living room...these bags of food were everywhere

We were amazed when we got to the barrio on Thursday for the Christmas celebration and saw all the people that had shown up! We thought there might be 75 people there, and there ended up being over 200!

She loved her gift so much!

We handed out all the food bags, while the children took turns at the pinata, and then gave the children their candy bags and Christmas presents. The children were all so excited, and it was great seeing their faces as they opened their presents. 


We had to say goodbye to many people we met over the last 9 weeks, but the hardest was saying goodbye to Mary and Donna. These women who have committed their lives to helping the people of Los Cabos, were a blessing to us during our time there.

We left Cabo on Saturday afternoon. We had many of the same issues at the airport with all of our luggage that we had when we left...only this time it was worse, and we had added Lila to the mix! We arrived in Tulsa that night with only a few delays on the way. My parents picked us up from the airport, and I don't think either of us were quite prepared for the cold, and still aren't! We went straight to Jen's house where her parents and dogs were waiting to welcome us home. 

You can't tell from our smiling faces but it was a very sad day!!!

But I don't wanna get in the bag!

 We miss Cabo everyday, and can't wait to get back....


XOXO...Jen and Tal

El Blogo

We finally finished all the Christmas gifts and candy bags! YEA! We spent all day Friday with Donna, and two of the women that help her, Amelia and Mary, taking food to families in the morning and finishing all the Christmas gifts in the afternoon. We can't wait to start giving them to people.

These little boys loved the suckers

Amelia, Mary, and Donna

We are spending the majority of this week with Donna so we said our goodbyes on Thursday to the Casa San Juan Diego Center and the Humane Society. It was sad to say goodbye, not only because it meant our time in Cabo was coming to an end, but we will miss the people we have come to know and serve every morning.

A few of our friends

We ate at Bully's Tacos so I had to give the lil ham some love

Tallee even wanted some love from Bully

Earlier in the week we met Donna to get food for another outreach in the barrios. As she walked into Sam's we could tell she was a little frantic. She had just come from church, where she has Bible study every Tuesday morning, and as she was leaving there was a women waiting for her with a baby and another small child. Donna quickly realized she used to take food to this women. The women(can't remember her name) began telling her that her 10 year old son Luis had runaway, and needed Donna's help. This women has four children of her own, plus her sisters(who passed away) three children...7 children all under the age of 10. They live in one of the barrios and Luis had become the babysitter for all these children since he was the oldest while his mom went to work. Too much responsibility for a 10-year-old boy, and who was not getting an education because of it! The mother works at a grocery store and Luis for the last couple of days had been living behind it to be close to his mom when she went to work, but when she found him he wouldn't come with her and ran off again. So that is when she went and found Donna for help. Donna loaded them up in her car and came to meet us, we left the store and went to find the little boy. We found him in one of the barrios behind the grocery store where his mom worked locked in a room. Donna got him out and we stopped by one of Donna's kitchens in the barrios to talk to some men about putting him in the orphanage in La Paz. We then left to take his mom and siblings home, but he wouldn't get back in the car with Donna afraid that he would be left at his house. We left him at the kitchen with the men who help with the outreach in that area and took his mom home. Jen and I got out of the car to help carry some food in we had for them. The two children that were there ran out of the house so delighted to see us. The oldest child at the house was probably 6...6 years old at the house by himself with his 3 year old sister(the other two children we didn't see, thankfully they have been put in school during the day). We walked into their little hut of a house and saw a hammock(being used for a bed), two other small cots, and a couple of tables. Very cramped for 9 people...Luis' "stepfather", and the father of the most recent baby, is also living there. When we left the house we parted ways with Donna. She was going back to pick the little boy up to stay with her for the night. She was going to feed him and get him some new shoes...he didn't have any on when we found him. The next morning she was meeting the Pastor from La Paz who runs the orphanage there(we talked about him in the last blog) to talk to him about taking the boy. 


Luis is now living in La Paz at the orphanage. After talking more with Luis on Tuesday night and with the Pastor on Wednesday morning they found out that he was being beaten by the stepfather, who does not have a job, and is a drunk. When we found this out we immediately started thinking about the other 6 children in the home. I know this happens all over the world, but knowing how the legal system here works, and hearing this 10 year old little boy's story, and seeing the conditions these people live in everyday, it just seems a million times worse. We got to see Luis on Saturday with some of the other children from the orphanage, and he looked really happy! Happy to live like a child again, and happy to have a place to shine! 


We were worn out Friday evening so we read, played some gin, and went to bed. Last night, it being our last Saturday in Cabo, we hit the town and lived it up. Today we had a relaxing beach day and talked about all the things we were going to do our last week in Cabo.

XOXO...Jen and Tal  

It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Ends Up In A Cone

We finally got our pictures from zip linig, so here are a few...

Just before we took flight

Weeee!!!

Another amazing week in Cabo! Most of our days were spent doing the usual...breakfast and playing with the children at the Center, walking dogs at the Humane Society, and taking the men at the church in San Jose lunch. At the beginning of last week we took Lila back to the Humane Society to be spayed. After we picked her up we came home and she went straight to her crate where she stayed for most of the day. That night when we took her out to go to the bathroom we realized she had pulled all her stitches out and the incision was wide open. We rushed her to Cabo pets(emergency clinic) and they stitched her back up. The next morning when we picked her up she was feeling much better, but also quite annoyed because she had been coned! 

Poor Baby

On Thursday for Thanksgiving we drove to Todos Santos. I'ts a little town about 45 minutes from Cabo. We walked around the town and had lunch at the Hotel California...chile rellenos stuffed with shrimp and lobster and marlin quesadillas with pineapple salsa...not the usual Thanksgiving meal, but it was really good. We stopped at Cerritos beach (a big surf spot) on our way home and we saw a gorgeous rainbow as we were leaving.

The view across from Cerritos beach

The Rainbow

We also had to get another rental car...I believe we our now on our fifth. Someone backed into the front of the other one. We now have a Nissan Tsuru. She has a nice little giddy up and go if you really put the petal to the metal. Jen has named her the little trojan that could.

Circa 1994 and drives like a dream

Saturday afternoon we went with Donna to Caribe(one of the barrios in Cabo) to serve food. Every Saturday in Caribe some of the children from the orphanage in La Paz(a town 2 hours from Cabo) come with the Pastor/director of the orphanage to have fellowship with a sister organization here. Donna provides them with the food so we took 200 sandwiches for the people to eat. They have praise and worship at the beginning followed by a short message. The music is really loud so it draws many people in the area. We fell in love with some of the little boys from the orphanage. I let one of them hold my camera and he took pictures the whole time. He would run over and show us the picture he took, give us a hug and then run off to take another. Before we left we saw another rainbow. I have seen more rainbows in Cabo in the last 2 months then I think I have my whole life.

Jorge, Juan, and Carlos

The little girl on the far left was hilarious

We have been wrapping christmas gifts every spare moment we get. We finished doing most of the children's gifts and have started working on the mom's gift bags. Most of them are filled with basic necessities...toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap. We have some jewelry, lotions, and nail polish to put in some of them, but not enough for all. We also are filling 1,000 bags of candy to distribute in the barrios for christmas...200 down 800 more to go!

Bags of candy for Christmas

XOXO...Jen and Tal

Cars, cars, and more cars!

Last week was busy and so much fun! On Saturday night after Kristen arrived we went to NoWhere Bar and Pink Kitty...new club in Cabo that some of our friends opened.

Me, Steve, Kristen, and Tal at NoWhere Bar

Tal, Modu, and Kristen taking a break from "Getting Jiggy With It" on the dance floor at Pink Kitty

Sunday afternoon we went to Dog Day Afternoon in San Jose which is a fundraiser for the Humane Society. Nancy Hinch, the Bruton's neighbor in Tulsa, lives in Cabo most of the year and she gave us tickets to sit at her table.

The Acura broke down on our way home from San Jose so on Monday we rented a Jeep and we officially adopted Lila!

Trying to decipher the problem

I'm so excited to meet my sisters!

Kristen wanted to take this little guy (Eduardo) home

We went to the center on Tuesday morning and that afternoon Kristen, Jen and I prepared 50 bags of food for an outreach we did in the barrios with Donna.

Kristen preparing to serve breakfast

Edylei...my bestfriend at the center

Food for care packages

Tal finally found her souvenir from Cabo...The Michelin tire baby

Distributing food and clothes

Kristen con todos los ninos monos en los barrios

Jen and I are taking lunch every Wednesday to the men building the church in San Jose. So on Wednesday we took the men lunch and that afternoon we went to Mango Deck and got Henna tattoos and had dinner at The Office.

Kristen and I on the beach at Mango Deck

My mom tried to rub Tal's sweet shooting stars off with spit!

My early birthday cake and shot at The Office

Can't forget the birthday hugs!

Thursday morning we walked the dogs, made ceviche, and Brenda (Jen's mom) arrived. We also found out on Thursday that the Acura needed a new engine! Bye Bye Acura! We had to turn the jeep in on Friday, and we rented a smaller car. We now have a Dodge Hyundai Attitude. We started out with a red one, but we are now on our 2nd gold one...we have had four rental cars in the last 10 days due to seat belts not working, check engine lights coming on, and taking off a bumper while driving through the barrios. We have decided we need a tank to drive around Cabo. I think we gave Brenda an Ulcer while she was here...with the Henna tattoos(she thought they were real) and the car ordeals!

Goodbye Jeep...

Hello Dodge Hyundai Attitude (Goldie)!

Jen has been wanting to go zip lining in the canyons since we got here so Friday morning Kristen and I surprised her for her birthday and we went. We went on 8 different lines and it was awesome, but also exhausting... a lot of hiking involved! We are still waiting on our pics from zip lining but we will post them as soon as we get them.  We also got a very cute fondant cupcake birthday cake. Well it was really cute when we picked it up, but by the time we got home it had melted and had a slight lean to it.

  My battle wound from zip lining thanks to Kristen!

Poor little cupcake

We took Kristen to the airport on Saturday and that night Brenda cooked a nice homemade meal for us. We also saw Will Smith...he stayed two nights at Capella with his brother and some friends.  Monday we took Brenda with us to the center to serve breakfast and then took candy to the children in the barrios. That night she took us out to eat dinner at a great Sushi place. We dropped Brenda off at the airport on Tuesday and we met Donna and Amelia to take food to a few families in the barrios. Yesterday we went back to San Jose to take the men lunch and then picked up a bunch of gifts from Donna to wrap for the children for Christmas. This morning we went to the center and then we walked the dogs at the Humane Society.  That is the last 12 days in a nutshell.