We Have Arrived!

Hola, from Cabo!  We have been anxiously awaiting our 9 week stay in Cabo, and it is finally here!  We decided to keep a blog of our time in Cabo San Lucas to keep all our family and friends updated on what we are doing.  We have been coming to Cabo for the last 7 years, and at the end of every week here we always try to extend the trip...Jennifer usually does.  When we were in Cabo in May, with Team Tulsa, once again we kept trying to come up with ways to stay longer.  Needless to say, we didn't!  So while we anxiously awaited our June Cabo trip, we started brainstorming of ways to stay for a long period of time.  Many ideas came to mind...selling jewelry on the beach, fruit from a corner stand, bathroom attendant, etc...Although these all sounded like great ideas, we decided some type of community service would be best!     So on our June trip we visited places, with the help of our new friend Ponny, that we could volunteer our time, and we each found a place we wanted to volunteer.  We will be volunteering at The Los Cabos Humane Society (Jen's pick) and The Casa San Juan Diego Center (Tal's pick).  When we got home in June we immediately started planning for our 9 weeks abroad....

With months of preparation we are both ecstatic to finally be here! But we did not arrive without a proper farewell from our wonderful friends back in Tulsa.  On Friday night before we left, Kristen, along with the help of Dara, Megan, Cameron, and Ashley threw us a bon voyage party at her house.  It was fabulous...a lot of our close friends were there!  They even went as far as getting a few of our favorite things to eat and drink.  Here are a few pics from the party...

                                      

Jen, Tal, Ash, Cam, & Dara

Kristen

Ash & Jeremy

Judd & Myley

Jen, Tal, Meg, & Brent with our parting gift

Jen, Tal, Jeremy, & Ash

Neither of us wanted to leave, but it was getting late and we had to say our goodbyes because one of us still hadn't finished packing!

Saturday, the day of our departure, started early...neither one of us feeling 100%...it must have been whatever is going around! :) There had yet to be any tearful goodbyes, until my parents and I got to Jen's house to pick her up to go to the airport. My mom asked if she told Lola and Layla goodbye (the dogs), and the waterworks started!  Sweet thing cried all the way to the airport... nothing but smiles though that morning when she told her parents and Papa goodbye.  We got to the airport and started the very long check in process with all 9 bags in tow.  Jen had two bags to check and one to carry-on...mind you she had already brought 3 bags down the previous week... the other 6 were mine, two of them being carry-ons plus my purse!  Of course every single bag I checked was over the weight limit!  General boarding is only allowed 1 free bag.  Elite class is allowed 2.  So I had to pay for one of my bags, Jen claimed another, and the 9th bags items were distributed amongst the other 8 pieces of luggage that were already overweight.  The nice man at the ticket counter, finally fed up with all the repacking we were doing, let the overweight fee slide, and told us to be on our way!  We got to Cabo without a hitch, and with all bags accounted for!  We arrived at Capella Pedregal, our home for the next 9 weeks, and started settling in.

  

   Poor Guy!!!

Nuestra Casa

The View

Need we say more?

So we can see you every day!

Sunday morning we met with Father Arturo, the director of the Casa San Juan Diego Center, at the San Lucas Evangelista Church, to get the information we needed to volunteer at the Center.  We got to the church assuming mass was over, but realized after walking in that we would be attending mass then meeting with him after.  So we now have been to our first Catholic mass in Spanish!  After we left, we drove to the Center and to the Humane Society to make sure we knew where we were going for the next morning.

San Lucas Evangelista Church

Casa San Juan Diego Center

   

Los Cabos Humane Society

http://www.humansocietycabo.com/

Bull outside of Humane society

We spent the rest of the day going to the grocery store, and unpacking.  Actually we have spent the last three days unpacking, or rather Jen has...when you see the pictures you will understand why...

Who knew you could purchase a surfboard at Walmart

Thank god for space bags!!!

Jen may have slightly overpacked...

Sunday night when I was in my room, I heard a big crash come from downstairs, followed by Jen yelling....Tallee, we have a problem!  I went downstairs, and the hanging rod in her closest, that she had just been hanging some of her clothes on, had fallen...along with some of the sheetrock...

My poor little dresses!

The lack of sleep and traveling from the weekend made it near impossible for us to get up Monday morning.  I woke up and went downstairs to see if Jen was up yet...she wasn't.  When I finally got her to wake up she kept trying to convince me it was Sunday and to go back to sleep.  I told her she could nap when we got home.  We made it to our first day of volunteering at the Center just in time to start serving breakfast...The Center is a place where families can come and have breakfast, that would otherwise go without.  After breakfast the children, from babies to teenagers, play and enjoy the activities at the Center, before they go to school in the afternoon.  The mothers have the opportunity of taking a sewing class...which Jen and I are both thinking about joining.  At night the Center becomes a homeless shelter.  In return for having a place to sleep for the night the men and women that stay at the Center help with breakfast and clean-up after.  As the week goes on we will learn more of the activities and things the Center provides for the families...So that morning we served breakfast and then went to play with the children.  We learned, or attempted to learn, the hokey-pokey in Spanish...sorry no pictures of us doing that...and played many games of Jenga.  Most of the children don't know any English and we don't know Spanish, so there is a lot of smiling and nodding, but as Father Arturo told us Sunday the language barrier does not matter, it is about the love you are showing the children.  After we left the Center we came home and attempted to start this blog, but the internet was not working.  So Jen started learning Spanish...Brenda bought her Rosetta Stone before we left...and I took a nap.  When I got up she was fluent(she says, "thanks mom")...my hour nap had turned into the whole afternoon!

     On our way to the center at 8am we saw this line of people outside of Cabo Wabo...Sammy Hagar is in town and they are all waiting to meet him...the line was around the block!

Getting ready to clean up breakfast

Some of the younger children

This little girl wanted to pose for the camera

Jen and Selena

This little boy was so cute!

People were still in line 3 hours later!

Today has been pretty much the same as yesterday, but we have a few more bumps and bruises on our bodies.  Since we had a little trouble getting up Monday morning, Jen decided to put her phone in the bathroom so she would have to get up to turn her alarm off.  She got up and turned it off, but decided to go back to bed, and on the way there came into contact with the marble/iron table in the room.  Needless to say I did not need my alarm to get up this morning.  After serving breakfast today we played with the children outside in the rain.  I was taking pictures of the boys playing soccer on the basketball court when the ball flew through the goal and nailed me in the back of the head!  Ouch!  I already know what my parting gift will be to the Center...nets for the goals!  When we were about to leave today the children started yelling Jennifer's name, the only one they can remember, and were pointing at the sky...it was a rainbow!  It was beautiful!  We both hoped that meant the rain was going to stop and be the end of tropical storm Patricia that has been making its way through Cabo since we got here, but it wasn't!  We are hoping the end of the storm will hit tonight and be sunny skies the rest of the week!

                                              

The boys playing soccer on the basketball court

Tallee playing a game with some of the kids

This little girl wanted to take her chocolate milk togo

The Rainbow

We are sick and tired of the constant flooding in our rooms due to the storm!  The storm has also caused the streets (most of which are under construction...just like T-town) to flood and make serious potholes that even Tulsa can't compete with!  We feel like we are on a log ride everytime we get in the car.

I can't imagine how many towels we went through to stop the water

They even brought in sandbags to stop the flooding

We've only just begun...