The cattle-mover, er, public transportation system

God is so good! He provided me with a super cool girl who wants to live in the big house I am looking at renting. She is from California, appreciates good coffee, has 4 sisters, is adventurous, wants to go exploring and on adventures with me, likes to talk, the list goes on. She really is the buddy I was hoping to find.

There is a hurricane system moving through here. It has been raining pretty much non-stop for the past week. The roads are lakes in most places. You fight for a dry spot to walk on. Monday was R's first day here in Mitla, she is living at the center until we get a contract and can move into the house. I was her tour guide and we had a blast walking around town and getting the bareings a little bit. We walked up to the ruins and poked around a little bit. We were waiting until the taco place opened so we could have some real mexican tacos. After sitting there for 45 min with no sign of movement we headed back down the hill. We walked up the road to look at the house and this is what the road looked like. Serious. This mud is thick!! My shoes and pant legs were soaked and filthy. Welcome to rainy season!

Today was our first "teacher in-service" day. The Q's graciously are allowing me to use their car until they arrive if I ever need it. Part of me was tempted to just to take the car because it would be easier. But no. Public transportation I need to learn and so did R. We met at the corner at 8am. -Yawn- Waited at the bus stop for all of 10 min when along came a bus. I remembered at the very last moment that you need to flag the buses down or else they won't stop. :) Small detail. The bus was basically empty so we sat down and settled in for the 40-45 min commute into the city. Everything went so smooth. We were quite proud of ourselves. The meeting went well. I have more of an idea of what and who I will be teaching this year. Tuesdays will be 1//2 grade from 1:10-1:40 then the 7-12 graders from 1:40-2:40. Thursdays will be 3-6 grade from 1:10-1:40 then the 7-12 again from 1:40-2:40. This quarter should be interesting. I am glad the 1/2 graders are by themselves. It would have been a little hard to have 6 year-olds in there with 12 year-olds. I am very excited for that 1/2 grad class though. The school has more boomwhackers than I have seen in my life. This could get very interesting.
We went out to get a bus back around 3:40. Ran across 4 lanes of traffic. Pedestrians have no rights here in Mexico. If a car hits you, you pay for the damage on the car. We then waited for the bus. The sun was actually out (Praise the Lord) but the buses came by so fast that it was hard to read what city they were going to. Finally we did see a bus that said "Mitla" but it was in the other lane and didn't even look like it wanted to stop. What do we do now? Is this the right place? Only 1 taxi passed us that said "Mitla". So, we decided that the next taxi or bus we saw, we would take that one. None came. Finally at around 4:25 we saw a bus that said "Mitla". We flagged him down and when the doors opened I was shocked. There were so many people crowded on that bus. How in the world? So we ended up squeezing in next to the driver and off we go. Now. The thing you have to know about buses in Mexico: they are diesel and manual which means the bus is constantly lurching forwards and backwards as the driver shifts. People are packed in so tight that bumping into people is normal. Then people push through to get out at whatever stop they want along the way and there is no space for 2 people in an aisle. So you just rub up against people and its normal. Such is bus life. We made it back to Mitla around 5:30. Not to bad. And I was able to walk up the hill to the L's house before the rains started again.

It was an adventure. And tomorrow we get to do it all again. And the next day. And the next day. . . .