Bienvenidos A Oaxaca

Welcome to Oaxaca! My team and I arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Tuesday, August 20th. The city of Oaxaca is located in a valley and it is absolutely beautiful here. This picture is a view from the back porch of our apartment.

This is a view from the front of our apartment. It is currently the rainy season, but it usually only drizzles a little bit.

We were welcomed with open arms and lots of smiles by our field contacts and their families. They took us to this awesome Taco Stand called Taqueria Maxitablita for dinner when we got in on Tuesday night. I ordered Tacos al Pastor con Queso which I've been told is unique to Oaxaca. The pork is layered and then hung up and cooked slowly all day. 

Here's the whole team at dinner.

We have a beautiful apartment. Ours is the 3rd floor and there is a super awesome roof that we are quite enjoying!

Here we are in our apartment on our first night in Oaxaca. From left to right, Hannah Marie, Kat, Shelley, me, Jasmine, and Hannah B. I'm so blessed to be working with such sweet girls and I'm looking forward to growing with them over the next months.

On Wednesday we made our first trip to the grocery store. It was a fun and somewhat exhausting experience. They have many of the same things we have in the U.S. We made it out of the grocery with a buggy and half full that amounted to the equivalent of about $150.

Wednesday night our field contacts threw us a welcome party on the roof. We ate some pizza, met some neighbors, and played with these precious kids.

This is the room I share with Jasmine.

Our first bus ride. We will be using public transportation to get around over the next several months.

On Thursday we went downtown and toured a few of the old churches. This is in front of El Templo de San Domingo.

We got lunch at a restaurant called Restaurante Importador. I got tostados with quesillo which is a special Oaxacan cheese.

On Fridays we have team meetings and free afternoons. So, we went downtown to a market that they have in Parque Lleno every Friday. We kept seeing ladies holding bowls of this red chopped up food. I asked one of the ladies what it was and she spooned some into my hand. To my surprise they were grasshoppers! These Chapulines are a common food here in Oaxaca so of course we had to try some! They actually weren't too bad..very flavorful and crunchy.

We got these yummy drinks called Aguas Frescas at the market. I got the Crema de Coco which is Coconut and it was so good!

On Saturday we went to a village with our field contacts where we taught an ESL class to a group of kids.

After the ESL class we went to the house of one of our field contact's friends. They weave wool and cotton for a living and were gracious enough to show us how everything works. They make the most beautiful rugs, blankets, curtains, scarves, and bags. 

It's been a great first week. We are still getting acclimated and learning our way around. It's been a lot to process, but I can see myself really loving it here. We will be spending the next couple of weeks learning how to teach ESL and going through Community Transformation Training. I'm so grateful for the love that our field contacts and the locals have shown us, as well as the grace they have shown us with language barriers. The Lord has been so good and it's comforting to know that He is sovereign over these next few months, the people we meet, the work we do, and the things we experience.