Week Five: Oh, We're Halfway There

All weekend, a Bon Jovi song has been on constant replay in my head:  “Oh, we’re halfway there / Oh, oh, livin’ on a prayer.”  It’s fitting, though – this past Saturday marked my halfway point for my time in Mexico, as hard as it is to believe.  But in lieu of a mid-term report, I thought I would share some facts I find interesting (and you might, too!):

• There is a palm tree right outside my bedroom window.
• Drivers licenses are essentially optional, signal lights are unused, and speed limit signs serve no purpose in the Baja … Suffice it to say that roads here are chaotic.
• The salsa here is so strong that even just being in the same room as it makes you cough.
• Vicente Guerrero is an agriculturally-driven city, with a population of 15,000, and is wedged in between the Pacific Ocean and a beautiful mountain range.  I’m spoiled by the beauty here!
• FFHM grows strawberries, oranges, lemons, guava, olives, and lots of macadamia nuts…
• …and the shells from the macadamia nuts are used to fill the potholes in the dirt roads around the mission site. 
• I’ve felt several tremors from earthquakes along the Baja peninsula while here – the more recent earthquake being a 4.2! (This is rather exciting for a Prairie girl…)
• Last Tuesday, my little girl Julia—who has Down’s syndrome and usually does not speak—said the words “blue,” “two,” and “four” in Spanish.  Needless to say, I was thrilled!
• Founded originally as an orphanage, FFHM has since expanded to include a Christian school (kindergarten to grade 6), shops for vocational training, day care centre, learning centre for kids with special needs, outreach to migrant camps and impoverished communities, the “Mercy Ministry” (provides a soup kitchen, clothing, literacy training, outreach to jails), a medical center, macadamia nut orchard (with a processing and confection kitchen), drug & alcohol rehab centre, fire suppression and rescue services for the community, local TV station, Bible Institute, and interdenominational Mission Church.
• Even with all these services, FFHM still chooses to invest 50% of its budget on services for children.
• I dry my laundry on an outdoor clothesline every Saturday (my fellow Canadians will appreciate that…)
• Now a faith-based operation, the property FFHM is built on was originally used as a brothel and a casino.  Go figure.
• About 2,500 macadamia nut trees were hand-planted here, which will be producing 32,000 lbs of nuts when they reach maturity next year in 2012.   These nuts are processed and then used for baking, macadamia nut butter (it’s even better than peanut butter!), or are seasoned.  Just a few of the flavours of the macadamia nuts here are: chocolate-covered, salsa, chilli lime, macadamia roca, barbeque, honey nut, and toffee brittle.