This podcast includes some exciting news – the special service in Chalco on the 14th of March, and the first service of a brand new local church on the 28th of March! Also, news about something that happened at one of Shari’s Amigas del Alma baking classes. But to begin – the story of the national and state anthems at Hannah’s school…
Today we brought provisions to a few dozen of the families affected by the flooding in Chalco. We also invited them and others to the special service on the 14th.
I didn’t take a lot of video of actually handing out despensas (provisions), because I don’t want to embarrass anyone. However, we had some good talks with some people – many people remembered us from when we served the breakfasts (and we remembered some of them). Eventually word got around and we attracted a crowd of neighbours – there were about 20 people around us for a while.
With four vehicles and lots of helpers, we were done in about an hour. Now, we’ll see what happens on the 14th!
Here’s the video:
Wow, you don’t realize how out of it you are until you listen to yourself talking! Oh well, with a little work I think this podcast is understandable.
Note, however, that I slipped in a Spanish word by mistake – my "teclado" class is actually my keyboard class.
Also, I mention information about donating to the Chalco Flood relief effort – you can find that information here. For more on the flood, you can find the related posts easily using the Chalco Flood tag.
And now, without further confusion, here’s the podcast…
Tonight we had week 4 and week 5 of our keyboard classes.
Last week I was sick, so we crammed two weeks into one today. Which was a bit of a challenge, because it cut down on the much-needed practice time. But I think it went well.
The student count has been somewhat erratic, but we had 6 students tonight and a host of people "auditing".
This week we talked about pedals and chord inversions, and then tried putting everything into practice. One of the songs we’ve been talking about from the beginning is México Lindo y Querido, a national classic (sometimes called the country’s second national anthem).
Here’s the classic rendition of the classic song. It’s brilliant in more ways than one. The singer is one of Mexico’s most famous singers/actors, Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno (1911-1953). Obviously you’ll only get so much out of it if you don’t know Spanish, but here’s a rough translation of the chorus:
Yes, after quite a few days with no rain, the rain has returned.
We went back to Chalco today, this time to a new location, to serve breakfast. Mostly we saw dry streets (all right, they were dry until it started raining!), though there are still pools of water here and there (such as in lots and buildings).
So the clean up is really getting rolling, which means mass chaos (as you’ll see). Most businesses in this area are still closed (well, the door may be open, but there’s nothing inside worth selling!), but people are shovelling things out of houses and out of sewers and so on.
Though some help is coming now, it’s little and it’s late. There were some recent protests by people from one community in Chalco a day or two ago. They had a "discussion" with police, as they asked why more help has not come.
A few of you have helped, and it’s appreciated. A couple people have mentioned that there’s been little (no?) coverage of this in Canada. Considering the thousands impacted, that’s pretty amazing. But we appreciate those of you who have been watching and listening here, and praying and giving.
Here’s a brief video to give you an idea what the street looked like today. With the rain, it was pretty miserable, and let’s just say the air wasn’t pleasant (which is why you’ll see many wearing facial masks)…
It’s day 10 after the flood, and the cleanup is just beginning. That’s partly because a lot has still been under water until today. Now that the water is receding, the cleanup can begin.
This morning we went as a family with some people from our church to help serve breakfast. The highway is still closed, and it looks like there’s still some work to do before it opens. However, cars that were totally underwater are being pulled out.
In Chalco, those who have houses free of water (and there are a lot still full of water, even on streets that are dry) are sweeping them out and throwing their ruined belongings on the street to be collected.
Here’s a quick video to show the progress that’s being made.