Mennonite Living 101

I am here at my new placement. A Mennonite home indeedy. When we arrived at the house, I was greeted by an older couple. The female was born in 1945, so that makes her 62 years old. That's right we are staying with grandparents. They have 8 children who have moved out and all are married but one. They are living in Manitoba, Ontario, and Belize. They have 19 grandchildren. My bad, I am blanking out on there last name and her husband's first name. But the ladies name is Bertha. Anyways, so we arrived and after the introductions were made, our bus pulled away. We were taken on a tour of the house, it is quite small, but we get the whole upstairs to ourselves. Lindsey and I have separate rooms, but if we want to we can share a bed/room. After the tour we were taken into their bedroom where we sat down in an airconditioned room and talked. There was awkward pauses but I could tell that both parties didn't know really what to say. We kept conversation as best as we could. The lady was really interested to know that I have 11 in my family considering that she is from a family of 11. She is quite friendly, except her English isn't too good. She mostly speaks German, so she can hold a conversation, she will just blank out on words now and then. It is 5:30pm here.. I believe we are going to have dinner very soon. We have been given some time to go upstairs and rest before dinner. I do not know what is for dinner. After dinner I believe we are going to a Mennonite Easter service. Apparently it will be held by the youth. Don't know what that means exactly. I asked if it will be in German, and they said that 80% or more should be in English. Woot woot a German hymn party. But I am open, so we shall see. Lindsey really doesn't want to go, so hopefully I can convince her otherwise we might have a conflict in interests. I just feel bad if we didn't go. They really don't know what to do for us but they are really friendly. I don't think she really considers their perspective. I also found out that they do not have internet here. That is dandy. I guess I will have to entertain myself by my ILC course and Lindsey. Hopefully her and I can become friends. I am not going to lie, we never really talk. We are not friends. We don't have very much in common at all. She is now in her bedroom, laying on her bed, door closed, listening to Mitch Hedberg (a very funny comedian). I really don't know what to say concerning Lindsey. She doesn't want to be here. She hates wearing skirts. She really isn't open to anything at all. Dinner Time. I shall be back later.

Well its official. We are going to the Mennonite Easter service. I have 15 minutes so I am going to write this quickly. We ate a light dinner of bread, ginger cookies, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, and a milk soup. It is a Mennonite specialty. It is very sweet and has fruit floating in it. Tonight we had cherries. It tasted kind of like melted ice cream, I tried it, but it kind of tripped me out.. it was weird.. soup and milk.. couldn't handle it. But it was pretty tasty. Alvina ate dinner with us. She is the principal of one of the schools we are going to work at (Lindsay's school). She is Kathy's (YWAM) friend. Alvina told us that tomorrow my school is actually still on holidays so I will actually be going to Lindsay's school. Tomorrow she will pick us up and drive us, but she said after the kids get to know us we are actually going to hitch rides with students driving to our schools. They do not have a bus system yet, and Lindsay and I are going in different directions. So basically tomorrow morning I have to be ready by 7:30am to be picked up. I am kinda but not too worried about being picked up by a stranger. Considering the fact that it is a small community, and that I will recognize the children, so I will just hitch a ride to school. Whatev. That's not for tomorrow. Alvina also told me that Lindsay and I can wear shorts and tank tops at home, but when we are out in the community, we should wear sleeves and skirts to our knees. They accept other people's dress codes, but Kathy believes it would be best, to dress as they do considering we are in their community. I am not going to sweat it, its only for 2 weeks. Since I do not have internet, my entertainment for the evenings will probably be Phase 10 with Bertha, ILC courses, and dishes after dinner. Whatever. I am here for the life experience. I just hope Lindsay can handle all this. I best be off. Time for church. Peace.
Oh and by the way.. if you know nothing about Mennonites.. they do drive in cars.. but they also wear head cloths and full dresses. Alvina even has a cell phone. Most houses have electricity and running water and all that. Most have internet, this house just has the internet down right now. Anyways, more will come later. Till tomorrow.. I'm off.