Summer in Oxford

I am going to try and catch you all up on my summer! It has been crazy which is why it has taken me this long to blog about it. I went home to Oxford, Ohio for six weeks! It was wonderful to be back in my old stomping grounds. There is just no place on earth that can replace Oxford :) I had my fair share of townie treats, went to my favorite places, and hung with some of my favorite people. It was so refreshing.
God also used my time at home to refresh my vision and desire for Him. I often feel that when I return home, God renews my heart for Monterrey and this trip was no exception (I'll save the details for a later blog!).
While at home I was also support raising for my next year in Monterrey. Many thanks to all of you who have supported me and are continuing to support me! I loved connecting with you and sharing my heart! God continues to amaze me as He provides for my life! I feel so loved and humbled by His provision...
After 6 weeks in my sweet town I returned to Monterrey. I was there for one week. During this time I was reuniting with my staff team, remembering Spanish, working in the Rio, and getting a few things done for our next school year at SMCA. After a week in Monterrey I flew to San Miguel de Allende which is where I currently am! I am here studying Spanish for a month... many more details on this to come :)

My cozy front porch in Oxford... there is no place like home!

Uptown Oxford!

Where music in the park takes place every Thursday night in Oxford.

My brother, Jon, graduated from Tallawanda High school. I was blessed to return just in time to celebrate with him!

The entire Maglich family... we are never boring!

2009 Staff Retreat

Here are a few pictures from the Back2Back Mexico 2009 staff retreat. We took two days, right before I went back to the States, and traveled about an hour outside Monterrey up into the mountains to stay in cabins. We met together, shared thoughts and ideas, and remembered why we do what we do. Afterward I felt so inspired for the summer and next school year! I honestly serve alongside an AMAZING staff team! I feel so privileged to be apart of this ministry :)

Here we are in one of our several staff meetings.

One afternoon we went repelling down a dried up waterfall.... beautiful! These are some of the staff women who braved the 200 ft. repel!

A view of the repel we did from the ground up. We started where you see the sky, went over a cliff edge, and went straight down. This portion was about 150 ft.

Here I am after the 150 ft. repel waiting for the second portion that is between 50 and 80 ft.

Hammocks by the cabins... so relaxing!

A few of the small cabins we stayed in. They were so cool and nearly every one was different.

SMCA Graduation and Inventor's Fair

I can not believe how quickly the school year went by! At first nine months of teaching sounded so long, however by the time the end of May rolled around I could barely believe school was over.
Our last social studies project surrounded the idea of inventors. Together my students and I studied a few famous inventors of the day and took an in depth look at the inventing process. We ended the unit with an invention project where each student came up with a problem to solve and then an invention that would solve that problem. I was amazed at the creativity I saw!
Luke's parents were not happy about him and his brothers always making crumbs in the car when on long car trips. Luke invented the Crumb Cleaner to help with that problem. During a car trip Luke can eat over the Crumb Cleaner and then use the small brush to brush the crumbs into the hole on the tray. They crumbs then go through a funnel and tube, ending up in a box that can then be emptied into the garbage. This was a very creative solution to a real-life problem.

Emma displaying her Extreme Double Dish Drainer. Emma told me that a normal sized dish drainer was way too small for her big family and they ended up putting dishes all over the counter as well. With the Extreme Double Dish Drainer they could would have room for all the dishes to nicely dry. She even included a draining system for the water to get to the sink!

Josh said that he always gets hot in Mexico (me too!). He invented a hat that includes a solar powered fan that will blow and cool him off when he is in the sun... and it looks cool too :)

At our graduation ceremony my class did two song and dance numbers for the parents showing off their knowledge of the 50 states and their capitals.

Here are Miss Ruby's Students at graduation!

Swine Flu

This is my attempt to update ya'll on the last month or so before the summer! Many of you have been wondering about the Swine Flu in Monterrey. We had a little scare during April and after two weeks of quarantine found out from the Mexican CDC that not even one person in Monterrey had the flu! We made the most of the quarantine by keeping active and hanging out as a community on the property! Here are a few shots from those two weeks.

Ruby, Christy, and myself leaving the property on a desperate trip to the store. Everyone had to wear masks!

During our quarantine we had several girl's soccer games. Sports for girls are not as a high priority for many females in Mexico as they for females in the USA. I was proud of so many of our girl jovens playing... even with a field covered in mud!

Ruby did an amazing job organizing a volleyball tournament for us! Different teams played until we had a winning team! While my team lost the first round, we did win the prize for the best attitude!

One night the Garcia's treated us all to a cookout... but not quite what the American staff expected. We had whole grilled rabbit! It really was rather tasty! I even tried to be like the locals and sampled the brain... probably won't do that again!