I started school at Tennessee Tech University(TTU) and I am so happy to be able to finally be in this university. I have been enjoying my classes, I know, this is only my third day, you should ask me in a couple of weeks. I walk every morning from my house to school so that is giving me a time by myself , then I enter to the world of the University and the thousands of students walking around…amazing how many people. But you know like my t-shirt that I am wearing today says, “money can’t buy you happiness, but can buy you a beer and that’s is close enough”. We need to find the humor and simplicity to life and enjoy it.
Archive for August, 2007
I am reading a very interested book I found in the bookstore called: ask a Mexican. It is a compilation of questions asked by Gabachos through out the local newspaper and answered by the author. It is pretty funny, some words will be a little bit heavy for a closed minded!! but if you don’t mind it will be a good and funny way to know more about Mexican culture and many more….Here is some examples:( some of the questions are pretty dumb but they were really asked!!!!)
Why do Mexicans always cram into a small car?
Dear Gabacho:Because a burro can’t support more than three people.
Why do Mexicans park their cars on the front lawn?
Dear Gabacho:Where do you want us to park them, menso? The garage we rent out to a family of five? The backyard where we put up our recently immigrated cousins in tool-shacks-cum-homes? The street with red curbs recently approved by city planners? The driveway covered with construction material for the latest expansion of la casa? The nearby school parking lot frequented by cholos on the prowl for a new radio? Menso, the lawn is the only spot Mexicans can park their cars without fear of break-ins, drunken crashes, or an unfortunate keying.
How come Mexicans play soccer and not real sport like hockey or football?
Dear Gabacho: because soccer involves more running, and how else will we train for the midnight run across the U.S.-Mexico border?
As a Mexican, aren’t you embarrassed and ashamed that probably the number one dream of people in Mexico is to sneak illeagelly into the United States, a gringo gabaucho society that is probably not one-tenth as corrupt as Mexico, which enables it to have an economy which has so much wealth even the poor people here have twenty-seven-inch color TVs?
Dear Gabacho: As an American, aren’t you embarrassed that you can’t write proper English–or as you may spell it, Inglich? “illeagelly”? “Gabaucho”? what country are you from? I know teenagers fresh from Jalostotitlán who spell better.
What is about the word illegal that Mexicans don’t understand?
Dear Gabacho: Take your pick, Mines. Mexicans don’t understand the word illegal because (A) when paying their gardeners, nannies, busboys, and factory workers in cash (and forgetting to withhold payroll taxes), U.S. employes don’t seem to understand the word illegal, so why should Mexicans?…….
After two bypasses ,lots of worry and of course prayers, I talked to my dad this morning and he sounded pretty good. His last surgery was last August 23rd the bypass on the leg. He kept telling me that he was feeling like never before and he kept thanking me and telling me how much he loves me. I, as always, started to tease with him and I told him that he was less “jodido” a word that the Guatemalans used a lot and I prefer not to translate(so you have to use your dictionary), but understand that for the Guatemalans is not the same as the translation you will see. I love my dad’s sense of humor and he has always tell me that without a good sense of humor we will die sooner. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for my dad and I asked to keep praying for us and all the process of immigration so we can go to Mexico and visit my dad after almost six years without being in Mexico.
I would like to be by
I would like to be beside you,
In your aroma.
I would like to be beside you,
In your heart.
I would like to be beside you,
close to you.
I would like to be besides you,
listening.
I would like to be beside you,
going through…..
I would like to be beside you,
Because your aroma reminds me the many mornings
I laid down on the bed waiting for mom to come back from el mercado.
I would like to be beside you,
Because from your heart you can shine the life
of a man who gave everything for his familia.
Because when I am close to you I can travel to beautiful places
through out the music you taught me to listen,
with the words you taught me to enjoy;
with the many books, poems, words coming from your deepest side,
words of a bohemian.
I would like to be beside you,
and listen to your stories, stories of pain and desperation.
Stories that never became words because you never spoke about them.
Words in silence, reflected by your eyes, in the darkness of the room.
Going through your life in the distance is a gift,
a gift I have learned to enjoy through the Man of the Cross.
I would like to be besides you so I can show you the man you have forged;
but the distance is my major enemy.
I know for sure that when you take time to thank the Man of the Cross,
He will tell you about me in the same way He speaks to me about you.
(poem written to my dad in his first surgery, translated by author)
What do you think about this?
Connection is going through a change and it is during this change that I have been thinking a lot. I was wondering the other day how can we fulfill the purpose of the church without being “a church”. Because I know that we are not only Sunday Services, but it seems that we concentrate too much only on Sunday. If we want to be a different “church” we need to think why we need to be different. There are already more than 50 churches in town and all of them offers many programs plus many Sunday services. Is the “church” about programs and services? or is the “people church” about people? Our goal as a “church” is to bring more people to our services so we can be self-supported? or our goal is to bring more people to Christ even if they never come to our “church building”? I taught the other day about church being the community of believers, so it doesn’t matter were you at, the church is there: at the park, at the swimming pool, at the bar, or a restaurant. Church is everywhere were community is happening. I have seen also a lot of organizations concentrating on buildings, yesterday a friend of mine told me that we should put signs outside of big churches that says” is not about a building, but about lives”. Why do we have to pay so much money to rent a place to be able to meet only for Sunday morning? If we are not about Sunday and programs but about people……… What do you think?
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