"No te vayas!!"

That is the silly cry that makes me light up with thankfulness. It translates "Don't leave!" My good friends Susy and Yadira have been saying it a lot lately. They are both moms of my students here, and they are dear dear friends of mine. They both help out the school in various ways--in the office, at our community store. This past week I had the privilege of spending time with them while an American team was staying here on an outreach, working on the school. Susy and Yadira were in charge of feeding the team. Now, understand that this is in addition to their already many responsibilites of the day. They arrived every day before 6 am to start preparing breakfast, made sure the team had a beautiful lunch laid out within the craziness of their days, and then there was dinner.

These ladies don't do anything halfway--they made a true authentic Mexican feast each evening for the team--taking up to five hours to prepare each of them. Then they would stay, cleaning and preparing for the next day until 9 pr 10 pm. That's a long day! And in the midst of it all, they let Miss Heidi be a part.

I told Susy that I wanted to learn to make some of the authentic Mexican food they were making. I don't cook much. Okay, not so much at all, especially now that all I have is a microwave and toaster. But I didn't much before I came here either. I mean, come on--unless you're cooking for someone else, what's the point? But I DO want to learn, and Susy reminds me quite often that now I that I can cook I'll find myself a husband. Ha ha ha, she's just so funny. She fits right in to other friendships I have.

So, several times this week, Susy and Yadira let me invade. They say I helped them a lot, but I know I also made a little more work for them. They could have put me off, told me we could do it another time when they weren't making food for twenty people, but they didn't think of it. They welcomed and embraced me, and took the time to patiently teach me. And, you know something--here in Mexico all the women can cook. I'm sure the meals they prepared aren't that different from what all these moms can prepare. To some people, I would seem really dumb for not knowing how to prepare the batter for Chile Rellenos or make enchilada sauce from scratch from dried peppers. But Susy and Yadira were the most encouraging teachers, and never made me feel like I should have already known. They accept me the way I am, and the time I spent with them this week was some of the most fun I've had here.

In between all the cooking, we laughed at just about anything and everyhing. Everything was funny--pretending to chase each other with big kitchen knives, Susy "accidentally" running into me over and over while I was trying to cook, our mutually ridiculous pronunciations of English and Spanish--it was so much fun. And then, they would just ask me questions about my life, and I would ask them...I got to know them so much better through this time. It seems like such a simple thing--"Hey can I cook with you guys?" But God took, like He always does, the seed of something good and blossomed it even more.

Susy and Yadira are amazing. Susy, 26 just like me, yet with four children ten and under. Yadira, 22, with a six-year-old boy, and twin one-year-old girls. How do they do it all? They've lived such different lives than me, yet our friendships transcend whatever boundaries I might have thought too difficult to cross. Nothing is too difficult for the Lord, that is for sure. Hey, if He can teach me how to cook, He can do anything.