Growing Pains

In Mexico, one can nearly sit and watch things grow. A wonderful example of this is the almond tree in our front yard which is only 14 months old, yet it is 10 inches thick and producing fruit. A papaya tree produces fruit only 4 months after it has been planted. This is an amazing place where any indigenous seed could be a tree only months later, but all of this beauty has a price…

Tropical places have more than just beautiful plant life. For one, the tropics are warm. Really warm. Eighty to 100ish degrees warm. I know what many of you are thinking; you’re thinking that 80 degrees doesn’t sound so bad, and you would be right. But let’s remember that we’re still in the tropics, so that 80 degrees is coupled with 70 to 95 percent humidity. This means that even if you are sitting and watching the trees grow, you will still be producing streams of sweat that will be running off your exhausted body. I feel I’ve been adapting quite well, but my wonderful wife, Bri, has been feeling very wiped out, overheated, and dehydrated for much of our time here. She’s getting used to the climate, but it’s just taking her a bit longer.

Then there’s the bug diversity. For the most part, I like bugs; they have a purpose, a job to do, and they do it well. We’ve been watching a lot of National Geographic Live in our house. One day it’s a hoard of ants dragging a cockroach up our wall. The next day we’ll stare at the geckoes fighting over a moth next to the light bulb until we experience nighttime blindness. All of this is great fun, but then there are those other “bugs”. I don’t believe that mosquitoes have a classic function like bugs do, and I mostly refuse to believe that they are bugs at all. No, mosquitoes are actually the spawn of Satan, a horrible blight on humanity, and yes, I wish all of them a slow and agonizing death by magnifying glass.

Outside of the climate related issues there are so many other things that can easily break a person down. I won’t likely ever enjoy the town’s loudspeakers that advertise various things, in the most obnoxious voice you can image, at 6 am, 10:30 pm and anytime in between, but I am finally past being upset about it. It is what it is. These are just people trying to make a living for their families; unfortunately they are making that living at about 100 decibels as telemarketers that you can’t hang-up on. I wish I was joking, but the dog howls in agony from his auditory beating every time the woman starts screaming into the microphone.

Speaking of the completely undisciplined dogs, yes, they do bark in the middle of the night for hours without ceasing. These dogs do, however, bark for a reason. Sometimes they bark because they see a stranger walking into a house that’s several blocks away from their own domain. At this point they alert the entire dog community that this person had the audacity to walk into his own home. They may have also just spotted a particularly menacing grasshopper, or perhaps even their own tails have caught their attention. You never know which life threatening situation might set them off, but I can tell you that a slingshot is an incredible training tool. Animal cookies are given for good behaviors, and rocks at high speeds are given for undesirable behaviors, and I have to say… it’s working beautifully.

Everything in this place takes much longer than it would in the States, and yet, we actually have more time than we used to. Our classes oftentimes make us wonder why on earth we are here in the first place, but then our quiz and test scores come in smelling like roses. Well ok, mine come in smelling a bit like roses that need their water changed, but there is still a sweetness about it.

All of this to say, things grow well in places like Mexico. If one is not careful, weeds can easily grow just as well as delicious fruit. This is a simple, age-old parallel to our own lives. I could, with the greatest of ease, grow malice in my heart toward my many dislikes in life or I can grow character. That brings us back to those horrible mosquitoes. Please understand me when I say this - I HATE MOSQUITOES with every morsel of my being, but (I will surely regret saying this) they do serve a purpose. These pests, like all pests, give way to opportunity, opportunity to develop my patience, increase my tolerance to the uncomfortable, and form me, sometimes violently, into the character of Christ. I will never tell you that I enjoy the process, but much like those test scores, I rather like the outcome.