Today we had a little graduation party for one of the English classes I organized for parents at an elementary school here in Salt Lake.
The students are so sweet.
They bought flowers for the volunteer who teaches the class, Laina. They just kept repeating how grateful they are to be taught and to have the class. We gave them certificates & dictionaries to study over the summer.
One of the moms turned to me and said, “We appreciate you so much. We love you, because you’re not a racist.” It was such a bittersweet compliment. It was so kind of her to say, but so sad that she has to suffer the racism of so many people. I wish those people could see how hard they try to learn English and to provide for their children. How grateful they are for simple things, and how openly they love.
What can I say more than the wedding was fabulous. Chrizelle, our new sister-in-law is from South Africa and it has been about a year since she and Peter decided to get married. What they thought would be a 6 month processes to get her finance visa turned out to take about a year. Luckily it came through and Chrizelle came over without a hitch. She has only been here for about a month and in that time Peter and Chrizelle have had to work extra hard planning, preparing, and baking for their wedding. Even with such short notice it was the loveliest of occasions.
The wedding ceremony was just beautiful and the reception, while almost immediately after the ceremony, was great as well. Everyone had a lot of fun, we were able to visit with old friends and family we hadn’t seen in years and the best part of the whole thing is that Peter and Chrizelle looked as happy as I have ever seen them. Congratulations guys!
We have returned from our great adventure to the Yucatan peninsula. We stayed in a fantastic beach house in a small town on the “Riviera Maya” called Akumal. It is about 90 minutes south of Cancun, depending on the driver. It was gorgeous and very peaceful.
Our last night in Mexico, we stayed in Cancun in the main hotel zone. Think of the antethesis of the word peaceful… that’s Cancun. A restaurant had a billboard that was emblazoned with the slogan, “A sunny place for shady people.” There is no better description for Cancun with its miles of hotels, American restaurants, TACKY shops, bars and all that is bad and wrong with America. They even have a Wal Mart. 
Luckily, we chose wisely and steered clear of Cancun for the most part. We visited ruins, snorkeled, swam, layed on our air mattress on the beach, went on a tour of a natural reserve, did a lot of lounging and had a grand ol’ time.
Well so far we have been running around the Yucatan trying to have the times of our lives. We have visited the ruins of Tulum and Chitzen Itza, swam in a cenote or two, and snorkeled in a sea turtle infested bay. Actually the snorkeling with the turtles has been my favorite part. Although every time I have tried to take photos of the animals my crappy underwater cameras seem to break. I have spent about $30 on film and cameras without getting a single shot. While snorkeling on Thursday I saw two barracuda about 4′ long. That was cool. Anyway this internet is too expensive for me so I am going to end here.
Neil has prepared for our voyage to Cancun by buying some new shorts. The closeup view below will give you a glorious view of the brand name of these plaid wonders. Yes, that’s right… Phat Farm. That is an American clothing brand.
Wish us well on our journey. We are going with my entire immediate family. So, naturally we’ll have plenty to blog about when we return.
