Hello all! It’s been a while since I have appeared here, I am back with my version of the last few months.

During the time of ‘sofa surfing’ in the UK, life was very busy, and after sitting by myself in the last few months before that, I enjoyed the upbeat change.

When we returned to our small home in Mexico I decided I didn’t want to sit around for the next four years until I leave home. Thus the topic of school came up. It took us a while, we made several trips to the SEC office, (Secretary of EduCation) trying to convince them to let us into the school system. ‘Us’ being Joe, Ben and I because our parents said they weren’t just sending one of us, we come as a package deal. The boys actually ended up starting school before me, much to their chagrin as they were never as keen on going in the first place. Eventually though everybody involved decided I could go.

I found out they were letting me in on the Friday morning and next Monday I was walking into a chaotic classroom of only-Spanish-speaking students. To my mild confusion, I was promptly escorted out of the classroom by the shoulders to an outside courtyard and pulled into a military-like formation. The school sang the national anthem twice, and two other songs I have yet to figure out. The headmistress spoke for a long time into a too-quiet microphone – which I didn’t pay attention to because I was too busy thinking about the mosquitos biting my ankles in my slightly too small mexican-student-sized uniform. Then there were girls in militia uniform who marched around waving the Mexican flag. To be honest at this point I was trying very hard not to burst out laughing, I failed when my classmates demanded I salute to the flag. It lasted around an hour in the end, and I later on found out this was their idea of an assembly.

Within my first week of school I had seen various animals set loose – scorpions, spiders and toads being some examples, and set free to cause havoc within the classroom. Games including whipping each other with your belts, jotters and broomsticks were also bi-hourly occurrences. Within a month I had also experienced; an independence day march, a flooded classroom (which nobody thought to do anything about until two hours into the school day), a first year kidnapped and repeatedly posted through the window (see photo above) – I think he was having fun? I’m not sure I didn’t really see his face. In these moments one debates whether or not to intervene. Besides the possibility of mild, school-related ptsd and a couple headbumps the boy didn’t seem in that much danger. I therefore opted to simply photograph the moment for later amusement.

You may get the impression that not much actual learning gets done in school. And, unless you count the impressive vocabulary of Spanish swearwords I have acquired, (which personally I believe will only get me so far in life) then you would be correct. Most of your actual education is expected to be done at home, half the time the teachers only turn up for the last ten minutes of the lesson to take the register, mark the homework and hand out more. At the beginning this was a struggle managing on top of my IGCSE’s that I am also studying at home. However I am partial to a highlighted timetable, and have fallen into a rhythm that works to keep on top of it all. (I recommend ;). In summary school is an enjoyable experience and I’m glad I’m going.

When I’m not trapped in a classroom with 32 sugar-crazed preteens, I have other activities to keep me busy. Karate (see above) is going well. I have wanted to learn to fight for years, however circumstances have never allowed me to do so. As this is my dream, understandably, I was not particularly up for sharing it with my little brothers. However like I mentioned earlier, we move as a unit. It was quite annoying at the beginning when Joe would keep trying to correct me, and naturally, Ben interrupting my practise every two minutes to ask me to tie his trousers for him was extremely off-putting. However, recently I have adopted a helpful self-improvement mindset and I can just block out the distractions and focus beating up an innocent punchbag (not my brothers, just to clarify – they are not innocent).

I am also helping out in our church in Puerto Morelos, a nearby town. I am on the worship team one Sunday and kidswork the next, and then I alternate between the two. At the beginning this meant six o clock starts to reach church for preservice practise, though recently the church split into two services so I can lie-in a little longer!

The football cage happens on Monday and Wednesday nights in the street outside a local pastors church. While I am not particularly partial to the football part of it, I do enjoy being around. I have made lots of friends (and no, they are NOT all under five) and enjoy sitting and talking with them. Every time I swear I won’t be actually playing I’ll just sit on the sidelines and watch, however all it takes is one wide-eyed look from a local toddler announcing they need a team and I find myself trapped in a literal cage being attacked by three feral five year olds. The cage is so ‘all ability’ that even dogs can take the spot as players. Well according to Canelo (Cinnamon in English) the pastor’s dog who subs in positions and acts like an actual player not just a dog chasing a ball – much to our amusement.

Pic 1: Canelo subbing in as defense in a game. Pic 2: me in the cage with the players roughly on my level. Pic 3: little girls are obsessed with my curls!

My birthday passed recently too, I’ll admit the actual day wasn’t the best I’ve ever had. The tropical weather quite literally rained on my parade, and the thing about Mexicans is, a little drizzle arrives and they’re cancelling. To be fair this was almost a hurricane but you get the point. I was planning a movie night with some school friends and I was also supposed to get baptised in the morning (more on that later). Both were cancelled though, and I spent the day sitting in the dark (the power went out) and the cold (metaphorically of course, I added this for dramatic effect but you get the idea). Both events were postponed and instead I had a very messy birthday party a week later. We made pizza and played lots of floury games.

My baptism was postponed two weeks and that was a fun day too! We did have to get up ridiculously early to be at the beach for 8am in Puerto Morelos (the town is forty minutes away and public transport is about as predictable as my classmates). There were quite a few of us getting baptised and we had a beach party afterwards with lots of food.

I had been thinking about getting baptised for a while so when the opportunity arose I decided to go for it. I figured, if I am going to tell people I am a Christian, whether that be at the cage, in school or somewhere else, and encourage people to explore God and faith I should probably take one of the important steps of obedience myself first! If you haven’t already you can watch my short baptism video below.

So yeah… life is busy and going okay. Coming back this time was easier than the last, probably because I knew what I was coming back to. I still miss Scotland, especially at this time of year – Autumn ( my fav season) and not being around my friends for my birthday, and obviously the run up to Christmas (my favourite holiday). However I have another three years here until I leave home so I figured I might as well enjoy them – you’re only a teenager once and all that. I have moved enough times to know that I’ll probably like it here eventually even if I don’t ever feel called here in the same way my parents are.

Thanks for Reading! Watch this space for more ‘BethBlogs’ in the future for a more gen-z version of our story. Tell me what kind of things you want me to talk about more and if you want to ask more questions just send me at text through whatsapp, if you don’t have my whatsapp…I can’t help you sorry :).