Traffic, Traffic, Traffic...

Tope, Tope, Tope, TOPE!!! Tope means speedbump in Spanish and this is what Nayeli says to me at least 10 times a day. This week I would like to give you a glimpse into our daily life in the city. Everywhere you go in Guadalara there are speedbumps to help keep the traffic to low speeds, especially in the pueblos and it just so happens that the pueblo we live next to installed at least 20 of them a couple of months ago. They are big too, so you have to go over them super slow or the car scraps, and let me tell ya it really ruffles my feathers! It just makes driving on an already overcrowded and skinny road much harder. Along with the speedbumps, the traffic has been getting worse and worse every year here. They are running more buses and building another train line but it is not enough to reduce the amount of people and cars traveling in and out of the city. There are about 2 hours during the day when there is little traffic not counting early in the morning or late at night but we don't travel super early or super late very often, so that is no help. Instead of driving 20 min somewhere, it is more like an hour. SO WHY ALL THIS COMPLAINING??? Well, living in a huge city and I mean HUGE! There are easily over 9 million people here and just looking at photos or a map does not do it justice. When you drive the different townships, highways, freeways and pueblos which are all inside the general area of Guadalajara it's hard to fathom how many houses and businesses there are not to mention cars. It really is crazy! So, that being said it can be very frustrating driving in traffic with skinny roads, speedbumps, potholes and bad drivers every day. BUT! There is a silver lining in all this, it gives us time alone to talk to each other and God. We have learned over the past several years to take advantage of the traffic, stay calm and chat about everything from ministry to marriage to fun places we want to go. I will say it is a constant challenge to stay calm and focus on the conversation sometimes but it really has built our patience and helped us become better people. Traffic is teaching us important lessons and giving us time to chat, how about that?! So, as you go about your week this week take advantage of those down times and chat with God about life or your family or friends. We never know when our last moment will be so we should take advantage of every one we can.