Pitalla(pronounced Peetaya): A fruit that you pick off a cactus, wormy in look, and thorny before ripe. When ripe, thorns fall off, making it easier to eat. (definition taken from Websters Dictionary. Just kidding :-)) Pitallas are a fruit that grows on cacti, and start to ripen around mid-May. By the time July comes around, they are yeilding their last fruits. You may wonder how they are picked. Some grow at about 40 feet off the ground, making it almost impossible to reach. Only the birds eat those. But the ones growing 25 feet and lower are picked with a long bamboo stick. On the top of the stick is a sharp point, which is poked into the pitalla. Then, after giving the stick a shove, the pitalla breaks lose from the cactus while staying on the sharp point (Usually. Sometimes it falls off the tip, splattering on the ground and ruining the fruit.) After lowering it and knocking the loose thorns off, it is put into the bucket. In one afternoon, our record pick is 9 1/2 dozen, thanks to Jesse and Miguel. But, that isn´t the finished product yet, at least for us. We enjoy our pitallas really cold, so we put them in the freezer to cool them down for dessert after supper. Oh, is that the dinner bell? I´d better go now. I don´t want to miss out on the pitallas. :-)
	Shootings! Drugs! Murders! That is what some people think of when they hear of Choix. Quite often, the newspapers in other bigger cities are talking about crime that has happened in or around Choix. The main reason for this is the rampant drug scene going on in the mountains, causing a lot of violence. Recently, the army has cracked down on this area, having three army bases and bringing in helicopters to look for drugs growing in the mountains. The biggest need that Choix has is the Lord's breakthrough.
	We are in a valley and surrounded by mountains. About half an hour away from here, you can get on a train which can take you on a beautiful trip through those mountains, where you pass over high bridges, go through midnight-black tunnels, catch a glimpse of a waterfall, wave to children when you go through little mountain villages, and just enjoy God's beautiful scenery. At the beginning of the train ride, you will see scrubland, but as you gain altitude, pine trees will start to appear, with little streams close by.
	Running close to Choix is it’s main water source: The Choix River (That’s not it’s actual name, but that’s what we call it). Last year, people were getting nervous that Choix would run out of water because it almost dried up. Since the city water is gotten out of a deep well underneath the river, the river is very important to Choix. Now that we're in the rainy season, the river has plenty of water.
	About a 20-minute drive away from Choix is a huge dam. It has miles of lake behind it, providing much water for fishing. There are some resorts to which Americans come and fish at times. The water let out of the dam is then sent to Los Mochis, a big agricultural area about 100 miles south-west of us. We heard that some of the electricity produced by the dam is sent up to the States!