Mexico Trip

Hey everybody!  I’m back from Mexico!  Actually, I was back a week ago, but I could not force myself to write a post up until now.  So, I’ve decided to write to you all about how my trip to Mexico went, and chose to make it a three part series.  The first is a day-by-day description on what I did.  The second post will be about the disabled “kids” I got to work with.  And the third post will be about what God showed me while I was down there.  Hopefully, some pictures will be sprinkled about also.  I will blog one post per week.  Anyways, I do hope you enjoy, and here is the first post.

Saturday-  Saturday we drove all day and night down to Mexico.  I drove with the Slaydens, and Eli, Tanya, and Andrew.  Pretty much the entire ride down I read, although Ronita (Mrs. Slayden) was able to pull me away every once in awhile.  We were probably an hour away from Cottage Grove, when the other van decided they needed a new vehicle, because there's kept breaking down.  So, we had to drive back to Cottage Grove, get a new van, and get back on the road.  On the way down we got a little separated from the van, and when we finally caught up to them, we saw they were helping some people out, because they had gotten into an accident.  Apparently, they saw the whole thing, and one car hit the tail gate of another, which rammed into the tailgate of another.   Then, that car flipped into the air, and landed hood first on the side.  So, the van got out to help them.  But we were back on the road again soon, and everyone was fine.

  Then a few hours later, I look up from my book to find out we’ve separated from the van, and can’t find them.  I’m not exactly sure what we were doing, but we eventually found them, and continued.  

Sunday-  When we crossed the border and was in Mexico, we stopped by a really good restaurant.  It was called Los Ponchos, and they had really good tortas.  They were spicy, but DELICIOUS!  We got to the orphanage about six o’clock, and I met up with Audrey and Taylor, and watched as they ate some dinner.  Around seven, they gave us orientation, and Audrey introduced Hana, Tanya, and I to the orphan girls.  

Monday-  I had projects all day on Monday.  And starting at seven thirty, Sherri, Andrew, Arianna, Ethan, Taylor, and I, all cleaned up the casino, swimming area, and classroom.  All the others on project did painting and concrete at the infirmary.  At twelve we broke for lunch, then forty-five minutes later we started up again, and I went to help my Dad because my group was done.  Dad had me clean out gutters until four, then I got my break.  Tommy was gone all day because the van broke down, so he had to go back to the states to get parts.

Tuesday-   I had projects until twelve o’clock with Audrey and Ronita, detailing wheelchairs.  We talked for a long time about “deep” stuff.  Then we had lunch, and Ronita and I got to take care of the kids.  I fed Nilse for lunch, then I colored with Lupe and Karina for the first two hours..  And the entire time Karina was talking about how we should not draw on ourselves, because she got in trouble when she did.  She calls everyone ‘honey’ and ‘sweetie’ and ‘baby’.  And she acts like the big sister of the family.  Then I overheard her telling Rachel about throwing a surprise party for Grace in December, and that it was a secret!  

  For the next hour I played puzzles with Lucy, and actually we mostly just sorted through them, because it was five different puzzles mixed together.  Lucy’s sixteen years old, and she’s very sweet.  Then after I got off, I barged in on a dancing lesson of Audrey, Taylor, and a girl named, Sarah.  Sarah does ballet, and Taylor was trying to teach her dubstep, but she kept mixing the positions with ballet.  Then Sarah tried to teach Taylor ballet, which was also interesting.

Wednesday-  I had dishes with Taylor and Mary.  So each time we got done with our meals we spent the next hour and a half rinsing, washing, bleaching, cleaning, and drying the dishes.  About half an hour into it, the orphans would start eating, and we’d get their dishes.  After the breakfast dishes Taylor and I went into the bedroom, and she sorted her clothes and listened to my ipod, while I did my devotions on identity.  Then Audrey called us over and said they wanted us with the cameras because they were going to give the shoes out to the kids.  So, we went over, and I put shoes on Laura, then I started taking pictures.  After awhile the excitement calmed down, and everyone went back to their jobs.  Except for Taylor and I, who played with the kids and Hana (Hana’s job was the kids).  I took pictures of the girls and everyone else on the tire swing.  

  Then, I started taking pictures of them on the trampoline coloring.  Eventually one of the staff member’s kids started playing with us, and he was like four or five, his name was Aiseth.  We ended up all lying on the trampoline together, in order of, Aiseth, Taylor, Lupe, Hana, Lucy, me, Ana.  Then suddenly, Lucy sat up and started tickling Hana and I, and we both screeched from surprise.  But we got her back later.  Then we had to go to lunch, and we did dishes again.  Then we went and helped part of the crew on projects and raked leaves, and pulled weeds.  We ended up having to get the ant spray and killing some ants, because we found a bunch a sugar ants, and Mary thought they were fire ants.  

  Then for the last forty-five minutes before dinner we went swimming.  When we got out of the pool, it had ended with Hana, Audrey, Taylor, Ronita, Brett (Mr. Slayden), Mr. Murray, and I all swimming.  Then at seven-thirty we all went out to the amphitheater to do a teaching, and we couldn’t find Hana.  At first we just waited, but then we started yelling, and then looking.  And we eventually found her with Sarah.

Thursday-  I had projects in the morning, and my crew finished up the raking we didn’t get done the day before.  Then I had the afternoon off, and so did the rest of my crew since we got done.  So, Dad, Tommy, Hana, Tanya, Jacob, Nicholas, Amanda, Eli, Arianna, and I all went into town to look around.  Dad and I bought Riah, Sarah, and Leah a backpack each.  Then a xylophone guitar for Tessah.  Eventually, we went back and Arianna and I got the kids for the evening shift.  We hung out with them as they watched Anne of Green Gables, and I watched as Lupe colored some green apples.  She said that she liked green apples, and I told her about the apple tree full of green apples in my backyard.  She said, “Send me a picture.”

  So, I told her I would.  Then a whole bunch of people came in all at once, and started talking with the girls.  Apparently, they were YWAMers, who knew the orphans, and came down to Mexico to work on a house nearby.  So they stopped to say hi.  Then, Karina asked me to wheel her to the next room to hide a picture for Grace.  A little while later, I went to dinner, and quickly scarfed down my food, then went to finish my shift with the girls.  This time I sat on the ground with Ema, and just hugged her the entire time.  Whenever I would say, “Hi Ema,” to her, she‘d laugh and say “Hi Emma.”  Because she thought it was funny we had the same name.

  Then it was six-thirty, and my shift was over.  So, I went around hugging all the girls, and saying bye.  Lucy was the second one I said bye to, and when I did she wouldn’t let go of me, and she was sobbing so much.  Finally, with tears, I said good-bye to her, and went onto Karina.  Who asked me not to cry, and said she loved me.  Then I said bye to Laura, and Magali, then hugged Ema for awhile, and she also asked for my address, so I wrote it down in her notebook.  Then I said bye to Lupe, and told her I’d send her a picture of the apple tree, then went and said bye to Ana.  Then I made some quick good-byes to Sela, Mari, Nilse, and Jena.  Then I said bye to Rachel, and left.  I went and started packing, but then Dad found me, and said there was ice cream up in the meal room, so I went up there and ate a bowl.  Then, I went back down and finished packing, then came back up for another bowl.  

  Then at seven-thirty, we all went to the sign at the entrance and took pictures of everybody, then up to a cross and did the same thing.  

Friday-  We headed out at five forty-five, and as we were leaving we saw Ema waving to us from outside.  We waved back as we drove away.  When we got to the border, we had some trouble when the lady asked if Tommy had crossed the border at all from arriving in Mexico.  He said, “Yeah, I came through yesterday.”

  “Well, then do you remember me?”  she asked.

  “Yeah.”  answered Tommy.

  “I wasn’t working yesterday.”  she accused of him.

  “Oh, oh, it was a couple days ago.”

  Then she asked us all to get out.  So, we all got out of the van, and went through security, showing them our passports, and telling them what we bought in Mexico.  Which was nothing, in my case.  Then I switched into the Slayden’s car again, and read until we stopped at eight fifteen to fix the van.  We had breakfast at Subway.  Then, we headed out again at ten.  At three o’clock we got to Six Flags, and the first ride we went on was Revolution, which was not bad at all.  

  Then we waited for an hour in line to go to Roaring Rapids, which we got really wet for.  Then we waited another hour for Tatsu, where you’re looking down the entire time.  We got a picture and my face was all red.  Then we went to try Superman, but changed our minds after half an hour of waiting.  Two of us had bailed out all ready, it looked boring, and we would have had to wait another hour.  So we went to try Full Throttle, and waited for another hour, then right when we were about to get on, the ride broke down.  So we left.  So, we decided just to look for rides with short lines, because we only had two hours left.  

  We eventually found Goliath which had no line at the entrance.  Andrew ran ahead to see if the line was long- as in less than half an hour.  He came back and said that it was way too long, and to go find another ride, and I was fine with that.  We all started to turn around, but Jessica stopped us and said, “You guys, the end of the line is right there, I can see it.”

  Andrew tried to argue with her, and tell her there were stairs, but she insisted.  “It will only take half an hour at most.”  she insisted.

  So, because of that we sat in the line for another hour, and finally got onto the ride.  Which was awesome!  It was totally worth the wait!  In the beginning, you go up, then there’s a two hundred fifty-five foot drop.  Then twists and turns, and it was AWESOME!  Then we left, and drove for another hour to the motel.  I slept in a room with Tanya, Ronita, and Hana.  We stayed up till one, talking about the trip.

Saturday-  We left the motel at nine thirty, and I was in the Slayden’s car again, except Brandon replaced Eli this time.  I pretty much read up until the point when Ronita told me I needed to put the book down and socialize.  So, I put it down, and we began playing Truth or Truther.  It’s basically Truth or Dare, but we couldn’t play the dare in the car, so we replaced it with truther.  We played that until about twelve, and by that time it had dwindled down, and we stopped.  I began reading again, and about three o’clock we turned music on and rocked out a bunch.  Then we had dinner, and did some other things.  Then when we were an hour away from home we all got up to go to the bathroom, and then we started to play Truth or Truther again to survive the last hour.  Then we were home.

Hope you enjoyed that.  Some time this next week the post about the kids will be blogged, along with pictures!  See you then, and God bless you!