Mexico: Day One and Two
The mission officially started yesterday. We headed out to the church in the morning and Shawn connected with Pastor Walt. He wasn’t there, but someone else was that had is cell number. We jumped in quick and helped another group that was from Arizona to start painting the church. The paint was the delicious color of nacho cheese. Shortly after that, we sent one group to Costco to get food for the week and the other groups kept painting and started setting forms for one of the concrete pads. There was also a lot of planning, figuring out what we need for each project. We are going to pour a concrete pad for a propane tank, two outdoor showers, install a hot water heater, tile a bathroom, and paint the church building.
When the Costco group got back after many problems related to not speaking/reading spanish, we all returned to our villa to eat some sandwiches. We stood around on the beach for a bit before heading back to the church. When we got back, some of us dug a sweet ditch to provide drainage for the showers. Another group finished painting the second wall and most of the third while one group went off to Home Depot to buy supplies. That was one of the greatest adventures thus far. There was the obvious language barrier, but there was also the lack of clarity in what exactly we were doing, the metric system in length as well as volume, and moving a bunch of bags of concrete mix into the truck and trailer.
After working in the afternoon we returned home and swam for a bit in our ocean. The waves were so quick; there was never a dull moment. An excellent birthday treat for Jesse. After swimming we ate some delicious nachos and the Home Depot team finally arrived at home when the other two teams were finishing their dinner. A little bit later that night we built a fire on the beach and sat around telling each other our thoughts on the trip so far and sang some worship songs. One of the best comments, which was a definite shared sentiment, was the feeling that when it is all over, we are going to go back to life as normal, even though we don’t want to, and we hate that about ourselves. It got quite introspective pretty quick. We are all already being challenged.
Today, we woke up and had some pancakes. We headed over to the church where we got a ton of work done. One group poured the pad for the propane tank while another set the forms for the shower. The third group took off to La Casa de Esperanza. It is a shelter for battered women and children. They helped out the staff there get ready for lunch and cleaned out some rooms for some teachers that will be coming soon. That group returned, and we had some lunch while Shawn left to go buy more concrete because after the adventure yesterday, they didn’t get enough for both pads. When he returned we finished pouring the shower pad with drains and pipes, and we almost finished the fourth wall that needs painting. The water heater was also put in place along with some holes drilled to hook it up. It was an uber-successful day at the church.
When we got back to our house, we swam in the ocean and ate our first meal cooked by Veronica, our Mexican cook. It was amazing food. We also went down the beach to our new Arizonan friends house and worshiped a bit and heard pastor Walt speak. Afterward, the Arizonans prayed for us since they are leaving and we are staying. It was a good time. Now we’re back home and enjoying some down time. I’ve tried to put up a bunch of pictures because that is the best part anyhow.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Dude, you’re actually lucky to have the costco and Home depot. Every time I ever went down we had to bring a food van and one time, we had to break down a house in San Diego so that we had some building supplies. I also fell through the roof of that house.
No matter what happens, it always was a great experience. But after reading your post and thinking about the three or four trips I took, it just makes me want to take a shower.
I’ll be praying for you.