Flush Toilets

Why a blog about flush toilets? Well ... let's just say that everyone is anxious to return to the States for flush toilets! Here in Mexico City, absolutely no toilet paper is allowed in the toilets. Nada. None. Zilch. One of the many sacrifices in coming to visit Mexico City.

Okay, so yes, this does create an interesting dilemma. Something you need to learn to adjust to. There are wastebaskets with plastic liners in each bathroom next to each toilet to help dispose of the, ummm, "used" paper. Sometimes, if you're not so fortunate, there are no plastic liners. Yuck! And yes, the the nostrils do notice ... particularly the Chica's bathroom which had blockage in their shower which created a situation in which the smelly water overflowed out onto the bathroom floor. mmmm mmmmm smelling good! Such are some of the sacrifices of the "little things" one deals with on a mission trip to Mexico City.

Thursday Blog

Today we opted to stay home, opposed to getting up early for another day in Mexico City. People are wiped out, sick, emotionally spent and on top of a short nights sleep and another long driving day, it just wasn’t sounding very appealing. So we slept in, had pancakes and eggs, played a lot of cards, watched movies, read, then went shopping again in Texcoco and ate dinner in downtown Texcoco. Nice lazy day ... which was just what the doctor ordered. Spirits are up and nobody has killed anybody yet ... yet that is. ;-) We did make a visit to Rolland’s favorite ice cream spot, Santa Clara ... good old fashioned hard ice cream.

We’re anxious to get back home to Salem and see you all again! Tomorrow we’re still on for our raw fish delicacy with a local Mexican family and the Smiths and Nevins, and we’ll be picking up some carne asada on the way to bring just to be safe ... mmmmmmm.

Wednesday Blog

Mexico City today. We first drove to the Basilica, home of the Mexican Catholic church. Very interesting to observe all of the people who come daily, many on their knees to “pay” for their salvation. They are literally taking in millions of dollars daily from all of the various holy water sprinkling, penance, pictures of guadalupe (the virgin Mary), etc. We observed a mass in session, saw the statue of the Pope (holding a very small cross with Christ on it, demonstrating where they place their emphasis), and saw guadalupe’s everywhere. People also come to kiss a replica of what they believe is the actual cloth the baby Jesus was wrapped in at the manger for extra blessings they think they will receive.

A Mexican woman who spoke English came up to me, asking where we were from to start a little conversation. She pointed out that she had stage four cancer just a few months ago, and after visiting the Basilica and getting “healed” that her cancer is now gone. She wanted us to know just how “real” everything we were seeing was.

We spent the afternoon in a market in the middle of Mexico City doing some more shopping. Lots more trinkets and fun times. Carl then took us to a fabulous dinner in downtown Mexico City. I think that the consensus was that this would be like a Mexican Denny’s ... ;) With a few getting sick and “loopy,” we opted to have Antonio drive us to a Starbucks for a little pick-me-up. Much needed!

Enter Mexican Ballet at 8:30. This was a treat for everyone ... tremendous performance with some serious high energy dancing throughout the entire 1 1/2 hours. The history of Mexico, their culture, etc. was all depicted through dance ... lots of stomping, tap dance, many colorful outfits and dresses, sombraros, sword fighting, marichi bands and singers, drums, a hunter and deer dance, various marriage ceremony dances, and on and on. Cheeks purchased a DVD on the way out ... a real “deal” out in the parking lot! You’ll have to check it out when Cheeks gets back for those who want to see it firsthand.

Tuesday Blog

Today was a sleep in day. Ya! For the most part, a good nights sleep at that. We secured a Combi (VW van taxi) and all piled in for a trip into Texcoco. Mexican breakfast at Laura's favorite coffee house was enjoyable to everyone. Did some more shopping at the local markets and we ran into Angel and Austre from 2008 VBS! Carl, Noah, Beth and Noah all knew both boys as well as their mom and we took a picture and visited with them. They were unable to attend VBS this year since both boys were sick during our VBS week. Good to catch up with them.

We are gearing up for two Mexico City tour days and we likely won't be able to blog until Friday so I'll give you an idea of the plans to keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow morning we're heading to the Ballista (the largest Catholic Cathedral of Mexico City) and we will enjoy an authentic Mexican dinner out. They serve authentic fried grubs ... yes, the plan is to order a plate and pass it around to EVERYONE to sample the grubs. Tasty stuff! Tomorrow evening we plan on attending the Mexican ballet. This is song, dance, performance, etc. depicting the history of Mexico, Cortez, the famous "ball game," etc. and should be enjoyable. We likely won't be back home until midnight.

Then Thursday morning we're up at the crack of dawn (yes, after getting home around midnight) to visit the dinosaur exhibit (full size dino skeletons, some robotics, etc.) in Mexico City, the Mexico City zoo, archeological museum, more shopping, and another authentic dinner. Hopefully all goes well regarding safety, travels, food, and fun. We'll try to blog some before we pack up for home.

Friday, one of the Mexican families has invited us out for dinner. He has a family member who is a butcher and they want to treat us to some delicacies ... squid, fish, and other items which sounds similar to sushy ... treated with lime, spices, etc. They suggested we bring some bbq chicken, etc. in case some of the young ones don't fancy the specialties. mmmmmmm.

Also, please continue to pray for our interactions with the missionaries, counseling opportunities, and support for Rolland and Jo Ann, Bryan and Susan, and anything else that comes up throughout the course of the week.

Maranatha!

Sam's Salon

So what about haircuts, manicures, etc. while staying in a foreign country you may wonder? Well, Sweet Cheeks got a haircut for 30 pesos, which he paid the guy 50 pesos (nice tip) ... 30 pesos is just over two bucks American. Now Noah on the other hand, is another story. Sam brought hair cutting scissors and ended up cutting/trimming Karen, Kayla, Kimmie, Beth, and Noah's hair. Now they were all trims, and Sam's first male customer of her life is Noah Chica! It's SHORT ... ;) And Cheeks is calling him a "cute little dude" ...

In Texcoco, the Bains purchased some nail polish for her since she cut three of their four heads, so now coming up in Sam's Salon are going to be toenails and fingernails. Fun fun fun!

Monday Blog

Today was a sleep in day with a light schedule. Everyone enjoyed getting some extended sleep before a nice big breakfast. After pushing so hard for the past two weeks, we played cards most of the morning and/or slept.

We had Antonio take us around Texcoco for some local ruin view in the downtown, some shopping, ice cream, churros as well as the cultural center. The presentation at the cultural center was interesting as we learned about the history about the area leading up to Cortez.

Carl and Laura stayed with Rolland and Jo Ann for some counseling with a gal who attends Rolland's church while the rest of us went back home to crash after a day on the town of Texcoco.

Baby Salamander

During our movie we watched Sunday night after all of the days activities, the kids discovered a little salamander scooting around inside our casa. Yes, this is of course very big news! The kids brought it over so everyone could check it out and it “slipped” out of one of their hands. They were standing directly behind Sam and she joked, “Where is it? Did it fall down my pants?” And Laura looked down stating, “Dude! You aren’t kidding!” Eiy Yi Yi! Eebee Jebeez!!! You'll have to ask Sam about the details ... :)

Sunday Blog

This morning we got to attend the Nevin’s and Smith’s church and Sam, Beth, and Kendra helped lead music and they sang a special number before Pastor Carl preached about faith. Following the sermon the Mexicans put on a pot luck for us to enjoy with some authentic fare ... mmmmm.

That afternoon we visited the ancient Aztek pyramids. Carl, Beth and Sam took their second trip there accompanying the family group as they were part of the student trip earlier. Very interesting to check out the ruins. However, today was a free day for the local Mexicans, so it was crowded and a 30 minute wait to climb the Pyramid of the Sun, whereas on the student trip there weren’t any lines at all. But we had a great time and did some more shopping at the market there to pick up some trinkets.

Fireworks have been a daily event as there is a Catholic saint assigned to every day and most regions have their saint, which is celebrated down here with fireworks. However, tonight must have been a more than significant saint or the local saint, because the fireworks outside our backyard window were nothing short of spectacular. Nice little bonus.

We heard from the students that their flight to Dallas was delayed and they missed their connecting flight, and then weren’t able to connect for the standby either. We are praying that they will be able to make it on the Sunday night flight. However, staying in the Hilton after Mexico City isn’t exactly roughing it either ... ;) Pray for their safety, we’re sure they are ready to get home to see you all!

Saturday Blog

Big day today for all of the girls - after sleeping in, they went to a local beauty salon in Texcoco for some nice nail work - paintings and extensions, etc.. Fun time ...

We invited the Nevins and Smiths over for dinner at our casa. Following dinner, the men met and Pastor Carl described our men’s discipleship, deacon and elder training programs. Rolland and Bryan are working on establishing an elder training program and are praying to have a couple of men rise up within their growing church. We encouraged them and spent time in prayer for them.

Photos Reminder

REMINDER ... photos are continually being added to at the BOTTOM of the blog ... scroll all the way down and click on the photos so see everything we continue to toss online. We will be returning with many many more photos, and have only limited amounts we can upload via the internet, but we continue to add more as often as possible.

Friday Blog

Today everyone attended VBS for our final day. There were over 50 kids again today and once again a group of kids were desiring to learn more about Christ and were presented the e-cube. The teenagers that had been a little bit stand-off-ish all week finally warmed up to us beyond playing soccer and basketball. We had the opportunity to share the e-cube with them after buying them some cokes, and one of them is a believer. The park where we held VBS all week is the neighborhood hangout for a couple of the older kids who deal drugs and are heading down a dark path. We discussed the options that these younger teenagers have before them regarding eternity and the choices they have before them, comparing what they see right in front of them. The older kids fully joined in by the end of VBS, which was a small miracle in itself. Rolland and Jo Ann Smith will continue to work with a local couple who is running an AWANA program from their house and attempt to follow up with many of these kids in the housing project.

We went to Pollo Argentina for a delicious lunch of bbq chicken and carne asada. Marcos and Sweet Cheeks prefer the spicy taco choice, but for most in the group this was the consensus favorito restaurant for the week.

Tonight we will have our final time together and will read from scripture and give testimonies as to what Christ accomplished over this past week. Thank you all so much for your prayers back home!

Thursday Blog

Today was our largest day with 55 clubbers, 10 of them new for the first time this week. The kids are really looking forward to coming and seeing our team and enjoying VBS. Many of the students took a trip to the local Texcoco market and did some shopping among the more authentic market (opposed to the more tourist type areas). The smells from the raw meat, pork rinds, and other various “authentic” foods permeated the scene. Mucho purses and trinkets ...

We also ate at one of the nicest authentic restaurants in Texcoco. Goat shoulder, raw meat (yes, no typo. Check with Sweet Cheeks to see how that one was!), tamarindo (nut juice), watermelon juice, horchata, Carne Asada and enchaladas were among the choices. We also visited a cathedral which was holding mass. In the front was a bed with Jesus in it, and every January first they lower the bed down for people to come and view it. A vivid reminder of the darkness that abounds down here.

Bug Attack

Mosquitos and flies have been in a full fledged frontal attack all week. We have been experimenting with sticky tape thingys you hang from the ceiling, which have caught some flies, room plug-in bug killers, deet bug repellant, and Senor Carlos even offered each of the young kids 5 pesos to each kid who showed him 5 dead bugs in an offensive effort. Mass bug bites and itchy-ness abound ...

Wednesday Blog

We had another great day at VBS with nearly 50 kids. Only Laura and Zach stayed home today, which means people are recovering well from various upset stomachs, etc. More kids raised hands and wanted to learn more about Christ and were presented with the e-cube.

The students and Pastor Carl visited the pyramids in the afternoon and got to see the Aztec ruins firsthand. The entire group then met back after the pyramid tour and went to El Guero (“The White Man”) for some authentic spicy tacos for dinner. Mucho picante!

Tonight Carl shared a scripture with the group and we each had opportunity to share how Christ is using or challenging us individually this week and how our hearts are bringing glory and worship to Him through our actions. God is growing each one of us in mighty ways! Although we are all tired, fully exhausted, mentally and/or emotionally worn down, God has been good. He has supernaturally energized everyone to represent Christ, both in our house as well as at VBS.

Tuesday Blog

We returned to Heroes today and our group of kids grew to 42 kids, many new today that didn't come yesterday. More parents showed up today as well from the community. This area is number 19 and is fairly new. It is 19 of 45 sectors, and overall there are 6 areas like this. Each sector has approximately 10 blocks that are equivalent to 90 - 100 homes jammed together and each also has a park identical to the one we hold our VBS in. We estimated that his type of housing in these areas alone hold approximately 500,000 people. Amazing!

Many of the older kids that have been checking us out softened up somewhat and we played soccer, basketball, and they hung out until the end and they stayed for snacks and we'll see how that progresses for the week. The kids have warmed up to all of our girls during club, playing games, loving on them, etc. Many of the moms and one dad who is a doctor at the university joined in with some jump roping after club with our team as well.

Also of note, everyones health has immensely improved today. Marcos was on "Agua Patrol" hounding everyone to pound the liquid. We also celebrated Ali's 19th birthday (one of our Mexican missionaries) and we surprised her after club by having the two of them along with Rolland and Jo Ann out to our casa and had a big chocolate cake, sang Spanish Happy Birthday, and enjoyed some fellowship together. Keep your prayers coming. Specific items to pray for: our team, maintaining the team unity (which has been Supernatural and of Him thus far), the kids and their families and the impact of hearing the Gospel, for Antonio our driver (who is not a believer, but has been very interested and hangs around during all of our clubs both last week and this week and also asked Carl why people would come down here for their vacation) and for the individual growth of everyone here from Oregon. God Bless!

Shout Outs!

Ma and Pa Kelly - Holahey! I get to use mi spanglish here. I miss you all (including David and Joey and all those married folk). See you soon with the traditional spanish “buzz kiss.” I may need to move here as well as Germany. I will have to make up for all of the “1000 words a day” for the whole week for the Lord has been doing so much!! Love, Kristin :-D

Jan and Phil~

I miss you guys tons. We are doing great here... only a little sickness and some broken things :) I hope everything is going great. Hope Pete and Nessa aren’t too much trouble ;) See you in a few days. Love you.

~Ash

Mom and Dad and Hannah and Heather Williams:

HOLA! I love and miss all...would have called a long time ago, but don’t have phone access. :) Hope you’re all doing well. I sure am! Thanks for your cards...they made my day! Love you all and i’ll see you soon! I’ll try to call in Texas. :) Love: Caley Bug

Hola family and friends-- God is good! All is well. Thankful for plenty of rest and no sickness. I am using my Spanish A LOT. I love sharing Christ with the kids. I love you all. -Beth

Hey there Dan and my 3 lil kiddos! I miss you guys a TON, but that is NOT stopping me from serving God and the people here! I can’t wait to see ya’ll on Saturday...or the kids that is on Sunday! Hope you are staying out of trouble and being good for Dad! :) Love you all! And “hola” to my other family (mom, dad, sisses, etc) and friends! Can’t wait to see you either!

-Love, Anna

Hey family!!

I miss you all!! It has been such an amazing experience so far! The kiddos are sooooo cute and my spanish is much better this year so it is a lot easier to communicate, even though I still have no idea what they are saying a lot of the time haha. Yesterday and the night before was not super comfortable...i shall explain later as Pastor Carl says that I must be careful with my words on here... :) Anywho! I love you all! Ttyl!

~Amanda

Hola Mis Galver Padres y hermana:)

I miss ya’ll tons...BUT I’m having a wonderful time QUE BUENO! The Lord has been so evident during this trip it’s been awesome and I’ve been tested in many ways already...but growing like a plant, fertilized with the word of God! No sickness yet...maybe my Mexican genes play in my favor down here :) The Lord has opened my Spanish translation skills but the speaking is still a bit rocky...but many fun moments:) Te amo todos!

SAMJO

Communication Faux Paux

So one of our groups first International blunders came at the expense of Mr. Drain, formerly known as Mr. Bain. Carl and Mark had gone out to grab a burger with Rolland and Jo Ann and on the way out, Marcos turned around and nearly ran over a small Mexican girl and said “Excusa Me!” Marcos confidently had been working on his Spanglish. Once out on the sidewalk, Jo Ann nicely informed us that Marcos had just requested that the little girl flush him down the toilet! No wonder she looked at us with such a peculiar stare!

Now Pastor Carl laughed most of the rest of the night, made a lengthly retelling of the story the next morning at breakfast to our group, and finally retold the entire story to Antonio, our van driver, on the way to Monday morning VBS. And yes, the “encouragement card wall” mysteriously filled up with sorted images of toilets with Mr. Drain being disposed of in a variety of ways ...

All About Sinks and Windows

Another of life’s little mysteries is, “How exactly do they build sinks and windows down in Mexico City?” Hey, I’m so glad you asked! Let’s start with the bunkhouse. Now, not being female, nor living in the bunkhouse, I can really only provide you with the report and results. The actual contents of the story will have to come from one of the girls involved. Now I do know how men act in a group shower situation. Depending upon your towel snapping prowess, you either play “offense” or “defense” and no, age really has nothing to do with this “immature” activity. Now whether towel snapping, or simply leaping off the sinks in some sort of display was involved, again, you will have to ask the girls for a first hand account. But what I do know is one of the sinks ended up on the floor, broken. Now the other two (yes, they had no less than three sinks ... speaking from the “house” side where the Bain’s share one bathroom (not too bad) and the Chica’s share one bathroom ... yes, if you are thinking seven people and one sink you are starting to get the picture) sinks in the bunkhouse are sketchy at best regarding how solidly attached they are. But Ashley, oops, did I mention a name? I forgot we weren’t going to do that.

Okay, so why wonder about windows? Wells, they have bars on the windows, which are installed on the inside. This seems nice, allows one to open the windows to let in a breeze, etc. So during the family day, Noah and others of us, along with the Mexicans, engage in a favorite activity down here of playing soccer. Competition being what it is, a nicely placed kick landed a soccer ball in middle of one of the windows of the bunkhouse. Now there are bars on the windows as you recall, but they are on the inside of the window. Right, so not much good here other than keeping the ball out of the house. Now since one broken window isn’t enough, Cheeks, Noah, and company thought hey, we gotta finish our game! Okay, so you see this one coming from a mile away. The window directly above the previously broken one becomes the next target. Noah is now able to join the Mexicans in feelings of remorse and guilt ... poor little Noah ... actually it was difficult to show that sympathy amidst laughing so hard, but Noah, there was sympathy for ya! Builds character. Toughens one up. Okay, back to VBS and enough pondering for now...

Water and Electricity

So, how exactly does one’s hot water arrive in his or her shower you may wonder from time to time. So glad you asked. First, the Mexican mechanics. The girls bunkhouse with Beth and Anna, as well as the Chica and Bain house, each have an underground tank of water. This tank has an electric pump that pumps water from the underground tank through a small pipe to a large black tank on the roof of the house. (Yes, I do realize the questions you may already have ... hang on). Once there, gravity takes the water from the big black tank down another small pipe to the water heater, all of this still outdoors mind you. The pilot light needs to be lit for heat, in which reading Spanish instructions is mildly helpful during this process. Now that the water is hot, when you turn it on in the house (bathroom, kitchen, etc.) gravity is how fast you can get it.

So exactly how big is the hot water tank? Thanks for asking. There are those of us with the privilege of finding out that the water tank holds exactly 8 1/2 showers ... give or take. What does it look like to find this seemingly trivial information out? Well, let’s walk through the process. After a long days activities and not enough sleep, it’s time to shower. Amidst a hot refreshing shower, shampoo nicely lathered up in your hair ... BAM! ... just like that, no water. Not just no hot water mind you. No water. Done. Nada. Yeah ... that sinking feeling that started up in your gut finally makes its way to your brain and you only then realize just how limited your options really are. You see, a call for help at that point becomes a rather delicate situation. Help can arrive in the form of involving others ... “Hey, did all the rest of you guys know what’s happened to ... ?” Or your help may involved your spouse handing you cold water from the sink, glass by glass (yes, this is not the fastest or most comfortable of processes) until you have sufficiently rinsed out enough shampoo to be “done.”

Now from here, we begin to ponder electricity. What does electricity have to do with an uncomfortable shower? Hey, so glad you wondered. Recall how the water gets pumped to the roof of the house, so that gravity can do it’s thing to get water into the tank? Right. So why not just turn on the switch and be done? There is nothing to stop the pump from continuing to pump once it’s full, so it manually needs to be turned off. You’re right ... you want to do this before 8 1/2 showers, give or take, have taken place. But it’s not that simple. The fuse box, previously mentioned by Carl’s small miracle in a blog, does not provide enough electricity for the fridge, lights, curling irons, iPod and phone and camera chargers, clocks we plugged in, coffee, and cooking griddles. Now understand that often the straw that breaks the camels back is that coffee maker (Laura), not that we’re mentioning any names (Laura) in order to protect the innocent (Laura). The situation is quite different for the one (Laura) in the kitchen. Fully clothed, able to freely walk about and make many of lifes trivial decisions such as, “hmmmm ... coffee really sounds good about now. I think I’ll turn it on.” Yes, this blows the fuse, stops the electricity, and becomes a frustration due to lack of coffee and lighting until the fuse (yes, a Mexican fuse and a Mexican fuse job) gets repaired. (I can only imagine just how much fun Pastor Justin might be able to have playing with the fuse box). But this frustration of the “trial” of patience waiting for hot coffee and lights differs just slightly from that of the sudsy shampoo-ridden unlucky shower number nine victim. Not being clothed, wet, shampoo dripping from your head, your options literally shrink right before your very eyes and you envy the options of, well let’s face it, anyone else in the house. So now you know and you don’t any longer need to wonder.

Monday Blog

Today we departed for Heroes (pronounced like Arrow-ess) for our second week of Club de Ninos, first week for most of the students and Beth and Anna. However, following our family day yesterday, the injured reserves list (out with “mal” stomach or other assorted issues) included: Laura, Kendra, Sophia, Caley, Brittnay, Amanda, Ashley, and Karen. However, in order to field a full team, we only benched Laura, Kendra, Anna and Zach who stayed home with mucho resto. Everyone else played through the pain. Attaway! “Diah Poo Poo” became the talk of the day for the girls. We attribute this widespread catastrophe to an “authentic” pot of beans that was served yesterday. Perhaps it was the mystery meat ...

Our two Mexican missionaries this week are Samai and Ale (pronounced Samm-ah-ee and Ali) who are both very nice girls. Our VBS at Heroes is in a track housing area, with some government assistance. Many casas literally identical, and if you make a wrong turn on a street it’s time for a hail mary pass to find your way out. There is a very nice park that we will have for the week with a basketball court, soccer court, cement area for chalk, jump rope, etc., an area to hang a tarp (way to climb the trees to secure the rope Noah, our in-house grease monkey) for shade, and a play area with swings, teeter totters, pummel horse, even bars, and other various play equipment.

We had 28 kids turn out for day one. The plan is to do additional canvasing early tomorrow morning. The entire area received fliers over the weekend. However, there were a lot of teenagers hanging around the park, so perhaps the moms were checking us out and the safety of the park before sending their kids. Several of the kids came after club got going today and we’ll see what the Lord has planned for the week. Also, our previous location Rolland and Jo Ann had been working in for many years, whereas they have only been working on this location for four months, and this is their first VBS at Heroes. Spirits are up, everyone is downing bottled water, and we continue to covet your prayers.