Day 5: Midweek in Mexico

February 13

9:15 PM: I'm here in a happy, laughter-filled staff lounge where most of the group is involved in hearty conversation and banter. A few buckets of icecream have been produced, as well as card making supplies. The valentines we're making tonight will be given to some of the women staff tomorrow.

Earlier this evening we went to the Bible School's "Kickin' Chicken Dinner," a fundraiser for the Bible School students' trip to Oaxaca. As we ate, the students put on a program including games, testimonies and music. We even had the opportunity to listen to a song in a Oaxacan language!
After dinner, we all walked over to the church for the Wednesday night service.


Scenes from the Dinner Fundraiser

Otherwise, the day involved sorting macadamia nuts in the morning...

Sorting out whole nuts, half nuts, uncracked nuts and shells

And another Child Evangelism trip with a milk and peanutbutter distribution in the afternoon:

Pouring milk for los niños

This time I made sure to bring LOTS of string to do figures with the kids! As usual, we had lots of fun with the "mosquito" figure, and I also showed them a new one, "la cruz"--"the cross."

Day 4 Continued: Migrant Camp Outreach

Following Child Evangelism, we had the opportunity to serve in a migrant camp during the Adult Evangelism program. Here is some background information about the migrant situation:

The Migrant Workers' Plight

Migrant camps: these are the sites across the Baja produce belt where thousands of workers--mainly indigenous peoples from Oaxacana, Mexico (pronounced Wah-HA-ca)--are brought in to work the produce fields.  

Although promised fair wages and acceptable housing, the labourers arrive to work 12-hour days in the fields for only a few dollars a day, and to live in substandard houses. The provided homes are often without plumbing or electricity. To ensure that the working families cannot leave the labour ranch, the ranch stores sell food and goods at inflated prices. The low wages and high prices keep the workers indebted to the ranch.

An informative paper YWAM sent us before our trip provided these additional startling statistics:

-Over 80% of such workers are exposed to harmful and carcinogenic pesticides. (Additionally,

most workers do not have access to clinics and medical insurance, and cannot afford health care or medicine.)

-25% of these workers are children under the age of 14.

This is the situation to which Foundation for His Ministry's Adult Evangelism program provides outreach twice a week. To read further information about migrant workers and the Mission's ministry to them, click here:

http://www.ffhm.org/our-ministries/reaching-the-lost/adult-evangelism/

The program involved serving a meal to the entire camp, engaging with the kids, showing a film projected on the side of a van, and distributing toiletries and Bibles in the Oaxacan language. 

For PICTURES of the event, please click "Read More."

Day 4: Snails, Milk and Peanut Butter

February 12

Lantana, canna lillies, geraniums...all of them are plants I had gotten to know at work last summer. But here I was now, working over them in Mexico! In February. This groundskeeping, Lana's and my morning assignment, let us meet all sorts of interesting characters, including several snails and a lizard.


   Our "Temporary Pet" Snail        Cleaning Lantana and Bougainvilla       A Hiding Lizard   

 

With the afternoon came the opportunity to go out to the villages on the Child Evangelism outreach program, involving a milk and peanut butter distribution.

 Lana and I made our way into a dark blue van with two other team members and two staff teachers  to enjoy an "adventurous" ride to a nearby community! Up and down the uneven, hilly dirt streets we drove, past rows of backyards enclosed by carefully-built homemade fences. Little faces sometimes appeared between spaces in the fences as the van drove, dogs running ahead, while a leader invited the kids to class with a megaphone.

To hear a clip of the siren that invited the kids as we drove towards the village, please click "Play."

For pictures of the event, please click "Read More."

Day 3: Welcome to Mexico!

February 11

Don't you love waking up in the morning to find yourself in a new country?

I sure do! I walked outside early, excited to get a look at the Mission in daylight. The first thing I noticed was the air: not only did it smell heavily of dew, but it also fairly rang with birds' choruses. The next thing I noticed were the bougainvila flowers billowing up the arches of one building! It's still February, right?

After I had gotten reaquainted with the grounds, the time came to head over to the main courtyard to await the 7:00AM breakfast bell.







This flushing wall is a favourite hangout for ringneck doves.



Many highlights filled the day, but first, a few observations:

5 Things in Mexico that Aren't in Canada

1) Cactus ranches

2) Orange, lemon, lime and guava trees

3) Flat-roofed buildings (no snow to worry about!)...

Day 2: Hypothermia in California

The Roadtrip to Mexico Begins

February 10th

"Story #1 to tell our families back home!" Lana cheered amidst our giddy laughter. What a night. After descending into the city lights of San Diego yesterday evening, we had been happy enough just to find our motel. An ordeal including vanishing team members, an unsettling stroll and a doughnut shop followed, after which none of us was awake enough to notice the lack of heat in the room.

I woke up at 4:00AM, frozen too stiff to move. The others hadn't fared much better, for the morning found us laughing hysterically, sharing our misfortunes through chattering teeth in the little white-washed room.
"What a terrible night!," and "I think my nose is frozen!" were among the comments I heard.
But I was too stunned to reply. I could only point, mouth agape, to the large black heater unused on the wall above us.

And that was only the start of the day.

We went on to meet our team leader and join the rest of the team, a group from Minnesota. Then we all piled into the big, white YWAM van to begin the REAL adventure of the day, the beautiful drive down through Mexico.
Let me tell you about it...

Day 1: Airport Survival Manual

February 9th, 2013

In all appearances, today was a day spent waiting at airports. Those who wish to leave it at that may do so; (I would have skipped the 7 hours we spent at airports too if I could have.) But those who wish to dive in and learn tactics for navigating the carpeted jungles of terminals, spelunking the labyrinths of jetways and coming face to face with blinking mustard bottles, read on.


Flying over the Rockies, 2:07 PM:  That's the first time I've ever looked down on a mountain! The Rockies are as rugged and majestic as ever. Only shorter. They're a field of jagged pyramids and interconnected valleys...some of their peaks are rising from a low basin of cloud like bits of food floating in a bowl of soup.

Mexico: The Adventure Begins

INTRODUCTION

February 9, 2013

I Just Want to be Closer was playing on the radio that Wednesday night--a few summers ago--as our car pulled away from the back of a mall plaza. I gazed out the back seat window, listening, but Mexico was really on my mind.

My family had volunteered there twice before, many years ago. But now our friends Barb and Katrina, who had also started going, invited me to come with them on their next trip there. Adventure was in the air, forshadowed in the night like the smell of rain before a storm. Something else was calling, too.