Field Trip!

The second day started off slow because we practically painted until lunchtime. Thankfully, we finished painting the library right before 2:00 P.M. when lunch was served. After lunch, we got to play with the children until they were called to go shower and put on their uniforms. When they came out, it looked like we were in prison because they all had the same outfits. By then, most of them knew we were going to see an IMAX movie at the science museum. When we arrived at the museum, I was surprised at how it dwarfed every structure around it. For an area with so much poverty, it was strange that they had such a nice museum. The children (all 37 of them) piled out of a yellow van. Three of them went on our bus because we had room, but still I can't imagine having to ride everywhere in that van. They were ecstatic to ride in a bus without having someone smushing them into the wall or having someone sit in their lap. After getting off the bus, the girls and boys each lined up youngest to oldest and walked towards the entrance where we posed for a group picture. After the picture, we were split into two groups and went on a tour. My group went to the space exhibit first and the tour guide asked the group of teens to go in this maze while another guide explained the solar system to the children. That maze was absolutely hilarious and horrible at the same time. The entire time, we were crawling because it was about as big as an air duct and there were all sorts of obstacles and drops along the way. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was pitch black. It seemed like we were in there forever and would never get out, but finally after one last drop, we saw the exit. The worst part of the whole thing was that the entrance was next to a corner and when we got out, we saw that we came out where we went in. After that experience, we played with the kids in the exhibits and then headed for the IMAX theatre. The featured presentation was "India Mistica" and had no subtitles. Thankfully, the scenes and pictures were amazing and I had quite a laugh when the bugs on the projector lens were seen a million times their actual size and walking around like they were part of the movie. When the movie ended, a guide took us to a virtual reality exhibit where the children were split into two groups and played volleyball with each other like they were in video game or something. While the children played, we said our goodbyes and left for dinner. At the end of the day, I could only think about how ironic it was that they have such a good science museum yet no one can visit because the area is so poor. Another observation that I made throughout the trip was the driving. It seemed like in order to drive, you had to master defensive driving. It was like mad dash everywhere; there were many times I thought either we would get in a wreck or a car around us would but that never happened. One thing I did like about their transportation system were the stoplights. Right before they would turn red, the lights would flash so you knew how much time you had until it changed. I thought it was a clever way to prevent people from feeling that they could make the light before it was too late. Anyways, the second day was great on so many levels and I was very excited to see what the next day held.

Lunch Time!

After the supplies were unloaded and the pizza was placed on the tables, all the children sat down on the bench and got ready for prayer. The children joined hands, closed their eyes, and one of the older girls led the prayer. The prayer was extremely long and I had trouble figuring out what she was praying because I couldn't even think of a prayer in English that long. Afterwards, we learned that she had made up the prayer as she went along which I thought was very sweet. Their faith is extremely important to them, and I will go in greater detail about this later in the blog. The children were ecstatic to have pizza for lunch because the majority of their meals were homemade and prepared in a tiny kitchen. The children ate inside while the rest of us ate outside. Either way, we couldn't escape the flies. I have never seen so many insects in my life. They were everywhere and to try to kill them was pointless. The flies were on the food, beds, toys, and children. You name it, there would be at least one fly. Even our bus had about twenty flies in it (maybe they were taking a day trip to see their relatives from the farms). If you ever stayed overnight where the orphanage was located, there is a very good chance that you will be catching flies when you sleep. After our lunch, it started to rain so we hurried on to the bus and left before the road became too muddy. Driving down the road with sunny weather was bad enough, but when it was raining was a different story. Everyone was afraid that we may have to push the bus if it stalled or got stuck in the mud. Thankfully, this didn't happen and we safely made it back to the hotel. After dinner, everyone was exhausted and went to bed to see what the next day would hold.

Playtime and Projects

When the lego blocks were dumped out of the bag, it was like a piñata had just broke and the candy was spilling out. There were screams and then a mad dash to get as many legos as they could hold. After playing with the children for about thirty minutes, most of us went to work on the rooms. A large group went in the girl's room to paint the top part of the wall. A smaller group that I was in, went to the library to paint the top of the room. As you can see, the color scheme isn't exactly the best choice. For the library, we were going to paint the top and ceiling a cream color and put a new paint of blue on the bottom. In the girl's room, we painted the top, which was yellow, cream and the bottom, which was blue, pink. We also were to paint the bathroom pink. In the library, we had to take all the books off the shelves and take the shelves off the wall. Once the tarp was on the ground, the lines were taped, and the walls were somewhat clean of dirt and grime, we began to paint. During the taping process, the kids would tear pieces of tape and hand them to us. The children were constantly peeking in the doorway to see what we were up to. Some of them came in to offer help. One of the boys asked me if he could paint and I told him sure and handed him the paintbrush. Apparently the children weren't supposed to help us and one of the helpers told him to stop and go play. Personally, I think the children wanted to help because they had never had anyone else do something for them. They are so used to doing things for themselves that they felt obligated to help us finish the project. After painting for a few hours, it was time for lunch. This time however, the kids would not get a homemade meal, but rather pizza from a store.

Our First Day in Aguascalientes

After a great breakfast, we all got on our bus and drove to the orphanage. We drove down a road that went all through the countryside and after about fifteen minutes, we turned down a small road that was unpaved and extremely rocky and hilly. Because our bus was manual, it took a long time to get there because our bus driver, Lorenzo, had to switch gears every time we went up or down a hill. When we arrived, all the children were playing outside and ran to the gate once they saw our bus pull up. We all got off the bus and if you weren't awake by then, the stench of manure from the nearby farm animals would surely wake you up. The smell was disgusting, but we all had to deal with it because it wasn't like we could move about fifty cows, goats, and chickens. When we walked onto the basketball court, the children were excited yet curious as to why these foreign people were visiting them. Next, we got a tour of the rooms we would be renovating. First there was the girls room. When I walked in, the room smelled like a wet dog that just went swimming in a swamp. They had many bunk beds and a few pieces of furniture. The couch and two chairs they had mounds of clean and dirty clothes on them so they couldn't be used. Next was the library that had bookshelves with books and movies. It was ironic because, from what I heard, they had a nice flat screen TV that was still in the box so watching movies was out of the question. Then we went into the boys room that was above the girls area. This room didn't smell as bad, probably because it was newer and didn't have a bathroom. After seeing what needed to be done, we headed down to the basketball court where a bag of legos were dropped. In the next post, I will describe the children's reaction to the legos and the beginning of our projects.

The Arrival

As we walked off the plane, there were bugs EVERYWHERE. They were near the lights, crawling around our feet, and all in the baggage area. There were a lot of police at the entrances and one even had a German Shepherd. When we walked by the guard and his dog, he instructed the dog to stand on its back legs so it looked like he was waving at us/welcoming us. Because Aguascalientes isn't your typical Mexican tourist destination, our flight of about 40 had no trouble going through customs and getting our bags. Once we were all through, we got onto our Mercedes bus and drove to the hotel. We were supposed to have a team meeting at the hotel but because it was 11:25. Instead, we got to sleep in until 9 and push everything on our agenda back an hour. By the time I went to bed (not to sleep) it was about midnight. I don't know when exactly I went to bed but judging by how tired I felt in the morning, I'm guessing I went to bed pretty late.

The Journey Begins

My journey begins at the international terminal at DFW airport. While waiting in line at the ticket counter, we were behind a man, his wife, son, and tiny dog. My mom decided to ask him about the dog but he insisted that we tell him why we were all wearing matching shirts. After explaining our mission trip, he told us that he and his wife had tried to adopt a son and daughter from Mexico but it fell through and they finally got a son who was about two (remember this, a future event involves this family). Our plane was originally scheduled to board at 6:30 P.M. That did not happen. At around 6:50, we boarded the plane and the man and his family walked in front of me. I felt bad for the him because he was trying to move the baby bag AND dog carrier down the narrow isle all by himself. We finally got seated and began to taxi to the runway. All this time, there is a child screaming uncontrollably in the back of the plane. The flight attendant was making frequent trips to the back and to the cockpit so we figured something was going on. After about ten minutes, she walks back there and we hear someone yell, "Get away from my son! YOU are making him upset!". Next, the attendant storms to the cockpit and orders us to return to the gate. Apparently the man we were talking to with the dog had threatened the flight attendant and according to code, we had to turn back and get him off the plane. All the while, we are literally circling around the airport. We finally get back to the gate at about 7:30 and now she has to fill out paper work about the incident. What made it worse was that she had to get the people who witnessed the argument to sign papers to file the report and she had to walk from the front of the plane ALL the way to the back. Repeat that process about ten times. Finally, the man, wife, baby, and dog get off the plane. But we aren't done yet. Now it is about 8:20 and they are unloading the family's luggage. All I can say is thank God we weren't on a large plane because finding their luggage would have taken forever. Next, the security guard was talking to the attendant and the next thing I hear is "Do you want to press charges because then the FBI will have to come on?". I'm assuming she said no because we left shortly after that. We FINALLY took off at about 9:00. By the time we arrived it was about 11:00 and we were all exhausted, but we still had to get our bags and go through customs.

¡Hola!

Similar to my last mission trip, I will be blogging about my experience from my latest trip to Aguascalientes, Mexico. I will post an article about my trip to give you an accurate account of what happened from beginning to end. I will also blog about important issues on the trip. My goal is to share my amazing experience with you in a way that everyone can understand. I appreciate all of your support and I hope you enjoy reading my future posts!