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!

Our Trip Back to the U.S.

Waking up the next morning at 7 was not the easiest thing for most of us, but we all got up and were ready to depart. Once we arrived at the airport, we stood in the line to get our passports and bags checked. Then we headed to the food court to get a snack. I had not been feeling particularly well and I thought I was just hungry. After eating two bites of a chocolate chip muffin, I felt horrible. Then, I got that feeling that you get when you just ate a big meal and went on a big roller coaster. I bolted for the bathroom at the other end of the food court, the only problem was that all three stalls were occupied. My stomach couldn't hold it any longer and I tried to cover my mouth with my jacket, but it was too late and I pretty much heaved everything in my stomach all over the floor. It was everywhere, my jeans, my favorite jacket, and my hair. After five minutes sitting in the bathroom, I decided it was over and we walked to the gate. We were originally seated in Business Class, but thankfully we got moved up to First Class where I slept the entire way home. I was disappointed because I wanted to look outside and see the land from the plane which I couldn't do on the way in since we flew in at night. Overall, the trip was great (despite the airport incident). Everyone had a great time and it was an experience of a lifetime. After our trip, the Stanhope Society would like to encourage you to look into going on a mission trip because it opens your eyes to a new degree of poverty that people are faced to live with. It really helps you realize how much you have and helps you learn to appreciate what you have, because sadly there are people who don't have anything more than the clothes off their backs. In society in America, it seems that people always need thing to keep them happy such as HDTV, gaming systems, expensive cars, computers, etc. but in the big picture, these mean nothing. Sure they are all nice and fun to show off, but people need to realize that the gift of life ultimately gives us the most happiness and that we don't need anything more than life to live up to our fullest potential as a human and enjoy life to its greatest extent. 

Lunch and More Shopping in Antigua

The hotel we had lunch at was very accommodating and had a great environment. Although the service seemed exceptional, it soon deteriorated to a long wait for many of us. My mother and I ordered chicken with some local marinade. Out the 28 people traveling with us, it seemed as though only four of us got our meal every 10 minutes. As the number of people who were without a meal decreased, it became like game where you had to figure out the odds of your meal being delivered next. Finally after about half of the table had already finished we got our meal. Then we had another crisis when it came time to pay for our meals individually when our orders got mixed up, and once we had already paid, they wanted to give us each a 10% discount for the trouble. Good thing we all agreed not to repeat the process again, but then it took another few minutes to get the correct credit cards back. After that ordeal, we went back to the same shopping area we were at before and continued to shop. I remember that there were some shops in a courtyard that were very nice but once you left the courtyard, there was a building with aisles of shop owners. The aisles were about half the size of the ones you would find at your local grocery store which made it very hard to shop. The people were so desperate to get you to buy one of their products they basically pleaded you which made it hard to say no and walk away. After venturing there two times, my dad asked me to show him around the cramped area. I knew this wouldn't end well but he insisted. We were walking towards the back when this t-shirt store owner approached us and kept pressuring us into looking at his products. We said we would look a little later, I guess what we meant to say was "no thanks". As we were leaving to go meet the rest of the gang, the same man stopped us and insisted we look at his little shop. After minutes of persuasion and laughs, my dad finally bought another Gallo (the name of a popular beer company in Guatemala) for almost half the price of where he bought the first one. After our adventure, we returned to the bus and since we didn't have time to visit the Central Market (due to the incident at lunch), we went back to the hotel and got ready to depart the next morning. 

Visit to Mi Hogar in Antigua

Antigua was just an amazing town. Everything about it was old-fashioned and the streets were incredibly clean. Before going to the the bigger, government run all-girls orphanage called Mi Hogar, we were allowed to shop in Antigua for an hour. Not being much of a shopper I walked around with my dad and occasionally told my mother how to say helpful phrases in Spanish and translating their words for her. After shopping we loaded up and headed for Mi Hogar. As you can see, this orphanage was a lot nicer than the other two, mostly because it was funded by the government. The orphanage was surrounded by hills on one side and the street on the other. The only thing that wasn't beautiful about the scenery from inside the orphanage was the barbed wire that surrounded the walls of Mi Hogar, but I guess it is necessary to ensure the safety and security of the girls. There were about 125 girls living in the orphanage. The orphanage had dormitories that housed about 16 girls each. Also, there was a separate room for the girls who had babies called the mother's room. There were also children who had mental disabilities who had their own quarters and courtyard. The orphanage even had a few classrooms including a computer/arts and crafts room outfitted with many computers including one with Windows Vista. After dropping off our suitcases filled with jeans and other clothes, we said our good byes and set off for lunch at a nice hotel in Antigua. 

Drive Back to the Hotel and Dinner

As we drove back down the hill we had climbed only about two hours ago, we were had mixed feelings about whether or not the weather had cleared enough for us to overlook the city. Turns out that as we got to lower altitude, the rainy weather we had experienced before had lifted and we had a crystal clear view. Although I didn't leave the bus to experience the panoramic view (thanks to my splitting headache), I was able to picture the scene through all the pictures that were taken. Before heading back to the hotel, we went to stop at one of the oldest churches in Guatemala City. It was quite a site with many statues and paintings. After departing from the Church, we headed back to the hotel where we found that our Cowboys were being blown out by the Eagles. Anyway, while my parents headed down to the restaurant for dinner with the rest of the adults, I decided to stay in the room, have some room service, and try and ease my headache by watching television in Spanish. With our next (and busiest) day to look forward to, I got to bed early in order to be well rested for our trip to Antigua and the Central Market.