Mexico Mission Trip Day 3 Monday...the work begins

Well it turns out we never had to set an alarm because there was a tiny little car with giant speakers on top playing some sort of music that I think was an ad for some local resort. And just in case you didn't wake up the 1st time he went by he made sure you did on the 3rd or 4th time. This was also the morning I learned that  you don't make instant coffee in your water bottle and shake it to mix it because it turns into foam....it all turns into foam. After that I found out where the cups were kept and then I'd just use my water bottle straw as a stirrer so I could chug my 3 cups of room temperature coffee every morning. This morning also brought us breakfast burritos.

We then broke off into 3 different groups; 1 to work on the roofs, another to paint the pastor's house and 1 to prepare for VBS with the local kids. I purposely avoided being in the same group as Cole so that way he could do some things on his own with not only others from our church but also the other 2 churches. He chose to help prepare VBS cards and go door to door to invite kids to come which I'm glad because that is not up my alley by any means. So I chose to work with Dale on the roof above the church itself sealing the seams of the step shaped roof while the other roof crew worked above the rooms where the girls were staying because they had leaked the night before when it rained.

roof clean up and sealing

I don't know if it was because we weren't used to the heat...even though it was cooler than at home but working on that roof felt like the hottest day ever. I had constant sweat and sunscreen dripping into my sunglasses and it looked like I'd peed my pants but at least I was chugging warm water to try and keep up. Above the church we had to scrape the down and rough up cement patches along the seams of the stair step shaped roof and clean it up so we could put down this super thick red paint type sealer. The one good thing about sweating so much while painting is that the paint never dries on you it just seems to spread and eventually you couldn't tell if you were tanning or covered in mix of sweaty deep red paint.

The VBS crew 

Lunch time and siesta seemed like the greatest thing ever because even though we only worked on our projects for a few hours it seemed like the entire day. 

siesta time

The afternoons at the sports complex became some of my favorite memories. I had asked our soccer club if they had any old balls that we could take with us and they gave us a few and Cole found a bunch of our old ones to go with them so we had a large bag full of balls by the time I got them re-inflated. Each day we'd take basketballs, soccer balls, colors, jump ropes, fingernail polish and water with us to the soccer field. Luckily one of the basketball courts was shaded so most everyone spent their time there. But some of us braved the sun and played some street soccer on one of the basketball courts. We did lose the ball over the fence and on a roof a few times but we always got it back some how. 

the all important selecting of the teams 

We quickly learned all the names of the kids which wasn't easy because we were still trying to learn every one's name from the Michigan and Florida groups but we also caught on to a few important soccer terms in Spanish so we could all communicate. But the best communication was the smiles on the each and everyone of the kid's faces. Some of you may know but in case not I am a youth soccer coach not only for the introductory courses through our city's park and rec department for 3-5 year olds in the winter and summer but also for our soccer club where I coach 2 different teams and at last count I think I've coached 43 different teams over the years between spring, fall and tournaments so this was a dream come true. I hadn't told anyone but I'd always wanted to bring soccer balls on a mission trip and distribute them to the kids. 

We found out the sun and humidity are brutal and that these little kids are good. One of the guys said the highlight of his day was finally beating one of these kids after that kid had schooled him 5 or 6 times. This was coming from someone who had played soccer for 13 years and the kid he was talking about was probably 8 or 9. Futbol is just a way of life here. While we were playing each day there was a minor league soccer team that was practicing on the turf field next to us and a lot of the kids were just there to watch them. Several didn't have shoes so they'd have to take quick breaks in the shade of the wall to cool their feet down because the cement was so hot. Eventually I had to call "No Mas" but not until after I had scored on a header and nearly killed myself running around with kids 1/2 my age. After that it was off to make sweat angels in the shaded basketball court and just watch all the games going on and the interactions between our group and the kids. I could have stayed here all day but sadly we had to leave but as a bonus we went further down our road to an ice cream shop (that we would frequent quite a bit) and had some of the best home made ice cream ever.

Tonight much to our surprise we had pizza and cold pop (soda for you non-Iowans) for supper. I seriously had to cut myself off it was so good. I kept going back to ones I've never tried or seen before and the cold pop became a great treat. We would actually buy the little store on the corner out of Coke in glass bottles and Powerade.

Pizza from your favorite pizzeria....the box doesn't lie

In the evening we spent time in the courtyard getting to know each other a little better and sharing our God sightings and experiences of the day. Afterwards we had some free time so a few ventured out to investigate the various food vendors but a few of us joined Burton & April (PPM staffers) and went to experience the cultural phenomenon known as Wal-mart. This was a pretty crazy time. To start you had to go down into the parking garage under the store in order to take the people/cart mover up into the store. The odd thing about the conveyor type belt was that the wheels on the carts were metal and the conveyor belt was magnetized so it just pulled the cart uphill for you. We learned Burt will do anything to make someone laugh and that campismo is a funny word when said in odd ways. But I also found out I can't pick the right checkout line regardless of what country I'm in. All the lines were ridiculously long (they don't open another register when people are standing in line) but we chose the one that the lady was buying 20 of everything and paying every so often with gift cards. If I was working I would have let her keep the hangers it was painful to watch. We even changed lines once but still went back to it.

So we had some funny stories to share when we got back to the church while we set up our sleeping quarters. The rain came earlier in the night than the night before so many of the guys took showers in the brief rain despite it being past lights out (they did get in a wee bit of trouble). They did this because the girls were using all the water and leaving us with none.....that's my story and I'm sticking too it. But to this point I had still avoided showering and I was planning on waiting to bathe until the ocean on Thursday. But it was time to attempt to sleep again despite everything going on around us.