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| Mexico Updates |
| First church of Winsted 95 North Main Street Winsted, Connecticut 06098 860-379-1778 American Baptist ~ United Church of Christ |
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| First church of Winsted 95 North Main Street Winsted, Connecticut 06098 860-379-1778 American Baptist ~ United Church of Christ |
| Established 1778 |
| Day One It was a beautiful summer morning as the group departed from the church parking lot at 4am this morning. We all arrived on time, and we departed on time. Traffic was light overall and we just encountered road construction in two places. We arrived to JFK just after 6am and dropped off half of the group at the Aeromexico terminal for their flight. The rest went to the Delta terminal. Checking in was a breeze, except for the fact that the Pastor (of all people) left his passport on the desk in the church office after going in to use the computer to register the rental cars to an EZ Pass account! The church folks will forever wonder whether: - the Pastor ditched his group; - the group ditched the pastor; - there was an unadvertised sale at Sam's Club today; or - the pastor just wanted to sleep in a real bed one more night while the rest slept on foam mats on a plywood floor... The Delta flight arrived ahead of schedule and was greeted by Eduardo and his family. Eduardo is from Mexico City and wanted to join our group this year. That group then got onto their scheduled flight to Oaxaca. The group on Aeromexico was over an hour delayed, and had to take a later flight to Oaxaca. The Pastor drove back to Winsted, got the passport, and got a later flight to Mexico (catching up to the group on Sunday). Although we have experienced more curveballs today than on any prior trip, the group is in good spirits (we have been staying in contact by phone and Texts), everyone has stepped up to the plate and are doing wonderfully without the Pastor (no surprise) and the Pastor gets an opportunity to send a report on the first day. Proof once again that Christians don't live life problem free...but rather proof that God is always with us, we do far more as a team than individually, and with faith (and a bit of patience) all things turn out OK. Day Two We're all together!!! A good part of the morning and afternoon was spent bagging salt into half pound bags. The salt comes in kilo bags and we used empty water bottles to measure the proper amount. Sounds like an easy task, but you have to unfold and open plastic bags, measure out the right amount, tie the bag closed, and then put 30 small bags of salt into a big plastic bag. Doing the last of the 2800 bags took an extra effort, especially since we just had lunch. Today's lunch was grilled chicken, rice, aguave (cactus), grilled onions, tortillas, and two different sauces. The evening will be spent at Casa Hogar. We are looking forward to seeing the children and staff again. We made arrangements for a Mariachi band to play. They love music, especially those who are visually impaired. We are also providing pizza for dinner. We took a walk in the area surrounding the operations center. There is a lot of development, but at the same time there are open fields and great views of the mountains that surround the area. We are adjusting slowly to the altitude...you can feel yourself working when you walk up a little hill! This message is a little short because we are all exhausted...more tomorrow! Day Three Greetings from Oaxaca. This will be short and sweet. 3G service not working today so no access to the Internet from the i Pad. Day began with pancakes, sausage, watermelon, scrambled eggs and cereal at 7:45. Everyone was a bit tired from the prior day's activities. After breakfast we bagged 1500 half kilo bags of detergent. That took us just over an hour instead of half a day. So we moved sand, stones and a bunch of surplus/used building materials to a new location in prep for tomorrow's concrete mixing. Some also painted over graffiti on the outside of the compound perimeter walls replaced the edging on a counter, and sealed the three sinks in the wash area. It was then time for a lunch of the now famous dump sandwiches, made by Edith, the recipient of one of the houses built at the city dump a few years ago. After lunch we bagged more soap, but were told to slow down for fear of not having enough to do tomorrow. I am proud to report that the First Church team again did more than anyone expected them to do. In the afternoon we visited the Tule tree, the largest tree in North and South America. We did some shopping (no matter how many times on the mission trip, no one seems to bore from shopping!). Dinner was at a quaint Oaxacan restaurant close by, followed by more shopping at the Dona Rosa black pottery store and factory. On a side note, we must report that Olivia and Meghan have fallen for dark haired (although short and very clean) Mexicans. We have photos of them hugging the newly discovered mates. Twice or three times we had to call them back to their work details as they went off to steal a hug. They use all kinds of Spanish words of endearment with them. And the puppies love it. Weather has been better than expected. No rain (only a few isolated showers). Cloudy so we have not roasted. We've awakened in the middle of the night a bit cold. We thank God for a wonderful, productive time her in southern Mexico. More tomorrow! Day Four Accomplishments of the day: - We made enough cement to form the roof over the warehouse at the center of operations - Finished bagging soap - Bagged Noreen one pound bag of sugar - Cleaned a wall by the pit where trash is burned and repainted it - Touch up another outside wall after the cow got out of our way (the adjoining field is a community grazing lot) - Fixed the fence surrounding the center of operations Realize that we did give an update on the kids at Casa Hogar... Luz is now 14 and is proud to have just completed primary school. Most of us never realized that she is deaf...and for that reason struggled so hard to finish primary school. She acts as if she can hear what you say, is as outgoing as ever, and a delight. Elsa and Emma are cute as ever, but maturing nicely. They seem to be the "leaders of the pack." They seem to be more self-conscious but totally became kids again when the Mariachi band arrived. Selme is still very reserved but finds a particular person and latches onto them for the entire stay. Her learning disability has separated her from the other children her age as she has a difficult time learning games. Nacho is now a mature young man who plays the guitar and sings beautifully. He also is very concerned about others. As he returns to school for the fall semester, he is concerned about Angel, a fellow blind resIdent of Casa Hogar and asked Jessica to teach Angel sign language while he is at school himself. We'll share more about the Casa Hogar gang later. Today marks the midpoint of our stay and the last day that we are in Oaxaca City. Admittedly we are tired and not as patient as we were before. At tonight's time for reflections, we'll share some of our thoughts, concerns and frustrations with our hosts. Our First Church team is as close as ever, but we feel we need to share constructive criticism with the Simply Smiles team. It is human nature to disagree;it is Christian to work out our differences and refocus on our common mission: to reach out and share Christ's love. Tomorrow morning we leave for Santa Maria Tepexipana. It will be an 8 hour trip along winding mountain roads. We will ascend to 12,000 feet above sea level before descending to about 2,500 feet above sea level. More tomorrow! Day Five Boy, was it cold last night! Many of us had a hard time sleeping and at one point I was shivering so much I was convinced that the antibiotics the doctor gave me were not working. We woke up early, had a quick breakfast of cereal and juice,a and packed up the vans for the trip to Santa Maria Tepexipana. We were on the road before 8am and we arrived at around 4:30pm. We stopped just about every hour, enjoyed quesadillas and cafe de olla at the place where we also bought some brightly colored alebrije, animals made from limbs of the trees in the mountains. It was chilly when we were at 12,000 feet above sea level, but the temperature and humidity rose quickly as we reached our destination. After unpacking, we walked through the village and visited the home of Juan Carlos' grandmother. Juan Carlos grew up at Casa Hogar and now is director of Simply Smiles' Oaxacan operations. After dinner everyone settled down to playing cards, talking and playing with some of the children from the village, and singing along with excellent guitar playing by Peter Allen, our Simply Smiles leader. As dusk sets in, the sky is being lighted with bolts of lightning. We are sleeping in tents and plywood platforms, just as we did in Oaxaca City. The big difference is that we have no power or running water here. But there are big improvements over last year...the toilets have doors (instead of curtains) and the toilets are now bucket flush instead of latrines (a septic tank has been installed)! Tomorrow we will work on a perimeter wall and fence at a local school (the villagers asked for them because teenagers from another village keep vandalizing the school) and set up for Friday's food distribution. Messages may be sporadic from now on. At night I can get a cell tower signal from Candelaria, a village 45 minutes away by car. But the signal comes and goes, so I might not be able to send updates every day. Bye from Santa Maria Tepexipana! Day 6 Exhausted. Educated. Amazed. Sad. There are just so many feelings on our sixth day of the mission trip. We moved food for the distribution tomorrow into a large tent. But it was no easy task. Last year the truck made it up the hill with the supplies and we only had to move it into the tent. But we learned that on the way back to Oaxaca City after our food distribution last year the engine and transmission went. So we carried about ten tons of food up a rocky hill. We did it in four different stages, and unfortunately, because of the way the truck and trailer were loaded, the lighter items of oil, salt, and soap came out first. Then beans and rice. The final move was 110 pound bags of sugar. We were exhausted, to say the least. A new activity included a walk/hike up the side of the mountain to see coffee plants, banana trees, and everything from lime trees to a vanilla plant. People here are incredibly resourceful and grow every possible kind of food they can to survive. We then went to Don Cato's house where the seventy plus year old man showed us how coffee is harvested, shelled, and then roasted and ground. He and his family then served us coffee. I was educated to the fact that the middleman makes all the money in the coffee trade. The farmers here earn about $160.00 per 100 pound bag of coffee beans. The average farmer harvests 10 bags of coffee a year in December and January. That's $1800 for 6 months of work. And the reason they sell it so cheap is that they desperately need the money and the buyers know it. Only a small fraction of the price of coffee is paid to the farmer. Before dinner, the two sons of Javier, a guy who showed me three bullets still lodged in him because he objected to the charge for a birth certificate for his child, befriended me and wanted to see what I had in my tent. I showed them my old, personal cell phone and let them play with it as I laid on my mat. They giggled each time I fell asleep. Both told me that their goal was to someday own a cell phone as no one in their family owned one. They asked if the phone had music or games, and I honestly thought it did not and told them so. Within a minute they had the phone playing a song and in another minute later they were playing games on it. I was amazed that two young children could manipulate a cell phone Better than I can without ever having one. So there is hope that even though they lack the most basic of modern technology that they have the smarts to learn it so quickly. It is movie night and children from the village are at our campsite watching a DVD projected on a blue tarp. Simply Smiles provides all the popcorn the kids want. A young boy, about 7 years old, kept emptying his cup of popcorn into a small plastic bag and when others finished their cup, would ask for a refill along with the others. I leaned over and gently asked if he. Was bringing his popcorn home to his family. He sheepishly said "yes". I told him it was ok for him to eat a little himself and that we would give him more. Only then would he eat some popcorn. It broke my heart that a 7 year old felt he had to not eat any popcorn so that others in his family could have something to eat. That alone is reason enough for us to use a week out of our busy lives to be exhausted and sore. Day 7 A dog slept outside our tent last night on my side and both snored and whined during his nightmares. It poured today and I think there will be mud in the soles of my sneakers for the next year. When it didn't rain, the sun was so strong that I burned (and rarely do I ever get sunburn). The mosquitos think I am the local Red Cross blood drive for Oaxacan wildlife. We distributed food to 2,842 people today. That made all of the above irrelevant. Thanks to all for your support to make this possible. Thanks to the youth and adults who gave 1000 percent of the energy. Thanks to God for allowing us to part of God's ministry to those in need. Day 8 Sorry this is so short. We are all totally exhausted! We left the jungle at 5:30 am today, and two and a half hours later we were in Huatulco. It is a newly developed beach resort...a huge change from the living conditions of a few hours before. We had rooms at the Isla Hotel, and everyone enjoyed their first normal shower in a week. Some headed to the beach while others swam in the pool. The teens discovered the computers with Internet access and got onto Facebook for the first time in a week. At 1:30pm we headed to the airport. Due to the tropical heat and humidity, I got a Diet Coke, my first since leaving Oaxaca City. There was soda available at refreshment shacks in the remote villages, but never Diet Coke. It finally dawned on me yesterday that anyone in the jungle who had seven pesos for a soda was not going to get anything without calories...every source of nutrition, even what we consider junk food, is light years ahead of starving. The plane ride to Mexico City was uneventful. We rented a 15 passenger van to get to the hotel and then it was time to rest and decompress. Dinner consisted of salad from Wal-Mart (where else?) and Pizza Hut pizza. Cannot keep my eyes open! Final report tomorrow! On the way home... Just a few, final reflections as we sit on our plane in Mexico City heading to JFK... - Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I fumbled for the headlamp needed find my way to the bathroom. Did not realize we were not in the jungle. - If one of us throws toilet paper in the trash barrel, please understand that we have been conditioned to not put it in the toilet! - Our bug bites are just beginning to itch. We were too busy to notice all week long even though we have had the bites since day one. Thanks again to all for your help in making this trip possible! Special thanks to our "younger folks" for shouldering the bulk of the physical labor. It's been a great week and we all feel blessed for having the opportunity to experience it and to do God's work. Door on the plane is about to close, so I have to sign off! |