Day 6, Pain and Pinatas!

Day 6,
Getting up was definitely a chore. Between a night of terrible TV (Tyler Perry's House of Payne) and an early morning we were having trouble moving. At least some of us were. Miguel Angel and Candelaria invited us over to their house for a great breakfast of fresh tortillas with onion, olive oil, beans, cheese, and salsa. They introduced us to chocolate cinnamon oatmeal, and very hot chocolate-esque drink. After this we piled in the van for a short trip to the local elementary school where we to mix and pour cement, and plant trees. Very quickly we found a new appreciation for construction workers everywhere as we filled wheel barrows full of sand and gravel, and lugged bags of cement to the mixing area. Mixing was, in my opinion, the most difficult of the tasks closely followed by shovelling wet cement. Unanimously agreed to be the hardest day of our trip the cement and planting was also one of the most rewarding. Six batches of cement later we all broke for a lunch of taquitos. We headed back to the hotel for a little down time, which was used by some for much needed naps. We met Arturo's family for an early supper at a taco shop with many different interesting choices for meat including head meat, tongue, pork (you had to see it), beef, goat, and stomach. They also had my all time favorite...Fanta in glass bottles! After this delicious meal we headed to the plaza for an hour of shopping where Anna and Michael found incredibly cool and cheap soccer jerseys, Rai found some super cool shoes, and Deb got Ninja Turtles in spanish.
One thing I haven't mentioned is that this day was very special because it was Anna's birthday. After the quick shop we headed to Miguel Angel's house to celebrate with two different cakes, one tres leches, and a pinata. We started with the pinata and after the first taste of ridiculousness we jumped in...all caught on videotape by Steve, in case you need some blackmail material! It was found out that Mexican pinatas are incredibly strong after we all had taken a turn, as well as Miguel Angel's family and Arturo's family, and it was still hanging on. With our little Mexican candies we turned our attention to the table with the cakes, and Anna was fooled into a picture of 'tasting' the cake, which resulted in her faceplanting into the side of the cake. Don't tell her I told you, but Miguel also licked frosting off of her face...I've never seen her so red! We easily devoured the beautiful cakes and had a fun time chatting and just hanging out. Then Sally, being the party animal she is, brought out the tequila. But really it was a gift for their family for taking such good care of us. Saying our farewells for the last time we went back to the hotel, visited the corner store, then went to our rooms. Being the last night my room decided it was a good idea to stay up late...which will be regretted in the morning!

Stay Classy Iowa City!

Day 5, Basura and Brews!

Day 5,
So this blog is a couple days late because the place we stayed did not have internet.

We woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 in order to be in our new home El Hongo, which means mushroom in spanish, by 9. Upon arrival we dumped our luggage at the hotel and went to the community park to meet the people we would be working with and the mayor of the town. It was a very warm welcome and made picking up garbage (garbage is basura in spanish, hence the title) a little more tolerable. The workers had already put the garbage and brush into big piles along the road and it was our job to load up all of the piles into the back of trucks. Armed with our shovels, rakes, and a pitchfork wielded expertly by Rai, we went to the task and had one street done in stunning fashion. Graham and Michael accompanied our new amigo Paco to the dump to empty the smaller truck, then headed back to continue. Paco had to go pick his kids up from school and take them home, so to horror of everyone else Michael was put in charge of driving the truck. Not just any old truck mind you, one with very little upholtestry, a broken gear indicator, and a sketchy engine. Michael did a fantastic job driving the truck...as long as you don't ask the rest of the group! After we finished filling up the truck a second time we were directed back to the park for lunch in the kiosk-ish thing. The lunch was an incredible multiple course meal cooked for us by some locals, who were making fresh tortillas right below us. We were absolutely stuffed at the end, so what better way to top that off than with a trip to the brewery? We drove to Tecate, Mexico, to the Tecate brewery where they make Tecate, Sol, Carta Blanca, El Indio, and Dos Equis...all owned by Femsa Coca-Cola. After a short video that was mostly an advertisement (from what I understood) we were guided around the factory to see some of the history and how it's made. At the end of the tour some of us enjoyed a free sample of Tecate beer in the Jardin Cervezas (Beer Garden). Exhausted from our day of work we headed home to shower and have dinner at the house of Arturo and Eunice. We were given yet another delicious home-made meal and played baseball with their grand kids Jeremiah, Carla, and Nathan. The evening was spent playing with the kids and chatting, over all a very very fun time. We passed out in our hotel rooms, ready for our next early morning.

Stay Classy Iowa City!

Day 4, Giants and the Sun!

Day 4,
I almost didn't do the blog tonight because I'm exhausted and have yet another early morning tomorrow, but then I realized we're relocating tomorrow to a mountain town and I am not sure what the status will be on our internet access so I wanted to tell you not to fear if the posts are few and far between, your children/youth group is not dead!

Today was a day sans work, which was nice, but also a day full of riding in the van. We rose early, made burritos, and headed to the van for a 2-3 hour ride...to the beach! We were alone at the beach, but it was amazing and the water wasn't too cold. A few of us were a little freaked out to hear that the large fish jumping out of the water near us were doing so to avoid an even bigger fish (or shark! But probably not) trying to eat them! After hours of swimming, floating, discreetly peeing in the water, and laying in the sun we had our final meal from Tita, who has done an AMAZING job of providing us with food. After some more frolicking we decided it was time to head for the place we would be shopping. A short ride later we were in a place full of stores selling mostly the same things, but interesting things nonetheless. Some people purchased shiny things from the silver vendors, while others decided their money was better spent on the hilarious (in my opinion) shirts...not mentioning names! One hour later we all loaded back into the van to visit the Valley of the Giants, which, for those of you that don't know, is a valley full of giant cactuses, bigger than trees. OPINION ALERT: It was really just cactuses...but on a bigger scale, an interesting sight but not a dream destination. Anyhoo, the sun and opening our wallets so much had made us all exhausted so we packed it in and spent another 2-3 hours on the road. On our arrival people dumped their things, retiring to the showers and polishing off a little more food. We made the power go out with all of our electronics plugged in, so that was our adventure for the night, but it was all ok in the end.

So tomorrow we are moving and in case I don't have access to the blog I'll give you a little taste of what we will be up to. As I understand it in the morning we will be helping with a tire recycling project, and in the afternoon we get a tour of the Tecate Brewery! Tecate is the popular brand of beer here in Mexico and the town we are going to is the headquarters I believe (I want to say the name of the town is Tecate, but that may be a total lie). If you don't hear from me for awhile then you know why!

Stay Classy Iowa City!

Emergency Update!!

I hope that made some of you mothers jump...but really I just wanted to say that the photo links are now working! You may all celebrate.

Day 3, Immigration and...something that ryhmes with it.

Day 3,
I'm going to go ahead and make this a fairly short post because I have to wake up really early, and I can't remember everything that happened (I fell asleep after all the hard digging work).

http://picasaweb.google.com/sekholm/MexicoTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCPC4__fE54yRgQE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/sekholm/Mexico2?authkey=Gv1sRgCJidsrucvbXFigE&feat=directlink

ABOVE ARE THE LINKS FOR PHOTOS!! Be excited, you get to see our beautiful faces!
Links and pictures provided by our technical genius Steve Ekholm.

So we stop home and everyone is glad to rid themselves of their long work pants and the men contentedly lay in bed blogging and being pantless in general (or maybe just me, whichever). Soon we were forced to return to our hot jeans and headed out for a center for helping immigrants. We entered the center, which is located literally two feet away from the border fence, and sat down...and I fell asleep. When I wake up we are talking about the troubles that immigrants go through when being deported. While the speech was informative I'm going to skip that part and go straight to one of the most eye opening experiences of the trip. A van pulled up on the other side of the fence and we watched as four men were brought out of the van and deported! They then entered the center, where they were given soup and offered medical care. We talked to them and listened to their heartbreaking stories. At the farthest side of the men was an extremely large man, muscular and slightly intimidating, but he had the saddest story of all of them. He had worked in the USA for 18 years, was a journeyman making 25 dollars an hour, and had three children. To say the least each story was unique and heartbreaking in its own sense.
After this activity, which was interesting but INCREDIBLY long, we headed to a migrant home for people trying to get back to their hometowns that needed a place to stay. We had only a quick tour since it was dinner time and we were holding up the people at the home.
Between the migrant aid center and migrant home we stopped at a Mexican bakery, which smelled like a little piece of heaven (or sugar and flour). Everyone loaded up on some amazing baked goods and then we headed to the migrant home, then our home. Anna, Danielle, Graham, and Michael, but mostly Anna, did work on an entire bag of assorted pastries once back at the house...which they regretted later of course! While the rest of the group showered and had fun Danielle and Michael were cooking and sweating over a hot stove (but not sweating on it, dont worry!), Sarah was grating cheese, and of course Tita was busy putting the meal together.
After that we chilled, sorry for the lack of detail but I'm about to fall asleep and I'm sure Ron doesn't want drool on his keyboard!

A few shout outs:
Rai wished for me to mention that she beat Graham once in the slap game, congrats Rai!

Shout out to Mitch, mi amigo, because he's proof that someone is reading this that isn't either on the trip or my mother! Also, he made me realize that the weirdest part of the little girls 'Sexed-up' t-shirt from day 2, is WHO MAKES THOSE SHIRTS IN CHILDREN'S SIZES??

Stay Classy Iowa City!

EDIT: The links for the pictures happen to not be working, I'll talk to Steve and possibly fix them in the morning! Be patient!

Day 2.5, Irrigation and Irritation

Day 2.5,
I awoke this morning to a most unpleasant sound. The sound of Jared dripping drool all over the bunk above me. Upon investigation I found it wasn't Jared making the dripping noises, but the ceiling (sorry Jared)! We are lucky enough to be here on one of the very few days it rains every year. We are also lucky enough to have about three leaks in our ceiling, fortunately they were minor leaks. With the water crisis averted with buckets and towels I was forced to wake up for a quick breakfast of Choco Krispies. While we all chowed down and prepared for the day Michael, Graham, Marisa, and Sally all grueled over the dishes. The truck loaded with shovels, water, and a wheelbarrow, we headed to an elementary school where we were to begin our first task.
This school is part of the Green Area Project with Los Ninos, a project thats goal is to provide grassy areas for the children to play in. Mexicali is the allergy capital of Mexico because there is dust everywhere, and the kids have to play in it. We unloaded our gear, talked to the people at the school, and began to dig a trench for an irrigation system. Our many hands made very light work and we finished within and hour and a half. Some of us helped Gabrielle glue the PVC system together while most of our group got into a game of soccer with the kindergarteners and their parents. Yet again America failed to be the powerhouse it's made out to be and we fell to the knee-high soccer players and their mothers. I must say that Danielle did an outstanding job playing soccer! After the game we watched most of the women get their diplomas from the nutrition program class and received incredibly adorable drawings and hugs from all of the little kids! We then taught them a song that went like this:

Mi cuerpo, mi cuerpo
hace musica (x2)
Mis manos hacen (clap clap clap)
Mis pies hacen (stomp stomp stomp)
Mi boca hace La La La,
Mi cuerpo hace Cha Cha Cha!

They liked our song and sang along, then got us to play a game called Puppy Police. It was a group version of tag...kind of. Then it was time for lunch and the women made us an assortment of foods that were all very tasty! Also we had lime and parsley juice, and some juice with beets in it. After we had stuffed ourselves we sat on the patio while Michael went and played soccer with his new amigo Esteban! We were rounded up and headed home a few minutes later.
We still have yet another half of a day to go, so I'll be sure to follow this up with the full Day 3!

Stay Classy Iowa City!

Day 2, Bees and Ballin'!

Day 2,
The group re-energized after a night of sleep on the surprisingly comfortable beds (yes they did have sheets Mom), we woke up as early as 5:30 and as late as 8. On our own for making breakfast we slowly regrouped and figured out the plan for the day with the long-term volunteers, then headed out in the van with Alonzo. Not to make any of the mothers out there nervous, but on our very first day the van died and we had to push it off the road, our first adventure! We waited around the Purific Agua store for a replacement mini-van and truck to come and un-strand us. Driving the truck was Gabrielle, another worker for Los Ninos, who was very nice and willing to speak Spanish with the struggling Michael and Anna. Eventually we got to our first stop of the day, the Bee Project! This project is part of the nutrition program for children since it's hard for them to find honey in stores that has all of the original nutritional value. While six people went with Alonzo and Gabrielle to visit the bees first the rest stayed back with Tita, Raquel and the other workers to cut frames for the bee boxes and paint the lids. Danielle, Sue, Anna, and Jared did a stunning job painting while Graham and Michael satisfied their primal urge...using power tools! Finishing our work quickly we sat and talked and waited until Alonzo came to get us in the mini-van. Driving on the roads here is quite an experience, seeing as the posted speed limits lack the enforcement found in the USA. We arrived in an incredibly dusty place just in time to see our other half trooping towards us looking like a hazmat team in their bee suits. After the challenge of putting on the suits ourselves and the paranoia of having exposed skin we headed for the bee boxes. It is an incredible experience to see the massive swarms of bees on a single slat of wood and wax, and to be able to stand in the middle of a swarm without fear. It is also an experience to wear a bee suit in the weather of Mexico, need I say more? We met back at the center of the Bee Project for yet another delicious meal cooked by Tita (she does all the cooking, and it's amazing!). Leaving with bottles of honey, strawberry honey, and chocolate honey, we drove another 20 minutes or so to our next destination.
We were greeted by the two cutest little girls in the world, one wearing a sequin shirt that read, 'Sexed-Up'. I highly doubt they knew what it meant, and I apologize if this offends you but I'm just telling it how it is! This was a group of mostly older ladies involved in the nutrition program with Los Ninos that made flour tortillas, while others made bricks and tiles for roofs (I feel like that should be spelled 'rooves'). We introduced ourselves in spanish, then made a batch of tortillas using our incredible tortilla rolling skills. As is the tradition with this particular activity, we took on the local kids in a game of soccer. I would love to tell you that we stepped up and America conquered Mexico, alas it was not to be. After a sloppy first half everyone involved would like to forget the score was 5-0, them. In the second half Anna brought the thunder with an incredible goal that set our team in motion. Even with the second half rally the final score was 5-7, them. Our egos were severely bruised so the tortilla-ladies nurtured them with frozen mango popsicles covered in a sweet chili sauce. We learned a lot about their community and they showed us the bridge that was being built to replace the jumble of wood (literally) that made up the one in use now. During our farewell they sang us a wonderful and touching song, to which we responded with 'I'm A Little Teapot', with motions! Unfortunately I'm not kidding. Exhausted we made one more stop at the house of an amigo of Alonzo and another member of Los Ninos that did painting for the organization. We played ridiculous slap games, in which Graham conquered, and watched two little girls (not the ones mentioned before) do a dance and song routine for us. Finally we headed home, or what we're calling home for now, to wash off the dirt and grime from our day and eat some quesadillas. This was written while eating Nutella and chocolate-honey sandwiches made by Anna, who I am very grateful towards! Now it's time for my beauty sleep!

Stay Classy Iowa City!