missionaryMAC

This past week I worked with Genaro and a group of 11 people from WI, building a house right across the street from one of Pastor Hernandez's missions called San Francisco. There was also a group here from Hanover College, including one of the volunteers from last summer, Jason Taber. They also built a house that they finished in 3 1/2 days--we took until Friday--but ours includes indoor plumbing (an existing bathroom that took up part of the pad and we had to build around it) and we painted the inside (wait until you see what color...). Oh and it was like 80ish all week too...new record high on Wednesday and it was actually warmer on Tuesday but the record was higher. I think I'll let the pictures do the talking... Church at Santisima on Sunday...they were treated to the kids singing after the service, but they had to sing too... OK time to get to work...I like the combo in this shot I took as we were unloading stuff at the site Monday morning--a chicken and a circular saw! Ta...

I got a library card yesterday! The lady had to go and check with somebody else to see if it was OK, but eventually she determined that since I have an address here I could get a library card! The branch closest to here is kind of small, but there are a bunch of other ones in El Paso that I can request stuff from and I know I can't compare every library I ever come across to good old KPL. They do use the same computer system though which made me smile when I went to search for some stuff in the catalogue. I actually had time to run by the library for once even though I've been meaning to forever because Chris and I took yesterday (mostly) off. That's kind of how it has to work, you just have to say you are not going to work and then don't, otherwise you could work forever. But since the group left yesterday morning and this week's don't arrive until later this afternoon, we did have a short break. This was kind of an odd week b/c they got here on Monday and left...

Chris's parents were in town over the weekend, so Sunday afternoon we drove like 45 min. outside of El Paso and went to a TX state park called Hueco Tanks. It kind of reminded me of Elephant Rocks for you Missourians who have been there. It's all these ginormous rock formations and there is lots of cool rock art too. The tour guide said that it is a rare site for this area because most of the art is pictographs (drawing ON the rock surface) instead of carving into it. You start off walking along a path, which was not overly exciting, but eventually we got to climb stuff, which I liked MUCH better but Chris's knees didn't ;)

Chris is going to kill me for putting these on here...

Last week was entirely too eventful to fit into one entry. I think 3 things specifically deserve mention. First of all, we did a pinata for the kids the last day we were at each site, so Tuesday at Anapra and Friday at Cristo Rey. We had a little trouble finding spots to hang them but eventually figured it out and the kids had a great time. At Anapra, Tony (hyperboy for those who know what I'm talking about) broke the head apart from the body but didn't break the whole thing open, so he grabbed the body and started running around the room with it...it was pretty funny. Then after the one at Cristo Rey, all the kids started mauling Chris, and even Armando was in on it. They even stole his shoes and hung them from the rafters! The second two things are related and have to do with the fact that last week will forever be known as my initiation into driving the mission's 15-passenger vans, even though I had already been doing so for a few weeks. First off, the van I was driving ...

I'm just getting around to writing this now because last week was crazy busy but one of my favorites thus far. I got to translate for my first medical clinic, which was a fascinating process to see in action. The group consisted of 4 people from St. Paul's-Des Peres (my home church) and 21 from St. Mark's in Kentwood, MI. St. Paul's was going to be here this week but since they couldn't find a doctor to run their own clinic, 4 of the seasoned veterans from St. Paul's volunteered to come help the MI group with theirs, seeing as though they'd never done one before. We started off at Anapra on Monday and Tuesday (in the dark...the electricians showed up to fix the electricity as we were getting ready to pull out on Tuesday afternoon...and it was cold too!) and then moved to Cristo Rey Wed-Fri. I'll try to explain how it all worked via the pictures below: This was the scene in the conference room Sunday evening, getting all the supplies ready--I took one loo...

SNOW in Mexico...what's with that?!?!? Last week I get sunburned and Tuesday it snows! I feel like I'm back in Missouri!

Monday and Tuesday of this week I worked in Mexico with the group that's here from Bella Vista, AR, siding and painting Panchis's house (the congregational president at San Lucas) and then painting the church itself. The whole time I kept thinking it was so odd that I went to Mexico and painted instead of like going to class or something, but at the same time it didn't feel weird at all and there was nothing that I would rather be doing; it seemed like a completely normal thing to be doing with my day. That probably doesn't make any sense at all but anyway, here are some pictures: El jefe y la jefa siestando (Chris made up that word...it means "to take a siesta") Oops I got paint on my hand...and my face and my arm and my jeans and my shoes and my sweatshirt. Power tools!!! I got the job of climbing up on the roof to paint the trim...btw I got kind of sunburnt b/c I completely forgot to bring sunscreen and the skin under that spot of paint on my right elbow wa...