Alma de Color

1/20/06 Have I ever mentioned how much I love accents and languages? I am sitting in the airport in Minneapolis . I’m not hearing anything but the TV at the moment, but on the flight here, I was delighted to be in the same vicinity as several Bostonians. They don’t say their “r’s”! Fantastic, really. To recap a bit, I’m on my way to Ne w York . Last night, I sang with the somewhat reduced worship team. Alex, Jen, and Matt were there. The rest of the team is in Colorado or something. I left after practice to pack. I took a shower and continued getting ready. Chuck called to finalize details, and Dad also called. I finished sewing velvet over the snaps on the halter part of my dress and Melissa helped me check my flight and such things. I didn’t get to sleep very early. I slept for a few hours and my alarm reminded me I had to get up. Melissa drove me to the airport at 6:30 AM. It was more simple than I had imagined it would be. I read more of the arti

1/2/06 We cleaned up the church, the bathrooms, and the classrooms in the morning, said our goodbyes, and left for the North. It was kind of a rainy/misty sort of morning, and it continued through a lot of Mexico . We stopped at all the checkpoints we did before, only this time, at one of the military checkpoints, one of the soldiers got on the bus, checked our cooler, checked a pillow for drugs, asked me what I was writing…(this journal)…asked Gene how he was feeling…(he was taking a nap)…and chatted with Maria for a bit. (He also asked me how to say “how are you doing” in English). I told one of my friends what he had asked, and after we were rolling again, she kind of laughed and said, “I guess I never really thought about it the other way around before. You know, not knowing how to say simple things in English”. *grin* Another giant leap for the not-so-terribly-diverse Montanans. *wink* We stopped for a couple hours in Ensenada for our shopping. It was fu

12/30/05 Friday was a solid work day. The men worked at sheetrocking, a few women taught the local women to sew, Jamie had various crafts for the kids and we Monos grabbed various kids for games in the yard area. (The yard was composed of gravel and sand). I had a fabulous time getting to know some of the little kids. There were some who were naughty, and loved stretching every boundary. Some of them enjoyed throwing rocks, some hitting, some spitting, and some throwing rocks at the bus when they didn’t get their way. But then there were a few who were fabulously well-behaved and helpful. These few made every exasperated miscommunication worthwhile. Later in the afternoon, two groups of us went out into the town of Papalote , (roughly 2000 people), to hand out flyers for our New Year’s Eve event. It was amazing to see the difference in living conditions. Some of the people had very nice vehicles, but still lived a jungle of cardboard and sticks. A lot of the

12/29/05 In the morning, after a rather interesting night’s “sleep” on cold concrete floors, in classrooms with no sheetrock or insulation, we woke rather early…(sometime around 5 AM)…to the sound of what sounded like hundreds of roosters. It was ridiculous. It was as if they never went to bed. There was no light out, and yet, there they were, crowing as if their lives depended on the volume. Yikes. It was a lot colder than I had anticipated. It was colder than the last time I was there. But anyway, we finally got up about 7:15 to start the day. We “Monos”-(Monkeys/Entertainment Team)-practiced our puppet show and finished translating the drama that we’d written in English on the way down. After that, I met Angelica, Pastor Joel’s wife. She helped me check my grammar for the skit and then taught me some Spanish praise songs. After that, we all loaded up and drove down the road a couple miles to San Simón to set up. I forgot the script, (of course), so Eileen

I spent a large portion of my Christmas break on a mission trip to Papalote, MX. It was fantastic! I learned so many things, and had several fabulous adventures. Enjoy! 12/26/05 We arrived in Dillon a little later than we had planned, but all was well, and we were all packed up and ready to embark on our great adventure by 10 AM. I showered in the morning, and so my hair was all wet and rather cold. And I started to braid. Tassie was a huge help in dividing all the sections and getting a start on the braids. We took a few breaks in between for snacks, visiting, and such. After all, we were just driving…and driving…and driving some more. Just past Salt Lake , we stopped at Cabella’s for a pit stop. It was a fun place to stop. However, I felt a little out of place. You see, I was wearing my tye dye sweats and had only half of my hair finished and in braids. Everyone else in Cabella’s seemed to be in trendy outfits that were a little less casual. J Oh well.