June 14, 2013

After we went to the school yesterday we ran back to the resort to switch our shirts and we went to the work site for lunch. We invited the whole neighborhood over for a hot dog barbecue and handed out books and hygiene kits. They had the taco guys come for the Interact kids, but they had fish tacos. Nasty! So I had a hot dog bun and then I saw that they had some refried beans so I asked for tortillas and I asked for two but I got four, so I filled two up with beans and I just ate the other two because they were so delicious. I helped give out a few hot dogs which was cool. When we got back to the resort Beth Anne and I wanted to go lay in the sun so we were going to go lay next to the pool, but Beth Anne remembered that over in the other section by the pools there were hammocks. So we went over there and layed in them and read our books. I was just laying there happily, reading my book when some guy came over and he was smoking a cigar. I was like come on dude, NASTY!! So I woke up Beth Anne and we went over to our pools and layed by them. I got a little bit burnt on my thighs and chest, but I was so excited to have some color. Right now it looks like its nicely turning into a tan (a very light barely noticeable tan). When we got back into the room I sat on the coach and watched A-Team. Love that movie. We went to dinner at a place that I think was called Mare Blu (because we went to lunch at a place called Mare Blu and Christy said that it was the same name) and the food was super delicious! We got mini enchiladas and chicken and rice and tostadas. Yummy yummy. I tried some horchata and I didn't like it so I just got limonade. We sat and talked for a while and I got on facebook and talked with my mom for a little bit. We brought America and her family and their kids with us to dinner and at one point we had all four of the quadruplets with us at our table. For a while I was holding Valentina. They pierced all of their ears and they wear different colored earrings to tell them apart. I posted a picture of Beth Anne and I sitting at dinner.  When we got back I had to pack up because we had to take all of our bags to the bus this morning. Woke up at 6:00 this morning because we had to be down at the buses at 7:00 and leave at 7:30. So I took my stuff to the bus and then I went down to the beach to grab some sand for Ginny and take a few pictures. Then we went to the work site on last time to take group pictures. After pictures we went to the gift house and while yellow team walked around looking in the house, we went throughout the neighborhood handing out hygiene kits and little toy cars. I was really really nervous about that part because I don't even like knocking on doors in my own neighborhood so I was really scared. It was okay though. WE went back to the gift house and looked around and I found all of the things that the Turner family donated which was a colander, some body wash and a blanket for the girls room. They told us that we weren't going to be there when the family arrived, but we were! Before the family got there one of the leaders bought us all ice cream from a vendor. I got strawberry and it was in a little plastic tube thing. It was really good. When the family came Jared talked to us for a little bit and then the family told us how much they appreciated us. I think that was my favorite part. I started to tear up. It was so fun to wathc them when they went in. The best part was when the husband picked up his wife and carried her into their room. Being here really just helps remind you how fortunate we are. I was thinking it would have been funny to present the house Extreme Home Makeover style and have one of the buses pull in front of it (even though they'd already seen the house they just didn't know it was furnished). It was so so so so great! After that we hopped in the bus and headed over to the shopping center downtown on the point. It was kind of annoying because all of the vendors would be like, here come to my store, look inside, you want this, come here. Pretty annoying when everyone was doing it. We bough a few things and then we went to lunch. I got chicken fingers and fries. I talked with my mom a little. I had bought something for everyone in my family except for my dad and I needed her help in figuring out what to buy him. I ended up buying a Mexican blanket, a hat for Xander, a backpack, some earrings for my mom and a shirt for my dad and a bird hangy thing for the wall. Then I have the necklace to give to Tyson, a key chain and bracelet for Tori and a shirt for me that I got at the shacks and then the kinder chocolate and the boogie board. Before we got on the buses a poor girl on the yellow team tripped and she fell and broke her nose :( I'm so glad that I put in the work to come on this trip. It has been so amazing. I did a lot of hard work I also had lots of fun and made new friends now we are headed to phoenix and we are watching Wreck It Ralph and it looks like we are getting close to the border.

Last time at the work site

This picture just warms my heart

Look how happy they are

Shopping at Rocky Point

June 13, 2013

We didn't end up finishing the house yesterday. Blue team had the morning shift and we went and put the roof beams up and pieces of wood in between the beams so that birds can't make nests in the house. Me and a girl named Bailey worked on one whole wall sticking the boards between the beams. IT was pretty hard. I was hit in the hand by a hammer and almost fell off the scaffolding all in about five minutes. We thought that we were going to do the plywood too, but we didn't. After lunch we waited for the bus for a little bit and then we went back to the resort. They gave us the option to go shopping at shacks and the grocery store, but I stayed home. Everybody else from my room went and I stayed back and watched tv and read my book. The ice cream I bought was really good. When everybody else got back we went down to the beach and we were down there for a while. I took my boogie board out but I  was only able to get one really good wave and a few kind of good waves. When I got out of the water I was playing in the sand and Ericka came over and said we should build something and we decided to bury her and make her a mermaid tail. IT was awesome! Then we buried Ashely's body so she was just a head popping out of the sand. It was really fun but my knees were hurting and really red. After we stayed a little longer at the beach we went to the pool and it was happy hour and you could get drinks 2 for $5 and I got a virgin (hopefully) strawberry daiquiri and it was pretty good. Then we went to dinner on the patio. We had tamales and beans. Those tamales were so hot my mouth was on fire! After dinner we went back up to the condo for awhile and then we went down to the hot tub for awhile until the dance started on the beach. I wasn't planning on going to the dance, but I ended up going for a little bit. Yeah it wasn't that fun. I really don't find joy in jumping up and down. Me, Beth Anne and Christy went up and hopped in the big bath in our swimsuits. Then I took a shower and hopped into bed and watched a little bit of Transformers 2. This morning I woke up at 7:00 and we left to go to the school. The school we went to was founded by Rotary, but is the poorest school in the area. They presented some dances to us and we did the boot scootin boogie. Then we passed out toys and played and danced with them and it was super super fun! When we left there was a line of little kids that we shook hands and said goodbye to.

Bailey and I working on the roof

Eating tamales

Dancing

Don't really know what's going on there

Headed into the school

These are all the sixth grade girls at the school singing us a song

Playing with the kids

June 11, 2013

Today I felt exhausted and cranky and annoyed by everyone around me because I have been around them for a little bit to long. Didn't really get off to a good start, I had to wake up @ 6:00 in the morning!! We headed over to the work site and it was a little bit harder because we were working on scaffoldings. It went pretty slow and we had to do the majority of the blocks multiple times. We were only able to lay part of the 11th level because we had to put wood in over the doors and windows. At that point I went over to the shade tents and sat down and played games with the kids and after that point I really didn't work much more. I tried to help, but wherever I went to help I ended up just standing there so I ended back over at the shade tents. We had chicken tacos today for lunch and I was so hungry that I was naughty and went back for seconds before the yellow team even cam over and got their  lunch. I'm so naughty : / They were delicious though. After lunch I went over to the house that we are gifting to help clean it up. Beth Anne and I washed dishes (which I don't really get since the dishes weren't even dirty and had never been used but somebody wanted us to wash them before we stuck them in the cupboards) and that was pretty fun for a while but then my feet started hurting and I hurt a few of my fingers. After we finished the dishes I just sat down and did nothing. There were two ladies there that were going back and forth about how things should work and it got really tiring. We finished up and came back to the room where I just sat on the coach for an hour and then we left at five to go shopping at a place called shacks on 5th avenue and the Cardboard Mall. There I bought a postcard for Me and Xander and a dolphin key chain for Tori and a shirt for me and a necklace for Tyson and a bracelet for me (which I ended up giving to Tori). I'm thinking I am going to try and find a hat for Xander a pair of earrings for mom and I have no clue what to get for my dad. After we went shopping we went to dinner at a place called Don Julio's where I got beef quesadilla but I wish I would have gotten the chicken . Oh well. When we got back to the resort we went to the hot tub and I stuck my feet in. Then we had a meeting and now I am laying on the couch looking forward to another early morning yay :D We are supposed to finish the house tomorrow.

Playing down by the banks with the kids

 

 

Mexico Journal
June 10, 2013

We got home from trek about 12:30 Saturday afternoon and I took a shower and went to the store and we got home at like 4:15 and we were supposed to leave t 4:50 to go pick up Beth Anne and Karlene to go to the airport. Got through security and Karlene bought us some dinner which we then ate on the plane. Planes are so much better than driving. Way more comfortable and way faster! Got my pretzels and sprite and read my book. When we landed our ride was already there but we had to drive to Mesa to pick up a suburban. It was so hot in Arizona. I walked out of the airport and I was slammed with heat. Didn't do much at the hotel, just slept, in a bed, which was nice. We ate a continental breakfast and headed for the border. It was so hot on the bus!! We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and I got a 10 piece chicken nuggets and a strawberry milkshake. Then we stopped in a place that I think was called Lukeville or something like that for a potty break and then we loaded the bus in alphabetical order because our potty break was right next to the border. Janet asked us to pull our passports out and show her so I reached into my bag to pull out my wallet where I stuck my passport and I couldn't find it so I dumped my purse out on the seat behind me and that's when i completely flipped out. I ran up to the seat I had sat in the rest of the ride and then I ran and checked the bathroom and it wasn't in either of those so I was convinced that it was gone. But we had shifted a few times to get in proper alphabetical order and it had fallen out in the first seat I was in. THANK GOODNESS!!! I was about to puke. I'd heard a bunch of horror stories about the border, but other than my little wallet fiasco the border went really smooth and took half an hour or less. Then we just drove through the middle of nowhere. The first thing we did when we got to the resort is went to the pools (there's like 7 of  them in the complex). Then we had a barbecue and ate hamburgers and had a meeting, then we came back up to the room and went to bed. Today I to to sleep in until 8:00 because we had the later shift at the work site. We had a meeting and then we went down to the beach for a little bit to collect seashells before we got on the bus and headed to the work site. When we got there I really wasn't sure what to do but eventually I found a bucket and started pouring cement into cinder blocks. Then I helped place more cinder blocks and played with lots of mortar. I got really really really dirty. For lunch we had tacos from a taco stand and then we got back to work on laying bricks. After we left the work site we cam back to the resort and we went down to the beach and played in the ocean and it was way fun. After the beach we played in the pools a bit and then we came back to the room and shower and got ready for dinner. For dinner we went to a taco place and I had a beef taco and a pork taco and a quesadilla and a sprite. Then we went to a super market called Super ley and they just told us to go explore. I bought this notebook (the one I used as my journal because I forgot my journal at home), a tub of ice cream, a doughnut, some mexican cake, some gum and some chocolate for my family that I was told is really good. Total is was like 64.60 pesos and 6 dollars. Then when we went out of the store and across the street there was a store with floaties on the outside and we were thinking that it would be fun to get one for the pool and I ended up buying a boogie board and I am so stoked! Then when we got back to the room I skyped with my family for a while which was nice.

                                                       Las Palomas - Our resort


                                        
                                                                           The pools :)

                                         This is the house that the lady was living in. Her name is
                                         America and she has three children Axel, Alejandra and
                                         Brittany. This is the house America grew up in.

                                                Blue team arrives for there first day of work!!


                                        
                                                 Pouring Cement (I'm the one holding the bucket)

Did a March for Babies Walk today!! It was such a neat experience and I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to go. The thing that I just absolutely LOVED is that there were so many people joined together to support such a good cause. It really touched my heart.

Just got back from Dcon tonight. It was super awesome. One of the major emphasis goals is to raise $110 million dollars for the Eliminate Program. Kiwanis Club and Unicef have joined together to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus. I was really touched this weekend and hope that next year our club will be able to help out a lot with this goal. We went on a walk and got these cool shirts.  http://sites.kiwanis.org/Kiwanis/en/theELIMINATEproject/Video2.aspx

I'm so excited that I could go. I learned so much new information about Key Club and I am so stoked for next year!

Children's Justice Center Program!! My mom volunteered me to sort everything and this was the journey

                                                              What I recieved...

    

After I sorted it all out...

Put back into bags and boxes (sorted) and ready to go!