I'm Back...for the Moment

Ok, so I'm back from Mexico, but I leave tomorrow morning for Royal Family Kids Camp. I'm going to keep this short for now because I have so much to do. I'll catch you guys up when I get back for Royal Family.

Mexico was fun, but a bit stressful. We went with another group, and they brought some high school kids who were pretty immature. I had to stay in the dorm with them, so that was kind of annoying. There was also a girl there who used to go to PR apparently. She's about 3 years younger than us though, and also very immature. Her parents fought for her because we had an 11:00 curfew. The thing is, it wasn't our rules! It was the City of Children's rules. Besides, why should she have to follow it if the 26-year-olds, and the moms in the dorm had to? She also wore short shorts all week, and didn't wear her shirt on the way home. I know it's stupid stuff, but if you're going to do mission work, you should be responcible enough to do what they ask of you.

I got to meet my little sister Ivonne. She is so cute! She's the one on the left.

I couldn't really talk to her because I don't speak any Spanish, but I learned a little while I was there, and I plan to teach myself this year so that I can talk to her when I go back next year. We get to play with the kids every day from 2-4, but her dorm was in trouble, she wasn't but the rest of the dorm was, so they were ALL punished, and couldn't play during that time. The only time we got to see her was when we threw her a birthday party, and for the 20 minutes we played with everyone after VBS. She would run to the tables straight from VBS and grab a game, and then wait for me to get there so that we could play. She was the only one from her dorwm who was allowed to play every night. Well, every night but the last one. She got in trouble on Thursday and couldn't play with us. My mom and I were so sad. We both cried. I asked her what she did, but she wouldn't tell me. All she said was that she was embarassed and ashamed. Isn't that so sad?!?

A brief overview:

We had 4 assignments, one each weekday. My team's schedule was as follows: Monday, we worked inside the city, painting the outside of a dorm. There is a ton of white paint in the City of Children, and I believe it probably takes them about 10 years from start to finish to get the complex painted from one side to another. They get the 13 groups that come during the summer to paint as well as do other things like our concrete or put roofs up. Tuesday, we had KP duty. We had to help Dee Spradly cook all 3 meals, as well as cleaning the kitchen and dining room everyday. When we weren't working in the kitchen, we had to help out in the babies (0-5 year-old kids) while 4 women from our team taught their lesson in the morning, and then help the pre-school kids class in the afternoon (5-6 years old.) Then we played with the kids. That was probably the busiest day of the week.

Wednesday, we worked in benevolence. We went to Costco and bought food to give out, then went to the dollar store across the street and bought toys to give out. That took about 4 hours, then we went to the house of a preacher there that PR supports.

His wife made us taquitoes. They were really good, but instead of lunch taking about 20 minutes, as it did with the other groups, it took 1 1/2 hours. It was fun, but it cut into the time we had in the city to shop and look around. It was nice to be on the team that got cooked for though! We had about an hour and a half to shop. It's not that there was much difference between the shops, but it was a lot to take in in such a short amount of time. I got a sweatshirt for myself, and a tshirt for Mitch. I also got a bracelet with my name on it that the guy made while I was standing there. It was really cool. It only took him about 5 minutes.

Ok, that's it for now. I'll try to think of more later.

My favorite part of Mexico: Ivonne
My least favorite part of Mexico: American High School Kids