Summer time in Baja.

*I wrote this a few weeks ago and forgot to post it, I have been home for 10 weeks now. *


So this post is a little over-due, but this summer was CRAZY and I am finally settling in to the craziness of being back after getting home a little over 3 weeks ago. 3 weeks home is such a small amount compared to the 6 months, 24 weeks, I was living in Ensenada this year. When I got home my dad made a comment about how since high school I have spent 12 months in the U.S and 12 months in Mexico, that is such a crazy thought!

~ JUNE ~

The summer started with a team from Alabama. I got assigned to work with one of their house builds, got to work with a great foreman, a new missionary to yugo and I got to go to a Mumford & Sons concert too!  It was a great kick off week to a crazy summer of 12 straight weeks of teams!  The sweet family I built for was from Oaxaca and they had one daughter named Heymi. (pronounced Amy)  One of my favorite parts about house builds is getting to know the family and seeing their way of life. I got to chat with the mom and dad and hear about how they met and ended up in Ensenada.

The next week was one I had been looking forward to since last summer. A church from Tennessee comes to Mexico every year and each time I have been incredibly blessed by their encouragement and taking me in as a member of their team. This summer I was able to work with the same people I did last year and continue to strengthen the relationships made last summer. It felt like I was working alongside family and it was an incredibly fun week. We built a house for a single mom of 3.  Her husband recently left her and we had the opportunity to give her a stable home next door to her sister and a safe enviornment for her 3 sweet kids, Keyla, Camelia and Angel.  I had time to sit down and spend time with the mom and hear more about her family and her work.  She and her sister made us authentic food every day and there were always tons of kids running around the worksite.  On Thursday we had the dedication and after some minor electrical issues (drywalling an electrical outlet into the wall...) we were able to present this sweet family with a house of their own.  Their family came to celebrate and brought a cake.  So after the dedication we got to spend time celebrating and enjoying time together.  It was an incredible week!

The summer interns arrived on June 6th and our intern crew grew from 6 to 12! We spent the first few days getting to know each other through a scavenger hunt downtown and camping at our secret camping spot! Since the summer is so busy every week on Wednesday nights we had intern bible study at Sean and Trisha's and had time of fellowship and Biblical discussion.

Towards the end of June we had a busy week with a huge church from Clovis, California.  I was able to work with a foreman named Hernan that I hadn't worked with before.  But it was a great week learning so many things from him and being able to work with some people I worked with the last 2 summers! We built for a couple and their daughter and had a fun week building alongside them! Hernan and I met the sweet little 3 year old neighbor boy who introduced himself as Saaaaantos Saaaanchez! He was constant entertainment and full of energy.  He stole the hearts of everyone on the team and everyone had a hard time saying goodbye to him.


 At the end of June my brother Cameron came down to Mexico to intern with me for a month! Let me just say that having Cam there with me was a huge blessing and it was awesome to be able to spend lots of time with him.  I was so proud of him and seeing how much he loves the Lord and has grown up over the last couple of years. Cam, you rock!

~ JULY & AUGUST ~
The first week of July is one of the most memorable weeks I have had with YUGO. We built the 3rd D-house, which is a house with 4 bedrooms instead of the standard 2 bedrooms.  It is a bigger project and is a lot of fun.  It was an incredible week for many reasons.  For one it was for a family that I have known for a while.  I met their daughter Yessica my first summer and in March I met the rest of the family when they helped build another family's house.  Another reason is because the team building the house I met my first summer and I met Florecita and her sisters with them. Mario and Silvia are incredible parents and people. They have raised 6 amazing kids and are greatly involved in bringing the Oaxacan people to the Lord.  They have huge hearts to minister to the people of Oaxaca who speak Triqui, an indian dialect.  Since many of these people do not speak much Spanish it is awesome that there are people in the community that want to minister to them and teach them about Jesus.  Mario and Silvia hold Bible studies now at their new house and are ministering to these people. During the week there were always tons of moms and children gathers around sitting in the shade, chatting, selling bracelets and enjoying time together. Silvia made us amazing food each day like tamales, fried chicken and a chicken soup called posole. I wish there were words to capture this week but I cannot put anything together that would sufficiently explain it, it was just incredible.  From the people to the food to the place we were at to the incredible ways God showed his provision to the friendship to the family finally receiving their house, every moment was incredible. There were so many memories made and so many lives impacted that week.  I caught myself so many time just taking it all in, looking around in awe at what God was doing and how starting over 2 years ago he began planning for this week that was so perfectly orchestrated.


The rest of the month of July truly flew by! We were building every week and hanging out on the weekends.  It went by so quickly but was an awesome month of being out in the villages and working around camp.  We celebrated the 4th of July on the beach with fireworks and I celebrated my 20th birthday with some of my favorite people. It was my 3rd birthday spent in Mexico which seems crazy! I got to work with awesome teams and got to spend a week building with my best friend and another week building with my brother.  Mid-July we had out annual "Mexi-prom" where we get dressed up and head about an hour to Rosarito for a nice dinner out.    It is so fun to have an evening away from camp with all of the interns and enjoy some time together.
One week in July Cameron and I worked with our good friend Ricardo building for a family that was in desperate need for a house.  They were living in an uncle's house that was in terrible condition and 7 people were living there. This house gave them more space and is much safer and a better living enviornment.  The kids were older so it was fun to have them involved in building the house and it was so good to see that the 2 grand-babies now have a safe home to live in.

The last week or so in Mexico was spent visiting families, spending time with friends, saying goodbye to other interns and just enjoying the last bit of time in Mexico. I got to see one of my best friends and her fiance while they came for a visit which was awesome because I hadn't seen them in a year.  On August 6th I headed up to the States with Sarah and her two kids and we spent the day crossing the border, going out to lunch and fulfilled our month-long plan to go to frozen yogurt, haha.  That afternoon I flew home, 6 months almost to the day that I left in February for Mexico.

So that concludes my adventure in Baja for a little bit. Although I have left Mexico for now, I  know that I will be back. It is a place that has captured my heart and changed my life.  Mexico presented the opportunity to get to know a different culture, tons of people from around the world, learn to speak Spanish, try new foods, strengthen my relationship with God as well as teach me so many life skills and lessons that I am extremely grateful for. I am thankful every moment, challenge and opportunity because of what they have taught me and how they have shaped me.  My life has been forever impacted and changed due to the amazing time I have spent in Baja.

What's next?

I am headed to Western Oregon University in a few weeks, moving into the cutest house with 2 of my best friends and studying to be a Spanish teacher. I am amazed at how all of this has come together over the last year. This next adventure is going to be a fun one but I am hopeful that Baja will play a little part in it.  I will hopefully be going back to Mexico for a week in March and dream of going to Uganda in the near future. Until I move I have been keeping busy with working at Menchies, camping, going to Cam's football games, and spending lots of time with the rest of my family and my friends. Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged me over the last couple of years! :)

A bit of April & May

April was another month of some teams, local churches hosting retreats and for us interns lots of classes and outreaches. In April we started leading outreaches, each of us was assigned a partner and a date and we planned a whole outreach.  The outreach I did was to a local church in a community called Lomas Bonitas.  We made food for their feeding program and played with all of the kids.  We had a short lesson and just enjoyed the morning feeding the community and spending time with them.  It was fun for me because I also got to see a family I had built for a few weeks back. :)  Tianna took us  on a outreach to an orphanage she had worked at in March. This orphanage is much different than many of the orphanages we visit.  It is in a house and can hold 20 children, as of now they have 17 children currently living there.  The man, his wife and their daughter take extremely good care of these children.  Some of the children have come from situations of severe abuse and they are now loving them and showing them the love of Christ.  During this outreach we fingerpainted, played games and ate  PB & J. It was so fun to hear the man's heart behind this ministry and to see how the kids interacted with each other.  Later in the month Martin led an outreach to my favorite community El Zorrillo!  We put on a small children's program with songs, games and a skit.  We then fed them hot dogs and you would be so surprised at how much these kids love hot dogs.  They kept coming back to get more and I think one kid ate 6!

At the beginning of May we headed out for vacation! Most of staff went out in different directions. One to Guatemala, some to Hawaii, some to Canada, Santa Barbara, Oregon and some stayed close to camp or went a few hours south.  In was SO good to go home! I was able to be there for almost 2 weeks. It was insanely busy and I was able to get a lot done.  The first week I was home I focused on seeing family and getting all of my appointments out of the way. I went to the eye doctor (where I found out I didn't need glasses after all), to a doctor's appointment, to the dentist and ran errands.  I got to spend a ton of time with my mom which was awesome, we got pedicures together and ate out.  I got to spend lots of time with friends as well as having a party with all my small group girls.  I went to Salem to see my grandparents and meet my new baby cousin as well as some advising meetings at WOU the same day. I also got to go to 4 of Cam's lacrosse games as well as see him score the game winning goal in double overtime against the best team in the state! I got to celebrate my best friend's birthday and spend Mother's day with a ton of family.  My aunt brought up our two baby cousins Khloe and Leah and it was such a blessing to spend the day with both sets of grandparents and enjoy a day of family time.  I also went to WOU to register for my classes and visit the house I will be living in.  I am soooo excited for the next chapter that I am stepping into. I also found out the my boss at Menchies will let me work for a few weeks once I get home, before I move to Monmouth, which is a huge blessing.  If you think about it please be praying that I can find a job in Monmouth when I move there! Overall my visit home was incredible and felt way too short but I loved every minute of being home,

When I got back to Mexico Saturday night I had a little over 24 hours to rest and get ready to go on our first ever intern mission trip! I will write another blog on that soon because if I include it in this one the blog will be a mile long!  But here is a sneak peak picture of us doing our skit at one of the ministry sights that week. :)

After we got back from our trip on the we spent most of the weekend resting and hanging out.  Saturday morning  some of us helped our friend Gerry make 250 tortas to give out to the homeless people of Ensenada during an outreach day.  That night they ended the outreach day with a concert at the beach! We all went and enjoyed a few hours of great music and fellowship!  On Monday we went out and visited some of the families we have built for over the last couple of months.  One family Lexa and I built for last June was expecting their second child so we wanted to visit and see the new baby!  The mom had a c-section and was still recovering but was excited for us to visit for a bit.

June is here, seems like this year has been going by so quickly.  Crazy to think that I have been living here 4 months and have less than 2 months left here. It is so bittersweet.  The last weekend of May/first weekend of June all of the staff at the EOC went about an hour and a half up to the ROC for an all staff camp out/retreat.  It was fun to have all of the YUGO staff including the board from the US and Canada. It was a fun weekend of fellowship and spending time all together. The first week of June we started our summer season! It marked the beginning of 12 straight weeks of house building.  I spent the week building with a great team from Alabama.  But before I headed out to work, I made a trip to Chula Vista California to see Mumford & Sons. It was so fun to go to the states for a bit and spend time with some of my favorite people!  The family I built for was a mom, dad and their 2 year old Heymi (Amy).  It was a great week spent with fun people and ended with a family receiving a new house!  4 of the 5 summer interns arrived and we are now starting to build every week! I have been having a lot of stomach problems lately so prayer would be greatly appreciated because I have been so frustrated! But I am so excited for what this summer has to bring!

February, March and a bit of April

Hey from Baja! Sorry I have been such a lazy blogger lately! It's partly due to the fact that my computer was stolen a week after I got here so uploading pictures and internet access has been slightly limited.

We arrived at camp at 10 pm on February 7th.  We were picked up at different times throughout the afternoon, stopped for lunch, ran some errands at walmart and waited 2 hours at the border!  Usually you can drive right into Mexico but the police were checking each car before they crossed because that was the day the nationwide hunt started for the California police officer that had gone on a killing spree.  We spent the first few days getting to knowing each other and going through orientation.  There are 6 six- month interns.  From top; Ashley (L.A.) Miguel (Ensenada), Lexa (Intern Staff, Puerto Rico), Martin (Ensenada), me, Tianna (St.Inez, California) and Nate (Vancouver, B.C.)

 The first few weeks we spent in different classes ranging from topics like leading an outreach to evangelism.  We also had outreaches twice a week.  Every Tuesday we go to an incredible ministry called Casa Esperanza.  It is a ministry that takes in moms and their children who come from domestic abuse situations. They are given a small room/apartment and chores around the campus.  They have a certified pre-school and kindergarten, as well as a daycare.  The women have to spend the first 3 months without working so that they can spend time with their children and starting the healing process.  After 3 months they are allowed to go and find a job.  We do lots of cleaning and matienance projects as well as spend time with the sweet little kids that live there.
We also did other projects like painting the deck of a pastor's house. (above picture)

 During February we also had free time in the evenings and on the weekends.  One day Lexa took the girls driving around Ensenada and we stopped at our favorite look out that looks out over the entire city! We also went to a local youth conference. There were hundreds of youth from churches all over Ensenada.  It was fun to be able to experience a local youth event!











On Valentines day we helped prepare and serve food at a lunch the camp put on for the pastors we work with and their wives.  We spent most of the day in the kitchen while the event was going on.  It was a really fun day working together.  The only bummer was when I returned to my room in the afternoon and found out my laptop and ipod had been stolen. A serious bummer, and after a trip to the police it didn't show up.  But God has been faithful and my amazing grandma has blessed me with a laptop for when I get home and go back to school.


MARCH:

One Sunday afternoon in March we went to Martin's soccer game and then out to eat downtown at a burger stand.  It was a super fun night and then it turned into a funny adventure.  A block away from our neighborhood the car broke down in the middle of the road.  We were able to get it started and a few feet into the neighborhood.  Then it stopped again and we had to push it over a mile back home. It was a night full of a whole lot of laughing at ourselves and the situation we were in.  It is one of those memories that you will never forget. We still laugh about it.

 In the beginning of March we celebrated Tianna's 20th birthday! We went out to eat at a taco/stuffed potato restuarant and to a movie. It was a really fun night of time together outside of camp.  Fun fact, a movie ticket here is about $5!

Mid-March we started a 3-week term of house building.  The first house I worked on for was for a sweet family in my favorite community, El Zorrillo.  Moises and Veronica are originally from a southern state called Oaxaca and were married at 15.  They have 3 young boys. Jesus (chuy) 7, Andres 4, and Aaron who turned 3 while we were building.  I also got to work with an incredible team from Vancouver, BC made up of youth and adult leaders.

 It was a truly incredible week being able to serve a great family and work alongside energized, fun people.  The family was very involved as well as the pastor and on dedication day they made us a delicious lunch of fish tacos.  It was a crazy day for sure, we dedicated around 5 pm and ended up hanging around for another hour.  They made us all bracelets and they gave beautiful woven hats to the 2 women leaders on the team and to me to pass on to my grandma who made blankets for me to give to the little boys.  I got to experience a really cool, humbling moment the last day.  The family's neighbor Carmen approached me and asked if we had any food that we could give to another women that had 5 kids and whose husband had left her.  The team had told me that they were going to bless Carmen with a food box because she had been such an encouragement to them.  I told her that the team was going to bless her and when she heard that her eyes lit up and she told me that

she was going to share it with her friend, and that she tries to help her whenever she can.  It was really incredible to see this women who lives in a small house and does not have tons of resources be so overjoyed to share a gift she was going to receive.
I also got to see my precious 3 little sisters that I met my first summer in Mexico.  They live in the same village that we were working in and I was able to visit them 3 days in a row. It is always so good to see the 3 girls that changed my perspective on so many things. I was given some money to bless people as needed and I was able to take some of it and buy them groceries. Seeing them always makes my day. It was a truly incredible, amazing week.  God is so cool in the way that He puts things together.

 

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The next week Abundant Life, my church came!  The camp was full with over 175 campers from 2 churches and lots of volunteer staff.  We built 7 houses, had 2 VBS and a special project. It was insanely busy but so awesome.  I had been extremely homesick so having my church come with familiar faces was such a encouragement to me.  Also having my dad and brother here was great!  We built for another Oaxacan family in another one of my favorite villages, Lomas Bonitas.  The family is made up of Fransisco, Ofelia and thier 3 children.  Silvia 7, Libereo 3 and sweet 3 month old Fransisco. It was an awesome week of getting to know some youth from my church as well as getting to spend time with people I have missed so much.  On Tuesday the mom Ofelia told me she was going to the store and was gone for almost 2 hours.  The next morning Fransisco was coughing really badly and I asked her if she had gone to the doctor yet.  She told me that she had tried to go yesterday when she went to the store but the pharmacy had been closed.  The nearest pharmacy is about 5-7 minutes driving, down a HUGE hill and down the main highway.  She had walked the whole way with a baby on her back.  So we offered to drive her again on Wednesday so that we could get the baby checked up and buy medicine. Taking the mom and baby to the pharmacy was a really simple yet incredible experience.  Ofelia does not speak much Spanish, she speaks a Oaxacan dialect called Mizteco.  So because of that I was able to do a lot of the speaking with the doctor and help him check the baby. The check up cost 35 pesos, so barely over $2.00.  He prescribed 3 medications which we were able to buy for about $10.00! This trip gave me a look into the reality of medical care in the villages we work in.  The check up room was small with a desk, cabinet, check up table and scales.  It was really bare and made me think about the privledges we have at home. It was pretty impactfull and a reality check. On Wednesday night I was able to join my church in going to the church in the community we build in.  The family came in late and sat with me and I was able to cuddle with sweet little Fransisco.  This family was really special to me.  I was able to spend time chatting with Ofelia which gave me a little look into her life.  One day my dad and I were talking with her and she told us that the matteress on the bed we gave her would be the first one she ever slept on! It was a awesome week serving along Abundant Life.  

The next week we had a really cool opportunity!  A family of 4 came to build a house so all of the interns got to go out and build together.  We got to spend the week working as one time which was super fun because we usually all go to different houses.  We built for a family of 6 and we were able to put some fun extra details in their house, we did some paintings on the wall and the family bought them a couch and table set.

APRIL

Back in March we went on a random outreach one Thursday morning.  We prayed that God would lead us to a family we could bless with groceries.  We ended up at the house of a women named Veronica.  After a bit of chatting we found out that they are a family of jehovah's witness.  We were able to spend time talking and encouraging them as well as sharing the gospel with them.  Her husband, 2 daughters (Griselda and Mirim), Griselda's son Oscar, Mirim's husband Eduardo and their daughter Alexa.  After visiting them 3 times we had heard many things from their lives.  Griselda has an incredible story of the abuse she suffered with the father of her sweet son.  Veronica told us about a time in her life where she was trafficked and ended up escaping.  Keep this family in your prayers as they have lots of pain in their lives.  The 3rd time we went to visit them they invited us to dinner that weekend so we went for dinner last Friday.  It was seriously SO fun.  They had cleaned up their yard and set out a table for us all to eat at.  They made rice, tortillas, chicken, pork, soy ceviche, and a delicious desert from Michochan.  We brought soda, ice and cake and had a great time hanging out with our new friends!  It was perfect!

From Left to Right, Tianna, Lexa, Nate, Mirim, Eduardo, Sean, Griselda, Oscar, Me, Alexa :)

So, in a nutshell that's what I've been up to the last couple of months!  This trip to Mexico has been the hardest and most stretching time I have had living here.  This year I experienced much more homesickness when I got here as well as being constantly pushed out of my comfort zone.  But it is so good, I have been learning so much more than I would be if I was just sitting in a super comfortable place.  God is using different situations to stretch my perspective and although it has been harder than before it has also been an incredible time in my life and I am SO incredibly happy.  I wouldn't change anything because God has been teaching me so much and I am learning to walk day by day in my faith with Him.  I go home in a few weeks for vacation which is so exciting but it also marks the halfway through point.  And the closer that gets the more I think about it. Since I graduated almost 2 years ago I have lived, slept and breathed Mexico. If not in Mexico, thinking and dreaming about Mexico.  And once I go home in August I am looking at 3 years of school.  Which I am SUPER excited about but it means less chances to come to Mexico for the upcoming season of my life.  So it is really, really bittersweet.  I am looking forward to making the most of the next few months and enjoying the time I have here in this incredible place that has my heart.