Day One
We were supposed to wake up at six to leave for the airport, but I had been up all night, so I had already been awake. I got up and finished packing my bags and then we left to meet the rest of the team at the church at seven. We packed up our things and then headed off to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, all things went well. There was one small incident where someone had left a sunscreen lotion in my suitcase from the last time we used it. The people at the airport couldn't figure out what was causing the machine to act out. We finally found it though, and they just took it. Thankfully I didn't need it! After that, we were on our way to the plane. The flight was super smooth and peaceful. I was very grateful for prayer, because before we left, the ladies' Bible study prayed for a safe, easy flight.
When we got off the plane, we went to customs and we were stopped. I, myself was able to get through just fine, but a couple of the other team members were held back. The other two team members had eyeglasses and supplies in their suitcases, so when they were searched, the airport staff thought we were coming in to sell the supplies. They wanted to get some money out of it, so they charged us. We were there for quite a while before it was okay for us to go. We did have to pay, but we got through with all of the supplies.
As soon as we stepped outside of the airport, it was chaos. Haiti's airport is chaos too, but this took it to a whole new level. Tourists were everywhere. The traffic was literally bumper to bumper. At times, we'd be only a couple inches away from the car in front, on the side, and behind us. Driving through Cancun, it looked a lot like America. It wasn't until we drove out that things started to look a little more impoverished. It was a little easier to take in than Haiti was.
After a two hour drive, we arrived to the hotel we'd be staying at. We were greeted by fellow friends. We put all of our stuff in our rooms and then headed over to Mama and Papa's house. There, they served us a delicious dinner that consisted of beef and rice. I met one of my friend, Justin's, friend, Luis, which is pronounced "Louise". He had a soccer game, so we decided to go and watch it after dinner. We hung out and watched the game. We left at about halftime and then we tried these delicious coconut ice cream type things. They were absolutely divine! We headed back to the hotel and had our nighttime meeting and then practiced some songs that we'd be singing throughout the week. We then went to bed. Our rooms had air conditioning, which was such a relief after such a long, but rewarding day.
Day Two
Since we had electricity, nighttime was no big deal. We were able to keep lights on and appreciate air conditioning. Haiti prepared me for the worst physical situations, so Mexico was a lot easier, physically. I wrote in my journal that I was in love with the land of Mexico. I woke up at 7:00am after sleeping through my 6:00am alarm. We got ready by taking freezing cold showers after our room was already freezing. (The air conditioner in our room had no thermostat, so it only got colder and colder until we turned it completely off.). We met outside at 8:00am and had our team devotion. We set off for Mama and Papa's right afterwards. There, we had our breakfast and played around a bit. At 10:30am, we had church service. It was in Spanish, but one of our team members who spoke Spanish, translated part of the sermon.
When church finished, not only did we had lunch with just Mama and Papa, we had lunch with the whole church. We had spaghetti, which was absolutely wonderful. When everything from lunch was cleared out, we prepared the church for the eye glass clinics that we were going to do throughout the week. We also helped do some construction on the pregnancy center as well as played soccer with some of the little boys. That was loads of fun. Even though the boys were leaving us, Americans, in the dust, literally, we had a blast. We continued preparation for the clinics.
We went to a second church service later that day and it will never cease to amaze me that our God knows every language of the earth and hears all of His people's cries. The night was filled with joy and laughter.
Day Three
I ended up only getting four hours of sleep that night, but it was all good. Our God gives us all the strength we need, even when we're exhausted. We left at about 7:30am to go to Mama and Papa's again. We were served breakfast and then began with the eyeglass clinics. We had a total of 44 people come through and quite a few of them come to know Jesus. It was pretty amazing to witness. I felt so content after helping each and every person. Their smiles when they saw for the first time, was pretty incredible. It only takes one smile to make it worth it.
Their patience was something I marveled at. They would wait for hours to get their glasses, and not one person got irritated. When we finished up the clinic, we all did construction. We picked up "little rocks", which were actually huge, and filled in the foundation of the pregnancy center. We hung out as a team and relaxed when our work was done. Justin, another team member, Timothy, and I all gathered sticks and random objects and created us a cross. Our first cross was probably only a few inches tall, but our second one was made of larger pieces of wood and were fastened tightly by palm fronds.
We were very proud of our hard work, so we stuck the cross on the top of a pile of rocks. At the end of the day, we were all exhausted, so we headed back to our rooms and hung out and then went to bed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ilaNXb9-MM&t=19s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ilaNXb9-MM&t=19s
Day Four
I woke up at 5:30am and we did our devotional like the day before and then headed off to Mama and Papa's again. I was the one who lead the devotional that morning. I asked Jesus to speak through me, but what I've found is that even when He uses us, sometimes things are still imperfect. My devotion wasn't radiant or profound, but it touched one of our members, so that's all that matters. We had breakfast and then prepared for our second day of the clinic. Before we even began, people were already starting to come through. We didn't have much time at all to set up, but it was all perfectly fine.
We ended up seeing over seventy people come through. It was crazy! We had lunch afterwards and then did some more construction. It was a easier day of construction for us, so that was nice. We went to check out a property that was for sale with some of our friends. There, we saw a little horse and we got to pet it and just love on it. We went back to Mama and Papa's afterwards and had some dinner. There, we decided to end our day and go back to the hotel rooms and hang out.
We chatted a little before going to bed, but we were ready for rest!
Day Five
We woke up bright and early once again. We did our devotional and then headed out t or final clinic. We saw a total of eighty people come through. Even though it was more people, it seemed to go by a lot smoother than day four. The clinic was finished at 1:30pm and we ate our lunch around 2:00pm. I wrote in my journal that I was very content.
We ate our lunch with the construction workers, and they came together with us and sang songs. We were singing our worship songs in English and they were reading the words the best they could and singing with us. It was a very powerful moment. Two different languages coming together to praise Jesus.
The teenager's construction for the day was packing up all the glasses and clinic supplies. Once everything was packed up, one of the members went and grabbed some churros. They were pretty awesome!
While we were eating churros, my heart was disturbed. There was a man across the street who had been aggressive towards are team earlier in the morning. He was told to leave the property because of his behavior, so he sat there watching us from across the street. He looked angry, but the secret with angry people is that they're really, deep down inside, sad. So watching him across the street made my heart ache. All we really could do, though, was pray for him. That we did as a group that night.
We ate dinner which was actually fried chicken and mashed potatoes. It was pretty awesome stuff. (You can tell that I LOVE food.)
We went downtown afterwards and shopped for souvenirs. I bought some little things for my family. We headed back to the hotel and grabbed some waters and then went back to the rooms and chilled. We went to bed after another exhausting, but rewarding day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKuzTHIkxRI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKuzTHIkxRI
Day Six
Day six was a long, but short day if that makes any sense. We woke up bright and early and did another devotional time. We went to Mama and Papa's for our breakfast. It was delicious! Timothy, Justin, and I all experimented on tortillas. We put some fruit loops on a tortilla to see what it tasted like. I must tell you to never try it. It was pretty disgusting.
We went straight to construction. We started out shoveling dirt because it was in large piles. We leveled it out. We counted the number of salvations and then had lunch, which was quesadillas. Then we went back outside to pull nails out of wooden boards that were being ripped apart. We didn't want any of the construction workers or team members to get hurt, so that we did.
At around 4:00pm, we headed out and did some more shopping. I got myself a wooden Trompo, which is a Mexican spinning top. I had already gotten plastic ones the day before, so I wanted a nice one too. We ate pizza and then took out our Trompos. Justin and I both had Trompos, so Luis wanted to use mine so that he could battle Justin. I was reluctant because they were going to battle until one Trompo was destroyed, but I ended up letting them battle. It was fun watching them have fun. Besides, the Trompos were super cheap, so it wouldn't take much for me to get another one.
We went into town again and I bought myself another Trompo. Everyone got some ice cream and hotdogs and then we were going to drive back to the hotel. The car battery died, so we ended up having to walk all the way back to the hotel in the dark. We arrived back to the hotel in about 20 minutes. We packed up our stuff and got ready to leave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWX3460ZiZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWX3460ZiZY
Day Seven
We all woke up fairly early and prepared to leave. We got all of our bags out and then had our devotional time. We left for Mama and Papa's for breakfast and then to say our farewells. Mama packed us lunches for the airport. The farewells are always tough. They haven't gotten easier. In fact, they seem to get harder each mission trip I go on.
So just like that, our trip was over and we were headed to the airport. It wasn't nearly as hard getting into the airport than it was getting out. I did get randomly pulled to be searched because I guess I looked suspicious. They searched my bags and then searched me and then we were good to go.
We were back in the states in no time. The trip was absolutely incredible, don't get me wrong, but I was really ready to see my family. When we arrived at the church, my family was there waiting. I got to squeeze Emmy's cheeks and hug Evynn and my parents. We had arrived home at about 6:00pm and I couldn't stop babbling about everything I saw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8n9qbCJl50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8n9qbCJl50
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