Recap

At this point in the summer, I feel the need to recap what has been done so far at the homes. Most of you who read this might not have anything to compare the progress to since you haven't been here, but just trust me that if I talk about it, it wasn't here before and now it is. If you have in fact been here before, pat yourself on the back and then ask yourself why you have been here and you haven't brought all the aforementioned schmucks on a trip yet. But, when you finish reading this post, close your eyes and try to visualize the homes with all the changes we have made. Don't shut your eyes yet, because I haven't told you about anything yet and you wouldn't be able to read about them with your eyes shut.

Rancho de los Ninos:
This special needs home has gotten a face-lift this summer. The outer wall has been sealed and covered in stucco. We put up a fence that separates the main complex from the large field that lies behind it. Until the second half of the big concrete wall is finished around the whole back of the property, this fence will keep the children safe. It has concrete running all along the bottom and will have razor wire along the top. Speaking of the rest of the big wall, the footers have begun to dug! With the help of a backhoe every once in a while, we have made a fair amount of progress getting footers put in. The sidewalk in the  covered area where the van parks to unload has been busted out so that a ramp can be poured and the house made more accessible to wheelchairs. We put in a sweet sidewalk that runs from the car port around the front of the house to the front door and took out a useless, huge concrete ramp that really just got in the way. We put up a fence that encloses a huge portion of the front yard so that kids can go outside to play without the caretakers having to worry about where the kids are. We installed an air conditioning unit in the therapy room. No need to explain the significance of that. Lastly, we put new platforms on many of the playground structures and painted the roofs and slides in fresh bright colors. Sweet.

Salvation Army:
The wall has begun! Like the wall at Rancho, except not at Rancho. We have been digging holes, squaring holes, bending boots and pouring footers. Progress is being made. We busted out and re-poured the concrete at the main entrance so that anything with four wheels doesn't bottom out driving over it. Behind the offices a brand new concrete pad was poured with four sturdy clothesline poles held fast within. No more stringing laundry from rickety posts or a tree while standing in the dirt. Lastly, we ran video cable from the caretakers' house to each of the dorms and installed video surveillance cameras. These cameras will help the caretakers monitor who is in each dorm, and in particular for the boys' dorm, monitor any hazing or bullying that is an ongoing issue. Super sweet.

FloreSer:
As any intern will tell you, this home has been one of the most frustrating work-wise. The tasks are not largely noticeable, but they are tedious and take a long time to complete. The greatest foe has been a railing that runs along some outside stairs. First all the old paint had to be ground off. Then sanded. Then weatherproofed and primed. Then repainted. God bless anyone who poured their strength and heart into that railing. Group members have also spent countless hours on scaffolding scraping old paint off a huge wall. When they get done they look like someone dunked them in greenish/white powder. Gross. We have also drywalled a new room that will be used as the computer room. The big project has been mounting razor wire along a stretch of wall. It involved building a frame out of wood and then filling it with concrete so that the y-shaped things that the razor wire is strung on stay sturdy. It was been such an adventure. Everything is done on scaffolding for one. There isn't a great place to mix concrete, so we have just been mixing it in the street. In the States, definitely not ok. Here? No one really cares as long as we don't leave a giant pile of concrete in the middle of the road. Once it gets mixed, we put tiny little bits in a bucket and hoist it up (think a bunch of clowns trying to put out a fire) three levels of scaffolding to pour into the molds. Super duper sweet.

Padres y Compadres:
This is the physical therapy center that we visit once a week. Several of the Rancho kids go there for therapy, as it is provided at a ridiculously cheap price. They love on the kids and families who come there by hardly charging, so we love on them in turn by helping keep up the place. We moved a bunch of dirt so they could have an enclosed area with a tile floor. They have a horse therapy program, so we fenced in their corral and put a new floor in the horses' stalls. Work projects are not really the focus here so that is about it, but the continual assistance we provide with therapy and feeding the children has been hugely beneficial.

So, before you close your eyes and visualize, one last thing. Everything that has been accomplished has been by God's good and perfect will through his strength in us. We are just the tools. And one other thing that has been accomplished this summer: the love of God has been shown to children who need a little extra dose of love. Beautiful. Go.

Categorically Bilingual

Hola. I'm going to start by answering one of the most common questions I get from group members: I speak very little Spanish. What I do know is a collection of seemingly random words that in fact are grouped nicely into three categories: tools, Jesus-words, and food. In the life of a Back2Back intern with a healthy appetite, these are pretty much the three most essential categories in which to be bilingual.

This past week was a bit different from the standard week as we had two groups here simultaneously. One was a medical team made up of physical and occupational therapists, while the other was a group of young people from North Carolina. Now that I'm out of college I'm allowed to call people that are still in college "young people". The medical team worked exclusively with the kids at the special needs home: assessing their abilities, giving them therapy, and also creating videos with therapy instructions for the caretakers so that the best possible care could continue after the group left. They were an incredible blessing for the kids, caretakers, and the staff here who now know how best to help the kids at Rancho. It was so cool to see the relationships that they built with the kids when they spent a whole week with them. Most groups only get to spend a day or two with kids from a given home before moving to a different home, but not this group. I saw a child who is typically stone-faced and quiet whistle and purr and laugh until he could hardly breath and was drooling all over the place. I saw a little girl who never seems happy, stuck in a cycle of crying until so exhausted that sleep overcomes her and then beginning to cry upon waking again, sit contentedly in the lap of one of our interns for an entire afternoon. I saw such an outpouring of love towards the kids at Rancho, and it reminded me so starkly that there are so many different ways to show the love of Christ to others.

The young guns showed off their youth. They were some of the hardest workers I've seen since I've been here. Their attitudes towards their friends, the staff here, and God were much more mature than I expected when first met them. I wish I would have had more time with them this week, but I was often with the therapy group and unfortunately cannot split myself in half. I did enjoy hitting the volleyball around with them though, something I've missed a lot while here.

It is weird being more than halfway done with the summer. I still have no idea what is going to be happening when I get back to the states. Other than playing beach volleyball and playing with the dogs, I really don't have any long term plans. Not to say that I don't want plans, if I could have had it planned before I left, that would have been sweet. Once again God is just playing the "you gotta trust me" card, and every card He's got is kind of a trump card, so I'm just trusting that even if I don't have a plan, He does.

In other news, it has started to rain here a little bit. When people said "rainy season" I expected an every day torrential downpour, paddling our vans like boats to get to the children's homes. I may have set some lofty expectations, but I still don't think the rainy season has quite begun. It rained maybe three or four nights in the last week, and only a little bit one morning. Watching the storms roll in over the Pacific is pretty awesome though. Elections happened in Mazatlan, Felton won. Yippee. All that really means for me is now that the political craziness is over we can go get late night Mexican food again. Hallelujah.

The People's Elbow Returns to Mazatlan

Hola. Yes, that is about the extent of my Spanish-speaking abilities now that I have been here almost four weeks. Not really, I've learned a few more things, but most of the words I know are some sort of construction tool so I'm not exactly conversational. Lots of things have happened since my last blog, but if you read my first blog I made no promises about how often or consistent my blogging would be. If you want to complain, go for it. I'm in a different country so I won't be able to hear you anyway.

So in order to stay in some kind of chronological order, LAST week we didn't have an official group, just a group of three lovely people who set three days of their week-long vacation aside to work with us. The week looked pretty normal other than the lack of a group; the interns and staff continued work projects at each of the homes and had some great bonding time with all the kids. Since there weren't a bunch of people to be fed each evening, we got to mix up our traditional meal schedule which is the same every week. The highlight? Brinner. Duh. (That is breakfast for dinner, in case you have lived a deprived life to this point, you are welcome for changing your life). Our team worked great all week and we were thoroughly exhausted by the end of it. After a gracious couple days to sleep in over the weekend, we were recharged and ready to face the next week.

I might be repeating myself for the next little bit, and again, feel free to complain, it won't bother me even a little bit. For those of you who don't know, while at Michigan State I was involved with Riverview Church. Two spring breaks ago I came down to Mazatlan with a group of 52 college students as a part of the second group to be in Mazatlan, and so began my love for this mission. This week another Riv group is here, and it has been wonderful. I only know a handful of the people, but just knowing that we all come from the same area is comforting. And I've been really sick of listening to that nasty Ohio accent. This group works so hard, even through some pretty ridiculous challenges and I thank God for each of them. I've been sitting in on the debriefing sessions at the end of every day (something I haven't done yet this summer) and it is so cool to see God at work in the group members. As much as I love having them here, I can't wait for them to go home after being here and make a crazy impact on the Lansing area.

Ok, story time. Yesterday we were working at Racho de los Ninos, the special needs home. All of us were busy with our tasks, going about our own business. Except one of the other interns, who needed to wait for another job to be completed before she could begin. While she was hanging out with a few of the kids in the house, the caregivers started unloading some groceries. She went to help, and the smallest girl in the home tagged along. Now, when I smallest, this girl is TINY. She is probably less than three years old and super small. Well she was too small to carry any of the bags that actually contained groceries, but rather than leave her un-involved, one of the caregivers gave her an empty plastic grocery bag to carry. Which she did wonderfully. I didn't quite grasp the beauty in this small gesture until debriefing in the evening as we talked about things God was teaching us about Himself. This story is an exact portrayal of our relationship with God. He has a good and perfect plan (getting the groceries inside) and really doesn't need our help (carrying an empty plastic bag). He is all-powerful, He created the heavens and the Earth, He can snap His fingers and things pop into existence. However, He loves us so much that He allows us to be a part of what He is doing. Even though we are flawed, messed up little punks, He extends to us an offer to be a part of His good and perfect plan. And even though we often resist, screw up the plan, or whatever the case may be, His will is done exactly and as perfectly as He planned. Even though most of the people who come here with Back2Back are not construction workers, buildings and walls have popped up all over the place. Even though most are not social workers or counselors, the paths of children's lives have been drastically altered. That is God's doing, not our own. Pretty cool what He can do through us if we are willing to let Him work and trust that His plan is better than our own.

Hopefully that makes sense, I don't proofread things, so it'll just stay the way it is.

I'd love for you to continue praying for me and what God is doing here. If you have anything you'd like prayer for, this isn't a one-way thing. Get a hold of me and I'll do a little praying myself. In the meantime, get to bed on time or someone might just drop the People's Elbow on you.