~~Belize 2014~~ UPDATE
11 years ago
Sunday, July 26, 2009
So...
I didn't get as much written this weekend as I had hoped, but I will post more next weekend. I'm going to try to post a few pics before I go to sleep. I just got back from eating a late dinner with Eunice at a taco stand called Mk Taco...can you guess where they were going with that?? ;) It was good. I really wish I spoke more Spanish though. I feel rather helpless here quite often. But, I'm around helpful people who do speak Spanish and I am very thankful for that. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I look forward to reading some comments next weekend! Also, if you saw that I did not email someone that you think I should have...please forward them the email from earlier...I tried to catch everyone I could, but I probably missed a few.
Week 1: Sunday Night -- Monday
Sunday night when I arrived at the Ranch I was given a tour of the staff area which consists of the tents with carpeted floors and bunk beds that we sleep in, an outhouse, a shower open to the sky, a toothbrushing and hand-washing station, and a covered area with chairs and a plastic picnic table for staff to hang out and have meetings/devotions. I did not have to do much Sunday night besides get settled into my new home.
Monday morning I had to be at Staff Devotions at 7:40am. One of the staff read out of a devotion book, read some scripture, we briefly discussed it, and prayed. Then it was time for breakfast. After breakfast we had a staff planning meeting to get ready for the Nino (there's an imaginary squiggly line over the 2nd "n") groups that were coming in a couple hours. I was helping with the upper camp (we usually have 2 groups: lower camp and upper camp each week) and we did not have an Amigo group with us, so we had more planning to do than the staff helping the other camp.
Our ninos showed up an hour earlier than they were supposed to (10:30am)so the other staff went through the rules with them and then we played games with them until it was time for lunch.
After lunch I tried to keep the kids from hurting themselves or each other while they had some free time. After free time we did some VBS activities that involved a story, a craft, and some games. Ceci, one of the staff, was really fun to watch tell the story (it was about 2 pigs, one arrogant and the other always felt inferior, and how they both experienced God's love), she was so expressive and fun in her delivery. During this time I became acutely aware of how the difficult the language barrier was going to be.
That afternoon the kids took showers and then we fed them dinner (there are ladies that come in from Ensenada that do the cooking...we just passed out the plates, wiped down the tables, etc.). Then they had some more free time, during which I got a break while another staff watched the kids. And, finally, we had a campfire for the ninos during which they sang songs and shared their favorite part of the day. The campfires were always fun. It's neat to watch kids sing worship songs in another language. I'm slowly learning the lyrics to a couple of the songs.
I went to bed not long after the campfire. I was pretty tired between the time change and the busy-ness. It was an interesting first day.
Monday morning I had to be at Staff Devotions at 7:40am. One of the staff read out of a devotion book, read some scripture, we briefly discussed it, and prayed. Then it was time for breakfast. After breakfast we had a staff planning meeting to get ready for the Nino (there's an imaginary squiggly line over the 2nd "n") groups that were coming in a couple hours. I was helping with the upper camp (we usually have 2 groups: lower camp and upper camp each week) and we did not have an Amigo group with us, so we had more planning to do than the staff helping the other camp.
Our ninos showed up an hour earlier than they were supposed to (10:30am)so the other staff went through the rules with them and then we played games with them until it was time for lunch.
After lunch I tried to keep the kids from hurting themselves or each other while they had some free time. After free time we did some VBS activities that involved a story, a craft, and some games. Ceci, one of the staff, was really fun to watch tell the story (it was about 2 pigs, one arrogant and the other always felt inferior, and how they both experienced God's love), she was so expressive and fun in her delivery. During this time I became acutely aware of how the difficult the language barrier was going to be.
That afternoon the kids took showers and then we fed them dinner (there are ladies that come in from Ensenada that do the cooking...we just passed out the plates, wiped down the tables, etc.). Then they had some more free time, during which I got a break while another staff watched the kids. And, finally, we had a campfire for the ninos during which they sang songs and shared their favorite part of the day. The campfires were always fun. It's neat to watch kids sing worship songs in another language. I'm slowly learning the lyrics to a couple of the songs.
I went to bed not long after the campfire. I was pretty tired between the time change and the busy-ness. It was an interesting first day.
The Trip to Mexico
My flights went well. There was a little turbulence on both flights, but nothing major. I was picked up at the airport by one of Genesis's summer staff named Bob. He works at the Ranch (where we do the summer camps) from Sunday to Wednesday every week all summer long. We met the Amigo group (youth group) that helped out last week at a Burger King a few minutes from the Mexico/US border and Bob shared some information with the group about crossing the border and the trip down to the Ranch.
Crossing the border was interesting. It was strange to see guards with huge guns standing around watching everything. Crossing into Mexico took very little time. They checked to see what the Amigo group was carrying (they had brought a big trailer for all of their stuff) and they wanted to know why we were going into the country. Then we were on our way. However, the line for going into the US was super long and slow-moving. Hopefully when I head back across it won't be too backed up.
The scenery on the way down to the Ranch was interesting. We stayed relatively close to the ocean the whole time and I got to see how much different the shoreline was to what I am used to. From the road we were driving on, it dropped off pretty steeply to the water and the coastline was super rocky. Very pretty, but not a good place to try to build a sand castle.
I took some pictures of the scenery, but they didn't turn out very well. I may try to post some of the more decent ones if I figure out how to do that. There were a number of pretty houses near the coast and even some condos. Many of the condo buildings are not finished due to the slump in the economy. There are also a lot of homes in rough shape and a lot of dirt. Mexico seems to be short on grass, but makes up for it with dirt.
We (Bob, myself, and the Amigo group) met most of the summer staff at a taco stand about 30 minutes from the Ranch for dinner around 5 o'clock. It was really good. They also had coke there in glass bottles...good stuff. Once we finished eating we loaded up and drove the last bit of the trip to the Ranch.
Crossing the border was interesting. It was strange to see guards with huge guns standing around watching everything. Crossing into Mexico took very little time. They checked to see what the Amigo group was carrying (they had brought a big trailer for all of their stuff) and they wanted to know why we were going into the country. Then we were on our way. However, the line for going into the US was super long and slow-moving. Hopefully when I head back across it won't be too backed up.
The scenery on the way down to the Ranch was interesting. We stayed relatively close to the ocean the whole time and I got to see how much different the shoreline was to what I am used to. From the road we were driving on, it dropped off pretty steeply to the water and the coastline was super rocky. Very pretty, but not a good place to try to build a sand castle.
I took some pictures of the scenery, but they didn't turn out very well. I may try to post some of the more decent ones if I figure out how to do that. There were a number of pretty houses near the coast and even some condos. Many of the condo buildings are not finished due to the slump in the economy. There are also a lot of homes in rough shape and a lot of dirt. Mexico seems to be short on grass, but makes up for it with dirt.
We (Bob, myself, and the Amigo group) met most of the summer staff at a taco stand about 30 minutes from the Ranch for dinner around 5 o'clock. It was really good. They also had coke there in glass bottles...good stuff. Once we finished eating we loaded up and drove the last bit of the trip to the Ranch.
Hey Everybody!
This is Katie now. :) I have now been in Mexico for a whole week! It has definitely been a very interesting week. Thanks for checking out my blog. I will try to keep it updated every week when I have internet access.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
1st Post!
Ok, so this isn't actually Katie writing (yet)...Bryan set this up for me in case I want to journal some of my experiences and share them with my friends and family back home. So come back and check weekly, as hopefully I'll be able to share some of my experiences with you!
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