4-1-10, Mexicali

Hola!

as usual, this has been a crazy trip. tonight is the first night i could send out an e-mail before the computor shut me down and kicked me off the internet :) our week is actually done here. the seniors left this morning, and we stayed at basecamp to help break down the camp. unfortunately, it rained really hard and turned the entire campsite into a field of muddy gooh. then the sun came out and dried the dirt into crunchy footprints.


we worked at the elderly orphanage for 3 days and in that time we accomplished amazing stuff. we went through 21 gallons of paint for the exterior, and tore off and replaced the leaking roof. i even had the honor of changing ancient francesca's wet britches (she walked up to me and handed me a diaper).

this year had some truly amazing young people. these kids worked hard to be able to come here and they took their time seriously.
trust me, they had a lot of fun too, but they were a little deeper than usual. many of the teens and twenty-somethings had never experienced a relationship with a grandparent, or a parent for that matter. when they hung out with our group they really opened up their hearts to us. tonight we had a baked potato bar and one young man, who'd basically raised himself on the streets, asked me to help him. he'd never made one before. he didn't want anyone to know. i had to show him how to put the butter down in the potato to get it to melt . . . why didn't he have a mommy to teach him that? he's 21 years old.

tomorrow we drive our big overloaded truck out of mexico and head off to LA, where we'll hang out at the beach for the day. we'll go to good friday services together (100 of us). saturday night we fly out of LA to leon, and then take a taxi to guanajuato. once we get settled into the school and our home i'll email you again . . . God willing :)

se amo mucho, heidi y jose