hi!
we arrived at the mexicali border at about 10 pm sat night. seven of us in two rental cars. before crossing over, dan (our fearless leader)
followed his instincts and double checked the paperwork to confirm that we had the mexico auto insurance, which is required. he'd asked for it in san diego, but further scrutiny revealed that we'd not gotten the insurance. dan called fox car rental and they said "you'll have to come back to san diego or go to phoenix". let me remind you how late it was on a saturday night. after 1 1/2 hours he finally got insurance online for less money and we crossed the border. we were exhausted.
next day we set off for our new mission site to go to church. went the long way and arrived a little late like half the congregation. it was a great service! afterwards we went outside and were surrounded by a swarm of children. about thirty . . . mostly boys. a youth group from nebraska was there for vbs (surprise!), so we toured the facility that houses the orphans, and got a glimpse of the women's shelter.
our base camp is pretty much the same as usual,
thanks to the efforts of the base camp team who had to clean up and repair everything because of the massive earthquake that hit last year right after we left. apparently the upper parking lot split open and sulphur water bubbled out for 3 days. the huge trailer that houses our freezers and refrigerators slid of it's foundation. when we arrived it looked normal :)
today was our first day at the women's shelter. i did 5 haircuts and terry did 3 manicures and received a manicure from one of the teenage boys. incredibly nice people. basically four little families living together at the shelter. our sports team went out into the pueblo and invited the local boys to come play ball with them. at first no one seemed interested, but after a couple of kids joined them it opened the floodgates. they had about 25 young men from the community come out and play soccer, basketball, baseball, and red-light-green-light. of course this meant several young girls showed up to watch the gringos run around. i started weaving glittery curling ribbon in their hair (thanks lori and lora for the idea). next thing you know terry and i had a line-up of girls wanting ribbons. it was awesome!
lot's of hugs and kisses, heidi and joe
we arrived at the mexicali border at about 10 pm sat night. seven of us in two rental cars. before crossing over, dan (our fearless leader)
followed his instincts and double checked the paperwork to confirm that we had the mexico auto insurance, which is required. he'd asked for it in san diego, but further scrutiny revealed that we'd not gotten the insurance. dan called fox car rental and they said "you'll have to come back to san diego or go to phoenix". let me remind you how late it was on a saturday night. after 1 1/2 hours he finally got insurance online for less money and we crossed the border. we were exhausted.
next day we set off for our new mission site to go to church. went the long way and arrived a little late like half the congregation. it was a great service! afterwards we went outside and were surrounded by a swarm of children. about thirty . . . mostly boys. a youth group from nebraska was there for vbs (surprise!), so we toured the facility that houses the orphans, and got a glimpse of the women's shelter.
our base camp is pretty much the same as usual,
thanks to the efforts of the base camp team who had to clean up and repair everything because of the massive earthquake that hit last year right after we left. apparently the upper parking lot split open and sulphur water bubbled out for 3 days. the huge trailer that houses our freezers and refrigerators slid of it's foundation. when we arrived it looked normal :)
today was our first day at the women's shelter. i did 5 haircuts and terry did 3 manicures and received a manicure from one of the teenage boys. incredibly nice people. basically four little families living together at the shelter. our sports team went out into the pueblo and invited the local boys to come play ball with them. at first no one seemed interested, but after a couple of kids joined them it opened the floodgates. they had about 25 young men from the community come out and play soccer, basketball, baseball, and red-light-green-light. of course this meant several young girls showed up to watch the gringos run around. i started weaving glittery curling ribbon in their hair (thanks lori and lora for the idea). next thing you know terry and i had a line-up of girls wanting ribbons. it was awesome!
lot's of hugs and kisses, heidi and joe
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