Way-Back-Wednesday #21: Mexico Spring Break Trips, the high school years!

This entry was started a week ago but due to my being sick, never got finished.  SO, here's an updated version, finally ready to go :)

I've anxiously been waiting for the next way-back-Wednesday post for two weeks, because I knew {without a doubt} what I'd be writing/showing y'all.  It's almost spring break (both in America and here in Ukraine as well) which means it's time for a little walk down memory lane...

For the past 19 years, my church (McFarlin UMC) has gone down south to Mexico (and now to the Rio Grande Valley) to build houses for families in need.  I started going on this trip my freshman year of high school {circa 2002} and was instantly hooked. If you know me at all, you know how much this mission trip means to me.  For the people who have never been on a Mexico mission trip, I'll try to give some details about the trip and the way things worked/were built/etc.  So, without further ado...let's take a walk down memory lane :)

I decided to break up the trips by year, and by certain memories that come to mind with those certain years. In today's post, we'll take a look at Mexico Spring Break trips 2002-2005, also known as my high school years :)

sidenote: up until 2006, I think all of the pics I have are scans of originals (thanks to Scott for putting them all on facebook :) minus 2004, which is nowhere to be seen.  Someone needs to find those pics...) Also, you can click on pictures to make them bigger.  And, this is by far the longest post ever.  Fair warning.

The basics about a Mexico Mission Trip:

• Youth 8th grade and up, college kids, and adults are welcome on the trip.
• People on the trip are broken up into teams (normally named after a Mexican food...).  Each team had anywhere from 10-15 people on it and each team was assigned a worksite where they built a small casita for a family in need (size 12'x16' I think, costing around $2000-$2500).  
• Each team has two or three team leaders (back in the day, they also had a construction coordinator).  These are always high school students.
• We drive down to San Antonio on the first day of the trip (first Saturday of Spring Break).  Worship at an old church in downtown San Antonio early Sunday morning and are on the road again...
• Sunday afternoon was spent shopping in the border town of Nuevo Progresso
• Monday-Thursday are the days you build the small cement-block house
• Wednesday night was usually spent in Mexico at La Fagota (a fun restaurant with live music and good food)
• Thursday night was usually spent at a closing worship service which evolved to include a hand-washing ceremony.
• Friday, drive all the way back to Norman (12+ hours).
• From 2002-2006, we stayed in Weslaco, Texas, and drove across the border each day to Mexico. From 2007-current we began staying in McAllen, Texas.  Even though the church in McAllen is giant, has nice showers, and has great options for group times, I still love and miss staying in Weslaco...and even going to shower at the nasty middle school showers down the road :)  

Mexico 2002

some of our team: Kirby, Amber, Zan, Kimball, Renee, Sarah, Rosemary, Lydia

The memories:

• My whole team fit in a 15-passenger van.  I believe the two drivers were Don Gough and Kirby Snider.  Our team was the "Burritos."  
• Rosemary and Renee Tobey were our team leaders.  
• We were a YOUNG {read: inexperienced} team.  We would not have finished our casita if we didn't have some help on day 2 (Rosemary will remember this: having to take down an entire wall on the second day...not a fun experience).
• We built this casita for an 88-year old man named Jose (he was 88 then, you can do the math now...).
• Our site was in the absolute middle of nowhere.  And the picture above makes it look like there was lots of trees.  In fact, it was wide open spaces all around our site.  This was the windiest year of Mexico I've ever experienced.
• The tube of sunscreen that we had in our first aid kit was expired.  Most of our team got horrible sunburns.  My ears peels and blistered for weeks.  Who knew that sunscreen had an expiration date?
• Rosemary and I somehow got put in charge of sifting sand.  Remember the wind?  One morning, Rosemary woke up and her eyes were pretty much cemented shut (laughing at this memory as I type this...).  She had a water bottle with a flower in it (I think Breck Turkington bought us girls flowers at La Fagota) and she dumped the dirty water out so she could wash her face/eyes.  
• Our team didn't exactly click the first day as my memory serves me.  We were moving very slow and were sad about our progress.  At some point on our awkward ride back across the border, Kirby Snider broke the silence with a funny song ("Taco, burrito....what's comin'...").  Our group died in laughter and were quite close after that.
• Don Gough enjoyed taking Mexico speed bumps wayyyyyy to fast. If you were in the back row of the van, your head usually touched the ceiling on the bumps.  
• I got to get on the roof, and got to do the gables.  Two of my favorite things still to this day.
• This was my first McFarlin mission trip.  I didn't pack enough t-shirts and was one t-shirt short by the end of the week. I can't remember who let me borrow a clean one, but this was the first and last time I ever under-packed for a trip...in my life.  Some would even say that I have a problem with over-packing now.  
• The boys stayed on the first floor of the church and the girls stay on the 2nd floor.  There is a balcony that looks over the playground and each night, the boys would serenade the girls :)  Goodnight sweetheart...

Burritos 2002--Rosemary, Rick, Don, Amber, Renee, Zan, our maestors and home owner

Sarah, Lydia, Kimball, Logan, Blake, Kirby

a very young Dare bare!

and an equally young Bennett!

teeny tiny Rylie Carter and her mom, Terri :)  this picture makes me smile and giggle every time I look at it!

cool paint guys :)  Jacey and Nora 

Scott, actually working :)  sifting away...

Don Gough, and our beautiful outhouse.  See the wide open spaces on the left?  There was literally nothing around our site...

Lydia, Sarah, Logan--on the roof!

Mexico 2002 group pic--note the puke-orange shirts everyone is wearing.  Great color choice, Scott :)

The group outside of La Fagota

Mexico 2003

part of the Mexico caravan experience--picnic lunches at rest parks along the way!

Lydia, Anna, Rosemary--why are y'all duct-taped together?

I can't remember what our team name was...whoops!

Anna, Lydia, Jane, Elaine, Quincee, Maggie

Kristin, Katrina, Tyler, Sherwood, Tank, Bill, Connor, and Bryan

Bryan and Lydia--we look like we're thoroughly investigating if the blocks are level...a key to any good casita in Mexico!

Nan, mixing mortar!

Kirby, Lauren, and two fellow bloggers--Sabrina and Quincee!

Lydia, circa sophomore year of high school

Scott and Kristin--such an old picture!

one of group building activities one evening: to duct-tape someone off the ground...Jacey seen here

my group, with Connor as the guinea pig

Amy, helping Holly out (who is duct-taped to the side of the U-Haul)

Rylie and Terri!

My Mexico team 2003

Elaine, Zan, Maggie, Connor, Tank, Lydia, Anna, Kristin, Bill, Jane, Quincee, and Sherwood

Lydia, on the roof!

the one and only Miss Carruth :)

Bennett and Bert--were y'all team leaders together?

Group pic 2003

Mexico 2004

The memories:

• my first year to be a team leader, and I got to be a team leader with two great friends (Rosemary and Cameron)!
• We had a mini-bus that Rick Hall drove and a mini-van that Terri Carter drove.  There was a small river that we drove around every day in order to get to our worksite.  One day, instead of going around the river, Terri decided to drive through the river.  The water she sprayed up was one for the records :)
• I think this was the first year we brought bikes down to some of the families we built houses for.  We got to take one for our family, and Jeff chased tiny little Rylie all around the worksite on a kid's bike.
• The pictures below are hanging in the hallway outside of my room at my parent's house.  Sweet mom had to take pictures of these pics late last night so that I would have them for today's blog post :)  thanks, mom!
• I think this was the year Mexico had issues with flooding.  One of the mini-buses got stuck in the mud one day and a family nearby took a wooden board off of their home in order to help get the bus out.  
• If this was the year of the flooding, I can remember sitting in the front row of seats in the mini-bus, watching dirty water come in the doors of the mini-bus (which are over a foot off the ground). 

My team--the tostadas :)

Horace, Rick, Merry, Terri, Christina, Ashley, Rosemary Lydia, Cameron, Andrew, Jeff

Rylie, Mary, Rebecca, Lauren

Lydia, Cam Cam, and Rosemary

big group pic--some of my friends and I are on the left side of the front row!

Cam, Karen, Lydia, Nan

Mexico 2005

Stopped for lunch along the way

Cameron, Sabrina, Karen, Rosemary, Amy, Lydia, Allison, Anna, and Swenson, whose birthday is today!! Happy birthday, dear Swenny :)

gosh this picture is old!

Cameron, Swenson, Anna, Stephen, Rose, 

Bennett in the back left standing, Bert and Lydia standing

Allison, Mark, Steve-o, David, Knudson

my co-team leader, Miss Kerry Gasaway :)

after we took this pic {with two very flea-infested dogs}, we realized how disgusting the dogs were...

My Mexico team 2005--The Quesadillas (which got lots of Napoleon Dynamite quotes)

John, Michael, Garrett, Tullius, Eric, Scott, Melissa, BJ, Bryce

Lydia, Kerry, Alisha, Summer

Lydia and John--our sole adult driver for the week (good planning, Scott)

Side-story:  On the final day at the worksite, our casita desperately needed sweeping out.  All of the dust, dried cement, and good ol' Mexico dirt had made it's way into the home and we wanted to clean it out.  As we were standing talking about the need for a broom, a truck drove down the street (aka: a dirt road) and in the back of the truck were BROOMS for sale.  It was by far one of the coolest and funniest moments of the trip.  Someone up above was looking out for us :)

it is a Mexico tradition for the team leaders to get small group gifts for your team...Our team gifts included really dorky blue sunglasses and Quesadillas hats (as seen above).  

Only slightly embarrassing to look at now...

a very young Bennett and Stephanie!

I couldn't resist ;) Tino and Jared

filling holes probably...

Bryce and some of the boys on our team chased chickens around for HOURS until they caught one.  Victorious!

we also had little chicks running around our worksite :)

Bertie-poo and Dare bare :) they really do love each other, despite Darren's facial expression

The coldest Mexico trip we ever had...some of the families built fires by our worksites to keep us warm

Cathy and Wally :)  aka, my former boss and my dentist!

Nor and Amy K

Blessing the houses on the last day--our worksite was right next to another group which meant we kinda got to have one very large group :)

the mom and son of the family we built the home for

Side-story: the father of the family that we built the home for was incredibly sick while we were working on the house.  If my memory serves me correct, he was in a hospital in Mexico City (many, many hours away). On the second to last day at the worksite, we got word that he passed away.  They had yet to tell the little boy seen above.  But, it was all an answered prayer because the father's wish was that his family would have a safe home and we were able to give that to them :)

group pic 2005!  Made famous by one of my fave Mexico shirts ever (designed by Nora!)

Molodiets (good job!) if you made it all the way to the bottom of this.  As you can see, this trip is incredibly special to me and I can't wait for the day when we can go back to Mexico and continue to build houses.  Up next Wednesday: the college years of Mexico trips :)