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Mexico: 2009                                                              

 

During my spring break in 2009, I opted to spend my time with Sequim Community Church at the Door of Faith Orphanage in La Mision, Mexico--a small village located near Ensenada in Baja California. In order to raise funds for our trip, our group sold "stock" to members of Sequim Community church and held an "auction dinner". The stock sales were essentially donations that would give the purchaser the opportunity to attend our "Stock Holder's Dessert Banquet" after our trip where we would show pictures, talk about our work, and, naturally, thank them for their generous donations. The auction dinner has a simiilar description; the students served the attendees a steak or salmon dinner in return for donations and auctioned off services such as lawn care, cleaning, or preparing a meal.

 

Once we arrived in La Mision, our entire group immediately went to work. We spent most of our time working on our two main projects: the orphanage's girls' dormitory and a house belonging to a member of the La Mision community.

 

The girls' dormitory was badly in need of repair; the floor tiles were breaking apart and the wall paint was painfully old. We ripped out tiles, installed a new bamboo floor, and repainted the bunkbeds and walls a rather exuberant combination of pink and purple--as requested by the girls.  

 

The house we worked on in La Mision belonged to a young family--a mother, father, and three children under the age of seven. The father had been desperately working on the house for the last six years between job shifts. Despite all of his effort, the house still lacked a roof and a floor, forcing his family to crouch under a tarp during rainy nights. Within the span of a week, we had installed a new roof, a concrete floor, and thrown their oldest son his first ever birthday party.

 

Towards the end of the week, we were given the chance to compile and deliver care packages for other families living in the La Mision area. At the time, I was taking my third year of Spanish classes from a truly amazing teacher at my high school. I had managed to communicate with the children running around Door of Faith, but I was as surprised as everyone else in my group when I was able to give my care package to a family and say a prayer over them without the help of our translator.

 

The week I spent with Sequim Community Church in La Mision was undoubtedly my favorite spring break to date. The people I met were remarkable. I'll be sorely dissapointed if I am unable to particpate in a similar event in the next couple of years.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.