A not so quick update of my trip to Mexico

I am officially back from Project Mexico and in the United States! I had one of the greatest months of my life at the ranch and have plenty of stories and photos to share about the boys at the orphanage, the 10 homes built around Tijuana and San Jose de la Zorra, and the amazing group of Orthodox Christians I met from across the country. Let's start with the basics!

Project Mexico is an organization started by Greg and Margaret Yova that builds homes for Mexico's poor, but also runs St. Innocent Orthodox Christian Orphanage in Tijuana. Various groups of Orthodox Christians visit the ranch throughout the year, and interact with the boys from the orphanage when they are not building homes around the area. During the summer, two sessions called Orthodox Basic Training (OBT) are held where about 150 people attend each week and build multiple homes simultaneously. During this year's OBTs, 10 homes were built. As an OBT intern, I went to the ranch on June 17 until July 14.

What kinds of things did the OBT interns do?

• Set up tool kits, deliver everything to the sites and prepare for the OBT groups to come in
• Assure that everything ran smoothly during the two sessions
• Daily duties at the ranch
• Entertain the boys from the orphanage
• Assist site leaders on the work sites

Here's what the ranch looks like:

St. Innocent Orphanage

A view from the top of the orphanage overlooking the basketball court/soccer field, barn, volleyball court and land where groups camp out. To the right, as you will see in future photos, is a gorgeous view of the Pacific Ocean :)

The four homes are Project Mexico-style homes where small groups stay on their visits and used as storage spaces/tiendas during OBT, and to the left is where the tents camp out. The single tent still there is where Anna and I slept our last two nights at the ranch, just for fun :P

The blue trailer where Anna, Emily and I lived for a month

Now here's how the ranch is set up during OBT:

There’s two large tents set up for eating the catered rice and beans (soy meals during first OBT because of the Apostles fast) and the other for brief morning and evening prayer services. In this picture, you can see some of the cows grazing during the day :)

So when I got to the ranch, I met the other interns, who were mainly from the East coast and also comically enough, predominantly Greek Orthodox. We all had mutual friends (surprise, surprise) and became friends quickly.

One of our first experiences together, and a highlight of the trip was our first journey to San Jose de la Zorra, a reservation/community for the indigenous Kumiai tribe of Mexico. OBT 1 took on the huge project of building for Mexico’s indigenous, so each day, we took a two hour trek to San Jose de la Zorra, which is about half an hour outside of Ensenada/not near a lot of civilization. The drive is absolutely GORGEOUS, along the Pacific Ocean down Baja California (MX) and into the mountains/valleys. Definitely one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen.

But getting there the first time wasn’t as easy as just the two hour drive. We took on the challenge of taking six sites’ building supplies down in four trucks, a Chevy, Tacoma, and two rentals from Home Depot. They were loaded very tightly and weighed THOUSANDS of pounds. Just look!

So this two hour drive…took us 4½ hours. Great bonding time, right?! Here were just some of our concerns along the way that made it quite the amusing trip:

• The drive from the ranch to the highway (usually 5 minutes) took 45 minutes because the wood was falling off the side of the Home Depot truck
• The gas station ATM was broken so John Cosby ‘cut a deal’ with them where he got cash and paid them back later
• Our first time seeing the wineries, Jesus statue, area where Titanic was filmed, and La Mision
• Traveling incredibly slowly through the mountains on the one way road
• After we turned on dirt road for the final ~12 miles of the trip, the largest wood truck broke down because it runs on only propane gas and it was nowhere to be found. We ended up caravanning all the wood to the sites riding on top of trucks and it became an all day trip rather than a few hours of dropping off supplies.
• Just imagine, having no communication with the outside world (no service, of course, to reach Home Depot to get propane gas) being stuck in the most beautiful mountain range with your only concern being how to get the tools to the sites and everyone back home.

It was definitely a culturally different experience because nothing could have prepared us for it, but getting to know everyone in the car, seeing the six areas we would be building homes at, and preparing the Kumiai tribe was an awesome experience just a few days in :). The OBT groups arrived the next day and were from all over, but it was nice to see Sts. Peter & Paul GOC, my church! Along with St. Nicholas OCA Parish from Mentor, OH who my church was paired with last year, and groups from Seattle, Portland, Florida, Orange County, Arizona, Chicagoland suburbs and more!

For most of the week, I was with the Sts. Peter & Paul group, with the exception of one day at the site with 8 kids and a ton of animals.

The home building process is 4 days as follows:

• Day 1- Level and cement the ground
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• Day 2- Build the walls and frame the home
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• Day 3- Paint facia board for the top of the house, tar and put on the roof, chicken wire the entire house.
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• Day 4- Stucco the house and have a priest bless it with the family (A second coat of stucco is applied a couple of months later)
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So the week flew by through the numerous commutes to San Jose in random cars each morning and afternoon, fun evenings at the Tiendita (the boys’ candy shop at the orphanage) where we listened to music and hung out with friends, 5:20 am wakeup time, and just always being kept busy. OBT 1 ended successfully and it was break time!

The boys liked my touchscreen camera and LOVED drawing/stamping photos

The week in between the OBTs was busy but very fun-filled. It’s nice to be at the ranch with just the staff and the boys, so we watched a lot of movies, went on multiple adventures and I personally had a surplus of cool experiences. Let’s see:

• Photobooth with the boys (they are quite amused by the multiple screens)
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• When we returned to San Jose to pick up the tools, we figured we’d take a photo of a staff pyramid. Charity, another intern, broke her ankle falling off and had to go to Red Cross in the US : ( Of course right after my brace is off, someone else is casted.
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• There were a surplus of bananas around the ranch, so we baked banana bread! And had banana EVERYTHING for a week!
• Shopping the market in Rosarito: I learned I need to know what I’d like to buy before shopping or else I 1. Go crazy monetarily, and 2. Go crazy emotionally (it’s overwhelming!) But not with everyone’s favorite vendor..Betty!
• I truly experienced a miracle. Mary drove us to Walmart one day where I could act upon my obsession with pan (sweet bread) and go crazy at the panederia. As I was loading up my tray (pan literally costs about a quarter for a concha), a girl tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around and a 13 year old Mexican girl stood there. She looked familiar. She said- “Me recuerdas? Soy Pilar.” Pilar is the oldest daughter of the family Sts. Peter & Paul built for LAST YEAR during Project Mexico. And I was close with all the kids, but I love how close it was that she was comfortable enough to REMEMBER me, approach me in the store (without being sure it was someone who helped build her a home), and spark a conversation! I began to cry. She was with her grandmother, and I had a brain freeze. Pause: in a Walmart miles away from this girl’s home, we just happen to run into each other and have a conversation!! Miraculous to me. Pilar’s abuela said hi to me and we discussed what they had done with the house/how her family was doing. What a nice experience!
• Staff trip to the beach: Anna, Nikos, Sotiri and I went ocean kayaking until we were kicked out of the water, I spontaneously had my hair done in cornrows, and Anna & I rode horses along the ocean!
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• 4th of July: After liturgy, we took a 3 ½ hour border ride. It was full of sketchy food, phone calls home, puppies thrown in the window for only $20, and ended with me buing YogoLuv!! We walked the San Diego Harbor for a bit, met a clown in a hotel, and headed toward Greg and Margaret Yova’s home, the founders of Project Mexico, for a barbecue. Tons of connections were made and we had a lovely afternoon of relaxing, World Cup games, and fellowship as we enjoyed our first time in the US (Still missing Mexico), sitting in the massage chair, and watching five sets of fireworks from the roof. The view was gorgeous: you can see downtown Rosarito, Tijuana, San Diego and Chula Vista! It was an awesome 4th of July.

Preparing for OBT 2 began quickly as we dropped off tool kits at the sites around Tijuana, meeting the families, and made multiple taco/panederia runs. Here’s what taqueria’s are like:

I miss carne asada so much. And for the record, I now eat cheese, onions, and guacamole…three foods I NEVER ate before. This is a big deal.

OBT 2 arrived and seemed like a more chill group, but still familiar. St John’s GOC Des Plaines was in it, a group from Boston, another OH church from last year, a large group from Colorado that I was with, and plenty more people to meet and connect with. I heard a lot of stories about people converting to Orthodoxy through dinner conversations, random approaches and more, which was interesting.

• I worked with Nikos & Mary on their site for the week, and everything went so smoothly we had time to run to tiendas and the playa (excuse my Spanglish)! It was a fun group of teenagers and adults that worked well together.
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• Staff made “We’re grateful.” Shirts to see how long it took Madi to notice…success
• World Cup madness was the Sunday of OBT 2 as Spain played against the Netherlands/Holland, which to my surprise, are the same country! Don’t laugh. You didn’t know it either. The boys watched it in the clergy house as they celebrated the Yovas’ founding of Project Mexico and sabbatical, and the OBT participants watched in the biblioteca. Suddenly, a mariachi band appeared outside the biblioteca and Anna & I were confused. It was a surprise for Greg & Margaret so we were later serenaded by a mariachi band!! And I thought a cappella male group serenades were cool? I want a mariachi band at my wedding now!
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After the groups departed, we drove around Rosarito and visited Kenya and Jaime’s family from last year who were SO polite and kind and picked up tools at the other sites! It’s always cool seeing the completed houses after seeing the empty worksites at the beginning. We told groups that if they wanted to donate their tents…they didn’t need to take them down, so we spent a couple of hours taking down the tents but left one up to camp out in and watch the stars : ). A little loopy, I took a nap on a cardboard box in the dirt and had never felt so comfortable (happens when you sleep for two hours…).

We took an outing to El Yogurt place in Tijuana, and saw the border fence/a bullfighting stadium/ate REALLY good fruit and frozen yogurt!! MMMM! My last two nights at the ranch, I saw the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen. These photos can barely capture it! It was emotional saying goodbye to the various groups and boys, because although you want to, it’s hard to pinpoint when you will return/see those people again/keep in touch. We stayed positive!

The morning I left, the border line was crazy long so Geoff drove through with his Sentri pass and I crossed on foot…by myself! The border patrol gave me a tough time because my hair apparently got a lot blonder than it is in my passport photo…I had to tell myself not to talk back to the ‘authority’ figure. My Southwest bording pass in the A group was exciting as I sat in the front row of the plane, with two awesome people I met and kept in touch with, Rosa & Gabriela! I love nice conversations in unexpected places.

AND THAT WAS MY MEXICO TRIP! IF YOU ACTUALLY READ THIS ENTIRE THING, I COMMEND YOU! TELL ME…SERIOUSLY!

Here are some comical after-effects I’ve experienced since my return to the US:

• As I took my 1^st shower, I looked up and in all seriousness, questioned, “Why is the water going SO fast?! It’s SUCH a waste!”
• toilet paper going in the toilet instead of garbage cans..I’ve never felt so guilty.
• An obsession with Fresca, Fanta, and any soda in a glass bottle. It’s just 10 times better that way.
• Spanglish in normal conversation
• Eating cheese!!
• Expecting to see this on the road...then not!
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• Just kidding. But I do miss riding in the back of trucks like that.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences as much as I did recalling them, and look forward to returning in the future! If you ever want to learn more about Project Mexico, fund my next trip, or come with me, contact me!!