Nonstop Mexico Fever

Here's an article I wrote for the Project Mexico newsletter, which will probably be published in the next edition. This is the original, and I recently shortened it so it would fit (you know I tend to ramble...:P). Enjoy!

After I wrote it, I had a feeling in church on Sunday that I should skip spring semester (2011), move to Mexico and do Project Mexico's public relations. And was about to do it to. I would have enough credits to do it and graduate with my class instead of a semester early, and do it before I started my journalism sequence. What a perfect time...right? Pause: If you know me, you know that I don't do spontaneous things like this. That I plan life and details even if it's annoying. So this was a big deal. More thought and opinions convinced me to stay, as depressing as it is that I can't return to Mexico until at least spring break. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly content at Mizzou and with my life, it's just hard to not want to go back to Mexico. So I hope you like reading the article and hearing about my experience!

This summer, I had the privilege of interning at Project Mexico & St. Innocent Orphanage for a month. From mid-June to mid-July, as an Orthodox Basic Training (OBT) intern, I was blessed with the experience of a lifetime as I helped prepare and facilitate the OBT sessions.

My responsibilities as a month-long intern consisted of overseeing a work site with the site leaders, completing daily projects at the ranch to assure that OBT ran smoothly, answering questions and providing information about Project Mexico to OBT participants, and assisting wherever needed. That did not include the perks of getting to know the boys at the orphanage, improving my Spanish immensely, and the towns of Rosarito and Tijuana.

The atmosphere of the ranch at Project Mexico is one that allows for minimal distraction, peace of mind and enjoying life as it comes by living in the present. This is something we often take for granted in the United States, as Americans are constantly looking ahead to an extent that inhibits us from realizing the occurrences of the present. There were times in Mexico where I would pause and think, “People in America never would have noticed how beautiful this moment was if we were in the US—because they would be text messaging or looking for cell phone reception.” Thus, I was given a new perspective on life during my intern experience and allowed my focus to be on considerably more important world matters, such as the poverty wheel.

With this significantly more real outlook on life, I was able to create genuine and lifelong friendships with the numerous people I met. I became acquainted with the 23 boys at the orphanage and the rest of the staff members very quickly, along with more than 250 fellow Orthodox Christians from around the country. Our core focus of conversation was not necessarily that of gossip or complaint of long work days, but one of connections to religion, each other, our morning and evening prayers, and the service we were completing.

It was incredibly meaningful to oversee two work sites, one during each OBT session, and in the end, getting to see and talk to the families of each of the 10 homes Project Mexico built in those two weeks. I received the miracle of directly seeing how our work helps others one day at a Wal-Mart in downtown Rosarito. In July of 2009, I attended Project Mexico for the first time with Sts. Peter & Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview, Ill., my home parish, and built for a family with seven children. As I roamed the aisles of Wal-Mart, I felt a tap on my shoulder and the oldest daughter of this family, a 13 year-old girl named Pilar, had recognized me from the previous year. Tears fell from my eyes as she had the courage to approach me from across the store, and proceeded to thank me for everything and update me on her family, who I visited later that week.

These families have such a great level of need, and in return, show much appreciation for the hard work in the four-day home building process. The woman who we built a home for during one of my OBT sessions cooked soup for all 35 people on our site, on a budget of receiving $1.50 an hour working overnight shifts at the hospital as her only employment. My intern experience really allowed me to explore and reflect on the day-to-day life in Tijuana and seeing how the boys go through it directly with the help of your donations.

As a sophomore journalism student at the University of Missouri, I always thought of my life in a futuristic manner. What publication could I intern with next year? Where will I find a job right after I graduate? But this experience taught me that even with a Type A personality, you do not need to follow that plan…but God’s plan for you. That is where you will discover what you love and are meant to do. Spending a summer with Orthodox Christians and mission work combined was the happiest place I have been in my life and I hope and pray that I will return to Project Mexico for years and years.