Here’s a basic journal of the last few days.
Tuesday – Really just a lot of office work, so not much to talk about. I was able to get to work on some flashcards which are helping tremendously!
Wednesday – Walked out the door at 7am, instantly I realized it was already warm early in the morning. Took a car to the mechanic, some Spanish study and came out of my room a few hours later. Wow! It was close to 100 degrees and very windy. The Santa Anna winds had blown some serious heat our direction. Lucky me, a little after noon, I got to take the Chevy (with no AC) and trade it with the first car. Now, this was a bit of a learning experience for me. I had followed John in the morning to the mechanic in Rosarito, but this time I was on my own. It was fairly easy to get there, however, it’s always nice to be able to accomplish something on your own with out any trouble. I had to interact with the mechanic in Spanish which was a good experience, I had to remember “camion” for truck and “coche” for car. Simple, but at least I’m learning.
Thursday – Every other week we have a staff meeting up in the states. So I headed up there Thursday and went through the staff meeting. At the end of the day, I filled up a minivan with donations and drove on down home.
Friday – Donation run day! Now when donations are sent to Project Mexico, they go to the office in San Diego, and then down to the orphanage. However, since Mexico charges a tax for imported goods, we try to conceal them a bit. The reason why they do it, is because a lot of odd things are brought across the border to be sold in the flea markets in Tijuana. The border guards then must make sure that you pay the tax, they can’t trust that we’re going to an orphanage. Disappointing – but true. Therefore, when we come down we try to bring small quantities, (legal amounts) across the borders. Occasionally though, we have to bring down larger amounts because the warehouse gets too full in the states. A common intern job is to make donation runs up to the states, bringing donations back down.
Therefore, after breakfast, I took off for the states hoping to make three to four donations runs. I got up to the states, loaded up the van, came down through the border, no problem. After dropping the donations at the orphanage, I headed back up again. The second time, I loaded up and the came back down. After getting the green light to go through, the officers motioned across three lanes of traffic for me to come over. Crestfallen, I drove over. I stopped and I explained (in English), that these were donations for an orphanage. However, they said that they couldn’t allow anything to come down. If I wanted to bring them down, I would have to go over to the next crossing over and declare the goods, pay the tax, and then go. (Basically what we did with the water, milk, and other items last Friday.) They brought me to this gate and sent me back to the states. I drove back to the office and told them the news. My next option was to go to the next crossing over. Which was fine, and was easy to get to on the States side, but on the Mexico side you had to drive through downtown Tijuana, which is tricky. I ran a couple quick errands in San Diego and then I was told to go to the border. I would go through and then that I was going to meet a staff member on the other side. Simple, right? I drive on over, and thankfully get through without a search this time and get to the designated gas station. However, it turned out that the staff member had gotten stuck back at the office, so I could wait for about 45min or John could talk me through the drive through Tijuana. I got about half way through the city, and then lost cell signal. There in the middle of Tijuana, I’m on my own, no cell and donations to get home. Thankfully, I was able to remember the route, (the same one John had led me through last Friday). Again, I felt really blessed that I was able to get a good experience without getting into much trouble. The experiences over the last couple weeks have really made me more useful here at the orphanage. It’s a great feeling. At the beginning I felt a lot like a grown-up child who couldn’t understand or speak Spanish, and didn’t know anything about the area so he couldn’t run any errands. Now, I’m learning Spanish steadily, and I’ve learned quite a bit about the surrounding area.
After I got home, I helped do some little jobs around the orphanage, and then helped dig a 30ft long trench that was 2ft deep and 2ft wide. We’ve got to get it down to 36 inches deep tomorrow though. Now I’m sitting in my room, and looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. :-)
Favorite Quote of the Week -
Priorities ~ "A hundred years from now, it won't matter what your bank account looked like, what house you lived in, or what car you drove. However, the world may be different, because you were important in the life of a child."
Thank you for the Prayers,
Under His Mercy,
Joel
PS - The pictures are from some Sunsets here and then the boys and Mexican staff getting ready for the carnival on Sunday. Oh and my guitar and the bench press... showing the constant strain 
of work and pleasure. :-)
of work and pleasure. :-)
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