Lunes! (Tuesday)

Hey! It's Chris Caculitan, Lauren Maza, and Caitlin Terashima

4 days since we left.. and today was our 2nd day of work.

Saturday Headed for San Diego last Saturday at 9 in the morning, arrived in California at 11:30. Met up with Iesha in the sweet, sweeeeet SUNSHINE and took a bus toward downtown.. Where some of us ate.. Quizno's! and Wendy's! So cultural.
We observed part of the "Occupy San Diego" movement and then walked to the trolley station where we bonded for a while as we patientlyyyyy waited.....
Got on the trolley and kind of realized how much stuff we had.. (Aka Jim, Nicholas and Caitlin)
Trolley dropped us off at McDonald Trolley Station. Literally a McDonald's in the station. But really Caitlin says it was called "San Ysidro Border Station".. So then we got off the trolley and walked across a giant bridge that took us straight into Mexico!
To our surprise there were no bag checks, passport checks or any form of security.. Surprise! We were in Mexico and didn't even know it.
Once outside the border "area" we met up with Monica, Victor, and Paul. They led us on a journey to the bus. It was a pretty far walk with all of our stuff but exciting nonetheless. We were taking in the culture as we walked through traffic, the market and people waiting to return to the U.S. (Looooongest lines ever.. But this was around 1pm.)
Arrived at the Posada (located in La Gloria), met up to talk as a group and formally met Monica, and then settled in before we went to eat at the Taqueria.. which was pretty spicy (Lauren's opinion), but delicious!!!!!!!!!

Sunday! A group of us went to mass in the morning (located really close to the Posada). Padre Jaime led the mass which was very cultural with a lot of indigenous influence. Those that got to experience this really enjoyed it and some even shared during reflection that mass was the highlight of their day!
In the afternoon we took off on an adventure to Puerto Nuevo, which is a little town located on the beach with tourist shops and restaurants. Many ponchos, blankets, knick-knacks, sunglasses and lobsters could be found here. (OH and little baby puppies that were only $50... So cute but we couldn't take them home... Adriana was proposed to with a puppy by a local merchant but politely declined the offer.) After a great time and with some of us being able to enjoy an awesome meal with a great view (but could not afford the cool mariachi's.. except for Chris K. who bought La Bamba for $3) we returned to the Posada. Of course we needed to purchase our food supply for the week for all of us so some of us went to Costco.. Mexico Costco seemed to be just as busy as one in the states would be.. and everything was in spanish! A few of us went on a run around the town and got to experience an awesome panoramic view of all the houses with the water in the distance.. and the rest of us bonded and played new games such as Nutz! and Monopoly. To finish off the night, we ate breakfast for dinner! Yummy chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, sausage and fruit. Awesome day with a great group and closing reflections got us all excited for the work that was to come!

Monday! First day of work.. "Digging for days"- Caitlin.
Met up with Eduardo at 8:30 in the common room.. Formally met Eduardo and he was able to meet all of us as well. During our talk, the rain kept coming down outside.. but slowed down once we left the Posada around 10:30. Took a 40 min. ride to La Morita where the house we would be working on for the week is located! Once we stepped off the bus, we all met Rosa where she shook all our hands and was very welcoming to her house and to her family. Got straight to work, with shovels and pick-axes. We had to create trenches around where the foundation was going to go. 64 inch deep trenches... lots and lots of digging. Had a break for lunch (a GREAT lunch.. rice, beans, tortillas and some carne.)
Got back to work after our break and headed home around 4:30. Once we got back we all just hung out, some of us showered (Sheena still hasn't showered ;) ) and some of us took little naps. Woke up for dinner (Spaghetti, meatballs, salad yum yum.. OH and brownies) After dinner, of course had to play a few rounds of banangrams and mafia! Mafia has become a favorite of ours to say the least :)
During reflection we formed a congo line and danced around to form a circle. In the circle we started a massage train! YAY. Reflected, watched a Latin America music video and shared our interpretations. Wonderful day overall :)

Tuesday
It's 5pm and we're currently getting ready to take off to visit the Orphanage for girls. Today was a good day of work, despite the weather. The trenches we created yesterday were moats today.. So they had to be dug out and with a few wise ideas from the engineers (Brynn and Jim) they were able to decrease the water level from the bigger hole and we all worked together to get through the rain. Another awesome lunch was made, and after lunch our work time was cut short. When we boarded the bus we were all covered in mud, drenched in rain and cold.. but yet still had smiles :) Came back, some showered (Still not Sheena..) and some departed for Costco (we sure do eat a lot.. well, we needed more bananas for desserts of course) and some of us went to the bakery and the local market! Many adventures and we can't believe we only have 4 days to go..

Until next time!!!

Paz :)