Mexican Chaos

Mexico is a very different land... a land of clay-like mud and bumpy roads... a land where a schedule of activities is merely a loose guideline...

And actually, its pretty relaxing once you're there... but prepping 560 people and organizing them so that they get there safely and efficiently is a boatload of stress... especially when the laid-back Mexicans like to throw you a curve-ball the day before your A-team is leaving to head down ahead of the group and set up camp.

But I'm not stressed about anything but my packing... because I'm just helping all the people in charge and I enjoy being 2nd or 3rd in command (to my Mom and Kim-who's in charge of the kitchen crew)... you get an input and you know you're helping, but you don't carry the weight of the responsibility and that definitely frees me up.

I was at school all morning organizing spreadsheets and data for the leader's packets... and then at 1pm I was with Kim packing all the ice chests with food. I've always been afraid of dry ice... like a reverent and fearful fascination (kind of like I used to have with fire and matches)... but I was always too scared to go near it. But today, I put on those gloves and moved all that ice around to keep certain things frozen for the week... it was fun... but definitely a workout... carrying all that frozen food... food is REALLY heavy when its frozen... either that, or I'm a total wimp... which, of course, is quite possible.

Oh! And I even got to be the fix-it person for the ice chest latches and hinges... I fixed a lot of them with the spare parts we had. True, it was a simple fix-it job with the single tool of a screw driver, but it felt really good to be able to fix all the ice chests so that they close and open properly... is that weird?

So now, after five hours of loading food, I ate dinner and I'm back at school helping my mom with the last crazy details. At the moment, we're waiting for the tent groups to be finalized so we can print the signs that go on the tents.

I get my own tent of girls again this year. Last year I had freshman and I followed them around like a mother hen whenever I had the time (which was pretty rare) because they'd never gone on the trip before. This year, I think I mostly have sophomores and juniors, but I'm especially excited because the little sister of a guy near my age is in my tent... I never really knew him, but I knew of him... and its so fun (though sometime scary) to watch all the little siblings of friends get old and become adults.

So ya... I'll be back here at school again at 7am tomorrow because all the kids will arrive with their suitcases that need to be labeled with a boy/girl tag so that they can be easily sorted into their tents when we get to Mexico. And shortly after that, a small group of the A-team (including Yours Truly) will head out. We're staying in San Diego for the night and then we'll hit the Costco just inside the border on Friday morning to pick up all the remaining food items... and then we'll set up camp and spend all week feeding 560 people who are spending only 4 days building 21 houses for the poorest families in Tijuana... crazy!