Sundau Afternoon

Hola Chris!

It's Sunday afternoon & I hope I get this posted before you sign on in San Diego. I'm also really looking forward to your weekly phone call...mainly to know if you're feeling better. Everyone I talk to says if you live in Tequana as long as you have, you're going to get sick some time. Not a quaestion of if but when.

Brian did really well at the USA Track & Field Championships in Indy on Thursday. We all had a nice trip & it was a very impressive facility and event. Brian was seeded around 24th and finished 16th overall with a 1:52.99 so did better than expected. There were lots of very high-caliber atheletes competing, including Olympic contenders. Several national records were broken.

Brian goes to work on the nite shift for the first time tonite...and I think he's actually looking forward to it. Should be interesting but I'm also encouraging hinm to increase his safety awareness...working around Chicago traffic in the dark is serious business. But he knows what he's doing and HBK seems to have a strong safety culture...he's getting a really good eduction in many ways this summer too. Grandaddy & I worked on the Glasair upholstery yesterday. Its really coming along.

I think we will all have lots of intersting stories to tell after this summer. I think we should plan a family event where we can tell about our experiences: Craziest, scariest, funniest, weirdest, most rewarding, most boring etc. What do you think??

Hey I just got off the phone with you Chris...it was great to hear you're feeling (and sounding) much better. You said it took 2 hrs 45 minutes to get accross the border today. And you have a an early (1pm) lead-in which all makes your San Diego time very short today. Ouch! Hard to believe you'll be half way thru your 'tour' next weekend...sounds like time is passing quickly which I guess means you're working hard & learning a lot. Have a great tiime whereever you end up going for the mid-summer camping break...you mentioned you may camp at the beach in Rosarito. I find that humorous...the Nexus gang lives in tents all the time and when you go 'on holiday' for a weekend you...live in temts.

I know your accomodations are pretty minimal Chris (like a nitely campfire is your entertainment) so I feel a little guilty telling you this...but we bought a fancy new bar-b-que grill . Its really cool. A Weber Genesis...model 320S. You've proibably heard about it. :) A photo of Barby, with grillmiester Brian is attached for your entertainment.

Well time to post this so you'll get it while in San Diego. We love you Chris. Take care honey and have fun.

Your Dad

Wow!
It sounds like Colorado was awesome. Also, Happy Fathers' Day! I miss everyone and wish I could be there, but I hope it is a wonderful day.
This past week was definitely pretty busy. I had my first group last week. They were from Wisconsin (Waukanee?), which is near Madison and it was really nice to talk with people who knew where Illinois is on a map and realize how big Lake Michigan is :-)
The first day working with them was a little tough because I was unsure of what my role with them was and I was a little rusty on some parts of the house building process, but they were an awesome group with lots of great kids and leaders, so by the end of the week it was hard to see them go. They even decorated a hard hat for me and gave me an "Orange Crew" t-shirt. (They referred to the different building groups from their church as crews instead of teams to avoid competition).

Then on Friday our Nexus team went to our usual place to do laundry and take pay showers.(The $2.39 deal for missionaries for 20 minutes of hot water with good water pressure is soooo worth it.) Unfortunately, our cars got robbed and they took the care package that Mom sent me along with all my mail that I had put in the shoebox for storage! I didn't really care that much about losing granola bars and dried fruit, but I was kinda bummed not to get to read all my mail. So sorry if I don't acknowledge something sent. If you have time, though, I LOVE paper mail and I don't plan on leaving it in cars any time soon.
Anyway, besides my care package and mail, some electronics, money, a volleyball, makeup, an I.D., and some other stuff were taken from other people. Two policemen decked out in all black and on motorcycles responded extremely quickly to the scene. I had no idea how they could stand the heat, because I was sweating to death in my sandals, jeans, and t-shirt. Anyway, a few of us talked to the officers and between another Nexus who speaks some Spanish and me, we found out that we needed to go to the police station to file a police report. So three of us follow the officers in our large green van to some public services building. We're told to take a seat and I was thinking it would take forever for them to get to us because there were a lot of people waiting, but after not too much time, someone came to help us. There was a lawyer there who happened to speak English, so he helped us fill out the police report. We had to list every item stolen and we felt slightly ridiculous reporting a stolen volleyball.
We're not planning on getting any of the items back, but we learned not to leave anything really valuable in the car. I guess if they police find two men (some of the Nexus team saw the two robbers getting away in a gray jeep) wearing make-up, listening to an iPod, eating health food, and playing volleyall, they would have a big clue. I just hope they enjoy Luna Bars even though they were made for women :-)'

Then yesterday a few of us went to visit some families that we had built for. One advantage of being here for the entire summer is that we can keep better contact with the people we meet. Later we went to Rosarito where we hit up our favorite taco stand (Tacos el Yaqui), went to a market for some bargaining and to the beach for a bit. I had been feeling a bit sick so I crashed pretty early.

Today we made it across the border in pretty much record timing and did our weekly Walmart run. That place is AMAZING! Now I'm at the office again. I'm scheduled for a 3:00 lead-in, so I have about an hour and a half until I head back to Mexico.

I miss and love you all! Happy Fathers' Day again!

The Do-it yourself Wedding

Christina,

Wow sounds like things are really hapenin' in Tejauna now! it was fun reading your latest adventures...sounds like you're in high gear now! The military check points sound kinda spooky tho...what an intersting experience! Also working on the roof of the bano's...in sight of the ocean, but right next to the vent pipe?! that part of the job sounds like it stinks. We're anxiuos to hear your next installment!

Well Dad & Mom's adventure to Colorado was a blast. Yes the wedding went without a hitch (well mostly...except for Nic & Lori, who of course got hitched). Everyone said I did an accceptable as #1 Guy, but Pat was honest enough to tel me not to quit my day job.

Chris thank you sooo much for the suggestion to read Corintheans (about was love is & insn't)...it was perfect because Nic & Lori had chose love as the theme for the cerimony. Anyway, we enjoyed the whole weekend...lots of fun toasting & roasting & casual get togethers.

Mom & I managed to hike up along a rocky ridge in the Horsetooth Reservoir area.

Also took a self-guided tour around the Fort Collins with help from our friends Deb & Hank Lawrie and GP Ester...very cool area. It was a small group and very informal.

The best part was we had lots of quality time with my best friends...Nic, Pat, and Deb & Hank Lawrie, and Larry Bennell even made it.

Love

Dad

Computer!!!

Hola!

First of all, happy belated birthday to Dad, Grandmother, and Mom! I'm so glad that we decided to do this blog. I didn't get a chance to read it last week when we had a small bit of time to check e-mail, but I got sent a paper copy, and it was one of the best pieces of mail that I've gotten. It's amazing how busy everyone it. There's so much going on there, and it sounds great.

Mom, you hit it right on the head when you wrote that the key to this trip is flexibility. The Amor staff emphasize that so much that they nickname Mexico "Flexico".

Though I didn't have a group last week, I still got to do some building and explore Mexico. Six of us drove to Rosarito (about an hour away from our Rancho camp) to set up another camp there. We built 2 shower houses and 15 outhouses, or baños. It was kinda smelly work, but you could see the Pacific Ocean from the camp, and Roasrito has some fo the best taco stands.

Through this experience I go my first taste of Mexico driving! Our driver was sick one day, so the rest of us took turns driving. Driving is definitely a team effort. The co-pilot acts as the navigator, talks on the walkie talkie radio and acts as the D.J. The pilot does their best to stay calm, listen to the co-pilot, and drive like crazy. Of course, sometimes these roles get mixed up, but for the most part it works. You definitely need to be focused at all times when driving. There is no autopilot because you never know when sometone might cut you off, brake suddenly, or pull a U-turn in front of you. It seems to be accepted here that cutting people off is perfectly normal, but it's also neccessary to yield to those who cut you off.

Another thing that makes driving interesting is the random military checkpoints. A bunch of military guys, or "federales" set up large walls of sandbags to sit behind and they usher all the cars on that strech of the freeway into single file. A guard then stands with a bright orange flag and waves through most cars. Every once in a while he waves a car to the side and the driver and/or passengers get questioned and sometimes have to get out and be serached. The federales have large rifles and are all wearing camoflauge and there are large guns pointed at all the cars so at first they're a bit intimidating, but now we're pretty used to it. It's kinda funny though, because out of our two Nexus vans that we have, the larger one gets ushered to be checked a lot, but only when one of our guys is driving, not when it's one of us girls.

Street signs are somewhat optional, so we've definitely had some interesting adventures getting somewhat lost, but we know our way around Tijuana better now!

So yeah, that's the scoop on driving. Besides finishing the camp at Rosarito, other highlights here included a trip to the pay showers, four meals at taco stands, a trip to Target, exploring Rosarito, using our new kitchen tent (Thanks, Mom for mailing me Lipsmackin' Backpakin'), and a day at the beach.

I miss you all so much. I love talking to everyone each week, and I really appreciated everyone taking the time to stop what they're doing to talk to me. (And thanks for not dropping me when throwing me up to the roof and back down :-)

Tonight I get my first group, so I'm really excited and nervous. I hope everyone has a wonderful week.

I love you all!

P.S. The first picture is me screwing the roof on the top of some baños (we got to use power tools for camp set-up!). The second picture is me in my tent. It's hard to see, but the sign in my window has my name on it along with my radio handle, Road Runner. Stacey, one of the Nexus, made signs for all of our tents!

Chris talks to Brian

Sunday June 3, 2007. Chris had her weekly call! Actually, we have been very lucky. Christina has been able to contact us a couple of times this past week.

I think there may be "stories", but Chris said there were a couple of "challenges" returning to the compound in Tijuana last night. (E.g. they got lost.) It sounds like this week Chris will be helping set up another camp (away from the compound that they are staying, but near the ocean) and cooking for 6 people. The mantra must be 'flexibility'!

Today, in Naperville, we have been doing household clean-up and Brian was on the roof when Chris called, but he still got to talk!!

Grandmother's 80th Birthday Party

We had a nice birthday party at Morton's to celebrate Grandmother's 80th b-day. The food was wonderful, although we missed Christina, CeCe and Briana due to prior obligations. Fresh seafood appetizers and wonderful steak and delicious desserts combined with all of grandmother's men, made for a great birthday celebration!

Glasair updates - with Photos

Friday night we had a cook-out at the hangar with Nic, Elizabeth (who graduated from 8th grade), Grandmother, Granddaddy, Brian, Brian & Deb.

The Glasair interior is looking great (the photo!). We had a great time, but were all very tired - it was a looong 4-day week!