Hey all, I'm alive and officially completely moved into my dorm (a.k.a. no more living out of suitcases and laundry baskets). The room is still a complete disaster zone so I will post a picture in a few days, after we've had the chance to clean it. My new contact info for the year is:
snail mail: Katie Kiehn
Bethel University
3900 Bethel Drive #1436
St. Paul, MN 55112
Phone: (651) 379 - 7421
(801) 879 - 7088
Sunday, August 28, 2005 | 6:22 PM | Allegri
Monday, August 01, 2005 | 12:05 AM | Allegri
Dia Uno:
Saturday - July 23rd 2005
After arriving at the Church at 6 am we began the [very, very long] travel from Salt Lake City toTucson, Arizona - 13 hours in a hot stuffy van. With the boys attempt to pull a Napoleon [Dynamite] by stringing gummy bears to twine and tossing them out the window... Then apparently, trying to eat them.
Dia Dos:
Sunday - July 24th 2005
Sunday - July 24th 2005
After waking up early once again we packed up into the fifteen passenger van, along with one more passenger, Ryan (who would be an additional translator), and head for the border. Crossing the border into Mexico [4 hours after our departure from Tucson] took only 10 minutes, although it took nearly 45 minutes to get our driving permit for the vehiclele. Once into Mexico we traveled down to Hermsillo, where we met up with Joe and Cassie Mason, from Partners in Christ International, the 13 of us then headed down to Guaymas where we would be working with the "Templo Christiano Bautista Emmaneul". We arrived at the Church not long before their evening service was about to start, at this service Michael and I gave our testimonies, along with the help of our translators, it was so nerve raking because I had never given my testimony in front of such a large group. After the service we were
blessed with a delicious meal of Carne Asada, and ice cold soda following the delicious meal we headed off to our host homes and crashed almost instantaneously for the night. (Amy, Paula, Me and Ben; inside our host home in Guaymas.)
Dia Tres:
Monday - July 25th 2005
After enjoying a delightful breakfast at our host home we headed over to the church and began our service project. Igelsia Bautista was in dire need of a good scrapping off of all its old & chipping paint and a nice new coat of fresh paint. The work was strenuous and the humidity was excrusating, but we labored on from 9 am until 2 pm just scrapping paint of of the outside walls.
During which we took a break to open a Birthday gift for me from my parents back home. After breaking to take showers and eat we rested until Vacation Bible School (VBS) started. We had a much lower turnout than he had expected and ended up with only 53 children total. We thankfully didnt have to teach the lesson with the minscule spanish that we were actually able to speak; although we did a craft with them and helped with crowd control. The craft for tonight was making pinwheels out of paper and straws, it was really fun because most of the children didn't understand how to use them once they were made, so amy and I volunteered to demonstrate there use. After that we felt like passing out from our dizzyness.
My super sense of spydom failled me today because I was supersieded when a party had been planned for me without my own knowledge. I was soon to be confronted by a 4 foot tall Spongebob pinata filled with lots of Mexican candy including my favorite candy.... Chupettas. Followed by a delicious cake and 10 children singing "Feliz Compelionos."
Dia Cuatro:
Tuesday - July 26th 2005
Another day filled with scrapping the Church walls along with painting the inner courtyard. At VBS the kids would NOT be quiet, but they were so cute when they were doing there craft, they were very proud of their creations and were extermely excited to show of their visors, some of which were so full of the stikers that they were overlapping others.Dia Cinco:
Wednesday - July 27th 2005
Another day filled with scrapping the Churches walls along with painting the upper level of the Church. VBS was great, although the language barrier seems as though it is getting worse, the kids keep trying to talk to me really fast in spanish and I had to just guess Si or No, it was a 50 - 50 chance of being right. During VBS we made Puppets with the kids and had puppet shows in random spanish sayings and themes from the lessons of the day.
Dia Seises:
Thursday - July 28th 2005
During our work day today we noticed that the Crystal Light packets had been appearing on the ground all over the area that we had been working, after scolding the boys for not cleaning up after themselves; we saw a few of the young mexican girls turned the corner with red hands and bright red tongues. Just a bit of Lost in Translation; would't you say? After working from 9 - 11 am we ended our last day of work projects and headed for the beach. We were able to get entrance to a gated community's beach access 
At the beach we climbed up a 12 foot rock/coral boulder and used it as a diving board, praying that no one would leave becoming Jonnie Erickson Todda. We had purchased enough coconuts that each of us were able to have our own, mmmm good! Man, I love coconuts! This was our last night of VBS and our last night in Mexico, I was a solemn night and everybody in the group had the same feeling..."We can't leave tomorrow, our work here has just begun." We were not the only ones with tears in our eyes as we left the church that night, we were surrounded by the kids from VBS begging us not to leave. Sleeping didn't come easily tonight, tears flowed faster than sleep had came.Dia Siete:
Friday - July 29th 2005
Sitting at breakfast this morning it started to rain, no not rain downpour, our host told us that God was telling us that we were supposed to stay for another week. Only moments after it started to rain, the road that we walked across the night before was compeletly washed away. Once the rest of the group noticed that we were not at the church and that we had walked to the church everyday, they decided to come to our rescue. After the guys came and caried our bags down and through the river, it was our turn to walk through the two feet of water that smelt like it came straight from a sewer. Once we were all packed up into the van the 11 of us headed out towards Hermsillo where we would drop off some equipment at the Partners in Christ International Office. Then off to Magdalena to do some tourist shopping before we crossed the border back into America.Getting back into America took forever, especially because we had a full tralier that we were towing, and each of us had a backpack as well. After getting past the the border we headed straight for Tuscon and eat the best food ever seen ... Pizza. Following dinner we went for a swim, man clean water that is at a ready access is such a blessing!
Dia Ocho:
Saturday - July 30th 2005
Another, and thankfully the last early morning, we were on the road by 8 am and would be on the road for another 13 hours. Most of us had extreme sleepiness over the course of the ride and were out cold for a majority of the trip. And I was included in this group of sleepy-eyed travelers, I fell asleep almost immeadiatly out of the Phoniex area, of which I fell asleep on Phill's right leg four almost 5 hours, nearly cutting off all circulation to his legs and feet. Although Phill was awake for the whole time that I was asleep he never once woke me up to make me move. Nice guy huh? Finally we ended up back at the Church in Salt Lake at 10:30 pm.
