We've just recently returned from our church's first ever mission trip to Isaiah 55 in Reynosa, Mexico. In a fit of overconfidence, we decided to also take the two Squirrels along. Unmedicated. Ooo boy. We figured they needed to get a taste of their upcoming "transition" to the mission field.
Complete with pink polka dot suitcases and armed with sunglasses, Kate and Eli flew the friendly skies for the first time in their life. They were delighted to be accompanied by 11-year-olds Maddy and Sarah who are both on swim team with our girls. Beings that all the other people going from our church were guys, I had the distinct honor of playing Den Mother to all four girls for the week. Which mostly consisted of trying to keep them from falling out their 2nd story window as they sang Taylor Swift songs to anyone on the street who would listen. And identifying the congealed heaps of clothing found under beds, in the shower area, etc.and returning them to their rightful owners.
The main assignment for the week for the females on the team (other than the girl who was crushing on someone who will remain nameless but whom we will just call "Schmyatt") was to scrape the peeling paint off the soon-to-be-storage-and-migrant-worker-housing abode called (and we have yet to figure out why) "Dracula's House". Rumor has it this two-storied, stuccoed, marble-floored behemoth used to belong to a drug kingpin. Through a set of circumstances that I never quite distinguished, the property is now owned by an American who rents it to I55.
The Squirrels were thrilled to be working but thought scraping was boring. The day finally came when they could paint and I sent them upstairs with some other teenagers from the trip. I don't know how much paint made it onto the walls but I can verify that everything else was covered, especially the girls. At some point, Kate came down complaining that no one was painting with her. I didn't even know she was up there by herself. She told me she was on top of the ladder, then proceeded to try to move the ladder by herself. As it swung dangerously close to going through a window glass, I decided that NOW was the time for some Father-Daughter bonding. She was quickly scuttled across the street to assist Husband in framing up doorways at the new deaf school.
More on our week to follow...
0 comments:
Post a Comment