So I spent the last three weeks building houses in Mexico. I go through Amor ministries. I go through Project Barnabas. I like doing the barney thing because I get to see a another side of Amor. I get to help out both the Amor staff and the groups that come down.
I start on Saturday. It's a day of training. We got through some cultural training, some how to deal with different groups and of course we go over the house. I started the same week as the great kids from Hope came from their spring break. So there was about 30 of us in training. It was also the week Jeff and Leona came. I've been doing the barney thing with them since I started. After training we loaded up the vans and went into to camp. The overpass that was causing a huge mess through town was finished. You can now bypass most of the lights in town. The boarder fence was finished. It long and high. It's also in these mountains that use to be really beautiful. I set up my tent. We had dinner, hung out around the camp fire and called it a night. I got up and we went across to the office. I had an amazing lunch at the office. Let me tell you the lunches at the office are just amazing. Then the mess of check in started. I wasn't scheduled for a lead-in but ended up having one. Kamar wanted help because it was kinda long. I rode with the group I was working with. They were from northern CA. Normally they come with St. Andrew's Yuba City but they had different spring breaks. They worked hard and were a really good group. Thursday, we woke up to rain. The group decided that they would go and stucco the house that had no stucco and be fine with all their hard work. I stayed back and Matthew went since they wouldn't be working on both houses. I stayed back and got to go shopping for the Urban Saints. I went to Costco in Mexico and MegaDulces, and Walmart. I had tacos for lunch and got to have a frappuccino. Lydia spoiled us. Friday, I crossed the boarder. I did my laundry, and stayed in a hotel.
Week 2: Saturday, I just hung out in the office. The new barneys got trained and we went back into Mexico. I had to move my tent. It was the big huge week. Just about every space in camp was used up. Sunday, we got to cross the boarder and go to the office. There was just about no line. I'm talking like 5 cars in each line. We did have to get out and let the Mexican military search are van. We chilled at Starbucks for little and then went to the office. Another awesome lunch. Have I told you how great lunch at the office is? Well, it's great. The Sunday lunches are the best food I ate all week long. I had a lead in to do. It was a mess. The boarder patrol had us unload their luggage. It was kinda a mess but the group was good about. There was an earthquake and I was chilling in the Amor store when it happened. I was sitting in a chair and it started shaking, so I stood up. There were Brits in the store asking why the building was shaking and if it should shake like it was. Jon told us all that it was no big deal. Then Blair traded to get through and Jon couldn't respond. Then T.J. came running and asked if everything was ok. Turns out we had an earthquake. The group I worked was the group James came down with during high school. I was really thrilled. I helped build a bowling alley or double long. It was 44x11. I also got work with Trust. He is friends with James. I enjoyed the group I worked with. They have their own manual. They also have some people who will tell you that don't need any help from Amor and can do a better job, they have been coming for 20 years. The group I worked with didn't have anyone like that. I did have to hear how one of these people thought Amor had given some of the worse sites they had ever seen them. They had two attachments. I'll give you that sometimes attachments can be harder but they were attaching on the 8 ft side. That's the hard side to wrap and stucco, so I think they are lucky. Part of me wanted to point out that maybe Amor give the such "awful" sites because they trust Yuba City to do a good job. After Monday, I kinda just avoid this person. I had a good time they worked hard. I gave them some advice and they listened. I ate all my meals with Trust and Autumn (Trust's girlfriend). They were better than T.V. Friday. I went out did laundry and stayed in the hotel.
Week 3: Saturday, I went and got lunch and washed the van. Nobody was in camp so the put us up in a hotel. We went to the beach, had a good dinner. We also went mini golfing. We went in to church at an overly friendly church that spend 30 minutes of the sermon talking about how wonderful they were. Then we went into Mexico. I drove the van to get ice. I work with a group from Los Altos. They had about 12 under the age of 15. Monday we woke up to rain. We decided to go to the shopping center and see if they were movies playing. About lunchtime the rain cleared up. We went back to camp and had lunch. Then we went to work site. We got things set up to lay cement and started a wall. The next day we got up got to work. It was a long day, I didn't drink enough water. Along the way home, I threw up twice. The running joke the rest of the week was how you need to drink enough water or you'll end up throwing up on the side of the road in Mexico. They worked hard and got one coat of stucco on the house. The site foreman told me that I did a great job and the bottom part of the house and the only reason it has stucco was because I did a good job of being the leader. They were a really great group and really enjoyed them. Friday, I drove out. It was a little scary, but I didn't. the scariest part was when the semi almost drove us off the road. It's good thing there was some road construction going on and there was some road for me to get over onto. After crossing the boarder, I turned on my phone. I have facebook mobile so my phone explode with text messages. At a red light I picked up my phone and began to see what I had missed during the week. I got to a status message from Jackie Kennel and it said the memorial service for Jeremiah will be on Saturday April 17 at ten. I kinda went into shock. I mumble stuff and then asked if you have memorial services for reasons other than death. I pulled the van back into the office, trying to comprehend what happened. It just wasn't registering. I saw Jon and he asked me how the week was and I told him I needed to get on facebook and figure things out. Jon took me to his desk and got me there. I went to David's page and saw that Jeremiah had passed away. I sat a Jon's desk and cried for about ten minutes. I went back to the lunch. They offered me lunch. I had some I unloaded the van. I talked with the staff a little about Jeremiah. Jon asked me if I need anything and I told him I wanted to go home. He asked what he could to help. I'm pretty sure he was ready to get any airline to move my ticket to that day if I had flew out there. I drove though. I loaded my car and took off for home. I made it home around seven. I got up and went to Jeremiah's service. It was really great very healing. I wanted in line so I could see David and Diana. David's response to seeing me was Should you be here? Are you done? Did you leave early? It spokes volumes to about the Johnson family. I did assure David that I was done and it's ok that I was there. I wasn't missing out on my trip to be there for him and his family.
