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I’ve mentioned it in passing in a few other blog posts last week, but at the end of March/beginning of April I had the opportunity to spend 10 days in Cancun. I was there leading a trip of 18 college students, and I was thrilled to be spending Spring Break there with them. This is one of the reasons for an extra busy winter and spring. This has taken up close to 15 extra hours to prepare, teach class every week for the team, etc… It’s been a HUGE amount of work, but I loved it 🙂
When most people think of Cancun, they think of a small area called the Hotel Zone (there are actually signs in the real Cancun pointing to the Hotel Zone… which is totally different and a fake sort of touristy area). While I did get to see some of the Hotel Zone, I spent most of my time in the REAL Cancun, working in some of the very poor communities there. I got to stay in and see the real Cancun, which I feel is such an honor.
While there, we worked in 4 different communities, doing construction and spending time with the kids each afternoon (we had songs, skits, games, lessons, and crafts we did with them). I had a REALLY really wonderful time. I actually really love mixing cement (I think I talked about my first time mixing cement when I talked about my favorite spring break), so I was so happy to be spending time in the sunshine doing that.
I didn’t so much love the time I spent doing that with scorpions around me. That was definitely a new experience that had me on edge a bit.
little hand games are a favorite for kids there.
One of the most difficult and best days of the trip was on Wednesday (almost two weeks ago now). We poured a cement floor for a woman who hadn’t had anything but a dirt floor. She and her sons were out in the sun helping us, and it was a really beautiful moment to work side by side with her. After that I walked around with a group of people to see the town and meet some of the people, and they were SO sweet and friendly. These were houses that were a small room, often with no bed (no room and too expensive), and no plumbing… it was really hard to see and interact with. There are actually no words to describe the feelings as people hugged us, gave us food, and interacted with us throughout our time in that community. I felt humbled, overwhelmed with everything I have in my life, and struggling to comprehend the living conditions I was seeing. I’m honestly still struggling with it a bit. I look at the things I own and feel a mix of gratitude and guilt, which is a strange tension. I feel almost a bit of culture shock coming back, and it’s honestly been fairly difficult to drop straight into work again after all that I experienced.
There were so many beautiful moments on the trip. I loved the people I interacted with there, and I loved being side by side with the 18 students I had with me as they processed “healthy helping”, community development, and poverty that they were interacting with while there. I especially enjoyed seeing Cancun as it really is, and not just the manufactured and created Hotel Zone there. It’s funny because most people think of Cancun as beautiful beaches and oceans (that is true- they are beautiful!), but I’ll always think of Cancun as the beautiful people that I met in some of the surrounding communities.
We had a few days at the end of the trip to relax and debrief a bit, which included a beach day on Easter, a day in Chichen Itza (Mayan Ruins), and some crazy experiences running around the city. I’ll share some of that in a later post.
For now, I’ll leave you with a few final food pictures (I LOVED the food there). They also had delicious apple soda there, which I’ve managed to find back in the US as well!
Mostly, words feel utterly insufficient to describe the 10 days I had in Cancun, and I’m sorry I can’t do a better job at capturing everything that fit into the trip. These are days I’ll treasure dearly throughout life, and I’m so thankful for the experience to travel and lead a trip there.
[…] in Mexico two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to have a “learning day” and go to Chichen Itza, which was […]
What an amazing experience, to see the way life is truly there and not the tourist trap part.
It was absolutely amazing, and I’ll definitely think more about the other side of hotels or tourist areas when I travel…
[…] my trip to Mexico, I got to go to the beach twice (one of the times had a CRAZY story involved, which I’ll […]
[…] year I lead a trip to Cancun, Mexico, and like I mentioned a few weeks ago, I did it again this […]