The Little Things
April 25, 2016

Last year I lead a trip to Cancun, Mexico, and like I mentioned a few weeks ago, I did it again this year!

I so enjoy having the chance to not only lead a course on “healthy helping” and serving other cultures and communities, but also getting to lead college students on a trip that allows them to see and experience things first hand. Like last year, the trip was 10 days long; the first 7 were spent working with an organization (they spend a lot of time doing education for people who come down to work with them, which I love, along with a very holistic and healthy (and trauma-informed!) way of working with vulnerable children and their families), and the last 3 were spent looking at other parts of culture, along with having a bit of time to play tourist. IMG_1875

Journaling and Coffee at the team house

One of the things that really stuck out to me was how very different the Cancun that most people think of (the hotel zone) and the real Cancun actually are. There is a beautiful strip of water and beach that is manicured and created specifically for the tourist, and then there is the business area of Cancun and the “inner city’ and the “outer communities”. For a year I have felt deeply privileged to have had a small look into the other sides of the real Cancun, and this year that feeling only deepened.

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The wonderful thing is that I built relationships with really wonderful, beautiful people last year, and getting to go back this year meant that I got to re-connect with them again. At one of the sites, there was a girl I spent time with last year who has special needs. I went to her house and got to speak to her mom, who has such a desire to help her daughter, but doesn’t have the money to do it.IMG_1877

When I saw her this year I sprinted over and said hello, reaching out to grab her hand. She immediately threw her arms around my neck, and then pressed her forehead against mine. We spent the next several hours together, and I tried to show her love and care. This little girl brings tears to my eyes when I think of her, and I’ve counted it a privilege to pray for her over the last year.

There were several work projects we did. I spent six hours weeding at one site, and the ground was covered ( I mean absolutely covered) in ants, and cockroaches were running around. The team built beds for a set of teenagers who hadn’t had a bed before, and seeing them cry at the sight of their own beds felt deeply overwhelming and beautiful. We played with kids, ran programs, and provided whatever we could to the organization that is already at work there. It was good, hard work, and it was beautiful. IMG_1886

I ate delicious Mexican food every day (including all the guacamole that I could desire), I ate at some of my favorite restaurants down there, and I got to know 14 great college students. We had good, hard conversations and wrestled through all sorts of situations. And I got to mix some cement, which is something I look forward to every trip!

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freshly made guacamole

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Coffee from the hotel balcony on Easter Sunday.

I’ll share a bit more about some other experiences in future posts, but today I wanted to just barely scratch the surface on this deeply wonderful, other side of Cancun.

 

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