The day the water flowed.

Good evening from south of the border!

First and foremost, happy birthday Eli!! Can't wait to see you. Hurry up spring break! You're up near Wes now, as our resident old fart.
(Eli is flying down to San Diego for his spring break, and I'm taking a bus up to San Diego, and we're chilaxin' for 2 days at Point Loma University with my cousin, and then 2 days with Bonnie and Steve, my aunt and uncle.)

So...to start things off with a little spark, we'll go with a couple exciting garbage run stories. One, from last Friday, and one, from today Friday. Starting off with last week's epic TGIF moment, we started as usual with the garbage pick up. 9 AM, Paul and I were off to a great start, then the Visitor's hooked up with us right after morning devotions (Sala). We got 5 of them - my good buddies, Lane, Marvin, Luke, Davis, and Andrew, from Outlook, Saskatchewan - came along and made it a blast of a trip. We got all the 50 cans loaded and consolidated on the trailer, took a little break at the Nut House as well for a cookie break (Thanks to Dorothy and Bonnie!) Then...on tho the exciting part. We get to the dump, and unload all the garbage in record time. Seriously...in and out in a good ten minutes or so. But, upon arriving at the dump, I had parked the truck up the hill a little ways, cause that seemed like a good spot to dump our garbage. But then a guy told me to move and go farther down the hill. So we left our few empty cans there, (intending to pick them back up on our way out) and proceeded down the hill a bit and finished emptying the cans. Again, the rest of the cans we empty real nice and quick, so we drove back up the hill to get the rest of the cans...and I made the apparent mistake of turning the car off. Cause, as luck would have it, that was the last time it was going to start in a while. We loaded the cans, only to find out, that, in that whole two minutes, the truck had broken down. Who knows what it was? Maybe the Mexican heat, mixed with my crazy driving had just finally gotten to it. Maybe God was teaching me how to be patient.
("When one prays for patience, does God grant them patience, or the opportunity to be patient?" ~ Morgan Freeman) Either way...we were stuck at this filthy Mexican dump (with a population of flies greater than that of the combined population of all of North America...and part of China) for 2 hours. But, that didn't stop us from having fun. After all, it was our last day together. They were heading back to Canada in the morning. So, we made the best of it. Tried to score glass bottles in a tire way up on the hill. Or, someone would throw one glass bottle up in the air, and the rest of us would try and hit it on its way down with our own bottles. Also, Chewy, our resident orphanage-kid garbage man, and I restocked our decreasing stuffed animal collection. Lately, people have been taking a lot of teddy bears and such from our collection, so we spent a good hour sorting through the mounds and mounds of trash to pick out the animals for our collection. Just another way to bless the underprivileged at the dump. It's great fun. It's nice to see that something as simple and...well...trashy as a thrown out stuffed animal can be so desired around here. Finally, yes, FINALIZLE, Chewy talked a random dump-goer into giving Paul a ride back to the mission, so he could tell the office, so they could send out someone to come get us. Awhile later, he arrived...in a very small pickup. He was a head-mechanic. But our truck was beyond immediate repair. Three guys had already tried to jump our truck by hooking their battery up to ours (thinking it was dead) EVEN after we'd told them it wasn't the battery. Our battery was fine. Our Canadian friends, who grew up on farms(like the rest of Canada...sorry, inside joke...but still mostly true), had determined the problem, and it wasn't the battery. Still, they were determined to pull out their battery and try it anyways. Third guy was especially fun, cause we all just sat there and watched him do his thing, cause, 1) we knew it wasn't going to work, 2) we'd already told him it wouldn't work, and 3) we'd seen our truck NOT work enough for our liking. So, then what? all 6 of us (Paul stayed behind with the truck) piled into the back of this little pick-up and cruised our way home. Bumps were killer. I think I might still be feeling some of those bumps. No matter though, I'm home, and not stuck there anymore. I don't mind the dump in little spurts every Mon/Wed/Fri. But the two hours there was enough to hold me over the weekend.

And the second dump run story. Today. Oh, today. What a day. But, the definite highlight of today was near the end of our garbage run. After we return from the dump, we go back around the mission, opposite direction as before, and put all the empty garbage cans back from where we picked them up. But, it just so happened that there was a water truck driving through the mission. Not just any water truck though. The kind where the water shoots out the back and spreads out over the ENTIRE road so as to keep the dust down. And this truck was a winner. For sure. Cause I just so happened to have 8 people back on the trailer behind me. 8 previously dry people. I had seen that when the water truck passed a car up a ways in front of me, he turned down his water pressure, slowing the output. But as I neared him I waved to him, giving him the signal to keep up the pressure. keep the water flowing. And boy, did he ever. I now had 8 dripping people who were also slightly mad at me. But I was enjoying every second of it. I even got wet in the cab! But, I was given a second chance. We passed him, kept on our way to the Bible School, and returned their garbage cans. So we turned around and headed back towards the mission. And it just so happens that also in that short time period, the water truck had reached the end of the road and turned around. Coming straight for us. Again. SPLASH! Got them again. But this time, I closed my window. Yes, that may not seem all that exciting, but it was easily the highlight of my day. Gave me a much-needed laugh. And that's about all I have for right now. But tomorrow is a welcomed Saturday, so I'll be sure to add a little something something more. I've got a couple more events to share.

Below are my Canadian friends from Saskatchewan. And yes, I miss them very much.


Lane, Lindsey, Kim, me, Davis, Ashlee, and Kelly on the way to Gaston's Restaurant.



Luke, Lindsey, and Me at Gaston's Restaurant on the beach.