Appleton True North

That’s a wrap!

2013-06-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

Sick Chart Update

	Not Yet Sick (as of Friday, at drop-off)	Sick	Mostly/Better
Saturday	everyone else...	Alyssa Lori
Sunday	everyone else...	Alyssa Lori
Monday	everyone else...	Heather Rachel Tirzah Sara Christy Mike	Alyssa Lori
Tuesday	everyone else...??	Tirzah Jake Mike Jeremiah Walker	Alyssa Lori Heather Rachel Sara Christy
Wednesday	Tom G Angela Gloria Antonio Colleen Jim Bob Messiah	Logan Ryan Paco Mike	Alyssa Lori Heather Rachel Sara Christy Tirzah Jake Walker Jeremiah Mike
Thursday	Tom G Angela Gloria Antonio Colleen Jim Bob Messiah Tim Sue (note – still some names here!!)	(note – NO NAMES HERE!!!)	Alyssa Lori Heather Rachel Sara Christy Tirzah Jake Walker Jeremiah Mike Logan Ryan Paco

Yes, indeed. Final count:14 of the 24 total folks from Wisconsin got sick – and better – during our time in St Louis. Aren’t you glad we didn’t post pictures of that?!!
We are so grateful – both that folks got better, AND that the bug seemed to run through pretty quickly. Everyone still got chances to do most of the various activities that comprise a work trip in St Louis.
Thursday wrapped up well – we said good-bye to the kids we’d tutored, we served in the afternoon for a last time with the folks from St Louis that we’d gotten to know throughout the week, and then we headed out for Indian food as a way to celebrate a great week. Yum! As a final wrap-up today, Andrew gathered us together to reflect on what we’d experienced and learned throughout the week – and to challenge us to bring it back with us.
On Friday we experienced a few hiccups getting packed up (my – Angela’s - car battery konked out and needed replacing before we left), but for the most part got out without too much trouble. Other than a complete downpour that was a tad nerve-wracking to drive through, things went smoothly and we were back in Appleton by around 7pm.
I have to say – the kids and leaders were just great to be with. In spite of the sickness and other things that could really have thrown a wrench into the week, folks maintained positive attitudes, volunteered to help out where they could, and generally contributed a lot to everything going well. I couldn’t ask for a better team to serve with – thanks, Mike, for all you did to help pull together an incredible time for all of us! And thanks to God that the 7th St Louis Trip joined the other six in being an incredible, rewarding, exhausting, and amazing time.

Your Calling

2013-06-21T14:04:00.000-05:00

My girls: from left to right: Sarah, Nazra, me, Anna

Hello all! This is Sara blogging to you now. I am just going to give you a brief moment of something that stood out to me this week. We do devotionals with Andrew every morning and there are many things he says to make us think, but one in particular got my attention. He was talking about Micah 6:8 (NIV) “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” He told us that our occupation is not our calling, it’s our vocation. “You can lose your job tomorrow, but you cannot lose your calling,” he told us. That struck me. I have been called to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. When Jesus was on Earth, He spent a good amount of His time with the people that have little. If He found them valuable, then I should too. This is the 7th St. Louis trip for me. I wouldn’t have gone this many years in a row if I did not find value in these people that God has placed on my heart. I look forward to walking humbly with God wherever He takes me and see the same beauty in people that He sees.

Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday

2013-06-19T23:31:00.001-05:00

It seems pretty sad that an update for this week feels like it should start with a "who's sick now" update, but that is just the way this week has rolled. Maybe we should make a table:

	Not Yet Sick (as of Wed)	Sick	Mostly/Better
Saturday	everyone else...	Alyssa Lori
Sunday	everyone else...	Alyssa Lori
Monday	everyone else...	Heather Rachel Tirzah Sara Christy Mike	Alyssa Lori
Tuesday	everyone else...??	Tirzah Jake Mike Jeremiah Walker	Alyssa Lori Heather Rachel Sara Christy
Wednesday	Tom Angela Gloria Antonio Colleen Jim Bob Messiah	Logan Ryan Paco Mike	Alyssa Lori Heather Rachel Sara Christy Tirzah Jake Walker Jeremiah Mike
Thursday	???		Logan Ryan

So yeah, it’s been quite a run! That being said – the kids really have had great attitudes and overall have enjoyed their time here a lot. It’s been neat to get to know the other group from Iowa that’s here this week, and have a chance to connect with kids, each other, and with God.
Today we had to bid farewell to 4 of the “grown-ups” (ha!) that have been with us so far – Tom, Lori, Christy and Jeremiah. They had to get back to jobs and other grown up things. Fortunately, 2 brand-spankin’ new ones arrived later to continue carrying the torch – Sue and Tim (yippeee!).
Normally our days go (roughly) tutoring –> lunch –> work projects –> supper –> Kids Club. But today we started before breakfast with tie dyeing the t-shirts we get from this week, and instead of our afternoon work project we had a 2 hour retreat of silence. That was a change for high schoolers who are used to going at a crazy pace: talking, listening to music, or sleeping. Andrew challenged us not to talk, or sleep, during that time, but rather to take time for quiet prayer and reflection. Neat stuff!
It was hard to wrap up Kids Club for the week. The kids just seemed so sweet and willing to connect this year. A couple of 20-year-old guys that Ryan was talking with live in the same complex as these kids. They told him, “it’s just so neat to see the children smiling and having fun. You brought them joy”. Just cool stuff! Tonight in addition to our normal game playing and dispensing of sno cones and popcorn, we handed out dental supplies! Alyssa had asked around with dentists in the Valley and rounded up a big supply that we were able to package and get to the kids. They loved them and kept coming back in line to get more for their brothers and sisters.
We wrapped up the day at the laundromat –hopefully we now have enough clean clothes to end the week in style!

Wednesday pics

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Tuesday–a day in pictures

2013-06-18T22:40:00.000-05:00

So – 3 1/2 people were out sick today (Walker, Jeremiah, and Jake. Tirzah was able to join back in the fun around noon – hooray!!). The rest of us had a great day, tutoring, serving, doing Kids Club, and hanging out.

	We brought stuff and know-how down – and helped the kids make tambourines today




	At the work sites…

	At Kids Club













	Packing up dental supplies

flexi-cookies!

2013-06-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

How do you handle it when things don’t go as planned? Do you carry a pack of flex-cookies with you and pull one out as things get crazy? It works for us! The super flexi-powers just flow and suddenly you can deal with pretty much anything the situation throws at you.
This flexi-cookies were needed much sooner than we anticipated. We were thinking we’d stock up, pull ‘em out toward the end of week as we got more tired, things got more crazy, and we were trying to process everything here and at home. Little did we know…
On Saturday, both Alyssa and Lori (separately) started feeling nauseous, and Alyssa was up multiple times during the night with stomach yuck. By Sunday night Alyssa was feeling somewhat better, but Lori fought to hang in there and eventually went to bed early. Three more girls (Heather, Tirzah and Rachel) were out for the count by this morning (Monday) – they also had been up through the night making good use of the toilets . By 8:30 AM, Christy and Sara were out as well.
It’s a big deal – for morning tutoring they match each high schooler with one or two students. With that many folks out, they went from man-on-man to zone defense; each tutor helped multiple kids – a pretty big deal given the, um, attention needed by some of the students (flexi-cookie power!).
We then broke into our work project groups for the afternoon and had fun meeting folks, helping with all sorts of projects, and generally doing what we had hoped to do. By 4 or so we were all drifting back to the main building and a fire alarm went off. Everybody (sick people included) evacuated and waited maybe half an hour before the all clear was given and we headed back in. We still don’t know what caused it to go off. (more flexi-cookies!).
Our next adventure was a Kids Club that didn’t happen – it had been storming and rain had been positively pouring down for hours and it was likely to continue through the evening. So – flexi-cookies! – we hung out, watched Night Servants (a movie by our very own Appleton True North group), ate popcorn, and debriefed experiences from the day. Aside from an emergency run to the 24-hour pharmacy for albuterol (have I mentioned it’s a very good thing we have a nurse and a family practice doctor here this week?), things wrapped up fairly calmly.

monday pics

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Saturday: Exploring St. Louis

2013-06-16T09:56:00.001-05:00

After a lovely morning sleeping in, we all eventually piled into the cars and headed off to Grant's Farm. Grant’s Farm is a combination Budweister Clydesdales, zoo with giant elephants (one of whom is named Bud and can do cool tricks), petting zoo, amusement park, and amazement. We had fun playing with and petting pygmy goats, watching the elephant show, and seeing the huge horses.
Next we headed off to the Arch. It really is a magnificent sight, even if you’ve seen it before. Some of us didn’t realize that you can actually go into the Arch – from far away it looks so small. We had fun going through the museum below, and compared the height of the Mississippi with previous years (it’s high!).
For supper we trundled off to Union Station where all got to try different restaurants. Then we wondered by the Fudgery – a magical place where they not only make fudge, but they also sing and entertain you. We watched an entire “show” and got free samples – YUM!
Then it was time to head back for orientation and to be reunited with the rest of our group – Lori, Tom, Colleen and Jim. Hooray!
Words we would use to describe the day:

hot. sweaty. amusing. fun. adventuresome. spontaneous. memorable. unforgettable. sick to my stomach (that was Alyssa ). lovely. pickle.

(thanks to Gloria, Rachel, Bob, Logan, Heather and Alyssa for their help with this update).

Saturday pics

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Here goes!

2013-06-15T08:26:00.001-05:00

Good Saturday morning from St. Louis!

We had about the smoothest start yet as we piled into our cars and headed down here yesterday. The weather was beautiful, the kids had great attitudes, and we just enjoyed the 9ish-hour trip down here.

We did see a Volkswagen Bug completely engulfed in flames somewhere in the middle of Illinois - looked like everyone was ok, so it was fun to watch in awe as everything burned from hood to tailpipe.

The traveling traditions are fun: we know we will not leave on time - this time we rolled out of Appleton at 10:30 after an 8:00 meet-up time. We stopped at the Cahokia Mounds just before crossing into Missouri. From there we looked over the city and prayed for it and our time here. Then we landed at Steak n Shake for a traditional time of pretty much taking over the restaurant and taxing the patience and good humor of the serving staff, before finally landing at New City.

There are nineteen of us now, and more will be joining today - good times to follow!

Friday pics

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Ready or not, here we come!

2013-06-08T10:21:00.003-05:00

Looks like fifteen-ish kids with a handful of adults peppered in here and there are making ready to head to St. Louis for a week of serving fun.

Prayers appreciated!

that’s a wrap

2012-10-28T20:19:00.001-05:00

Today was a nice wrap-up for the weekend. While we had to get up much earlier than any of us liked in order to clear out our stuff from rooms that would soon be needed for Sunday morning activities, it did mean we were breakfasted and packed well before the start of the main service at the church where we were staying. We had a brief gathering where Dan, the pastor (and Mike’s brother) shared the story of the church and what they’re up to. Then we drove over to The Source to get a nice group shot of everyone on the ramp. Church was encouraging (Dan taught on civility based on a passage from Titus 3 – pretty timely given the crazy political situation), and then we hit the road! Lots of sleeping happening on the way back, but the tiredness is “good tired” – we had a great time, worked hard, laughed and overall just really were glad to be a part of the craziness for another year.

yesterday…

2012-10-28T20:10:00.001-05:00

So – normally we try to get out picture updates throughout the day and a summary out at the end of the day for work trips. But yesterday took “work trip” to a whole new level. We got as far as taking pictures – but to actually get them out to Facebook or to the blog was just one step too many.

We had three main projects going on:

Dan Klein & his son Kevin worked on replacing a window with a door (to help The Fallout building meet fire code). They were successful – though there was a touchy moment there when the door might have been hung to swing the wrong way. Crisis averted, all is well, and folks can now easily egress via the back of the building thanks to a ton of hard work from Lori and others to clear out the hallway.

The Source has a new once-foreclosed-upon house that will be joining to their transitional housing network – it’s pink and is decorated with dolphins, flamingoes and cranes, so another group worked at “The Crane House”. Ryan and Sara worked on drywalling inside, while Jeremiah, Christy, Mike, Messiah, Alyssa, Myster, and Nate worked on hauling, making and pouring cement for a sidewalk and digging post holes. They made it! By the end of the day the cement was covered to protect it from the coming frost and the posts were mounted and aligned and ready for the next stage of a storage shed project.

A third large-ish group worked on building a wheelchair ramp into the Art Coop building. That may not sound like a big deal, but the ramp needed to loop through a deep alley so needed a significant support structure in order to be set up correctly. Todd was crew boss for that project with a great deal of help from Tom – and they were joined by Lori, Jake, Ramiro, Antonio, Nick, Ryan, Alyssa, Myster, Messiah and Angela. A bunch of folks circled around and helped with additional projects here and there, pitching in where ever it was needed. Mike’s nephew Walker joined in as well – he’s been on other trips with us so it was neat to see and work with him again. After an 11-ish hour work day, (added to all the setup work from Friday), the ramp was installed! It still needs a railing and finishing, but all things considered it was quite an accomplishment.

The exhausted group packed up the trailer and headed to the Y for showers, followed by supper at Pancho Villa – a restaurant near The Source that has become a favorite. At around 10:30 we headed back to The Fallout where Peter shared a bit about the history of The Source, as well as the story of how they came to acquire the Crane House. Then it was back to the church and it wasn’t long before the building was dark and quiet.

It was a nice day

2012-10-26T23:18:00.001-05:00

The day was a nice one. Okay, the early start was probably NO ONE's favorite, but sleep deprivation aside, folks got up without being too snarly, got their lunches made and their breakfastses had, and were on the road without too much trouble. After a stop for contemplation at the Basilica of St Mary, the group landed at the Fallout. They keep having such cool projects for us to do there! This time around the big project is to build a wheel chair ramp. But there are smaller ones too - demolitioning and cleanup and all sorts of stuff. We came back a bit chilled and (some of us) quite dirty, but all that was taken care of by hot pizza, showers at the "Y" and a fun evening outing. Yep, we went to ComedySportz for our evening activity. It really was hilarious - it was fun to see each and every kid getting pulled into the fun and activities of the group on stage. So now we're tucked back in at the church. The plan is to try to get a good night's sleep... we have a ton of work ahead tomorrow!

MPLS.

2012-10-26T10:51:00.002-05:00

Well, we made it. Here we are in Minneapolis for our Fall Work Trip. The trip over was fairly uneventful - aside from one van getting nearly blown off the freeway by an oblivious UPS truck driver. It's going to be coooold this weekend so we'll have to keep moving... which kind of works for a work trip I guess! On the trip: Nick M (who we picked up in Eau Claire on our way through), Alyssa, Rachel, Sara, Angela, Lori, Christy, Jeremiah, Tom G, Todd, Mike-the-leader, Antonio, Ramiro, Myster, Nate, Messiah, Ryan, Jake... and someone else but I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

Up for today - breakfast, packing our lunches, a trip to the Basilica, and then WORK! Peter has heaps o' projects for us, including building a huge wheelchair-accessible ramp. Let the fun begin!

Alejandros Essay (typed by Ramiro Rosas)

2012-06-23T11:03:00.000-05:00

Mike is very strict about wearing your seatbelt while he is driving. Alejandro would always forget to put his seatbelt on while we started driving. So mike would always read the rules that were written on a sticker about what precautions should be done when driving a 15 passenger van. So Mike made Alejandro write a 200 word essay on the way back to Wisconsin:

Most of the people drive everyday to work, field trips, and more. Seventy-Two percent of the people driving DO NOT KNOW the cautions, and ten percent know the cautions and don’t follow them, and the rest don’ even know what’s going on. Scientist predict in the future all drivers should eat, to keep them stop thinking of food, this will help cause accidents. Sleeping helps to relax, and dream and stop focusing on real life, but sleeping while driving might be a bad thing. Teachers from ”UW Washington University” were looking and observing most of drivers need more sleep to keep them awake, drivers don’t realize how important it is to sleep, “people who make shortcuts always lose… (Mike C.)” Texting is another thing that is causing accidents, why? ill give an example, as I am driving I get a text message from my friend saying “where are you?” I say “I am home” when I m not even home. 20 mins later my friend is in my house and for not paying attention to his text while I was driving we could chill for awhile. The perfect time to drive is on a sunday afternoon in a sunny day, no traffic and is a day to relax, the conclusion is to drive safe

now this is a short article on paco’s music rap group, Nameless, created in the trailer park. with a coming up song about saint louis, although the song is unnamed at the moment but will go into work with M. Collison and R. Collison and more members of the rap group. and a remix of a song well known but you will see how well it sounds. Along with that there may be a live performance of it very soon, pressured, we will do our best to give you the best of our skills we have. It will be at the church, but the day I will leave a mystery! ;D here is a short sneak peak to the beginning of the song
“havin breakfeast early in the mornin/ even though some of us are yawnin/ while we’re servin/ up a meal/ a sweet deal/ or a combo/ that takes a dance or a mambo/ through our system/

mike collision (typed by Antonio)

2012-06-22T21:33:00.001-05:00

mike here driving through IL dictating to (A Renteria) months ago, I decided that our trip theme would be , (ENLARGE YOUR HEART.) Before we left Gary Campbell designed a heart shaped necklace for the group. At the beginning of the week I challenged everyone to ask god to enlarge their hearts. Here are some of the ways God answered; a small boy named Abdul who got into things, Ann ame, 99 year old women at the retirement home, The families that joined us for kids club, Tough kids at tutoring that softened up at the end of the week, seeing a lot of need in difficult circumstances like mowing a widow’s lawn and meeting a new neighbor, spending time with a joyful group of seniors who call themselves J.O.Y, seeing the joyful faces of kids at kids club breaking piñatas mostly who have never done one, serving along side of a White Mississippi and a Black St.Louis group.
What seems clear to me is that God uses people most to enlarge our hearts. after 6 years I can say this was the smoothest week yet. the credit goes to our team who where amazing. one of the most dreaded jobs of the week is cleaning out the trailer to pack for home. after kids club and construction projects the mess of popcorn, tools, wires, games, wood, saw dust, screws and assorted junk make for a really good challenge. everyone in our group tackled the huge mess in an hour with an unbelievable teamwork.
in the afternoons we built wood shakers with the 5th and 6th graders. these were made out of oak drawer scraps from home. they took 3 days to glue, sand, stain, and fill. the last day we ended with a drum and shaker session outside. it was very satisfying to see 30 colorful would shakers drying in the sun. Of course this would not be a trip without a car repair. the radiator in the green van was leaking a little in the beginning of the trip and started to leak a lot in the end. not wanting to risk a road side repair in Illinois, I bought a radiator. Ryan and I did the repair this morning, it took about 3 hours. we only lost one screw!! A happy report, it was a success. this gave the group a chance to pack up and clean their rooms and say some goodbyes to friends they made along the trip. this year’s tutoring theme, was called “around the world” Gloria, Alejandro and I did a presentation for the new city group on Tuesday, and a presentation on Wednesday in south city. it was informative and entertaining. we put together stereotypical statements about Mexico. for example: everybody in Mexico has a Chihuahua, does everyone like tacos. Gloria and Alejandro shared stories about growing up in Mexico . Alejandro had to face his fear of public speaking. the applause and love of the kids. a funny moment/ I told Alejandro to “kiss the mic’ which means to just put your mic closer to speak. Alejandro thought I actually meant to kiss the mic and alejandro started kissing the mic. the kids thought it was really funny how he did that and wondered why he did that. even after I explained kissing the mic to everyone that kissing the mic meant bringing it closer to your mouth Alejandro thought it would be funny so he started kissing the mic while I was explaining to the the kids. He is a natural on stage.
Parents, friends, and church family you can be proud of the work everyone did. It was sweet experience for me to enjoy a week of close spiritual community.
A group from St. Louis will be coming up to Wisconsin for labor day weekend for a weekend of service. we will go up to the Menominee residents to cut and split firewood and build wheel chair ramps. we will be looking for host families to house the groups. I look forward to this new serving venture. Grace and Peace Mike C.

What Dashawn and Selah (two folks who goes to church here in St. Louis)

2012-06-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

Deshawn

Deshawn: Garrett is funny, and so is Mike Z. And Alejandro is really funny too. You guys are all really mature - not necessarily a good thing. :)

Selah: everyone in your group likes to have fun and get to know each other. You guys do a good job of building relationships and helping people feel welcome in your group.

Selah & Caleb

Thursday was a sweet sweet day

2012-06-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

Here's proof!

Kids' Klub Konclusion (by Sara)

2012-06-22T09:40:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night was our last kids' klub for the week. A very bittersweet event. Sweet in the sense that during the afternoon after work projects we no longer had to make massive amounts of popcorn or crush ice for snow cones. Bitter because leaving all of those kids and telling them that you will not be returning the next day until next year is very difficult. I bonded most with a few of the little girls (Anna, Greta, Nuru, Sarah, and Nazrah) and it broke my heart when I had to tell them goodbye. Something I always looked forward to each night was pulling up to the apartments and hearing my name being yelled from across the yard and seeing those sweet, silly girls run up to me and throw their arms around me. We spent a lot of time hula hooping, laughing, and playing on the swing set that our group had built a few years before. Seeing those girls every night really put a smile on my face and brightened any exhausted mood I may have been in. I have known some of these girls for a few years now and leaving them on Wednesday night was truly painful. When I had to tell them that I would not be returning for the rest of the week and only being able to give them a "maybe next year" as I will have graduated college by then and may not be able to go on this trip next year, I was heartbroken. God has truly enlarged my heart for these little girls. I could not hug them enough before we got in our vans and headed out for the last time this week. I will pray for them and their families while I am away from them and hope that I can make it back next year to reconnect with my sweet girls.

Thursday

2012-06-22T00:23:00.001-05:00

You may or may not be surprised to hear this, but we’re all pretty stinkin’ tired at this point. We’ll probably work on creating more updates from multiple folks on the drive home tomorrow, but for now I’ll just say that we’re all doing very well, we’ve had an incredible week, and I think we’re all also looking forward to getting home! Tutoring wrapped up well this morning, with many of our kids saying they were sad that we were leaving and some even crying when they hugged us goodbye. Awww! So sweet. We wrapped up work projects this afternoon, and went out for Indian (hooray) for supper. Then it was back to New City where we had conversation about the week and what we had learned and would take away – lots of good stuff. And then everyone “got” to pitch in and help clean out the trailer (it was a complete disaster after a week’s worth of taking games in and out, tools in and out, woodworking projects in and out, popcorn and slushy stuff in and out… you get the idea). Then there was time to hang out with kids from the other groups and relax before heading off to bed. Hopefully we’ll have an early start in the morning – it’s always good to hope, right?!

Pictures to tell Wednesday's story

2012-06-21T02:05:00.000-05:00

I'm sure we can get one more on there...

teeter-totter

Bucky as human climbing wall

Simon says!

afternoon's work assignment: moving!

Moments from the last Kids Club - for this year anyway!

slushies all around at Kids Club

Messiah's tutoring story

2012-06-20T07:59:00.000-05:00

Monday my kid didn't come, but I'm glad yesterday my kid did come. Because on Monday everybody else had a kid and was at the park and I didn't really have anything to do. And then we went to the auditorium and everyone had a kid and I still didn't know what to do. I waited until the end of the singing and went and asked Miss Leah what I was supposed to do and she gave me a kid and I started talking to him and forgot who I was supposed to give him to. So I just kept him and we went upstairs to the classroom and we were just waiting for someone to come up. We found out they were down in the gym - they were playing a game to introduce themselves to each other. After that we played a line game where you run up to the next line if they say something about themselves that's true about you also. After that we just went upstairs and joined the other kids.

How Ramiro got bit by a girl, as told by Garrett and Ramiro

2012-06-20T07:54:00.000-05:00

It all starts with the falling of the pinata.

Ramiro: I jumped in and grabbed the pinata so all the kids would get some candy. I'm never doing that again.

Garrett: I was standing by and I just saw Ramiro at the bottom of the pile with all these kids jumping on top of him. It was crazy. It was like a mad riot. Now I know how police feel at riots. There was no way we could control those kids. Then he got bit by a girl and I just stood and watched (see "flip flops to the head" story from earlier this week).

The End.

Interview with Walker

2012-06-20T07:49:00.000-05:00

Q: Tell me about your wallet
A: It's constantly either in another pocket, or I just lost it. And the one time I remembered it, we got ice cream as a whole group so I didn't need it.

Q: Tell me about your kid
A: He's a very complicated, quiet, and kind of sassy, kind of anti-social person. He can be sweet sometimes. He'll draw me pictures. On the playground, the only game we play is hide-n-seek. Otherwise he likes to play with his Legos.

Q: Tell me about your suitcase
A: My suitcase is over 20 years old so it's pretty worn down. It has lots of secret compartments and is hard to spot among all the other black suitcases. It has a funny furry strap protector to help identify it.

Q: Tell me about your roommates
A: We actually get to SLEEP, and then we listen to the other rooms banging on the walls. We aren't that clean with our stuff, but we're not totally messy either.

Q: Anything else you'd like to tell me?
A: This is probably the trip I've had the most fun on. All the other trips have been pretty much games and stuff - I like to help people out. It's very planned out as well. I just hope Moses doesn't bring his Legos today.

The Third Tuesday of the Month (Sara and Alyssa)

2012-06-20T07:35:00.001-05:00

Hello all!
Yesterday was our second full day of tutoring and work. We were grouped together along with Myster, Mike Z., and Josh Chappeau to do yard work such as mowing and weeding. We set off with Josh in his huge, red, A/C-less van in search of our assigned house for the afternoon. Our unexpectedly long quest began when our Google Maps seemed to have failed us as some streets matched up to where we were supposed to be and other streets were no where to be found. We drove around in circles for a long time, asking random people if they knew how to find the street we were looking for (not to mention all the one way streets that were not going in the correct direction for us), but to no avail. After 45 minutes of driving and circling (and bonding), Mike Z. examined the map closer only to discover that we had made a left turn where we should have made a right. Finally, after discovering our mistake, we found the house. We parked and prepared to unload. Then we looked up at a road sign that read "No Parking on the Third Tuesday of the Month." Alyssa laughed and read the sign out loud to us and said "wouldn't it be funny if it was the third Tuesday of the month?" Then as we thought about that it slowly came to our attention that it just might be the third Tuesday of the month. After checking Josh's cell phone calendar, we discovered that that was true in fact. It was indeed the third Tuesday of the month. Just our luck! We found a spot across the street to park and finally continued on with our scheduled work assignment. It was an interesting afternoon to say the least, but we bonded!

stories from Tuesday

2012-06-20T00:26:00.000-05:00

Ok, today followed roughly the same pattern as yesterday, with a few variations added for good measure. So today...
... we're a bit more tired, but also "gelling" more as a team and with the other groups

... Gloria, Alejandro, and Mike C all did a game show for the tutor kids entitled, "what do you know about Mexico?" Gloria and Ale did a great job of keeping the kids interested, and in giving all of us the inside scoop info on common misconceptions about this beautiful country.

... Mike C and Ryan have been helping the older kids make handmade shakers - they're beautiful! - and today was "staining day".

... we brought a couple of pinatas out tonight and the kids loved them. It was quite a pile of excitedness when it finally broke and all the kids went desperately in for the candy. All survived! And it actually really was neat to see quite a few new faces show up for the excitement.

... more progress on the playset area at the apartment complex where Mike C & team are building. There is now a framed out area filled with mulch underneath the swings. The drain cover is completely covered and protected - hopefully no more mud! Next request: a slide of course! Can they pull it off??

... it's just overall a privilege to be here, to hang out with such great kids from Wisconsin (really, they're just incredible!), to see new faces, and to learn. Every time we come back we learn new stuff and take away lessons that we want to apply when we get back. Ask us about it!

flip flops to the head (Ramiro's story)

2012-06-19T07:53:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I was helping pack up from our work site and I noticed a kid hitting another kid in the head with a flip flop. I watched. The kid was screaming bloody murder. Then Mike came running up and one of the moms came up and told the kid to go home. Then Mike stopped the flight and gave me a hard time about not stopping the fight. Later, I saw some kids fighting at the kids club, and I broke them up right away. No more kids fighting on my watch! - Ramiro