Want to know a great way to start your day? Go to bed at midnight the night before, then wake up at 5:30 in the morning! That's right, we had to be up that early to get packed, clean up our bunks and clean up the comedor (the job our group was assigned). I think Taylor and I sprayed so much bleach our nostril hairs were white. It was nuts. But it was clean.
Then we left at 7:00 for the border. Now, we've already heard about how things go with me at the border, lots of fun. So to get all 51 people through (both our groups), Youthworks walks everyone across single file. Good plan actually. I got out all the information (boy am I glad I was organized), give each person their paperwork, and they all walk through, myself included. For sake of ease, I used only my driver's license and hoped they wouldn't ask any questions (see Tuesday about being a Canadian, not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just didn't want to be questioned again). I ended up being in line behind Matt Simmonds. So what happened? They saw Matt, asked him all sorts of questions, then waved the rest of us through. So nice. We all made it through from the time off the bus to the other side in less than 10 minutes! A record I've been told.
But then it happened. We are back on American soil, about ten feet into America, walking back onto the bus. Everyone has all their stuff and Ann is carrying a plastic bag full of bottles of soda she's bringing back for her family. And the bag breaks. Bottle falls. Shatters. Punctures Ann's foot. Then the bleeding begins. Now, it was pretty bad, but the fact that there was clear soda on the ground, it all mixed with the blood quickly and at first glance it looks like she was losing a lot of blood, so where do we go? El Paso hospital again! For those playing the tally game, we're up to four (three for our group).
So Carrie (Youthworks leader) and I end up at the hospital, eventually one more Youthworks person comes with the van (the bus dropped us off), and Ann is being checked on. She has to be x-rayed to make sure there's no glass, then is given two stitches, the pain killing needle being the part that hurt her most. But here's the part I don't understand. She's just across the border, looks down, see all the blood (mixed with soda so it looks like more) and she starts crying. Understandable. Then in the hospital, the nurse is cleaning her stitches and accidentally presses where the blood has gathered at the cut and a small geyser shoots up. What does Ann do? "Cool! Can you do that again?!" I don't think I will ever understand...
But here's the important thing. We had a lot of major injuries this week. My hope is that the hospital visits are not what we all remember from this trip! Maybe God gave some people scars so they will remember the trip, i don't know, but our students did a lot of great work and showed the love of Christ to a lot of people this week, and they learned a great deal about the world outside of a Fishers cul-de-sac and how they can help those in need across the globe. Please don't forget that!
The trip for Friday was uneventful, except leaving four hours later than planned thanks to El Paso Hosptial, x-ray division. We watched a lot of Star Wars and slept = less stops = quicker travels. The only regrettable moment, we stopped at the same TA in Arkansas we stopped at for two hours on the way down (remember the air conditioner story?). It was kind of a downer to see that place again, but then to buy a Gatorade and have the sales lady on the phone, get off and tell us all about how her husband just cheated on her for the second time and that was her friend, the woman he cheated with, on the phone!
But there was one highlight. He's going to hate me for telling this but I cried laughing, so it's here. On the way home Mike Snyder (hospital visit Wednesday) was on a little bit of Vicadin. Cool. But that made everything funny. Then Mike went to the bathroom. Every sound that came out of his body made him laugh, which made more sounds, which made more laughter, which made an entire bathroom of people laughing, which made an entire bathroom of bodily sounds, and you can guess how it just keeps escalating. Too funny!
But we were on the road, fell asleep during Star Wars IV (A New Hope) the last memory of Friday is Obi Wan telling Luke he had a gift for him from his father...
T
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