here's the scoop

I'll be traveling to Piedras Negras, Mexico (just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas) for 3 weeks to volunteer with a mission organization based in Birmingham called Constructores Para Cristo. CPC has been around for over 20 years and in Piedras for the last 15 or so. They build houses, have a clinic (people & pet), and a preschool in Piedras and rely on volunteers to keep everything going. Throughout the year (but mostly in the summer), missionary groups travel to Piedras to build houses, sometimes bringing doctors & nurses to work in the clinic. Each group builds a 3-room cinder block house in just one week, in turn changing the life of a local family.

So where do I fit in to all of this? I'll be working mostly with the missionary groups- feeding them & helping with supplies. That means being the first one up to start the coffee, helping the Mexican cooks prepare breakfast in the morning, traveling across the border to Texas several times a week for groceries, making sure we have enough fresh water & ice, and cooking dinner for a crowd twice a week. Once that's done, I'll be able to make it out to the construction sites as well as the clinic & preschool.

Many of you have asked about the flu & safety. The swine flu stayed pretty far away from Piedras- 500+ miles away- so it was never a huge concern. Most US-Mexican border towns are know for violence. Safety is not typically a concern in Piedras as with most border towns, but there is a constant police presence- you can only imagine my reaction to seeing a guard in a tower above the mall parking lot with a semi-automatic last summer. Uncharacteristically, Piedras has experienced some targeted violence in the past 5 months, though things have be quiet for the last 3 or so months. So, we'll definitely use precautions when traveling across the border & around town, but feel safe being there.

All in all, it's going to a busy, sweaty, exhausting, hot, humbling few weeks and I look forward to showing you as I go! Back to packing....