Sleeplessness

For most of my life, I've suffered from the inability to sleep when surrounded by any amounts of light or inconsistent noise. I get it from my mom, who has to have a noise machine on at nights in order to have a great sleep. And even then, it's not always enough. My dad can fall asleep on a moment's notice, for which I envy him.

There are a few times when being unable to sleep comes in handy, such as when on a long drive in the car. There have been times when I've driven over 20 hours straight through the night, and even though extremely tired, I knew I wouldn't doze off. Contrast this with my twin brother who fell asleep at the wheel when he and I were on I-44 years ago. Fortunately, we only side swiped a guy in a van, though his ability to sleep too well could have had disastrous effects.

This can also come in handy when having to stay up late to finish homework. There have been multiple nights when I've had to study well into the night in order to complete an assignment due the next morning. Of course that could lead into a whole other topic about procrastination, but I'll not go there.

Often my sleeplessness is the worst when there are things I'm struggling with, whether school, work, or relationally related. When I had my first test of my first college class last fall, I didn't fall asleep until 8 hours after I'd initially lied down. This led to 1 hour of sleep that night, causing me to be quite tired for the test. The same thing happened again during finals week, as I'd be going over Calculus problems in my head. Thankfully I've become more conditioned to tests, so that's not a common issue anymore.

Even though I regularly have a difficult time sleeping, this will only be compounded in the future. I plan to have a wife and children someday. My wife better not snore, or we'll need separate rooms. But crying children are inevitable, and I can only imagine I'll be the one getting up every time they do so.
Also, sleep becomes more difficult as one ages, especially in the golden years. If my wife snores during those years, I'll officially become a full-fledged insomniac!

Mexico Trip (Part 1)

The company at which my dad is a partner decided to fund a mission's trip for our family. My parents decided on Mexico. The plan was to fly to Phoenix, drive to San Diego for a friend's wedding, and then drive down the coast to the mission.

The original plan was to be gone for a total of 2 weeks, which wouldn't work for me, as I'm taking 12 hours of classes this summer. But they eventually shortened the trip to 10 days, so I decided to go along as well.

Only a couple of weeks before leaving for the trip, I decided to move out of the house in which I was living, and back into my parents' house. It'd been 8 years since I've moved out, so it was a weird feeling moving back in. I made the move the weekend before summer classes started. The second day of classes, I came down with the fever. That, along with being overwhelmed with the classes I was taking, led me to make the decision not to go to Mexico with my family.

The morning my family left for Mexico, I informed my Calculus professor that I wasn't going on the trip after all. But when I went over to study by my adviser/Physics professor's office, he informed me that he'd allow me to take the first test remotely from Mexico if that would help me go. Missing the first Physics test had been one of the biggest reasons in my decision not to go on the trip. So, with less than an hour from departure, I hurried back to my parents' house to pack some clothes. Due to the recent move, locating certain items was more difficult than it'd otherwise have been. I then drove to the airport to meet my family, minutes before boarding time. Boarding for our flight only happened a few moments after we got through security. Unfortunately, on the return flight things wouldn't go so smoothly...

Due to the length of this entry, I've split it into several entries.

Mexico Trip (Part 2)

We flew out of Springfield at noon on Thursday, the 4th of June. When we arrived in Phoenix, we were welcomed by an amazing, 85 degree afternoon. Most of my family loves warm weather. After eating, we made the 5 hour drive to San Diego in a rental van. The lights of San Diego and Tijuana were absolutely beautiful. I'd been to San Francisco years earlier, but that didn't prepare me for the beauty of southern California. The mountains weren't only on the eastern side of California like I'd always thought. They spanned all the way to the ocean. There are obviously plains there, though, such as the one on which San Diego is located.

The most memorable experience we had while in San Diego was visiting Cabrillo National Monument. At the monument, we had a nearly 360 view of the Pacific, San Diego, Tijuana, and all the mountains in the background. We spent a good 2 hours there, before heading to the rehearsal dinner for the wedding we were there for. While waiting at the park where the dinner was to be held, we watched a guy with his parachute trying to get off the ground in the middle of the park. The wind was extremely strong that evening, though he never got off the ground for very long. It was at the rehearsal dinner that we realized how cold the evenings on the west coast got. Most of us, including several others from MO, hadn't brought any jackets. So we had to grab a bunch of jackets from my sister's boyfriend's house for everyone. The same jackets my family borrowed stayed with us on our trip to Mexico.

The next day, my little brother and I skipped the wedding to watch the Champion's League final. This is the annual European club final. Our favorite team won, which made skipping the wedding worth it! After the reception, my sisters and I climbed a hilltop nearby while waiting for the rest of our group to get ready for the evening. The hill looked like a challenge from where we started, but it ended up being quite a hike. My sisters were still wearing their dress shoes, but were real troopers.
That evening we went to Coronado island, the same island on which Navy SEALs do a large portion of their training. We visited Hotel del Coronado, a luxury beachfront resort on the island. We then walked about the streets of downtown Coronado before going back to the hotel.

Due to the length of this entry, I've split it into several entries.

Mexico Trip (Part 3)

Early on Sunday morning, we crossed the border into Mexico. We'd heard rumor of the smell of Tijuana. It's hard to put into words, but it had a distinctly bad smell. Once out of Tijuana, we drove down the coastline, with a beautiful view of the ocean for the next couple hours. All along the way there was an interesting mix of beautiful tourist cities and then trashy cities. We then made our way through the mountains, and looped back around to near the coast again.

Although it took us awhile to find, we eventually arrived at the compound where we would be staying the next 5 days. It had a beautiful courtyard, with facilities not unlike what can be found at campgrounds here in the US. The road on which the compound was located went a mile further and led straight to the ocean, where there was an amazing private beachfront spot.
We stayed in Camalu, a small village located a quarter of the way down the west coast of Baja California. Mexican Federal Highway 1 was the road we took all the way from Tijuana to Camalu, and it goes right through the village.

The area in Mexico where we were was mostly destitute, with only a few nice homes in a neighborhood nearby. Most of the homes were worse than any you'd find in Springfield, though not as bad as might be expected for the location. The village in which we ministered was a couple miles back the way we came on Highway 1, and was considerably more third world than Camalu. The huts were crudely constructed. Yet, even though their homes seemed ready to fall at first strong wind, nearly every one had a TV dish. We were astonished that people could live in such conditions, and somehow have access to television. As we learned from the long-term missionaries we were staying with, the Mexicans as a whole are more concerned with peace and tranquility, and less so with accomplishments and advancements as are we Americans.

One of the most difficult things for us to acclimate to was the water situation in Mexico. Water was used very sparingly. When using the restroom, the toilets were only to be flushed when going number two. (I'm sure there was a more graceful way of wording that). And toilet paper was to be put in the trash, not the toilet. That was especially difficult to remember when passing solids. (Nope, definitely not better). The restrooms at the mission didn't smell bad at all, which I wouldn't have expected considering above information. But at the outhouse by the church it was another story altogether. Have you ever known a smell was so bad you didn't breath while near it, but the duration of your stay near said smell was mistimed? Oh dear. I made that mistake in this outhouse, and nearly lost it. (If you're wondering why I don't just breath through my mouth in these situations, it's because I have this weird need to know what goes into my body, including bad smells!)

Due to the length of this entry, I've split it into several entries.

Mexico Trip (Part 4)

The first evening in Mexico we went to the church where we would be spending the next 5 days ministering to the congregation. Not knowing how to speak Spanish, we were told to greet everyone with the phrase "Dios les bendiga," which translates to "May God bless you." At that first service, we got in front of the church and sang a few songs (obviously in English). It was kind of embarrassing, actually, as their singing style is very different than my family's. They sing quickly, and clap during every song (including ones where clapping sounds bad). So we clapped for our songs too! When the service started, we went to a little shed/house by the church and did a VBS with the children. For those who don't know, VBS stands for Vacation Bible School, something my siblings and I did growing up. We did all sorts of activities at the VBS we went to as children, whereas in Mexico it only consisted of watching some Bible movies with Spanish dubs, doing some crafts, and snacks. That being said, the children thoroughly enjoyed the activities and snacks, as well as the attention they got from all of us. There were anywhere from 15 to 25 children that attended VBS over the course of that week, and they all lived within walking distance from the church.

From almost the moment we entered Mexico, vegetation was scarce. This only worsened as we went down the coast, and culminated in there being only dirt, sand, and rocks at the location we stayed. Whenever we would kick the soccer ball around with the children, it would be made more difficult by the fact that there were no locations nearby without plenteous rocks. It would also get very windy at times, due to the close proximity of the ocean, which resulted in dirt getting blown into our faces.

Due to the length of this entry, I've split it into several entries.

Mexico Trip (Part 5)

Monday morning we went to the church and started helping with a couple different projects. Most of my family helped with painting the exterior of the pastor's family's house, which was right behind the church. It was a small house, no larger than 800 sq ft. My brother and I worked on the house right next to the church, where we'd done VBS with the children the day before. We tore down some walls, built some new ones, and put up sheetrock. This house was even smaller than the other one, being roughly 500 sq ft.

We then had a lunch which had been prepared by some of the women from the church. It was delicious - corn burritos with rice and some sort of meat. They'd also made fresh strawberry juice, which tasted just like strawberries. The meal felt surprisingly less Mexican than a lot of meals I've had at Mexican restaurants in the U.S.

After lunch, we went back to the mission and most of us took a nap. Coming off several nights without much sleep, I decided to sleep through the afternoon VBS.

That night we had our first of two hour long training meetings, where the long-term missionary who was based there taught us about the cultural differences between the Mexican and American people. One of the biggest differences that stuck out to me was that Mexicans care much more about peace than they do about always staying active and having ambitious goals like we Americans. Obviously not all Americans are the same. But overall, we do tend to be more goal-oriented. For example - the American Dream. If there were such a thing as a Mexican Dream, I'm guessing it would be more encompassing of their peaceful, stress-free of living. (Actually, it would probably be getting into the U.S. somehow, but that's a whole other story.)

Anyway, due to the Mexican culture, whenever we showed up late to the church, it was natural to them. And that was a good thing too, because we seemed to like to test it!

Due to the length of this entry, I've split it into several entries.

Mexico Trip (Part 6)

On Tuesday I stayed at the mission to study for the pending Physics test the next morning. From everything I'd heard (including the professor), Physics II is a difficult class, and the first test, the hardest. I'd missed 3 class periods already, and hadn't studied at all from the time I left Springfield. So I knew a quiet study day all to myself right before the test would be imperative.

The next morning I took the Physics test, which lived up to its hype as being difficult. But I was done, which meant I could now partake in the rest of the mission trip. That evening, we did the last VBS. It was sad knowing that our time with the children was coming to a close, but we knew that we'd made a positive, if small, impact in their lives.

Thursday morning we cleaned and packed up at the mission. We then went to the beach, as a few of us had only been there once before at night. Though the water was very cold, several of us got in all the way. Since we were on a tight schedule, we only had 15 minutes. We then drove to the church for the last few hours of work. My mom, not liking to see a project go unfinished, made sure that the house they were painting was finished by the time we left. Before leaving, we said our unspoken goodbyes and took pictures with the people.

The drive back to the border seemed much shorter than the drive down had been. We stopped so my sisters could get some souvenirs. For a late lunch, we went to Burger King. It seems a very American thing to go to another country and eat food at American chains. But when eating authentic Mexican food, the risk of food poising is great. Come to find out, we might as well have eaten authentic!