Mountains, dogs, and sunburns... Oh my!

 Hellooooooooooooo!

Brief brief summary of this past week: I "helped" build a house for a super cool family of four, working with a team of Virginia peeps! I was working with Ricardo, who is hilarious and has the greatest phrases ever such as "Check-a da side beautiful. Paint that one" and "No worries!" (even when someone does something like cut our last 2x4 a few inches too short... hee). That was fun. But then on our last day he took a "short cut" over a mountain to get to another YUGO house site... let's just say the way down was a bit steep. I was gripping the sides of my seat with white knuckles, nearly wetting my pants, and Ricardo in his always-calm manner said simply, "So wait, why are you afraid right now?" Haha! Um... I am bad at construction. It was kind of a debacle...  Worse at interpreting... I may be partially deaf. I blame Matt Grubb for blaring music on too many youth trips. Kidding! Ohh.. Matt... But! I am okay at kitchen duties. It's almost like I've washed pots and pans before!

Alright. I may just have the energy to finish discussing my peeps here. Except I'm beginning to realize that there are about 6.785 million of them and I'll never have time. Just a few more....

Melody! This is the one that picked me up at the airport in San Diego. We have been talking on Facebook since last year (because we are BFFs like that?) and it almost feels like I never left! Literally, we picked up talking about our last FB conversation! Nerds? Perhaps. At any rate, she has the most wonderful ability to read my mind. It's not everyday that I can give someone the "Alyssa" look and they understand. She just knows. I think she's been drinking the Mexico water and it gives her secret powers or something. As the locals here say, she's bien CHIDO!

Speaking of chido... So there's another guy who works here who is nick-named "Chino" (according to him it's because his eyes look slightly Asian-ish... I find it amusing that he goes along with it). So anyway, when I kept hearing people saying "chido" about everything, I thought they were saying "Chino" and I thought to myself, Good grief! Why is everyone talking about Chino all the time? He must be pretty stinking popular! But indeed, they were just saying "chido," which means cool. I mean, don't get me wrong... Chino is pretty chido, but sometimes things are just chido and have nothing to do with Chino. Comprendes?

I think I'm going to have to stop describing people in every posts because I'm just going to run out of space.

At any rate, I need to tell you all about my ASSIGNMENT for next week! (drum roll, please...) I get to work in an orphanage with Roberto!!! Good grief I haven't told you guys anything about Roberto! Okay, he's chido too. But he's not Chino. We will be going with one of the teams coming in next week to an orphanage that's about 45 minutes away. That is exactly what I was hoping to do here! I promise to be better about snapping some pictures here and there, but I honestly get so caught up in the moment that I forget to take pictures... But it should be a better week because, let's face it, I suck at hammering. I think Ricardo almost fell off the roof he was laughing so hard. Hater. But next week will be different!

Also... ALSO!! I have had the amazing opportunity to lead worship here a couple of times. Not bad for my first week, right?! It's been a little difficult because something's wrong with my voice. It doesn't really hurt, per se, but it is kind of missing. Like, I can only sing really low. So everyone's been telling me, "Oh we just love your voice! It's so unique and low!" I've been just nodding and smiling. It cracks me up--I think I sound like a dying water buffalo (I believe I discussed this in a previous post) but as long as people can worship God, then I say sing on water buffalo!

What else... I feel like I need to give everyone a play-by-play here. Well, I've been working in the like snack shop/coffee spot here around camp. This is hilarious to me because I can remember frantically driving around Eugene, poorly-written resume in hand, trying to get a job at a coffee shop. I think I tried at every single coffee shop in Eugene. But instead God opened doors for me to work in the hospital kitchen. And now I'm working in a coffee shop!! I seriously love God's timing. I'm not making espresso drinks or anything fancy like that, just brewing coffee and talking to people. It's probably one of my favorite chores. I get to hang out with people! And I don't have to sell them anything like when I worked retail. Well, okay they can buy candy or whatever but I don't exactly have Skittles quotas. At least none of which I am aware...

I honestly cannot wait for Monday. I get to be with my little Mexican peeps all week! Those kids WILL love me... or else. Haha! The funny thing is I have yet to really feel like a "missionary" yet. I almost feel like I'm the one being evangelized here right now--these people are crazy on fire for Jesus. Every single one of them is absolutely living the faith that they proclaim. It's awesome. If I had hoped to learn how to be a missionary, I feel like I'm in the right place. Take for example our "staff meeting"  yesterday. We spent the whole first half sitting in a circle, taking turns sharing how someone in particular had blessed us over the past week. Cool? You bet your sweet patoot it was! Then we discussed who was doing what in the coming week, got our chore assignments, and ate dinner. There is such a sense of community here. I can't even explain it. But I'm digging it.

Well... I've written a novel already, and I feel like I'm becoming excessively verbose in my blogs. So, basically... HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!


"another fine bit of writing brought to you by yours truly"

First thoughts and then some...

 Helloooooo!

So, this update is going to be brief and shallow... sorry guys! I arrived here at camp Friday night, bought some yum-licious tacos and then slept.... a lot. Saturday is our free day, so after a quick and painless orientation I had the whole day to do whatever! I played my guitar for a while, but I'm losing my voice so I kind of sounded like the love child of Bob Dylan and a dying water buffalo... oh well. I'm posting a video up of the camp where I'm staying so you will all have a visual to go with what I describe in later posts. Honestly, I don't have a whole lot more I can report at this point other than I LOVE my peeps here. Seriously. I have so many friends now! Gosh dang it, I feel popular. I will be working this week with a team on a construction project--so I'll really get down to business starting Monday. I cannot wait. I was studying Joshua this morning (yes, in an attempt to recover my voice I slept in and missed church...) to take in how he managed to follow someone like Moses. I feel like I've got a big task in front of me and I need to be prepared! At any rate... I promise to talk more about deeper issues later on, but I just wanted to make sure you guys don't feel neglected.

One brief comment about my peeps! I have to give you all a quick rundown of some of my friends whose names you'll need to know for later posts...

Emily: I met her on Friday, but we had been e-mailing prior to summer. She's super goofy and amazing and I'm so happy she's here. I feel like she'll get my humor. She totally reminds me of my brother David. And anyone who knows me knows that's a BIG complement. :)

Thomas: He's another intern here, and he's from OREGON! How exciting is that? He's really tall... and I like to make fun of him because I always catch him in the same spot, playing his computer. I need to get to know him more, but as I've been a sleeping bum lately, it's been kind of hard. hah! I feel like he has a witty sense of humor... I shall investigate this and report back to you.

Sandy: She's kind of like an intern/staff hybrid and super cool. She claims not to speak English but I've heard her and she sounds really good. hah! I can't wait to get to know her more because she seems very nice and has really great hair. This is a plus. Also, she's got this like quiet, mysterious cool girl vibe. I sound like a stalker right now. I'm going to switch subjects...

Anahi: Sandy's sister! Super quiet.. I haven't really gotten to talk to her yet. She loves to laugh, though... and I think that means she's cool

Good grief I could go on and on but I need to go right now... So we'll call this list incomplete but soon to be lengthened after further study!!!

"another fine bit of writing brought to you by yours truly"