geuss who got to live with a random mexican family... this guy

so resently i had the privlege to stay with a maxican family for 11 days it all started with a viset to lo major del trigo (a mexi church) to meet my family for the first time. luckly josh's family was from the same church so me and him get in a truck and drive about 30 min out to get to the church (mind you all the other churches are like 5 to 10 minets away) so we get all the way out ther and hang out for the serves after the serves the paster introdoused us to the congrogation dont forget im in mexico ther not speking a lick of english the pastor was taking josh in and then he says that the sala cortez family is taking me in and a mom a dad and 2 little girls stand up( the mom back hand her other hand jokeing around like she was gona woop me) my new family alfrado my dad sara my mom bresa 10 my sis and nitalea 7 my other sis me and josh then go back to the dorm. wer scedualed to start the home stay the fallowing weekend. so the next weekend our family is saposed to come pick us up but they forgot about me and josh so we drive out to meet up with joshes brother eli who takes us back to his houes and i was going to meet up with my family the next day but that night josh's family took us out for pizza that night ther was only one day... so me and josh shared it. the next day after waking up next to josh we rolled out to meet up with my family so we piel up in to our truck and take off and we head out even farther from the dorms and up in to a bunch of hills in the middel of no where and im starting to think im gana be liveing on a ranch out here in the middel of now where when bam a random setelment of identical town houses apear a full on city with rodes and big stores and every thing but the only way to get to it is by a coupel small dirt paths. not im like 50 minets out from the dorm we get to my houes and i get so se my room ill be staying in for the next week and a half andits coverd in prinses crap the bed the dressers the lamp the walls the every thing... prinses. the rest of the time was rather un event full i wouled hang out with the family that weekend then comutit back to the dorms for work and then chill the next weekend with them then come home. it was a ton of fun and i was confuesed most of the time. but i lerned soe spanesh and made a ton new frends

well its been prity chill down here

well its been prity chill down here latly. we had a group come down from Hawaii that was prity awsome and i had a ton of fun chilling with them. they even invited us to come viset some time so i might have to take them up on that. other then that we have been taking a class online so iv just been doing a lot of reading like a lot of reading like i think thats kinda all iv realy done latly wich is kinda a bummer but o well prity soon here im going to be liveing with a mexican family for about a week and a half so i shouled have some fun storys about that later. but for now im just reading and trying to learn a few choreds on the ukulele.

road trip/ cultuar days

Hey guy so I forgot totell you guys about my rode trip back down to mexico. It was prity grate. Alex and cj flew in to Portland and me hung out ther for the day hikeing and then vodo donuts then we drove down to san fransisco and met up with Emily we went to 3pier 39 and hung out ther did riplys and a mirror maze and some gigantic virtual zombie shooting game and I got the high score (just some shamles bragging) then we drove all the way down to mexico the next day all in all it was prity rad.

We had a cultural day the other day and have to find a university, the cecut, palaseo,a gigantic military flag ,and an old cathlick church we had to find all of this without taxies or minestry cars so we brok of in to our teams and hoped on some busses my team got of the buss to soon because of ether bad derections or the more likely option mis communication due to specking 2 completely different laguages so we walked for a bit and then went in to a office bulding that turned out to be a news paper the resepshenest was very nice and spock English her name was silvea and she was a life saver we busted out our map and she drew all over it telling us wher we were and wher all the stuff was she gave us her card and toled us to call if we needed more help and thet she was going to worrie about us we sead our good buys and took of on a nother buss we made it to the cathedral and took some pics then we couled see the gient flag off in the distens so we took off for that now when I saw gigantic I mean GIGANTIC this bad boy is 250 kilos (like 600 lbs) and 300 meters by 500 metters (984 X 1640) next we looked for the palaseo and got a little lost but aventualy founed our way thanks to silvea drawing on our map and other peoples help the palaseo is a government building and at the moment they are collecting food to send some wher down south that flodding and has some big storm  going on then we ate lunch and headed out for cecut wich is a museam of Mexican culture and history I hope to go ther agen it looked prity cool but wail we wher ther we ran in to the speshel events cordnater and he gave us I quitk touer and by that I mean we stood ther wail he pointed out different atrations the museam had and he gave us his card and offered to set up a full guded touer of the place with an English specking tour guide last but not least we set out for a university cheked it out and then went home all in all it was a good day of getting out and being in the culture

Today alex cj jackooby tylyn and I took buses to rosereto wich is on the cost and plaed in the waves for a bit wich was like so totally wicked man I wish I had my boogie bord thes wave wer massive like over my head by like 2 feet massive then we ate luch and did a little suven ear shoping for frends and family lifes been good me and I don’t see that changing any time soon im having the time of my life and making friendships thet imsure will last a life time well that all for now im going to go play murderer in the pich black

ashton

IM BAAAAAAAACK!!!!

Well guys and gals im back in mexico I have been for a few weeks now but every week we have a new and speshel rule that we have to abid ( we call them diseplins)by this last week was no contact with the out side world meaning no internet or phone calls or letters or any thing and of cores that’s the week my prago sister/ niece disided to be born. But it ok I found out eventually and dang let me tell you that kids cute althou a may be byest. Probly not tho.

Sens being back its been farly normal we don’t have groups comeing as often now its mostly just day/ weekend groups so most the time we are working around the dorms the water went out at one pouint wich wasn’t to bad sens we have a ton of filterd water and and gient like million gallon back up tank of water but I did have to fors flush the toilet after droping the kids of at the pool. Our new disiplen for the next two weeks is that we are no aloud to drive the trucks/ vans for personal ues. This means that for the next two weeks we have to walk/ get a taxi/ ride a bus. The busses down here are called calafia and let me tell you you think the public transit we have up in the states is in tens well this got nothing on the calafias. So this is how they work calafia drivers own ther own bus and the more people they pick up the more mony they make so thers all ways more room on a calafia and do to this fact the drive fast and hard they zip around and squiez in a 2 foot gap. They will littraly race to pick up passengers befor other calafias. the busses that they drive are little tricked out short busses and befor I hear any jokes yes im ridding the short buss and yes I am speshel but I diegres back to the calafias so by tricked out I mean the put LED lights all over them and gient spoilers and cool rims and they’ll put stuft animals in the grill and put stickers all over the dang thing and they play what ever music the driver wants at what ever vollum the driver wants. Now to a big fat gringo like my self the pathes and routs that they take seam meaning les and arbitrary but to the traned eye (meaning a former staf who helped explane calafias to me and a frend) they are actually quite organized. In the driver side window/ the winshield the right were they are comeing from and going to with a few stops in the midel all random places iv only heard in pasing but with the halp of  sevearly broken spanes and a little knoleg of teajana geography we got on our first calafia and made it to our faveret tacorea casa blanca and hung out with chom and poncho the two chefs of casa blanca then we made our way home on anoverly packed calafia. All in all it was rather un eventful. The next ride was a longer distens and to a place that we where not 100%of the name so we hoped on a calafia and took our chanses. Luckly we gambeled right and we got off right where we wanted to be wich was a nashenals home that we had built for him erlyer in the summer this guy is and amazing man and its crazy to see how little him and his family have but how willing they are to give to us and others he always tells up “my home is your home come and stay any time 1 day 1 month 1 year 2 years 5 years it dosent matter my home is your home your always welcome here” they are a grate family and we wanted to invite them over for diner some time so we hung out with them for a bit and then went to go try and find a calafia home. This is wher it gets fun. It takes us a bit to figure out where a stop is to get on once we find it with a little help from a local we get on a party buss this bad boy has blue LEDs every where and I bigold spoiler spiny rims gient exost pipe sticking up the whole 9 yards we get on and the driver is braring snoopdog normaly its just a driver but on this one we had a driver then a guy sitting on a specer next to him right in the midel of the buss controlling music and the door then standing in the door/ half leaning out was a 3^rd guy telling every one where the calafia is going. We sit down and look around and notes that the every one eles on bored are young kids in ther school uniforms going home for the night rocken out to snoop-dog the music shifts slitly to Mexican gangster rap wich wasent to bad well only becus I dident know what they wer saying but none the less it was desent we rode the party buss for a bit then got off at our stop and walked the last few blocks home. That’s just the begening of calafia rideing ill have to ride them a lot befor I come home. Now that we don’t have a group every week we will be doing more cultural days and diveing deeper in to Mexican culture. For exapel we will live with a Mexican family for 2 weeks some time this fall that shouled be fun. But I shouled get going its my day off and its getting late so ill tak to you all later. Feel free to wright to me or send me care pakeges if you really love me if you do I promes ill wright back or at leats scribel on a post card and call it wrighting like I ushualy do

Peace out brothers and sisters

long time no blog... sorry guys

Well I know its been I wail sens my last up date we got prity busy ther for a wail. But im doinging grate. We had a masize group come down 150 ish people from like 7 different churches. That was prity hecktic then we had staf retreat wich was epic we whent up in to the mountens in sothern cali and hung out we did a ropes cores we went tubeing and we had a super hero movie marathon with some light karaoke. After staf retret wev had a steddy stream of groups comeing in and I met some prity cool people. We had a small brake not to long ago and we went up to the states again to go to a drive in movie theater and then we wen to a church to sleep for the night but they forgot to leve the keys out for us so its now 1 oclock in the morning and we had just spent 5 and a half hours in the border line then wached two moives so every one was pooped and just wanted to sleep so we wanderd around trying to find the keys or at least a way in but we had no such luck. So we disided to go find the chepest htel we couled find and we all cramed in in the morning we took off and whent to this place called sky zone. Sky zone is a biig trapolien park with dodge ball and basketball hops and a fome pit. That was a lot of fun. Today we went to a sketchy Mexican water park. This was a ton of fun the slides wer all old and kinda rickety looking but they help strong. However I did not make it out without an incident. At no falt to the park however. Wail swimming in the wave pool (with the waves off mind you) I gently grazed the bottem of the pool with my tooth cosing it to chip.  Luckily im comeing home on brake on the 28^th so ill be abel to have that crazy expencive dentest apontment soon. All things consider dim having a blast down here and I am loving the work im doing nothing beats the look on a nationals face when they see that the blue tarp tent they called a home has been replaced with a actual struckture even the is less then what we wouled call a shed its ther home and they are over joyed to even have a small 12x12 room for a family of 8 or some times more. realy puts stuff in to perspectiv and make you relize how we live in a world of excess

pedro

Well the brake is over

Well the brake is over and we got back to work. Ther was no goup here tho so we where working on an extenchen on the derectors house. This was a lot of fun. It was some good old fashend hard work. I dident have to tell any one what to do I just did as I was told and it was fantastic after we framed and stood up the walls amish styel me and another guy where up working on the rafters getting them in place and all that jazz. Then we put down the sheeting for the deck. This was fun because we where walking around on the rafters wich wher 2x6s on edge about 16 inches apart. It was prity sckechy walking around up ther and it took a lot of balenc one wrong step or you loes your footing and you might not be having kids if you know what im saying. The other guy steped on a bord wrong and fell but some what luckly caught him self…his vois is still a bit highr pich then normal. But ya that’s all iv been up to sens the last post. We got another group comeing in tomarow and then wer of and rolling agen for a coupell weeks till staf retreat.

pedro

la bouf

Here we go again. This week was prity liget the group was awsome and a few are even thinking about comeing on staf (that wouled be awsome) I ate an entire hoanaro peper seeds and all. That was fun I sat ther drinking horchata for the rest of the night. But hey I wasent about to let some punk groupos shop me up so I had to eat one. However after the group left is when the fun started (no afens guys but its true) we went to a camp ground called la boufadora, and no that is not spellt right but that’s ok don’t wory about it. The camp ground was basicly on the ocean fort only instead of a nice sandy beach with prity women sunbathing and ripped men trying to show off for them we had cliffs and gigantic boulders to clime all over it was probly the beast beatch ever. So for a few days we all scaled clifs with no ropes and scrabeld up boulders and tryd to get as cloes to the frothing waves at the base of the clife we cot some crabs thro some rocks and got stabed by cactuses. Oh ya did I mention that ther wher cacti every where I steped on like 3 of them and stabed my hand how knows how many times. I hung my hamic in the back of a truch to sleep in but it was to windy and I dident have my tarp with me so I had to drop done ti the ground wich in this case was the truck bed when we woke up tho the wind had blown so much salt water thou the air that we wer all drenchet which sucked but hey if egos on so we explored some more and climed around then packed up and come back home to teawana. I still like saying that even after 2 months its still exsitying to say I live in mexico. But any way so we get back and go to wash all our salty and soking wet cloths and stuff at the landry mat and on the way back a swer pipe had over flown and ther is literally a strem of poop flowing down our rode. Man the smell of that more poo its just rank but then bake it in the hot Mexican sun… daaaaannngggggg thers no escaping that I tried the whole shirt over the noise trick… dident do I thing. For diner that night we swiched it up some and whens for chiness food. 62 pesos witch is like 5 or 6 bucks got me a massive mound of chow main and fried rice wich wasent to bad for being mexicanized amaricanized chiness food. Oh and I all most forgot that truck I was talking about in my last blog his name is shadow and I got to drive him all week me and him every day and I was doing a lot of solo builds so it was realy just me and him. And we got to know echother prity well I fixed out his lumber rack and had to gary rige a new E-brake lever but he was good and he got me wher I needed to go. The bummer was we wher boroing him so I had it give him back to the owner up in the states but chek it hes coming back I get him agen for next week so bam the bros are getting back together.

That’s all for now check out the pics (I finly got my camra so more to come) and ill talk to you all soon

Shaggy/Pedro

Well yesterday was fun

So we woke up and did our normal teachings and what not. But after that is when it got crazy. So me and to other interns wer sent up to the states to do some shoping. So we drove 2 trucks over to the border and got in line. When all of a sudden one of our trucks just stalls and dies. Now those of you who know me know that I know jack about cars. Hand me a bike and ill have that thing rolling smoth and fast in no time. But we wer in truck so I didn’t know what to do and the two other interns wer just as lost as me so we decide it probly ran out of gas (the gage is broken) so I run about 3 blocks over to grab gas wail the other two derect cars around our trucks mind you we are in the border line so wer kinda stuck we cant move the truck to the side or get a tow truck in ther the only option is to go straight throu and across the border. So I get to the pemex (gas station) and try to ask for a gas can to fill with gas but all they have are old oil jugs so we fill thous up but they kept 50 pesos and sead id have to bring the jugs back. So I run literally back to the trucks to try and fill it up. Now I don’t know if you have ever tried to put gas in a truck with out a funnel but it ant easy cus ther is a little flap that you have to push down to open up the tube to the gas tank and second you gotta hit and opining about the size of a quarter from about a foot away cus you cant get the jug cloes inof . needless to say it wasent working luckly thers all ways a ton of nationals trying to sell stuff at the border and out was kind inof to give us an old plastick bottle that we couled turn in to a funnel. Such a bro. so we get the gas in and try to start the truck up and with a little coxing it finaly turns over so the girls hope in and start moving in line agen. And I run back to pemex to get my monny back. And then run back. We going good for about 20 minets when the truck dies agen. At this point we know it has gas cus we put 3 galons in so we shouled have plenty. So we do the only thining we can I hop out and start pushing. Are only hope is to get across the border and call a tow truck. So I start shuving a massive work truck. Oh ya did I mention that this truck is the derectors baby. When ever any one drives it he reminds us “you wreck it you die” so I push this truck all the way up to the border getting hellp every now and then but mostly by my self. Once we get clouse the rode gets full of pot holes that I can push it throu by my self so we have to push it with our other truck. We had been trying to avoid this if we couled cus we did not want to mess up babys bumper. But we had no chois now. So we start trying to gently nug the truck with our other truck one girl is stiring the baby one girl is nuging baby and im standing half on eatch trucks bumper directing them both. And this is what we look like pulling up to the us border. A border control guy comes over and we start talking adout whats going on and he say that hell get a push cart for the truck. He radios for a push cart and takes the girl from the first trucks passport and asks if im in that truck to and I tell him that im with both and can be in ether. I all so ask if hed like to to go get in it or help with with truck more. And this is what he toled me no lie he sead “your ok right ther just don’t come any closer or youll probly get tazed and takeld by a ton of border potrol guys” he then smield/chukeled/winked and walked away. You know every thing is ok when border potrol jokes about tazeing you. The get the push cart in ther and push the truck over and I hope in the second truck and we go thro like normal. Once on the other side we are director is waiting for us at the gas stashen so we get in pasishen agen for a good game of nug the broken truck. We push it bumper to bumper for about a mile to a gas stashen fill the tank with gas and it still wont turn over so we call a tow truck to come get it and take it in to the shop. We go about our shopping (and buy home depot out off all ther nails) and pick up a nother truck that will be my own personal truck the week but more on that later. And that’s what I did yesterday. All in all it was a good day I ate a mufen and a ornge at 730 and dident get to eat agen till 9 oclock at night after spending 5 houers pushing a truck across the border running for gas and worst of all shopping.

Ashton/fox/shaggy/pedro out

And the summer has begun

well the summer is getting going in full swing and the groups are coming steady. As to be expected the kids all love and look up to the intern staff and I. There is a guy who plays piano a guy who plays guitar and a dude playing a djembe. Cool fact his grand parents own a music shop and decided to send me a new head for my djembe and an instrumental on how to put it on. Cool people right!!! but I digress. I have been slowly working on my Spanish and its kinda coming along but it will be a long time until I'm fluent but as all ways we built some casita's (probably spelled wrong but that's what we call our houses) these casita's are really houses there just simple 12 X 12 structuers. We frame up walls 2 feet on center then plywood siding we then raise the walls up and put a roof on with a slight over hang rafters are 2 foot on center with plywood roof then we throw down some tar paper and rock paper for water proofing the whole bad boy gets a fresh coat of paint and then we are out of there. The people we build for provide us with food which is usually delicious but some times its a little sketchy. But we gulp it down and ask for more to be polite asking for seconds is one of the biggest compliments you can give a Mexican gal who spent 2 weeks wage just to feed us rice and beans. That's right 2 weeks wage to feed us and this isn't even the poorest people living down here. We got people who live at the dump and all they do is dig through trash trying to find some thing to sell. these people at the dump get every thing from the garbage of a sivearly poor culture that doesn't throw a lot away. There clothes come from the trash, their food come from the trash, their shelter come from the trash, even there food come from the trash. And the workers in dump trucks and backhoes don't stop for any one or thing. If you get in there way they will run you down. So not only are these people constantly looking over there shoulder hoping not to get run over fighting for a scrap of food with 20 other people the hot Mexican sun is beating them down to the ground and stealing what little water they did get to drink and when it in inevitably happens and some one gets run over or dies of starvation or dehydration. The body is just left there and slowly buried in trash where the body will root and decompose among the garbage of a society that rejected them. Many people are born in the dump raised in the dump date in the dump get married in the dump have kids in the dump and then die in the dump there whole life and every thing they know begins and ends with that dump. We think the homeless in the states have it rough. We think that it would be so hard to live there life of homeless shelters soup kitchens and half eaten sandwiches from a culture that lives in abundance. We think they have it hard.. they have it easy compared to most the world. Compared to most the world they have a good life... on that bomb shell of how the states is a utopic dream for most the word. Next time your upset that MC Donald's got you order wrong or the cat barfed on the carpet again. I challenge you take a step back and really look at what your angry at and ask you self is it worth it. Is it even worth going back through the drive through to get the big mac you ordered or can you just eat the mc chicken and be thankful you have food to eat that no one else has eaten out of or has been pulled out of a pile of trash in the blazing heat...

well its about to get real

this week was oreantation week. so not much happend. all the new staff is here and we are all geting along fantastic. i dont have much time to talk so insted of talking just chek out the new pics.

nabraskens rock!!!

ok so full disclosher this blog post will be hard to read. im siting in an internet cafe wer half the letters are rubbed off the key bord and the spell chek is set to spanish so every word i wright is under lined in red. wich is not to diffrent except spell chek is is even more confused then nolmal. so with out ferther adeu have fun with this nonsens.

ok so this week we had a group out from nebraska. and they wer boss. we wer almost allways done with the houes before lunch. thes guys and galls could do work. not only that but they wer all supper cool a cupel of them got me a gient wooden spoon and promesed to send a care pakeg and a nother allredy put 2 box in the mail for us. awsome dudes man. we all so went on a hike up to the top off a massiv hill erly one morning. at the top we wer above cloud level. it was adsalutly beutiful we sat down and watched the sun rise over another hill then climed around on the rock and found a cave and all this was befor 7 am

after the nebraskens left all the other interns pased out so i worked out took a shower then went for a walk. it was a good day i got most the in terns to workout with me a coupel days later and i think ther going to keep doing it with me so that will be fun. we allso went on a nother hike wich was awsome. not sure if iv sead it yet but the interns are all supper cool and we are all geting along super well.

well thats all from me for now i hope you couled figuar out what i was trying to say
peace out guys, ashton

oh boy here we go

so i just wanna start by saying sorry its been so long. see every week we have a weekly disiplen. two weeks ago we where not allowed to eat pig cow PB&J or cereal (most of what us staff eat) but last week was no contact with the outside world. meaning no internet no phones no mail. so that's why i was off grid for a bit.

we had our first group down last week and it was a bunch of kids from Toronto Canada. great bunch of kids the first 3 days we built houses. on the forth day we did a bath house. we checked kids for lice and treated it if need be then washed there hair and feet then gave then some clothes. the whole thing was fanominal. after the Canadians left we had a day group come down. this is where it gets cool after the one week i got to lead a build (well half a build) me and Eddie took a group out and he lead until lunch after that he left me in charge and took off. this meant i had to finish the house and lead the group home all on my own. i was driving a big old truck and they where following in a van. luckily we where closes so i could find my way back to the dorms.

after all the groups where gone we had to clean the dorms and get it ready for summer when most groups come down. one job that i had was to drive one of our vans to the shop to get a leak fixed. here's the catch. i had to do it all by my self. in america this would be no problem. but this is mexico. stop sins are more of a suggestion to maby slow down. and their is no such ting as right of way. you just have to gun-it and not hit any thing wail hoping nothing hits you. the song Jesus take the wheel springs to mind. in addition to their being seemingly no traffic laws the rodes are all covered in pot holes and speed bumps, if ther even is a rode. half the rodes are just a really narrow rocky dirt path. now if none of that sounds bad hears the kicker. the have open air markets (think Saturday market ) on the sides of the rodes. people every wher children darting in front of you dogs laying in the rode its pure chaos. all this to say i found my way to the tier shop spock my sad broken Spanish and found my way home with out killing any one or thing and not crashing or breaking any thin and i was prod of my self.

well thats all for no we got another group coming up but i broke my camera all ready so it might be i bit till i get more pics up but i am putting some up now.

ashton out

oh man i all most forgot

oh man i all most fogot. you can send me carie pakiges if you want. it can be stuff for me/the staff or stuff for the orfens at the orphaniges just mail it to 555 Saturn Blvd., Ste. B-510, San Diego, CA 92154 rock on and untill next time

Ashton

chek out thos wack pics man

hey guys so now much has happened sens my last post we have just been doing work around the dorm. but here is the cool news. i got pictures up finally  look at the top right and there is a link that says "pictures" click on that bad boy and you can check out all my totally sweet pics. we have a group coming out this week so i should have more storys next time. thanks for all the support and prayrs and what not and if you still want to send some funds but havent or have but want to send more its not to late. you still can. i think im almost half way to my gole.

peace out for now and ill update you next week.

first post from mexico

Hey guys, i finly got some free time so i thot id take adventig of it and post up on here realy quick. It took a little doing tho becues the web site was in Spanish. But with some quick Goggling i got the kinks worked out and with out further delay i will attempt to tell you all about what iv ben up to this week in my own speshel and broken English way.

ok my week began with 30 hours of a buss, well actually 3 buses. the ride its self was uneventful. it was a lot of reading staring out the window and a sore butt. the trip got interesting when i hit the Mexican border i had to transfer on to this rickety Mexican buss that drove around and picked up a bunch more Hispanic people. i was the only wight dude and no one spoke much English and i knew only a hand full of Spanish words. the buss finally heads for the border and i stat to get excited. when we get ther every one is specking in Spanish and they all get off so i fallow there lead and get of and unloaded my pack for the back. next they walk in to a building with one of thos x-ray conveyer belt things. i put my gear on and walk to the other side and pick it all up. next they lead me to a guy standing by a little table. on the table was a little metal box with a red butten. above that wer two pains of glass one with a man walking on it and one with a hand making the stop sign like for crosswalks. the man tells me some thing in Spanish and points at the butten. i assume he want me to push it so i do and the pain of glass with the walking man lights up green and the man let me thro. next thing i know i'm getting shuffled back on to my buss and whisked across the border and in to Mexico. they never asked for my id or passport. they just x-rayed my pack and had my push the all knowing butten that demed me worthy to enter Mexico. the bus then doped me off at the Tijuana air port. i sat down and waited for mcm to come pick me up. later i found out that mcm would of picked me up at San deago but oh well it fun to cross on my own. the rest of the week was less exciting other then the fact that im now living in Mexico

the above image is where im staying and below is my hammock set up in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed

all the other staff here are fantastic and im geting to know them all well. im slowly adding to my spanish vocabulary as well as perfecting "no hablo espanol." iv already jumped in and started my service this week iv done some painting, fed and played with orphans (pics to come) and this weekend we helped out at a camp for little boys wich was fun. i got to be in a dunk tank and every thing. i think a nother inter got some pics of it but i dont have accses to thos yet. when i do tho ill get them up on here asap. as far as culcher gos im geting used to it but one werd thin is that the have cars that drive up and doun the streets blaring comershels like icecream trucks and at the time of wrighting this one is going up and douwn our srtet playing a hispanic translation of gang nam styel remix for some political campain... so as you can see its prity awsome down here

i miss you all much and im going to try it get beter about taking pic to post for yall but this is all for now

until next time ashton

last day

well today is my last day here in portland. tomorrow i will be hopping on a buss heding for mexico. i geting excited now as i pack up all my gear and get redy for the feasta tonight. well i better get going i have lots to do today but i hope to see you all at the party (that is if your in town) and if not well dont forget to follow my blog to get updates.

Update

Hello friends and family, Ashton here. I have recently discovered that pay pall will only let me transfer $500 a month. I wanted to use pay pall to make every thing easier, but because of this limit i will have to change to a different method. This method is going old school with cash/check ether given to me or mailed directly to MCM. If you choose to wright a check make it payable to "Mexico Caravan Ministries" with a note in the memo line or attached saying "these funds are to be used for Ashton M Moore" or some thing along those lines. You can give funds to ether me, one of my parents, or sisters and they will get it to me/my mom (who will be facilitating my finances well i am gone. if you choose to mail in support mail it to  Mexico Caravan Ministries at: 555 Saturn Blvd., Ste. B-510, San Diego, CA 92154 or to me at 40 NE 199th AVE portland OR 97230.

if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment on here and ill try to get back to you

thank you for all your support, and dont forget to fallow me, Ashton

Support Letter

okay So, quick update. First my official last day of work is April 6th so this thing is happening and its happening soon. And second, here is that support letter I said I would post. I really appreciate the donations you guys make. The more money I raise the longer I can stay. Also feel free to share my blog with friends and family it would be cool to have a lot of followers, prayers and good luck wishes. Well that's all for now talk to you guys later.

Ashton

Hello friends and family, it's Ashton here. I am getting ready to embark on a very exciting year-long adventure to Mexico on May 1. I have gotten involved with an orgonization named  MCM. MCM is a orgonization based out of Tijuana, Mexico that builds small homes, outhouses, and other construction/manual labor related projects. I have been accepted as an unpaid intern. My responsibilities as an intern will be to lead groups that come down for a few days to a week on the construction sites. Not only will I be getting to put my construction and handyman knowledge to good use, I will also be working with youth and adults from both the local community and the USA. Two of my passions are working with my hands and working with youth, so this is an amazing opportunity for me.

As an unpaid intern I have to pay an administrative fee for food and a place to sleep and what not. This means I will need to raise some funds for the trip. I need a minimum of $5,600 and I have about a month to fundraise the funds for this trip. If you are able to donate any money to my mission trip it would be greatly appreciated. Every little bit helps. If you would like to donate some funds you can visit my blog at http://the-ramblin-rover.blogspot.com/. I could also use lots of prayers and good luck wishes for safety and funds.

And so it begins

Well, I have been meaning to start a blog for a wail now but my writing skills are barely better then a 5th graders. Not to mention I have had nothing of interest to wright about. That's all changed however. Not the issue of my horrible spelling and grammar, that's some thing that all of you get to endure a little bit longer. But I do have an actual topic to wright about now. That topic is my one year long trip to mexico. A few days ago I found out that MCM has accepted my application for an internship position with them. MCM is a orgonization that works out of Tijuana, mexico building homes and outhouses for thous who need them. My role, once I am down there, will be to lead builds. I am supper exited for this opportunity and totally cant wait to get down there and start helping out. But there's a few steps before that can happen the biggest one being fundraising  as an intern i'm not getting paid to be there. I actually have to pay them. This money will cover my food and shelter and what not. I will have to provide my self with my personal stuff like clothes toiletries and so forth this adds up to be 400 bucks a month. Then add some buss tickets and i'm looking at a total of $5600 for the full year. however if I make more I can stay longer and if I make less... well my trip will have to end sooner then hoped. At the moment i'm working on a official support letter to send out to all of you wonderful friends and family members (Especially if your reading this far in to a horribly typed blog that only i have edited). Ill keep you all posted and until I get that letter sent out/posted on here with more details wish me luck and have fun with your own respective activities.