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