End of Mexico!

So surprise! I'm done with Mexico two weeks early, but I'll get in to that later.

Let's see, Cabo ended up being a pretty interesting city. I was the City Runner in that city, (meaning I ran the morning and closing meetings) with Eriko from Japan. However, the cast was split up between Cabo San Lucas and Cabo San Jose so we were split up too.

I already mentioned our Regional Learning day and how I felt about that, so I'll move on to our Community Impact Days. I did 3 CI days in Cabo. The first two were painting the baseball stadium for our concert with a group of youth from Cabo San Jose. The first day though the paint was so late that we ended up not really painting at all. The second day we painted all day with little interaction with the youth because we were so behind from the day before, so that was a bit frustrating but it's all part of the differences in culture and learning to be flexible. My last CI day was spent working with the founders of Mobilize Mankind, a group that provides wheelchairs to those that need them free of cost. We spent the afternoon unloading crates of wheelchair parts, putting the chairs together and touring the facility. It was especially fun because Stewart, a student with Cerebral Palsy, was there helping out too. During lunch a bunch of us challenged Stewart to power chair races and that was a blast.

The next city we went to was Tepic, Mexico. My roommate Fenna from Germany and I didn't get picked up by our host father, so we got to go home and stay the week with the host family of Angela from the US and Neele from Germany. It was amazing! They were a wonderful family with a beautiful home. Fenna's friends from Germany came to visit so we ended up with 6 of us staying there. We did a really interesting Community Impact/Regional Learning at a Sea Turtle habitat. We got to play with the baby turtles while cleaning up the beach to allow the baby turtles to reach the sea easily. I didn't get to do alot of Community Impact in Tepic because...here's the surprise...I got chosen to go on Advance Work! I spent this week in training because I got sent to Sahuarita, Arizona to help the Field Managers prepare the city. The rest of Tepic was all kind of a blur because I was gone so much for training. The concert was amazing! We finally got the encore we were hoping for. On host family day my host family took us to some old ruins and unfortunately a ditch was not marked properly so of course I fell into it and landed on my camera. So my camera is caput. But no worries, I bought a new one today so there will no lack of pictures from my time on Advance Work.

I arrived in Sahuarita two days ago with my partner Cindi from Singapore. We spent yesterday going out to lunch with one of the sponsors and an alumni and then met at one of the Field Manager Renee's house to be debriefed. Today we attended two faculty meetings to talk to the teachers and I worked with Renee on the Host Family database. So far it's alot of meetings and office work, but tomorrow Sarah, the other FM, and I are visiting one of the Community Impact sites. Everything is going so well and I'm really excited to continue with the rest of the two weeks.

La Paz/Cabo pictures

This is my BFF Kirk. The cast was so lucky to get to go on a evening boat cruise in Cabo. There was a band and open bar so we spent the evening dancing, socializing and enjoying the beauty of the ocean.
My friend Gis from the Netherlands and I.
My other good friend Javier from Texas.
Seungbom from South Korea.
The famous Cabo Arch.
These are from La Paz. This is Grace from China and her host sister Carolina.
One of our staff made a mistake in his Spanish and ended up saying "La Papa" instead of "El Papa" inadvertently calling the Pope a potato, so Paulina made a potato Pope and Cheryssa and I joined Paulina in reverence. Haha.
This is Annaka, Candace, Julie Holmes (hereafter referred to as Sherlock) and Anika at the elderly home in La Paz.
Jimena, Kelly and I working with power wheelchairs on CI day in La Paz.
I thought this mural was so cool. It was really inspiring to see the hope of a truly connected world where disabilities really didn't matter.


This is a video of the elderly woman I sang for at the home in La Paz. Isn't she beautiful?!

Tepic

We just arrived in Tepic, Mexico after a eventful Cabo. I was informed at the Cabo concert that I will be leaving the cast for two weeks on September 8th to do Advance Work in Sauorita, Arizona. I'm so excited! I'm sad to be leaving the cast and to be missing Cuilican and Hermosillo, but I'm ver excited to have the opportunity to set up a city for the cast and to work with the Field Managers Renee and Sarah.

My roommate Fenna from Germany and I were not picked up by our host father on the first day in Tepic so we have been placed with Angela from the US and Neele from Germany. Our new host family is awesome, so warm and welcoming and we might be staying in the biggest house I have ever seen. It's truly huge. Today we went to the beach and prepared a safe harbor for sea turtles. They were releasing some baby turtles into the wild tonight and they needed the area to be clear and safe for them. My friend Miguel and I adopted a turtle. We named it Miguelynn. Then we were given the rest of the day to swim and enjoy the resort. It was a very nice relaxing day. Tomorrow the cast starts the CI projects and I begin my first day of Advance Work training. This should be a pretty intense city. I can't wait to write more about it. For now enjoy some more pictures from Cabo!!!

Cabo

Hey everyone! I'm currently in Cabo San Jose, Mexico preparing for the show tomorrow night. The show in La Paz was awesome! We had to have security to keep people from coming backstage. I'm not sure if it was really necessary, but it was still cool to have.

I'm having a bit of culture shock here in Cabo. I'm with my first host family that doesn't speak a word of English and I don't speak much Spanish so communications have been difficult. Also, there are quite a few people coming in and out of the house due to my host mom's open door policy and I'm not realy sure who actually lives in my house. Haha. It's kind of awkward, but a total learning and growth experience. I'm learning how to communicate without words. I took an hour and showed my host mom Rajean's book about Nebraska and I showed her some pictures of home and friends so I feel she knows a bit more about me.

Now that I'm on my own computer I can put up some pictures from La Paz. So I haven't figured out how to put pictures in my blog in a pretty way. Oh well.

Ok, so I had a bit of difficulty earlier this week during our Regional Learning Day. We went to a poorer region of Los Cabos so visit the people who lived there and I was really uncomfortable with the whole endeavor. We showed up in two huge air conditioned buses handing out candy to the kids and taking pictures with them while the people who lived there had nothing. I felt like we were in Kindergarden going to the petting zoo and feeding the animals and taking pictures with them. I tried to see it as a positive thing because the little kids were really enjoying themselves, but I had a woman come up to me and ask me why we were there and why her home was suddenly of interest to the tourists. I felt horrible knowing that we were visiting these people and yet we were doing nothing to improve their situation. None of our show profits go to those people and yet we took time to take pictures of their houses and with their kids. I just felt awful. Then to end the day we took a boat ride and were given free drinks and dinner. I couldn't help but feel guilty knowing that the people I'd just left probably wouldn't eat tonight and here I was having a Pina Colada and eating Sushi on a cruise ship. It really showed me how good my life has been and how little I've done to help those who need it. It's been the most difficult day on tour so far.

I will write more later. I'd love to hear what some of you think of this experience. I need to head out because it's about time for dinner with my host family. Love you all! I've got some videos and more pictures to post later.

Hola Everyone!

Hola friends! Im currently in La Paz, Mexico one night before the show!!! I apologize for the lack of updates lately. Internet is hard to come by here in Mexico. Alright time to wrap up Breckenridge and the first week in Mexico!

My host family in Brek was amazing! Benedicte and David were so interesting. Benedicte was born in France and lived in the Netherlands and went to University in Africa. Talk about a woman with life experience. I started to get a bit homesick in Brek because I realized I wouldnt be seeing the USA for 5 weeks. Its a daunting thought. We pulled an all nighter the day after the show so we could leave for the airport at 3:30 AM. We finally arrived and passed through customs in Mexico at 5:00PM. The weather is La Paz is hot with a side of humidity and sweat. It is beautiful though. I am rooming with my "language buddy" Eriko from Japan. It is awesome because we are also the City Runners for our next city. City Runners are the people who run the morning meetings and the wrap up. We have spent this week figuring out fun things to do with the cast. Our host family is incredible. We have Beatriz and Guille as parents and Guillermo (12), Ana Beatriz (9) and Diego (7) as host siblings. I have had so much fun with this family because even though there are some language boundaries I feel like Im very much a part of the family. I know it will be very difficult to leave them on Monday. Our first night with them they took us to have Mexican Sushi. I had no idea what I was ordering, but it ended up being very good. Then on our first Host Family Day we spent the entire day at the beach. We took a 30 minute boat ride to the beach and then met about 6 other Up With People families there. The beaches are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The sand is white and the water is so blue and clear you can see straight to the bottom. You have to be careful of Sting Rays as they tend to infest the ocean floor. I almost stepped on one and that was the end of my water adventures.

My first Community Impact day was spent working at a home for the elderly. What an incredible experience. We were supposed to paint, but the supplies never arrived so we ended up just spending time with the elderly. I met a woman who I couldnt actually speak with because of the language barrier, but we ended up just singing to each other. She would sing me a Mariache song and I sang her some songs from church. It was so incredible to see how music truly is a universal language. I guess I ended up on the primetime news in La Paz for singing to the elderly. I didnt really realize they were there filming the whole interaction until Martin our cast manager told me he saw me on the news. So far that has been the most moving experience on the whole tour.

My second CI day was spent with our benefactors for this show at Mobalize Mankind. We unloaded and built some wheelchairs so they will be prepared for their next clinic. They provide wheelchairs and assistance to those that need it in Mexico for no cost. It is an awesome program! It was great to see the impact that they have on making Mexico more accessible to the disabled. I even raced Stewart in power chairs. Stewart is a fellow cast member who has CP and uses a power chair. It was really fun buzzing around with him and seeing what life is like from his point of view. Ive got some videos and I will post them once Im on my own computer.

The show is tomorrow and so far it seems that the community is very excited to have us. We have the potential of having over 1000 spectators. It should be an amazing time! Im looking forward to Cabo. I hope to hear from some of you! Please leave comments. I like knowing that you are all enjoying my blogs haha. I miss you and love you all very much!!

More Mexico to come!!! Get excited...

Culture Jam try 2.

This time we should have Culture Jam without the elevator music. Haha.

Oh my...

First of all, I apologize for the elevator music in all of the videos. I was completely unaware that my program put that in automatically. I'll fix it and try to get the videos up again without the music this time. Secondly, we had our first show last night! It was a blast. I sang the opening solo, the opening of act two duet and the finale solo. I had so so so much fun. We did have some technical problems, but what's live theatre without them? haha. I was terribly proud of the cast as we just kept going and recovered very well. We leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. for Breckenridge, CO. We spend a week there and then we move on to La Paz, Mexico. I'm very excited as I have an assistantship in Mexico as a City Runner. I will be in charge of running the morning meetings and the evening wrap ups in Cabo San Lucas and Tepic, Mexico. I had a great day today. My parents came to visit so I got to spend the day with them. I'm sad staging is over and I won't see many of the staff members I'd gotten close to again. But, I'm also very excited for our tour to begin. Here are some pictures of friends before the show and my faves from our first Community Impact day. Gotta love the hard hats.