Hi all, Just thought I would share with you the trip I spent with 11 wonderful brothers in Christ. This is a Pathfinders construction trip to the middle of the Yucatan, Mexico. Well, hear goes... We left the friendly skies of St.Louis on Sunday afternoon the 5th of March. It was a straight shot to Cancun, State of Quintana Roo, Mexico and it took about 3 hrs. Upon arrival we waited in line to get through Mexican Immigration. It was the start of College Spring Break and there were lines of college students there. Once done we found Nancy Cave and she brought us out to her husband Dave's truck. Dave and Nancy are the missionaries for the Yucatan peninsula. We were introduced to Armillio, the superintendant over Cancun. After loading all our gear in the back of Dave's pickup we loaded ourselves into his truck and a VW Microbus belonging to Armillio. The first leg of our journey took us to the town of Laona Vicario. This was the site of the last groups work. We arrived while service was still in session and we joined in. The pastor had us come to the front of the church and introduced the four who had been there the last time. Then Dave introduced the rest of us. We said our names in English and Dave translated into Spanish. We were invited to dinner at the pastors house, it was excellent. We then prepared for bed, which was the pews and floor of the church. Couldn't sleep much, too many dogs barking and fighting and roosters crowing.:-( Got up at 5am to pack for the next leg of our journey. Reloaded the truck and microbus and headed west for Valladolid, State of Yucatan. Had my first experience with having to pay to use the bathroom, 1 Peso please. We enjoyed breakfast in a cafe and wandered about for a short period of time. I and several others were able to buy hammocks from a street vendor at the reasonable price of 150 Pesos. Dave then took us to the local market where several others purchased hammocks and Kenny, Steve and I purchased ax heads. All in all we were in Valladolid for an hour. From here we headed south on Hwy. 295 back into Quintana Roo. At the town of Tihosuco we got off the main highway and headed down a narrow two lane road toward Saban, our destination. Upon our arrival at 12:30pm the local congregation were hard at work on the church. They had errected the roof forms and were marking the boards for the re-bar. We unpacked the truck and headed for the roof. After laying the re-bar in a criss-cross fashion we then proceeded to tie them all together. This is accomplished using wire and a J-hook looking tool. Each cross piece must be tied so the re-bar doesn't move. This was several hours worth of work. At the completion we were instructed by Dave to follow him. As we did the Pastor grabbed Roger and myself and has us come with him to the Post Office across the street from the church. He introduced us to the postmaster and had us get in the postmasters car. This was a VW Beetle with no passenger seat. We sat in the back. Not knowing where we were going Roger and I just kinda looked at each other and went for the ride. We arrived at the Postmasters land and he showed us around. He had us pick fresh oranges for all. We also saw his sheep, well pump with gas generator, cistern, the local flora and a cave that he sleeps in when it is hot. We came to find out later that this was the plan of the Pastor to show the gringos the local area. When we arrived back in town we found out that our stuff had been moved to a more secure building where everyone could spend the evening together. Prior to this we had taken over someones house, but it was not big enough for all twelve of us to sleep in. A little about the town of Saban. It is a town of approximately 3000 people primarly of Mayan descent. There is no running water, but there is electricity. Two wire only, for you electrictions out there. The people live in concrete houses if they are lucky. Otherwise it is a combination of concrete or wooden stick walls with thatched leaf roofs. The concrete is necessary to survive the hurricanes that batter this area. There were no bathrooms until recently when the congregation built two behind the church. Of course with no running water you had to fill the tank with a 5 gallon bucket before flushing. Otherwise the people go in the woods. Animals of all sorts (especially pigs, dogs, chickens and turkeys) roam the streets. There are very few motorized vehicles so the people either walk or ride bicycles. The people have a small plot of land in town and the government gives them 3-4 acres as far away as 12 kilometers with which they can do as they please. Most grow corn and a lucky few have animals. This was the plot of land the Postmaster showed us. His Rancharo. Getting back to the day. We settled in to our new abode. Hammocks strung every which way with some sleeping on the concrete floors. Dinner, served by the ladies ministry, consisted of home made tortilla's, bean soup, local vegetables like hicama, and a red drink called Jamaica made from a local flower. It was good. We strung some lights over the church and then it was time to settle in for the night. We had an early day planned to beat the heat ( 3am wake-up call). Learned how to properly sleep in a hammock and settled in for a good nights sleep... More to come... Bob "Two Forks" Triphahn _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC! http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
