Random thoughts about Mexico #4

Tuesday was our R&R Day! It was wonderful! But it was also really strange. Going into the ultra-rich tourist resort area known as the Hotel Zone after being out in the gritty, poor, REAL Mexico all week was a shock. Everything was made so lushly, so comfortably, it sometimes sickened me. Not that comforts like that are bad or anything... it was just weird seeing the difference. And I guess it was sort of the "conspicuous consumption" thing I had a problem with. I mean, just compare, say, the Sheraton Inn (a HUGE hotel with marble corridors and fountains everywhere, actual nice bathrooms, and of course an big outdoor pool out right by one of the most beautiful beaches in the world) or that big mall (full of expensive shops and restaurants of every kind, and also full of people buying up whatever they felt like, not to mention the streams of drunk party people) to the house of that one mother in Tecax (she had, was it, 5 children? And it was a one-room house, 15x15 feet, with a "roof" that leaked horribly every time it rained which was almost every day. The kitchen consisted of a bucket on some concrete blocks.). It makes me really sad.

What's even weirder is coming back home. We take SO much for granted. We are all SO EXTREMELY WEALTHY here in the US. We're not exactly the wealthiest people in our church, and we have to worry about making ends meet, and live without certain comforts, and buy clothes seldom, and wait on the someday when we'll have more money to finish our house, take a big vacation, and a bunch of other things. Only a few years ago Dad was jobless and bedridden sick and we lived with our grandparents, surviving by the generosity of others. When I'm here in the US it's so easy to lose perspective, to think that we actually have it a little hard sometimes. But after going down to Mexico, I realize that we really don't have any right to complain. We have electricity, air conditioning, a practically endless water supply, HOT water, a nice, clean, house with 2 stories that's made from sturdy, really nice material, furniture and beds to sleep in, and enough money to do heck of a lot more than live. I have a closet full of clothes and shoes. When I walk into my room I can't believe how much stuff I have. We have computers!!! We have CARS! Hey, we even have toilet seats, lol! We are really SOOOO rich. We have no right to complain.

Lol, after I got home, I was just WAITING for Mom or Dad to start complaining about this or that about our money, house, or whatever so I could pounce on them with my ready-made list of all the things we take for granted here. ;)

But anyway, back to the Hotel Zone. We certainly did enjoy our time there, despite the gaudy display of wealth. It was an amazing day!

After riding a public bus to the Hotel Zone, we went out for lunch at a big mall. The mall was sort of outdoors, just covered with canvas canopies in an artsy sort of way. Full of all kinds of stores and shops and restaurants (this is the same mall I was talking about earlier). A bunch of us (I think it was Hannah, Sara, Stephen, Kaitlin, Zac, Jennifer, Dave, Josh, Andrea, Chris, Caleb, and possibly a few more, I just can't remember who!) went to Chile's, the same place we went for supper on our R&R Day last year. Just like last year, it wasn't quite so good as the Chile's here, but we had a lot of fun. Stephen was obsessed with building things out of the Chile's packets; it was funny.

After lunch, we split up. Most of us went to the beach, but some went to see a movie. Kevin and Eric went back to the mission because Kevin all of a sudden got really sick. It scared us all to death; it was really sad! I don't think they ever figured out exactly what was wrong with him, but we sort of labeled it "dehydration" even though it didn't fully fit the bill for that. :(

I went to the beach, of course! We walked through the Sheraton to the same spot on the beach where we were last year. The water is so beautiful there. It's the classic white sand, turquoise water beach (well, actually, if you go out to La Isla de Mujeres, which we did last year, it's even more beautiful!!). We had so much fun. We spent the entire afternoon out there.

After learning how to jump over the waves in Tulum, I had so much fun out in the water with my friends! I figured out (actually, someone showed me) that if you get far out beyond where the waves start to turn white, it's really easy and a lot of fun! One of the absolutely most awesome things of the entire day happened while we were out in the water (it ties for absolutely most awesome thing of the day with seeing the ocean at night under the stars). We saw it coming slowly toward us from far out in the ocean... a rainstorm! When it hit, some people got out, but a bunch of us stayed in the water, even though it got a bit choppier. That was so amazing, swimming in the pounding of the playful ocean in the pouring rain, surrounded by the sound of a waterfall on the waves and the laughter of my friends. I will remember that all my life.

Of course it was one of those quick, freak Mexico rainstorms, so it only lasted about 10 minutes and then out came the sun. Some other things we did on the beach: Sara, Hannah, Stephen, Jackie and I played frisbee (of course!). Sara and I lay down on the sand and eventually got halfway buried. Sara discovered it looked REALLY funny if she laughed. ;) We also hung out and talked for a bit over underneath those shelter-things where we put all our stuff and where all the beach chairs were; that was nice. I looked for shells in the water for a bit, but I never found anything. Stephen found a LOT though, so he was giving them away. I ended up with a really awesome piece of white coral and a pink and white seashell.

All the guys made a big sandcastle together, it was pretty cool. Hannah made a sand turtle, but I never got to see it. :( Last year Sara and I made a really cool sandcastle, but I never got to this year. That's alright, though, I was having fun doing other things. Oh! I just remembered something really funny! We had a little sand war! A few of us were running around throwing sand at each other, and boy was it fun. Not quite as good as last year, though—last year it was at night, and it was HUGE even though it was just between Sara, Stephen, Chris and me! It lasted a long time! So much fun!!

That evening we all met back up at the mall. I went to McDonald's for supper (blech. I'm NOT a fan of that place, but I didn't want to spend anymore money). I got a kid's meal, which contained the best toy I've ever seen in a kid's meal, or at least the only one I've ever kept—a really cute stuffed monkey. I named him José Luis after the most awesome little boy in Tecax. :)

After supper we all split up into a bunch of little groups and walked around the mall. I was with Andrea, Jackie, Nicole, Kaitlin, Caleb and Hannah. Hannah and I got a little Cancún keychain for Susie, and we also found a hammock for Jessica (later on the whole group contributed to the cost of it). There was also this cool little shop, I forgot what it was called, but it had a bunch of Lord of the Rings stuff. And another store had a bunch of Star Wars shirts. Outside of that store was this big plastic Cookie Monster. Kaitlin, our own favorite cookie monster, really enjoyed getting to meet him. ;D

After it was dark we all met up again and walked back over to the beach. I think I already told you about seeing the ocean at night (in my post "Oh, Mexico!"), so I won't describe it again.

As we walked back from the beach Hannah and I sang (and Sara a little, though she was hoarse, and Chris sometimes or whoever felt like joining in). It was really nice; it was just that sort of time when you feel like singing. Everything's so beautiful and peaceful, and God is just so obvious. At those certain times I just feel like I have to sing, or else my heart will burst with the beauty breaking the spell, pointing Love as King (to steal the idea from one of my favorite songs). So I was glad someone was willing to sing with me (thank you, Hannah!). Last year was so awesome—Sara and Chris and I sang all the way back from the beach, for the entire time on the bus, until we got back to the mission. I love that! But this year we were all tired so I was the only one who really felt like singing, and soon after we got on the first bus I didn't feel much like it, either—too tired, and Sara was hoarse, and it was just not right singing without her being able to join in.

We had an interesting experience getting home. Normally one certain bus route would take us all the way back to the mission, but the bus driver in the bus we were in decided for some reason he didn't feel like taking us that far. We had only gone about 5 minutes when he told us to get off there. So we unloaded onto a sidewalk sort of on the edge of the hotel zone and waited around forever for another bus with the right route to come by. We were all SOOO tired, and the mosquitos were terrible! Somehow we survived the half-hour that we waited there. Somehow just being with my awesome friends made it okay, even though we were exhausted and weren't much for conversation. Finally the right bus came (and this one wasn't full of drunk people, like the one that we had had to turn down a few minutes before!), and this one took us all the way back.

Awesome day. It's amazing how God uses even the R&R Day to teach me and show me more of His love and grace!

Well, I think that's the end of my Mexico ramblings (maybe... we'll see). Wednesday we took off and went back to Oklahoma. Oh, it was cool, when we got near OK City, we started looking out the window for Norman, and we found it! We found the stadium, and from there we could map out all these different familiar roads and buildings and such! I actually saw Wildwood! And from there I traced the street down to our neighborhood. So I saw where our house was!! It was so cool. We were all picking out familiar sights all the way to the airport. That was exciting because I'd never been able to pick stuff out like that before... yay!

Okay, I'm done now, I need to leave for a bible study thingy! Au revoir!