Charity Anywhere - May Tijuana Expedition

We just returned from an expedition building houses in Tijuana. This was our third trip together with Charity Anywhere Foundation. This trip was a little different though. A few months ago we had told Gordon Carter, the foundation director, that if he was ever unable to go on the trip that we'd be willing to go in his place, and he told us that he did need someone to go in May. So we were "Gordon" for the trip, which ended up being more stressful than we both imagined...but at the same time rewarding. We did a lot of running around...going from project to project to lumber yard to project to somewhere else and so on. And I've never understood why running errands like that is so exhausting...you're just sitting in a car most of the time. But either way it mentally wore us out.

We had a small group for this expedition, only 13 of us total. Most of which were students from USU, but Emily's parents also came. We split into two groups.

Project #1: was building a latrine and cleaning/painting a house for a single mother with three boys named Azucena. The mother has diabetes and was even blind for 3 years because of it. She must leave early in the morning to go to work and does not get home until late at night, so the 13 y/o son acts like the mom/dad to the younger two brothers. This family had just joined the LDS church a few weeks ago.
Her house is just a two room shack with no plumbing and "borrowed" electricity. The conditions when we got there were VERY poor. They did not have a functioning bathroom, they had a disease infested couch, etc. So we took everything out of the house and exposed every square inch of it to Clorox. Then we painted and repair the walls, built some shelves, built them a table, rearranged the furniture, and lastly built them a beautiful latrine. Honestly, the latrine is nicer than the house.

Project #2: There is a family that has been helping Charity Anywhere for years. The mom, Ellie, has been cooking for groups for about 4 years now, and it wasn't until a few months ago that we discovered that she was living in poor conditions herself. She is a fun but stubborn lady that doesn't want to accept charity. The woman just gives and gives but will not take anything. While she has a small home, she has a big lot (by Mexican standards) and we asked if we could build an addition onto her home so that we could store supplies at her home. The location that we have been storing supplies has been a nightmare and so we were looking for a new place to store stuff. So anywho, we are building a second story onto Ellie's home so that the two children can live up there and we can store our materials downstairs.
Ellie's daughter, Arely (16), had a school talent show while we were there and all 13 of us Americans went to it. It was highly entertaining.

I love these trips so much! I love the fun Mexican families we have come to know! They have such big hearts. I am ready to see how different Africa is from Mexico.

Vetted on CNN

Joey has been working on a project to bring Haitians to USU. He created a video to put on CNN and was excited because it got vetted (not exactly sure what that means.) Check it out:
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-429936

Hopefully some good will come of it.

Huntsman Scholar, Travel to Europe and Ghana

It is nice to have things to look forward to that I (Joey) am really excited about. It just makes life exciting.

First an update on our last post about going to Uganda. Well, I are not going to Uganda. However, WE are going to Ghana. I had an orientation meeting yesterday about the SEED program, and they switch us, because instead of having a single guy being stuck with a married couple in Ghana, and the same in Uganda, they put the single guys together in Uganda, and the married couples together in Ghana. And we are 92% sure that Emily is going to go too. Part of the reason is the next big news.

I interviewed for a Huntsman Scholar position back in February. It is kind of the best scholarship in the School of Business. Initially I was told that I didn't get accepted, but then I got an email saying there was another spot open and they wanted to do another interview. So I did that and they said they'd let us know in a few days...well it took them like 3 weeks, and stuff like that makes me anxious. It was nerve racking because it changes when I will graduate, so the whole next year was up in the air. Anywho, to make a long story short I got an email today that said:

Dear Joey,

Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you a position within the Fall 2010 Scholar Class of the Huntsman Scholar Program. Sorry to make you wait for a response for so long!

As a Scholar, you will participate in the fall Semester program which includes an intensive study and travel experience in Europe.

We look forward to receiving your confirmation and welcome you into the program.

Regards,

Stacey Hills & Shannon Peterson

Co-Directors, Huntsman Scholars Program

The intensive semester it mentioned is REALLY intensive I hear. So Em and I probably won't get to see each other as much as we'd like in the fall, so that helped us decide that Em should definitely come to Africa.

In other exciting news, Em and I went to an Extreme Sports Movie night last night and she won a skateboard deck. Go team!

Iganga, Uganda and the SEED program

I received the following yesterday:

Dear Joe,

I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted as an intern for the SEED program in Africa this summer. You will be stationed in a village outside of Iganga in Uganda and you will be working with Ben Macey. You will be responsible for identifying microfinance opportunities and educating and assisting those capable of pursuing those opportunities.

The internship goes from May 17 – August 9. You will be responsible to get with Ben, coordinate your schedules, and book your flights so that you can fly together.

We are pleased to have you in this program and look forward to working with you!

Sincerely,

Kaitlin Stewart

SEED Administrative Assistant

So there you have it. And actually this was all a VERY big surprise to us. Two weeks ago my (Joey) professor talked about these SEED internships available in Africa. At that point Emily and I were pretty sure we were going to go to Pocatello, but I've always wanted to go to Africa, so I thought heck, I'll just turn in an application/resume. So I did and forgot about it. Then this past Monday, I got an email from the director of the SEED program (my professor) and he asked if I'd stop by for an interview. So I figured he was just going to interview everyone and then select someone. So I got to the interview and first thing I did was ask for more details about the program, and he gave me the details about the assignments (which took about 30 minutes). Then he ended somewhat abruptly by saying, "Okay, I'll send you an email tonight and let you know for sure." I was confused at this point, because I thought this was an interview, but he hadn't asked anything about me. So I walked out with the feeling that either I had pretty much already been selected, OR screwed something up and he was kicking me out of the office.

But the next day I got the above letter. So all of a sudden I'm going to be in Africa all summer long. I am stoked! This is a dream come true and a once in a lifetime opportunity maybe.

So....we are unsure about what Emily is doing, because I didn't know she could come with me, but I guess she can. So she is scrambling to find an orphanage there that she can teach at to count as her practicum. So she may be coming with me. So we'll let you know.

I am unsure about to many details of the area right now. I know they do have electricity (but it is intermittent). And the main village has some internet cafe's, so I can send home pictures. And they do speak English...sort of. It is British English and a little strange sounding with their accents.

I keep thinking it will be like "The Other Side of Heaven". In fact my professor, when he was doing the recap in our meeting said it like this, "So basically you fly into the capital city (Kampala)...there should be someone to pick you up at the airport...you'll find a bus going out to Igana...find a place to live...and start overseeing microloans....oh, and teach business classes 3 times a week."

It popped!

So Joey was helping Emily make some curry stuff, and she was heating some oil and then she dumped the chicken in and it splattered on Joey's hand....and he got this big blister. Cool, huh?

Then a few days ago, Joey was shaking someone's hand (I won't say who to protect the innocent) and it popped! It was gross. There was sooo much liquid.

So the moral of the story is: Be good.

The Update of our Life

I wrote this post a long time ago but just didn't have any pictures to add to it yet.

It has been awhile since we have posted. A lot has happened since our last post. The semester ended, we had our first Christmas together, we journeyed to Mexico again, started a new semester and had to move.

Both of our families celebrate Christmas on different days than Christmas so that we aren't conflicting with the in-laws families and such, which makes it nice so that we don't have to compete for who's family we spend time with. Although at the same time we ended up not having any plans for Christmas. We ended up heading up to Bear Lake to spend Christmas with Chuck, Ginger, Zailey, and Zenick. It was a lot of fun watching the kiddos open their presents and to spend time with them. Because we are Newlyweds and the fact that we were going to Mexico, we decided to only have Stockings for each other and no big presents. We had fun trying to stuff each other's stockings without the other seeing. Joey being the "little boy" that he is, he had to pretend that he was going to peek into his stocking early.

The last three years Joey has been going to Tijuana, Mexico with Charity Anywhere Foundation to build houses and do service for the poor. I was able to go with him last year and we had an amazing time and are pretty much addicted to service in Mexico. This year Joey was in charge of the trip so we spent a lot of time working out the details and going through the drama of hoping my passport would come in time. It was a way fun trip. We will do another post with pictures and with all the details of our Mexico trip at a later date.

When we got home from Mexico, Kelly and Leah told us that they potentially sold the house so we would most likely be moving out before the end of the month. Well we waited to hear from the buyers but nothing until a week after we started school. We got the phone call on Thursday that we had to be out by the next Friday. Then on Friday they called and said they would like to do the final walk through on Wednesday. So we had less than a week to move out. Luckily it was Martin Luther King Day so we didn't have school Monday so we spent the weekend moving in my parent's basement.

It was nice to have a Christmas Break that we spent time with family and friends celebrating the birth of Christ.

John Jones

I wanted to write some things here before I forget them (because I am away from home and can not write them in my journal) and I want to share my thoughts.

I am almost 26 years old and up until today I have never grieved for anyone. I have been blessed to never have any relatives pass away unexpectedly or while I was old enough to understand. My father made me aware of this fact not too long ago. And so I knew there would be times ahead (sooner than later) where I would lose a loved one.

This morning I am grieving the loss of John Jones. Someone who I knew for only a couple of hours, but who is someone I feel very close to now. Even after his passing I have talked to him in case he can hear me.

I was part of 11 people who went to the Nutty Putty Cave on November 24th, 2009, just two days ago. I was invited by a great friend and old roommate, Josh Jones, to come along with he and a few family members. I have gone on several caving expeditions with Josh and thought it would be an enjoyable new cave to visit.

When we entered the cave Josh, John, Jessica (friend of Josh), and I went first, while two other adults and four teenagers followed behind. The cave is a geothermal hotspot and so it is very warm and moist in there. Because of this it was a little more difficult to breath, but also nice because it was around 30 degree Fahrenheit above ground.

The rest is hard to explain unless I can use my hands, but for simplicities sake: We had a map of the cave and got to a part where we couldn't find where it continued, so we each took a route that looked like it could be the right way. It is this part of the story that I keep recalling over and over in my head, because at this point I asked John if he wanted to explore the spot, which we later would learn is called the "Ed's Push" area. He went in to the spot face first because he was climbing up, but then it curved and started heading downwards, then it got too small for him to push himself backwards up against gravity, so he slid down further and became wedged. We didn't know he was stuck for several minutes. Jessica and I waited for Josh to get out of the hole he was exploring. When he did we told him (without much thought) to go in and see if John needed help, meanwhile Jessica and I explored two other spots where the cave could have continued. The rest of the group joined us at this point. We could not find where it continued, so sat waiting near the area. After about 15 minutes I hollered to Josh if things were okay. He came out in a mix of calm and panic and said he was going to go up and call for help and asked that I go in a comfort John and maybe try to help, because I was the only adult that would fit. So I crawled in above John (it was a very tight spot and I often would panic because it was difficult to move) and John and I tried several things to move him up. I did the best I could to keep him in good spirits by giving him little goals to reach. Mike, John's brother, was outside of the tight spot talking to me, which I much appreciated because it helped keep my spirits up. But after an hour I was becoming tired and scraped up and started to get psychologically messed up. I crawled out and Josh crawled in to see what he could do.
I crawled out of the cave and joined everyone else outside of the cave. They had all been gathered around the entrance praying and singing church hymns. The search and rescue vehicles started to show up and we decided we needed to get the teenagers home. And we felt there was nothing we could do but get in the way, so a group of us left, leaving Josh and Mike and another brother-in-law with John.

For the next 27 hours I followed the news closely and waited...

Then at 2:36 a.m. I received a text from my friend Josh with the unexpected news that John had passed away.

Since then my thoughts have not turned from his family and the way they must be feeling.

I know that God knows best. I know that his family will be reunited with John. The passing of loved ones is part of Gods plan.

Thank you to all those who have been praying for the Jones' and for me.

I want to say one more thank you to one of the teenagers that came on the trip (I don't know which one). As I was leaving the site Tuesday night, before we knew what would ultimately happen, one of the teenagers in the van remarked "Well, we will have something to talk about on fast & testimony Sunday."

My testimony is more real then ever before. God lives and loves us. Thank you.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13864973