What Erika is... Reading:

The Great Gatsby. I have to read it for school, and I thought it was going to be exceedingly boring because I tried to read it last year and it was to me then, but it turns out I was quite wrong. As far as action goes, there is not too much, but it has romance, in a way, and a bit of intrigue, and even death (dun, dun, dun). Anyhoo, I recommend it. The writing style is also very interesting, although not the easiest to understand. Now, if only The Grapes of Wrath turns out to be this good...

Mission Trip 4: The Outings

After working during the day, we went out some of the evenings after dinner (which we cooked ourselves in the church kitchen) to different places around San Antonio.

• Tuesday night we went to the Quarry Market which is basically just a strip mall on the site of an old stone quarry. We wandered around to Starbucks, Whole Earth (an interesting hippy-ish store), the Gap, and Borders. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun.
• Thursday night we went to downtown San Antonio and looked at the Alamo, which was actually a bit disappointing. It may have been more impressive if we had gotten to go inside, but it was closed for the evening. Then we went to the Riverwalk, which was amazing, let me tell you. Ours doesn't even deserve the name.
• Outside of the Riverwalk we saw this guy named Sam who was on the side of the street painting pictures using spray paint and different techniques. He made this really awesome picture of a cross, and several people from our group went back and bought ones in different colors. If I ever get a picture of one of them I will post it. In fact, if I get copies of pictures from the trip I will definitely post them. Sam turned out to be only seventeen years old.
• The first place we went in the Riverwalk area was another Starbucks that was completely awesome. You walk in and it is like a CD store. They have listening stations and you can even burn a custom mix. Then you walk a bit further and you can buy drinks and pastries, etc. Upstairs are places to sit and they even have live music nightly. It was pretty much the stuff of fantasies.
• Our next stop was the Hard Rock Cafe gift shop, and even though I have a Hard Rock Maui shirt I have never been in a Hard Rock Cafe. It was very small and cramped, but they had a lot of cool shirts. I, again, didn't buy anything, though.
• We then walked up and down the Riverwalk. It is like a jungle, because there are gigantic trees and cool restaurants on either side and of course it is humid in San Antonio. There were so many sights and sounds and smells. And people. If you are ever in San Antonio, do not miss the Riverwalk!
• Friday night we went out to eat at a restaurant called La Margarita in an area called El Mercado. After dinner we wandered around the little shops, but it wasn't too interesting. They did have a lot of cool elephant sculptures for some reason, but I didn't see any I liked enough to buy. I am really picky when it comes to buying things, if you couldn't tell by now.

We got lost practically every time we tried to go somewhere, but it just meant that we got to see more of the city than we would have otherwise. Texas is almost like another country. When you are driving down the highway you see signs that say 'Exit 245,' 'No littering,' '23 miles to Dallas,' etc., and then there will be one that says 'Don't mess with Texas.' Completely randomly. And we saw a sign that looked suspiciously like it had bullet holes in it. Plus you get into Texas and you drive and drive and drive and drive and still aren't out of it. No offense to anyone who has feelings for the place, but I wouldn't live there if you paid me. It was a wonderful experience, however, and I would definitely go again. I think this will be all for the mission trip unless (or until) I get pictures. If you read all of this I am very proud of you. Toodles!

Mission Trip 3: The Experiences

These are a few of the experiences that remain in my mind, whether funny, sad, or painful.

• One day we (Matt, Rebecca, myself, one staff member, Charlie and Anthony) were walking from one of the stations (arts and crafts) to another (spiritual development) and Anthony (who is rather prone to doing so) decided to run away. Connie (the staff member) was walking with Charlie, so she said to Matt, 'Here, hold him,' and ran after Anthony. We were standing there watching, and all of a sudden Charlie's pants fell down. Poor Matt had nothing to do but pull them up, and I just had to laugh. It all happened so fast, it was like something out of the movies. Then Connie came back (after depositing Anthony somewhere) and took Charlie to go get a belt. Matt, Rebecca and I went to spiritual development by ourselves.
• We were in another of the stations, life skills, playing with play dough, and I was helping Trish but also sitting by Alicia. She kept grabbing my arm and either putting it on her head, so I could stroke her hair, or slamming it on the table. It occurred to me that she probably realizes hitting the table repeatedly begins to hurt, and was glad for an opportunity to get someone else to do it for her. By the time we were done I had saliva all over my arm, and believe me, it does smell funny. I also received a nice cut on my knuckle from Alicia's fingernail after she flailed her arms around and two others inside my elbow where she grabbed me. Interestingly, I was less afraid of her after she hurt me.
• I spent a lot of time bonding with Mia, especially in the later part of the week, and one day we were in arts and crafts sitting on a sofa sticking little foam shapes on a pile of glue, when Mia started randomly cussing me out. She said F-you over and over with me telling her 'No Mia, you can't say that, that's ugly.' I finally said, 'Okay Mia, if you keep doing that, I'm leaving.' So I got up and walked across the room until she came and dragged me back and we glued a bit longer until she started saying it again. This continued until it was time to go. The funny thing is, Mia grinned the whole time. I didn't see her any happier than when she was cussing at me. Mia also decked Kiki in the face part way through the week, and after that Kiki stayed far away from her.
• We were in the chapel doing spiritual development one day, which, sadly, consisted of watching movies, and there were several other groups in there at the same time. One little boy named Weldon sang along with the VeggieTales song and waved his arms around quite hilariously. It was very cute. Most of the other groups were much higher functioning than ours, which was a bit frustrating, because they all made connections and had conversations, and our kids didn't even know our names.
• One of the girls in my youth group, Erin, was also grabbed, by a big boy in her group, and she ended up with four perfect fingernail marks on her upper arm, surrounded by bruises. It was very cool looking.
• There was a girl in yet another group, named Winter, whose parents had dropped her off recently because they couldn't deal with her any longer. I think her retardation was very limited, but she had an attitude problem. One day we passed her and her group coming out of arts and crafts and she had written on the crown that she had made, 'I want to go home with my mom now.' It almost made me cry.
• Anthony also was new to the home, and he would often scream for his mommy during his tantrums. That was pretty heart-wrenching too.

Mission Trip 2: The Kids

There were twenty one of us in my youth group, and we split into groups to team up and help out with one of the five group homes. I was with three other people helping McGregor House, which has eight kids, most of which are particularly low functioning. Kids come to MRDC in one of three ways: They are abandoned by their parents; they are abused by their parents and removed by social services; or their parents can no longer handle them and take them to the center. The eight kids in my group were:

• Trish: She is a seventeen year old African American girl. She talks very little, but she understands quite a bit of what you say. Trish is very sweet tempered, and because she is so easy to get along with and never has tantrums we spent quite a bit of time with her.
• Mia: A very short, African American girl, younger, but I have no idea how old. She also talks very little, but can repeat what you say. Mia is sweet, but she has a violent streak, and had to be restrained a few times.
• Alicia: Hispanic, average age. Alicia didn't talk at all, but she made noises like sirens and banged her hands on the table. She also stuck her hand in her mouth periodically and then smelled it. I made a little bit of a connection with her, though.
• Josh: An average age African American boy. He didn't talk, and walked around picking up things and eating them, crayons being a particular favorite. He also liked dumping out the trash and scrounging through it.
• Anthony: A younger boy, also African American, and very cute. He was having tantrums about half the time we were there, but his smile was adorable. He can talk a bit, but you can't have a conversation or anything. Anthony seemed to be happiest when he was sweeping or vacuuming, and he started screaming when someone took the broom or vacuum away from him.
• Charlie: An older, Hispanic boy, Charlie doesn't talk at all, but he seems to be sweet tempered if rather excitable. He has seizures and a bad arm and can't walk very well by himself.
• Robby: Robby was by far the highest functioning in our group. He actually knew his alphabet and could do patterns. He is white and fourteen years old, with some pretty mean basketball skills.
• Matthew: He is also white, but younger, very hyper, and rather prone to tantrums. He is completely obsessed with bugs and catches them every chance he gets. Matthew can form coherent sentences, but his attention span is not really long enough to hold a conversation with anyone.

Those are all the kids, and these are the other three volunteers in my group:

• Matt: At twenty-eight, he was our adult. He has no hair except a bright red beard at the bottom of his chin. He doesn't say very much, but is pretty funny when he does. He didn't really exert any authority over us. Matt made a special bond with Charlie.
• Kiki: She is going to be a senior at Centennial, and fits the ditzy blond stereotype perfectly, as she will be the first to point out. Kiki always has a smile, though, and she was good with the kids.
• Rebecca: Rebecca is a middle schooler, and she is moving to Grand Junction soon. She spent most of her time with Trish.

Mission Trip 1: The Setting

It turns out our mystery mission trip was to San Antonio, Texas. We drove about twenty hours over Saturday and Sunday, and stayed at Covenant Presbyterian Church Sunday through Friday nights. Monday through Friday during the days we worked at Mission Road Developmental Center for their program SOAR, Summer Outreach And Recreation. MRDC is a facility that has five group homes for mentally retarded kids ages 7 to 17, as well as several adult homes we didn't deal with at all. During the year the kids go to school, and in the summer they do SOAR, which is designed especially to have youth groups come in and volunteer.

Where Erika is Going:

She has no idea. You may have noticed the button on the sidebar counting down to my mission trip. The trouble is, I have no idea where it is. I do know that we are going east and it will be a two day journey in the church vans, so that narrows it down a bit. We are going to be working at a camp for mentally and physically disabled kids, but I will not know where until we get there. I am quite excited to go, and I will let you know what it was like afterwards. Please pray for safe travels, etc.