Travel is a luxury reserved for only those wealthy enough to afford it. That is why I was so excited when I found out my church was doing a free mission trip to Mexico. All I was thinking about was beaches, fruity drinks and of course sharing our message. Oh boy did I have it completely backwards. Apparently it was unnecessary to inform us of our duties or better yet, where we’d be sleeping beforehand. Although I’m sure if they had nobody would have signed up. When we got to where we were staying I looked around, confused. There was dirt EVERYWHERE! Then I noticed the sign… There was a sign right in front of me explaining that this particular institution was an orphanage. The first thought that came to my mind was that my mom had signed me up so that she could dump me in an orphanage far far away. I am not going to lie I cried in front of ALL of my friends. Once my pastor convinced me I would be returning to America we unloaded our things in our lot (this orphanage had lots with one huge building each). Our beds had pee stains and I was missing home. I decided to use the restroom before dinner which turned out to be a huge mistake. If you’ve ever seem those movies where a monster comes out of he toilet, I’m now convinced they are real and must have been filmed there. They smelt worse than a dairy in 108 degree weather! I held it the entire week and did not use the restroom once. The work in that building was ridicules. We were sacrificing our time and cleanliness to building orphans an amputheatre. Why they needed that more than a new bathroom I don’t know. But the entire time we were working these little kids were making fun of us. At one point a little boy about 12 years old told me in fluent English that I needed to come and stay in his room that night! I was over worked and grossed out. My face and every other part of my body was candy apple red with burns. The last two days we were there I stayed in my room in pain because I had accidently drank the water. And the whole way home I was car sick. I had no fun at all and I spent 59% of the time crying. I learned on that trip to ALWAYS ask questions before you sign up for travel and never drink the water. I intend to go back to Mexico someday but I am going to stick to the beach this time in hopes of maintaining my sanity.
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