And We Have a Crew...

Tonight we are 30 strong. Forry and two of the LT (long termers) took our large van and a pickup to San Diego, rented another van and went to Chula Vista to pick up 16 short termers from Pennsylvania who will be here for the next week. They are Old Order Amish, (which means that none of them drive) all between 19 and 22 years old and are old hands at MDS work. I think only one has not been on multiple trips to Mississippi. The fellows had come out on the train last Thursday and have been sight-seeing in San Diego and across the border in Mexico. It's a good thing we decided to send the pickup along -- they have a MOUND of luggage! (Including snow boards to use on a side trip on the way home.) We also have one lone man who also comes from Pennsylvania who had flown in and rented a car.

It looks like our cooks are going to be good ones. Unfortunately, they're only going to be here for two weeks. They aren't supposed to cook on weekends -- everyone is supposed to be on their own -- but they've pitched right in. They fixed a great salad for everyone after church and cheerfully barbecued hot dogs for the whole group tonight when we realized there was no way the Amish guys were going to be able to eat before we picked them up.

This morning, we moved Auntie Violet from Diamond Jack's to the MDS camp. We didn't hitch up the toad, I just followed Forry in the coach. I did laundry this afternoon while he was picking up the crew; worked on the one-pager I'm supposed to already have sent in for my high school class's 50th renunion in May; and tried to organize some of the stuff I've collected the past couple of days.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we start our first week as Project Directors!

We're All Here!

The last four of our long-termers (those volunteers staying for at least a month) arrived today. Some of the previous long-termers left at 4 AM in order to catch flights home; the previous Project Directors left by car late this morning. We have two couples and a single young man who will be staying over longer. That brings our LT team to 13 members.

We sat out on the deck between the trailers, enjoying the 87 degree temperature and sunshine while I was able to review all of the notes I have taken during the last week with our construction foreman and the fellows who will be crew leaders. We're going to have to be sure everyone has hats and sunblock!

After the cooks returned with the van from their food stocking expedition, we loaded up most of the new crew and took them out to see the three current project sites as well as the new one that hasn't yet been started. We didn't keep exact track, but Forry drove over 45 miles just getting to all four sites -- none of them are close!

Auntie Violet will finally get to travel to the Dulzura site tomorrow. The fellows moved one of the trailers to the side so that there will be room for her! It will be nice to no longer be driving back and forth.

Orientation Continues

We are gradually getting things figured out as we try to pump the minds of the current Project Directors for every tidbit of information we can think of to ask about. This morning we met the local Mennonite Church coordinator at the bank to add our signatures to the bank cards so that we can write checks. We had met Mel before when we were here in December delivering the Hitchhiker RV and the pickup. Mel took us to the airport for our flight back to SeaTac. It was good to see him again. We took him to lunch at Denny's after we got all of the papers signed.

In the afternoon, we met up with Kerry, the current PD, and went out to two of the current house sites with him.

These pictures are of House #3 as the fellows are unloading bales of shingles from the back of the pickup and putting them up on the roof. They plan to start shingling it tomorrow. When Forry and I first saw the house last Monday, the inside walls were up and they had just hauled the roof joists up ready to install the next day. It's amazing what has been accomplished in these few days. The sheeting is up on the roof, the windows are in, the house has had the reflective siding put on and been wrapped with vapor barrier.

We then went House #2 which is going to be solar heated. It, too, has doors and windows in and the sprinkler system installed. We didn't go to House #1 today, but the crew reported at supper that they had finished sanding the wall board and put the first coat of paint sealer on.

We did go to check out the site for House #4. It's WAY back in a canyon up a road that turns from asphalt to gravel to dirt. It's going to be an interesting spot to get cement trucks and supplies into.

We had lasagna for supper at the project site tonight. I was impressed with the high spirits and morale of the mostly Canadian crews who have put in a very busy week.

One thing we noticed today was the increased presence of Border Patrol vehicles along the various roads we traveled. Kerry mentioned that he had observed the same thing. We wondered if it had anything to do with all of the arrests of members of the Sonoran Drug Cartel they were talking about on the news yesterday.

Dulzura; the Border Patrol

These are pictures from the Mennonite Disaster Service's Dulzura Project site:

Theses are some of the RVs being used for housing by the long-termers. We will probably move out and store the one that is second from the right and put Auntie Violet in its place (we're only permitted for six living units on site).

This is the office trailer.

From left to right: the bunk trailer, the shower trailer, the kitchen trailer (the short one) and the dining hall.

We had lunch today with Project Director Kerry Eidse and the two representatives from the Salvation Army and the Long Range Planning Committee, Robin and Dawn. It was a good session. I have a much better handle on what we'll be needing to do over the next two months. We're going to have an interesting weekend as some of our long-term workers will arrive before this session's people leave on Saturday morning...

On the way back to Diamond Jack this evening we once again passed through the Border Patrol checkpoint: The first pictures are of the lot that is FULL of green and white Border Patrol vehicles.

The next pictures are the "line-up" as you approach the checkpoint.

I think they are getting used to us -- or maybe the MDS magnetic signs on the toad -- today they just looked and waved us through without any questions about our citizenship.

At one of the houses MDS is building, you can see the town of Tecate which is partly in Mexico and you also have a good view of the fence that is being built between our two countries.

Checking out Dulzura

Today we drove over to the Dulzura MDS Projct site. It took about a half hour to get there from Diamond Jack's. We met Jo Eidse one of the co-directors, but didn't get a chance to meet Kerry.

We looked over the site. It looks a whole lot different than it did when we dropped off the Hitchhiker RV in December. They have built decks between the bunk house trailer, shower trailer and the kitchen trailer. Jo has also planted flowers and three palms.

We got addresses from Jo and sent to take a look at each of the three houses that they have started. The first was getting its second layer of mud on the drywall, the next was awaiting solar panels (they will not be on the electical grid) and installers for the sprinklers before they can move on to insulation and drywall. At the third house, the crew was hauling the roof trusses up onto the framed house.

We saw a femaile black chinned hummingbird today at the MDS site and a Cassin's kingbird along with all of the other ones we've been seeing.

On the Road

We left Wellton by 9 AM this morning (early for us!) and headed for California. It's quite interesting to watch the scenery change from the cacti and creasote bushs to sand and sand dunes. As we climbed into the mountains south of San Diego, it began to look like someone had dumped out huge bags of boulders.

We cut off of Interstate 8 at the Japatul Exit, turned left at the stop sign; drove 5 1/2 miles on Lyons Valley Road; turned left and drove 7 1/2 miles on Skyline Truck Trail; turned right and drove 4.7 miles to Lawson Valley Road; went 2/10 of a mile and turned hard left back on to Lyons Valley Road; drove 9/10 of a mile to the sign for Diamond Jack's RV Ranch. The direct route down Lyons Valley Road has too many switchbacks to navigate with a 37 foot rig (plus the toad), so they sent us around the back way.

It is so quiet here! After the continuous sounds of trains every thirty minutes plus the noise of the switching as well as the sound of the freeway and of sirens, it's quite a change. This is the closest place we could find to the Dulzura MDS Project Site. We'll stay here this week and commute back and forth.

There is a family of acorn woodpeckers (a new life bird for Forry!) living in the trees here. There are six palm trees in the center area that they are busily rapping away at to find insects. I also watched one retrieve an acorn from a hole in the trunk of a palm.