We are here!

This morning we met at the College of Wooster at 4:15 am so we could make our 6:21 flight out of Akron Canton.  Our trip members include 5 College of Wooster students (Tara, Sarah, Hannah, Hannah and Chelsea) plus three from Trinity United Church of Christ (Kevan, Ella and myself).  Thank-you John Muskopf and Kevin Jewell for driving us to the airport.  We flew to Atlanta then to San Diego.  Flights were pretty good - the second one was a little bumpy.

We jumped in our GOLD Ford Van (not white) and headed south to Tijuana.  We had lunch at In-N-Out Burger - which was outstanding!!!  We crossed the Border a little before 1:00 pm California time.  We were stopped by the officer entering Mexico - he wanted to take a look inside a few of the suit cases and one of the boxes of school supplies.

This is my 10th Esperanza Mission trip.  It is amazing how much better the roads and landscape are since I first came down here.  There is still a big difference between San Diego and Tijuana.  A few of the first time trip members really noticed the difference - I'll let them talk more about it.

Each time we come here there are changes.  The Posada is located in La Gloria.  The biggest change we noticed is that there is a new Soriana grocery store across the street from Waldo's. 

We arrived at the Posada and Eduardo and Roberto were outside in the parking lot.   Eduardo is the Construction Foreman/Manager and Roberto is one of the construction guys.   It is great to see these guys again!!!   We unpacked and hung out a bit.  We had our first circle and went over some logistics about the trip.  We then went to the Soriana store and Waldo's.

Once we got the groceries put away we headed south to Rosarito to shop and eat dinner.  At this point we were all pretty tired so our shopping was brief - we basically shopped for blankets and will leave the rest of the shopping until tomorrow.

We ate dinner at El Nido's.  We've eaten here before and their food is really good.   On the way back we got lost for a while - which is not unusual when driving down here.  But we made it back - and I'm pretty sure everyone will turn in early tonight.  We will hopefully post pictures tomorrow.

So far it has been a great trip!  It is always great to see how first time people see the trip.  It is really bringing College Students!

Below are two pictures - we had the marachi band sing to the college students - and a picture of the "Gold" van inside the Posada complex.  Note how green everything is in the picture!  We posted a picture of the 2013 Statistics for Esperanza - and another view towards the courtyard in the Posada complex. 

Phil Starr