Posted in The life and times of my family

Dd has been home for almost a week now and we've started to get back into our normal routine.  She worked really hard and had some fun.  They were careful with the budget so the kids were able to go to the San Diego zoo on their way home from Mexico.  The hardest part of the whole experience for her was the camping.  Especially the 2.5 gallon showers and the horrible outhouses.  These aren't your garden variety outhouses like we have in many parks in the U.S.  They were just wooden benches over a hole in the ground that wasn't as deep as dd would have preferred, blech!  The AMOR camp is in an industrial area of Tijuana.  She camped within shouting distance of a large refinery.  Not exactly a stellar first camping trip.  We've tried to explain to her that camping is much more pleasant then that here in Colorado.  She was amazed at how many little cultural things she was already familiar with in spite of the language barrier.  She was a great barterer in the market and was able to help her friends figure out what the drinks were.  We quite often drink Jarritos here so it wasn't at all foreign to her.  One thing that really surprised her was that when they returned to the U.S. the border patrol didn't even look at their passports.  They asked if everyone was a citizen and after receiving an affirmative response they were waved right through.  I'm glad she had this experience.  I think she had a chance to really find out what she's made of and a chance to grow some too.  Now she's on a mission to influence her youth group in a positive way.  What a blessing she is to us!