My Adventurous Life

Iliria! Who is Iliria? She is a beautiful kind lady who lives in Agua Prieta, Mexico and makes the best tamales I have ever tasted! She rides her bike around town selling these yummy tamales to the locals. And believe me, they are yummy. I wish she lived closer so I could stop by myself and buy some of her delicious tamales right now. When we visited her on Christmas Eve, she was happy we came to help and cried when she seen the big cooking pot someone brought her. Our plan was to remove this old tamale stand she had tried to build herself (pictured above) and put up a new one. It would be built in her front yard that runs along a busy main street. The location is highly visible and will hopefully keep her busy and prosperous. This stand will allow her to hire locals to work in it and thus pay it forward. What a great plan, except now we need to work out a FedEx delivery system for me! Does FedEx deliver yummy food directly from Mexico?

Iliria’s home at first glance looks like a garage with furniture stored inside. The floor is cement and the walls are cement covered bricks that have been painted different colors. If you look closely in the picture you can see the brick. Her curtains and blinds are hung on the wall using wire to hold up the rods. The ceiling is made out of metal sheets which helps create the whole garage look. The front and back doors both had broken glass that was covered with colored duct tape and provided a nice looking stained-glass-duct-tape look. Once we walked around, we could clearly see it was a home and could tell she had taken great care in decorating it to her liking. I had to quickly remind my children we were in someone’s home and they needed to be respectful. Iliria’s home is quite large for a single lady and she wants to rent out a room or two. We planned to put up a few walls to help divide the rooms and provide some privacy. This project was started but never completed. While visitin...

My daughter loves dogs. And I've found out through the years, the bigger they are the more she likes them. She fell in love with a dog that visited us while we were at Ileria's house. She found out its name but it was too difficult to say so she renamed him Midnight. On the way home from Mexico my daughter was crying. I asked her why she was crying and she said she missed Midnight. She said the next time she goes to Mexico she is going to bring dog food, treats, and toys for Midnight. And then she said next time her plan is to adopt a dog from Mexico and bring it home. Here is another dog that visited us too. He was so thin it broke my heart, and I'm not even a dog lover!

It was interesting to see old electrical cords being used for clothes lines. Very creative if you ask me! This clothes line is located in the front of Iliria's home. And these clothes lines are located in the back of Iliria's home. You cannot tell by the pictures but they too are made from old electrical cords.

On Christmas morning we went to Iliria’s home so we could start working on her tamale stand and cleaning up the yard. She was not expecting us (because we told her we would come back in three days not the next day) and was not home when we arrived. The bad thing was all of our supplies were inside her home, the good thing was, where there was a will there was a way. And we found a way in and was able to begin our work. All of our group assembled at Iliria's because none of the other projects were ready for anyone to start. It was a very large group and we all miraculously found something to do. Some began taking down the old tamale stand while others started putting together the new one. The rest worked hard at cleaning up her yard. The young boys were tasked with pulling the nails out of the wood from the old stand and taking it apart. I think the young boys had fun using all the power tools. Mexico does not have a garbage system like we do in America. Nobody comes by once a week ...

Liz was creative and took a piece of wire and made it into a "CTR" (for Choose the Right) which I felt left a little reminder to Iliria that we were there! I loved it!

A small group worked on painting the tamale stand. They all worked hard and did a good job. I thought it looked fine but some wanted to do more to it and even change it up. You'll see what I mean in the next blog post on the tamale stand.

Darla and Mitchell re-painted the tamale stand and changed it up a bit. Like I said before, I thought it looked fine, but they both wanted to do more to it! And boy did it change! It doesn't even look the same. It was ice cold and the wind was blowing. I almost thought it wasn't gonna get finished. The final paint job looked great and everyone loved how it turned out. They even painted the cement slab sticking up from the ground, which I helped with. I know I did the easy painting job!

I usually never go to church while on vacation unless I am with my sister Teresa! What a great example she is to me and my children! Teresa and her family once lived on a small island (seven miles long) in Alaska called Ouzinkie. There was no Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church located on the island, so her husband got permission from the church leaders to hold services in their home. So when I went to visit her I had to pack a dress. Yes a dress, so I could attend church in her house! I complained about having to pack a dress when I wasn't even leaving the house, but did it anyway. And guess what? It wasn't so bad after all! As fate may have it, I was in Mexico on a Sunday, so once again I packed a dress for church. And once again I complained. I should know better when I am on vacation with Teresa that we will always go to church! My children actually like going to church so they enjoyed it. It was fun to see and hear my children's reactions while attending the service spoken ...

You have no idea how LuCkY you are! No, this is NOT a child's club house!

My children and I headed to Mexico on December 23 and arrived in Agua Prieta on December 24, Christmas Eve. Everyone who arrived at the woman's shelter with us gathered and planned to drive out and view all the locations and see where we would be working. Everyone piled into a few vehicles and headed out. One of the projects would be to build a home for a single mom of 5 children (2 little girls, 2 young boys and a teenage daughter). The project started with a plot of land with a large hole dug for sewage. The group would have to start from this bare minimum and build a two story home that would include a bathroom, small kitchen/dining area, and 3 to 4 bedrooms. The home would also have electricity, a modern luxury for this family and for a home in this area of Mexico. Our group was lucky because some of our volunteers were professional builders, which proved to be a great asset. The hole for the sewage was deep and scared me because I had two curious little ones that kept getting ...