Reynosa, Mexico

I have no words to describe our trip to Reynosa this year.  It was just amazing, awesome, a definite blessing to all those on the trip.  Here's a ton of pictures:

Our rides:

Last Saturday we ate lunch in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Texas:

Sunday morning I got up early and took a few photos of the compound and the surrounding area:

Ned relaxing on Sunday

Playing Uno

On Sunday, Nono, the guy in charge, took a few of us out to the dump to show us where we would be working.  These are a few photos I took while there:

The food was awesome!

Ned studying his music:

At one point on Sunday, we were moving some paint and a can got dropped and splattered everywhere including all over Charlotte.  Luckily, she was able to get it out of her dress:

One of the guards of the Isaiah 55 compound has three dogs and Nichole and I spent some time hanging out with them on Sunday and playing with them:

Marti giving Lizzie, Charlotte, and Ned harmonica lessons:

Now we start the work week.  There were essentially four different services being offered to the "cart people" as they are called.  They are the very poor folks in Reynosa who use their carts to transport garbage to the dump.  The four services were: 1. welding on the carts 2. carpentry on the carts 3. horse-shoeing 4. veterinary services.  I was obviously on the veterinary services aspect of things where our motto was "wounds and worms" as that was mostly what we did, checked out wounds and dewormed horses with a few other random things thrown in. 

Clearing out the area of the trash so that we weren't working in a total mess

An example of the wounds we commonly saw.  The equipment they used on the horse's would cause these wounds when not enough padding was used.

This guy had stepped on a nail and ended up with a big infection in his joint.  Unfortunately, there wasn't anything we could do with it where we were.

There were a lot of dogs running around the dump some of whom were actually semi-friendly

These next two pictures are of a horse with "Queensland Itch." It is an allergy to tiny biting insects that causes the horse to rub the hair off its mane and its tail:

While most of us were at the dump, some people stayed at the compound and removed a big concrete aquarium and the greenhouse surrounding it:

Some painting of the house on the compound also happened:

Ben and "Tiny" aka Elijah working the backhoe

 

 The ferrier was a huge hit:

Just a few more photos of the dump that I took during the week:

The sign announcing our services to the people

After word spread Monday about our services, there was already a line waiting for us on Tuesday morning when we got to the dump

Ashley is actually a human nurse but she joined us for awhile and got to do some work on some horses instead of humans:

OSHA-approved:

Saw this cart near the end of the day on Tuesday:

This horse had it's lip tied to its hoof (I'm not sure why) and ended up ripping its lip off hence it's teeth sticking out like a big smile:

Found this cute little puppy in the dump.  We gave it some dewormer but it also had lice which we didn't have anything for:

The flies were plentiful:

This is for Mom, to prove that Evan is fully capable of cleaning up the dishes:

Wednesday was Tiny's birthday so they bought him a pinata:

Thursday morning we went to the deaf school that Isaiah 55 runs:

 Charlotte made friends with nearly all the kids that came around:

Even I made a few friends!

On Thursday, some of the townpeople made us lunch, homemade flour tortillas, rice and meat and veggies in a broth (yes those are bones near the top of my plate, some of the meat in the broth was still connected to the bones):

The vet crew: Joy, me, Marti, Ashley, Nichole

A nerdy shot: we are posing with the Ivermectin "guns" that we used.  They contain Ivermectin, a medicine for deworming horses and other animals:

My friend Maria:

Some more flies:

Thursday evening was share night/talent night.  Here Ned is playing his violin, he is quite talented!

Joel presenting Charlotte with the "PR person of the year award," an award she definitely earned!

Caleb and Phil singing away:

Josh loving the talent show:

Evan demonstrating how to give a back massage:

Group photo before leaving Friday:

On the way home we stopped in San Antonio for dinner and some of us visited the Alamo

I saved these two photos for last.  These are a couple photos of me playing with Maria Isabel.  She was 13 years old and a real fun kid.  

When we were leaving on Thursday afternoon she handed me a note.  It was in Spanish but I will write it out in English here.  On the outside it read: For David, From Maria Isabel

Here is what it said:

I'm going to miss you very much.  Take care.  I'm going to take you in my heart.  I love you very much with all my heart.  You were my best friend in the world.  Good bye friend of the world.  I love you very much.  I adore you stranger.  God bless you.  Take care.

I thought it was sweet of her to write a note like that.  That was part of what made this trip so special, the fact that I was actually able to interact with people from Reynosa and hopefully leave a good impression.  But, the trip is now over and it's back to reality in the cold midwest.  

Ben leaves for CT tomorrow morning early and then I will have a few days with my brother visiting family before he leaves Wednesday.