Leona Vicario, Quintanaroo, Mexico

Without having met any youth or even been to the church we're working for, the four interns were sent to Mexico with 21 other people. 16 youth and 5 adults. We met the kids at the church on Friday June 1 at 7pm and hung out with the kids until 2am when we left for the Denver airport, 5 hours away. We flew from Denver to Cancun on the 2nd of June. When we arrived in Cancun we were bussed to a village about an hour and a half away called Leona Vicario. It is there that the mission organization we worked with, YPM (Yucatan Penninsula Mission), is based.

There is a cinderblock house there with rooms for their volunteers to stay in. Most of us slept in hammocks all week.


They had originally planned on having us work on a local school that they are building but a couple of other projects presented themselves instead. There was some damage to the cement roof from Hurricane Willma, and some other projects on the base that needed work. We were split into two groups. One group, spent the entire week hand mixing concrete to pour on the roof. It was poured in a taper so that rain would drain to the edges of the roof and out pipes that were used as gutters. After the damaged cement was chipped off we poured the new cement. In case you were wondering it takes 4- 5gallon buckets of sifted sand, 2- 110lb bags of concrete powder, a half bag of very acidic Calcium powder, and an indeterminate amount of water to make one batch of concrete. One batch fills about 10 buckets, and covers way less area than you would think.


The other team worked on preparing and building a 2ft wall to divide the grounds into a gardening area and a space to make a small soccer feild and pathway for community members that stay there. In the evenings we ran a VBS program for the village kids. Most consisted of some games, a song, and a hygene lesson. They truly enjoyed our presence and some of them even cried on our last night.


We spent the last day on the beach, Puerto Morales, near Cancun relaxing and enjoying the sun. We returned to Denver on the 8th of June and drove back to Montrose the morning of the 9th.

(That's me and Michelle, she will be a senior in HS and I am staying with her family for the summer. )