Us at the Mormon Miracle Pageant

It was a delightful special treat to be able to travel with Stacy and Taisley to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti. It was a 4-hour trip on a warm summer day, with Stacy and Taisley stuffed into the teeny, tiny backseat of Dad's old pickup truck. There was a crowd of thousands, an inspirational show on Temple Hill and, of course, the usual protestors in the street. We met up with Danielle who was spending a long weekend with her mom.  It was nearly midnight when the show was over.  We walked back to the campground where all four of us managed to fit in our little old (“old” being the operative word) camper. Stacy says, “next time we’ll take our camper!” but we talked, laughed and snacked, snacked, talked and laughed all the way coming and going.

As we were coming over Red Hills Parkway on our way to Stacy's we saw a firetruck ahead of us in traffic.  Stacy and Taisley said, "Grandpa, catch up.  Hurry!"  The truck is old and doesn't "catch up" easily, but we realized the firetruck was slowing down (he told us later he saw us coming up behind him).  When we got right next to the big red firetruck, we saw Rick at the wheel ... on his first official day back on fulltime duty after a year recuperating from an on-the-job injury to his foot!  So sorry I didn't think fast enough to grab my camera because he looked really good back at his job until he blew the horn and just about deafened me.

Family Fun in Mexico

After Tucson, we caught up with Kelly and Gary at the Mexican border, then caravanned south for about 2 ½ hours to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico.  In the community, also known as Rocky Point, some 700 Rotarians, family members and friends worked together to finalize about 50 humanitarian service projects during the day.  In the evening, we played in this little resort town, during a unique, week–long Fiesta 2015 District Conference, which RI District 5420’s Governor Mike Wells enthusiastically billed as “the adventure of your Rotary lifetime.”  As it turned out, it really was!!!

For four days we worked from 8 a.m. until whenever (usually about 1 – 2 p.m.) building an approximate 12 x 20’ addition onto the Piñata House.  This little structure is home to a program, which provides a means for earning an income for 15 young people with handicaps (i.e., cerebral palsy, deafness and other health issues).  In Mexico, kids with these kinds of problems are considered to have reached their learning capacity at age 14 … and there are no social programs to provide further options after that.  The Piñata House is a place where they come each day to make piñatas, which are then placed on consignment at various souvenir shops around town so the kids can earn a living of sorts.

Our work crew of about 15 Rotarians, assorted family members and friends were an assortment of “suits” including an attorney and a lawyer (is there a difference?), a CPA, a high school art teacher, a commercial loan banker, a cyber-security systems analyst, a financial planner, a real estate developer, a sign maker, an IT specialist / program management lead; a retired banker, a veterinarian technician-in-training, an author and a writer (not sure of the difference here, either) and a cabinet maker willing to wear the general contractor hat.  Despite our collective lack of experience in the construction trades, this hardy group framed up the addition, wired it for electricity, boxed in windows and doors, put in insulation and sheetrock, and painted every inch of the exterior with at least two coats of bright pink and iridescent teal green paint … and all in nearly 90º temperatures with humidity almost that high!!!  Our work nearly doubled the size of this little “factory” which will mean additional kids will have a place to work.  It was a wonderful project, which is certain to make a real difference in many lives, long after the bright colors fade under the scorching hot Mexican sun.

In a week’s time, these 700 amazing individuals of every age, profession and hometown who took part in District Fiesta 5420 accomplished the following:

·               provided dental care (extractions and fillings) for 293 people

·               built 3 cinderblock houses (which will be completed by others for “gifting” around Christmas time)

·               gifted 4 furnished homes to qualified families in need of safe housing

·               cleaned the hard drives, downloaded appropriate software and donated 65 iMac computers for use in the Escuela de Rotaria Elementary School and another 80 pc’s to Escuela Numero 27 (comparable to a U. S. middle school)

·               landscaped a new dialysis center

·               paid for and delivered an ambulance for the dialysis center (a cost of about $14,000)

·               paid for and delivered 4 school buses

·               created a computer lab with tablets and a flat screen TV for training high school students on the use of technology

·               donated a year’s worth of internet service to these schools

·               donated “a truckload” of school supplies

·               delivered and distributed about 100 t-shirt dresses for little girls, shorts for little boys and a bunch of wooden toys from the Happy Factory in Cedar City

·               built the addition on the Piñata House

·               distributed about 1500 pair of prescription glasses and sunglasses

·               painted the Escuela de Rotario school a beautiful pumpkin orange and installed donated playground equipment for the kids

The rest of our time in Puerto Peñasco was spent playing on the beach, sightseeing, playing Phase 10 and driving the 30-45 minute road trip (maneuvering to avoid potholes big enough to swallow our car) between our project, the conference center and the Mayan Palace where we stayed. 

We had a great time and learned a few things during our big Mexican adventure:

·               a Mexican minute, hour, day or year is an undetermined unit of time which really doesn’t mean anything unless you are an American in a hurry!

·               in Mexico, stop signs are merely suggestions

·               the natives put a hand over their heart when wishing you “Buenos dias, Buenos tardes or Buenos noches” as a promise to the Mayan gods of friendship to and respect for all mankind

·               ice is the rarest of commodities in Mexico

·               stable electrical power is only a possibility – not a reality

·               90% humidity does wonders for your skin, hair and nails, so if you die there you’ll be a beautiful corpse

·               shrimp, fresh from the Sea of Cortez and about the size of your fist, are addictive and fabulously delicious

·               drivers in every country still question the purpose of roundabouts

·               potholes result in a wild ride requiring a kidney belt and a crash helmet

·               air conditioning, which defaults to 66 degrees no matter how hard you try to adjust it, is dang cold!

This week in Mexico really is what Rotary’s motto of “service above self” is all about!  However, working on a good tan while looking forward to a delicious dinner of giant shrimp, and playing in the Sea of Cortez followed by a rousing game of Phase 10 were also nice incentives for completing each day of hard labor.

See "District Fiesta 5420" on the YouTube channel for a fun and festive song and dance routine.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:  Gary found a nice RV park while traveling around the city and suggested we return in a year or two with the rest of the family and their campers!  Whaddya say, everybody? 

Tucson and Tombstone

We had been planning to travel to Mexico with about 300+ members of Rotary District 5420 for more than a year … but it didn’t occur to me to get out my passport until the Monday night of the week we were to leave.  “Good to go,” I confidently thought until Ed – passports in hand – said, “oops, you’ve got a problem.”  Seems my passport was expired a full year ago!!!

After my brief mini-panic attack, I decided we’d just not be able to go … after all, a passport is vital for crossing borders (I’ve personally had some memorable experiences with immigration people … and it wasn’t fun).  But, on Tuesday morning, I woke up with a resolve to find a solution.  My solution was U. S. Senator Mike Lee’s southern Utah representative … my good friend Bette Arial.  She put me in the able hands of Yolanda, the Senator’s Constituent Representative (aka “problem solver extraordinaire”).  Yolie spent about 30 minutes on the phone talking with one government worker after another until she finally connected with my solution … the Western Passport Center in Tucson.

Dropping everything, we loaded the car and headed out … 3 days earlier than we had planned.  My early morning Thursday appointment took the better part of the day, but at 2:30 I had my expedited passport in hand at a cost of only $170 (compared to $135 for a standard passport).

While waiting for Kelly and Gary and with two days to kill before we could get into our condo in Mexico, we decided to explore Tucson and surrounding communities (so, here’s a question … why is it pronounced Too-san when it is spelled Tuck-sun?  Anyone?)  Not much to see in Tucson (except two good movies at a nearby Cinemark Theater) so we decided to drive to Tombstone (about 45 miles SE of Tucson).  Had a great day in this historic Western town, took lots of pictures … and, even got a hug from Wyatt Earp himself.

Next stop … Mexico!