Risking Swine Flu for Orphans

In December 2008 I went with a group called Kaiizen to volunteer at an orphanage in Mexico. They made another trip in April and this time I brought Nikki along. We met up at the Orem Walmart at 4 am on Thursday morning and, as part of a longstanding tradition, we made our first stop at In-N-Out for a little 10 am grub down.


Then it was back to Kat's crowded suburban for the remaining 8 hours of our drive to Mexico.

Finally we made it to Mexico and finally we got our pork tacos! These alone were worth the 14 hour drive...right Nikki? Don't be fooled by the nervous expression on her face, she loves meat especially when it's from shady street vendors!
Meet our car-mates from the adventurous journey --- Kat, Nikki, Alex, Cathrine, Me. We and the rest of the Kaiizen group slept off our swine flu (I mean...pork tacos) from the night before here at Playa Saldamando.
Then we went strait to work at the school in Baja. Something provoked Nikki and I to volunteer for the class teaching about sheep brains. Conveniently, our group was more interested in blowing up their latex gloves and chopping the brain into pieces than the actual dissection so Nikki and I were left doing EVERYTHING.

We survived the operation with little to no gagging and (after some intensive hand washing) moved on to an activity more suited to our interests and abilities... You guessed it, FOOD! We crowded in the kitchen with a bunch of the kids and volunteers and fried hundreds of donuts.
After our first day of hard work it was our turn to relax and the kids turn to entertain. Below are the Kaiizen Boys Jr. performing in the Mexico version of "American Idol," complete with a drummer too small to be seen behind his drum set and a break dancer.
We spent our second night here in these lovely matress-less bunks. As you can tell Nikki and I enjoyed every minute of it.

With a second night of restless sleep behind us, we headed back to work. Project of the day: our Simba masterpiece!

We weren't the only artists there at El Sauzal...
Another day of hard work had worked up an appetite in volunteers and kids alike.
After one short weekend it was time to say goodbye to our new friends.

We paid a little visit to Ensenada on our way out. Given the warnings of drug cartels and human trafficing, we thought it best to try and blend in.

On our way home we made a stop at some Greek restaurant in the middle of no where. It's amazing what you'll choke down after 4 days in Mexico. It's also amazing how rancid we could look after just 4 days of not showering.
Some nasty Greek food and a few car mishaps later, we arrived back in Provo already anxiously awaiting our next trip back to Mexico to visit our little brown friends.

- Cooh