Power Struggles

When we lived in Utah, we had power struggles of a certain type... maybe some people wanted more screen time while some wanted stricter limits. Or some people wanted to stay home while others wanted to go on a picnic. Or some people wanted to watch sports while others wanted to go on a hike.

Now that we are in Mexico, our power struggles are different. Our house is powered purely by solar panels. This means that once the batteries are out of power because we have consumed too much... we don't have a way to get more power until the sun charges the battery again.

Now our power struggles sound something like this:

"Please remember to turn off the lights in your room so we can have A/C in the rooms for a couple of hours tonight."

"Don't do you laundry until the sun comes out or we won't have internet for 2 hours"

"Remember to turn the fan off when you leave your room. I just went shopping and I I don't want the stuff in the freezer to all dethaw tonight because we used all the power."

We had 7 interns and 3 volunteers all staying with us last week and I know they will appreciate having electricity a lot more after their experience here!

Speaking of experiences here...

1. THANK YOU!!!!

As hurricane Beryl was coming our way, many who live here told us to prepare to not have electricity for at least 1 week, but it could be up to a month. They said it was possible for the roads to be flooded for up to a month as well if it was very severe, so to have enough food on hand in case we couldn't go anywhere.

Having so many interns and volunteers here, I was a little nervous about having enough food so that we would be okay if the hurricane was very severe.

I asked you for help and you came through in bigger ways than we expected! You sent us over 5000 dollars!

We used $1800 for food storage. The hurricane came and went and we had plenty of food to eat inside so that we didn't have to go out into the mud. What did we do with the rest of your money? For that, you need a back story...

The Sorry Tale of Our Jungle Road

We live in the middle of the jungle so the road to our house gets very muddy during the rainy season. Parts of it are more like a river than a road lately. It's about 1/2 of a mile of mud before you reach our home. It's been getting worse and worse. We are so, so thankful Benjamin Allen donated his truck so that we can park our van in town and drive his truck to our house.

But sometimes there are hiccups...

A couple of times I have forgotten to put it on 4-wheel drive and I have to get out of the truck to shift the tires into 4-wheel drive, in the middle of the mud that goes half way up my calves... once in my church dress.

Other times, the truck runs out of gas, and once it got a flat tire from the rocks in the mud. When it is just gas, and we have money for gas, we walk to the van through the mud to get gas. Then we walk with a gas tank through the mud to get to the truck.

Carrying a gas container through the mud wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for the mosquitos.

There are so many giant mosquitos!

If we run, we can avoid getting too many bites, but if we're moving slowly (because we're carrying something heavy) they don't leave us alone.

And, when we're carrying something heavy, we can't slap them off us because our arms are full.

If we are low on gas money for the truck, we just walk the half mile to the van in the mud when we want to get somewhere.

This walk is not too bad on the way to the van because we can walk quickly, except for when one of our sandal gets stuck and we have to reach in to pull it out of the mud while the mosquitos bite us and get in our hair.

The way back home from the van is rougher though, because we are usually holding groceries or school supplies and it's hard to run, but we try anyway, and then we slip in the mud, and then all of our clothes get stained from all of our falls. Almost all of our clothes have mud stains

I am grateful for our interns who have pushed the truck out of the mud again and again as they got attacked by mosquitos in their efforts.

I feel like it's pretty symbolic of our days here right now.

2. THANK YOU!!!

I share the sorry tale of our jungle road with you because your extra donations have made it possible for us to buy rocks and gravel to put on part of our road to cover the mud which was made even worse by the hurricane. It was enough to cover about 90 feet. We are now 90 feet closer to having a stable road.

To say we are very grateful would be a sad understatement!

Thank you, thank you for helping us

And speaking of help...

Interns!

We LOVED our interns! God is so good to us and sent us the coolest people ever for our first summer internship. They woke up ready to work, they made breakfast, cleaned up, planted, built, dug... whatever needed to be done. Then they planned their lessons and activities and taught some of the amazing kids in Solferino.

If they saw me cleaning, cooking, or going out to get water, they would immediately ask how they could help. They laughed often and made up fun games for the evenings.

At times we had a hard time drying our laundry because it is rainy season and they found creative ways to make things work (like standing under a ceiling fan to dry off a shirt )

I'll be sharing more about what they did over the next couple of weeks on social media, and you can see more cute videos (like a day in the life of an intern) on the Find Your Path Mission Facebook or IG Page.

They made a cute video for you to meet them all. Just click on the picture above to see the video.

3. THANK YOU!!!

Callie, my friend and next-door neighbor when we lived in Utah, sent her son to come out to volunteer.

She heard about our not having a dryer during the rainy season and wanted to help.

She started a fundraiser and delivered water to people to encourage them to donate.

She raised $675! Enough for us to buy a dryer!

We are still researching which one to get, but we are so so excited to be getting one very soon.

The rain is unpredictable and I am tired of hanging clothes out to dry only to have to bring them in quickly after 10 minutes because it starts to rain!

Also, we get at least 10 new mosquito bites each time we hang up the laundry outside.

We are grateful for you, our thoughtful friends!

Summer Program and Internships

One of the things the interns did while they were here was run a summer program for the kids/youth in the community. This helped us build bonds in the community as they taught the principles of faith, proactive obedience, discernment, and kindness. It also provided a safe place for these kids to be.

These youth did an incredible job planning, shopping, and implementing the whole program! All I had to do was translate on occasion. I am blown away at the quality of the experience they created and the love they shared with the kids!

Our next internship opportunity, or week long service trip, start September 9th. You can choose to come for 1 week (service trip) or 5- 12 weeks (internship). We had a wonderful time doing an internship as a family at the Mission last year, so don't be afraid to sign up as a family (kids 8 and under pay half price).

Learn More About Internships

4. THANK YOU!!!

Two of you donated enough for us to buy two computers for the youth who will be starting BYU pathways this fall! One of them is the first in his family to attend a university. I have heard him talking on the phone to his family as he tells them he got accepted and how proud they are of him. We love you for making this possible. And thank you all who have done any of the following:

• Liked, commented, and shared our social media posts. This helps us spread awareness.

• Joined our social media or events teams! We would love more help finding places to put booths and people to help manage them in order to spread awareness and get more people involved.

• Started a fundraiser! This can be done online through a social media campaign or live through a 5K, a car wash, bake sale, etc. This is a great way to bond as a family or group, spreads awareness, and gets us much needed resources to do this work.

• Talked to a corporation. Some businesses have a certain amount they donate to charities. Maybe you can let them know about what we are doing, that we are just getting started, and that we could sure use some help. :)

• Became a monthly donor. We couldn't be here without you! We are in DIRE need of more monthly donors to continue to move this work forward! We are working hard to become self-sufficient someday, but as we are trying to build, plant, and gather... we could really use some help :)

• Have come on a service trip for a cultural experience while helping us build, teach, and create a refuge for at risk youth!

We love you!!!

Thank you for your help in this work. We know God is sending you our way and we are grateful to you for listening because this is proving to be increasingly impossible without your support. We are learning more and more just how incredible those of you in this community really are. And I have a feeling we are just getting started in seeing all that you can do.

Thank you, thank you!

With love,

Karen Bates