San Quintin Day 4

Tuesday, July 28 dawned cloudy with overtures of rain. While we were in the Baja in the afternoons it was very hot but every evening it would cool down and we would wake up to cloudy skies and even a slight drizzle the one morning. The nights were cold so in addition to the two blankets we bought for the missions committee we bought one to keep ourselves warm at night! Tuesday morning found us at the build site putting up roof joists. Alana is showing us how to nail in the centres.

We finished up at lunch time and headed back to the camp to get ready to visit the migrant camp. We needed to change into long pants for the guys and dresses for the ladies in order to fit in with their conservative culture. We picked up Elia, the lady in charge of the migrant ministries. She is a former migrant worker herself and a member of a Mexican tribal group. Many migrants come up from the far south of Mexico to work for four months or so before returning home. They do not speak Spanish but native dialects. The seven of us had prepared a skit about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead so we began by presenting that and Elia translated for us. We then coloured with the children and played with them while the other teams distributed food and clothing to the families.


In the accompanying picture Jesus is calling Lazarus out of the grave.

They also distributed several large blue tarps for the migrants to put over their houses. Otherwise they just use clear plastic wrap for walls and many did not even have roofs. Because it almost never rains they don't see any need for them. In the picture below you can see examples of the large blue covered dwellings were many families would live together and some of the smaller one-family dwellings which just consist of sheeting wrapped around four posts.
You can also see one made of yellow plastic in the centre of the picture. The background should also be quite noticeable to you. Other than the fields of irrigated crops that they are here to harvest there is not a lot of vegetation in this area. The migrant camp is located on a hill of non-arable land surrounded on three sides by hills and desert. There is no running water and most just walk to the edge of the camp to relieve themselves. Unfortunately, these migrants chose to live in these conditions because they retain a sense of community and independence.

We dropped Elia back off at her home and she liked our skit so much that she asked us to come to her house on Wednesday morning to do it again for the children's program that she has there four days per week.