2019 Arizona Missions - Austin Quon
The weekend was pretty hectic on Saturday evening as I passed out from dehydration! I was with Uncle Radley (the medic) while cleaning the outhouses when all of a sudden I felt very light headed and had a stomach ache. I told him I’d be right back to get some water. Half way back I started to get a headache and dizziness kicked into over drive. I wobbly made my way to the cargo van to sit down in the passenger seat and passed out. Head on the dashboard and was out like a light, dreaming that I was dying. About five minutes later I woke up sweating like a waterfall and then chugged a lot of water. After that I got back up and went straight back to work. (Work doesn’t get itself done am I right?)
Sunday was the most labor intensive day for me needing to set up canopies for the kitchen. That area gets pretty hot from all the cooking and the sun beating down into the garage. The work didn't sound that bad up until I had six high schoolers to help me set up the showers in a wind storm (I knew the tarps weren’t taut, but it’s all we were able to do). Those kids struggled as we tried to wrap the tarps around but the wind kept picking up. Eventually after awhile of struggling we slowly put it together. As night fell the lanterns need to be set up since I didn’t do it Saturday night. At the end of the day I was so exhausted I couldn’t lift a cement pole that weighed around 50 pounds. I needed this pole for the tents so I could hang a lantern in the middle. Luckily I found a wheel barrel and used that to transport the pole. It doesn’t sound that labor intensive which you’re right, but when you’re in the sun while trying to keep dust of your eyes it gets exhausting.
Monday morning I noticed Kevin’s pickup truck had a flat tire. This was the same time Spencer wanted to take my mug shot for this blog--haha. The tire was low on air as in it was on the rim on the ground flat. Funny thing was the puncture was so small it was like someone stuck a needle into it. But I ended up changing a tire three times. First time was taking it off and replacing with the spare. Then later on, taking off the spare and placing back on the original tire. I also decided to take a shower during a wind storm. It was nice hot shower because the hose was sitting in the mid day sun, but also cold because the winds were pretty strong.
Tuesday was very relaxing except checking a tire that had a nail in it. I thought the tire was puncture and was slowly leaking air. So I changed the tire for the spare. But when Pete (driver/cook) checked the nail and he yanked it out and nothing happened. It went into the thread but didn’t puncture the tire, thankfully.
Wednesday morning we got to watch a slaughtering of a lamb (culture exchange day) then skinned, and its intestines removed. We also got to teach the Navajo how to make Chinese dumplings...like 800 of them. Afterwards, Celia, Jocelyn, and Katrina seasoned the legs of the lamb for Kevin's smoker (its a file cabinet where insides been gutted out with metal rack, built two years ago). Fire was so inconsistent it was either 1000 or 200 degrees. Then a grease fire broke out now the thermometers couldn't read the heat anymore. We then started a second fire to sear the head of the lamb. More like I threw it in a fire pit and all the hair burned. It was my first time doing this, so you gotta give me some props--at least I didn’t burn the campsite to the ground.
Overall the weather has been very pleasant--probably best out of the 7 years I’ve been going. I’ve noticed the lands are very green as Dinker (mother of Stewie, who owns the house next to the shade house) mentioned it’s been raining quite a a lot this year. Because of the rain there are too many weeds with spiked balls that have littered the camp ground. I nicknamed them "hitchhikers" because they stowaway on your shoes or socks.
Prayer Requests
- Some of the high schoolers been getting nose bleeds and they need to drink more water
- High schoolers would maximize their time with Navajo kids and be able to plant seeds
- Pray for Friday potluck day as our chefs have lots of cooking
- I continue to have the energy to push through the rest of the week
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