Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh
Short-Term Mission to Oaxaca, Mexico
July 26th - August 4th, 1999
Day [ 1 | 2 | 3| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ]
DAY 1 (7/26/99 Monday)
After nearly missing my flight departing from Los Angeles, I was delighted to meet the rest of the mission team in Mexico City. I guess John was just a little tired from the trip from Pittsburgh since they had to wake up earlier than me. Looks like he could use some of that coffee in the background.
Sarah, Heeyoung, and J.J. just waiting happily for our connecting flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca.
After getting off the plane in Oaxaca, we got into our bus. When we stepped in, we were not very impressed...little did we know that during the trip we would learn to treasure this bus as if it were our own limousine. Here we are just singing some Spanish praise songs in preparation for VBS.
DAY 2 (7/27/99 Tuesday)
We arrive in a village called Atitlan. As part of the "HAIRCUTTING TEAM", here I am cutting a guy's hair. One of the difficulties is trying to find out how the guys want their hair cut, but eventually all the guys end up with the same haircut...very short.
DAY 3 (7/28/99 Wednesday)
Early in the morning the next day, we do some exercises. Some of us still aren't fully awake. Upon arriving at this village we didn't have a place to stay, but one of the former village leaders lent a part of the house for us to sleep in. The girls got to sleep in a nice room with beds and the guys got to sleep on the floor of the shack in the background. That probably why John looks like he didn't get a good nights rest while Heeyoung looks all rested up and ready to go!
This village lies on the side of a mountain. The clouds move unbelievably fast at the altitude we were at. In the background, the clouds encroach up the mountainside while my friend snapped a shot of what was supposed to be the nice background. If you look carefully you can see faintly the mountain line.
DAY 4 (7/29/99 Thursday)
After hiking 2 hours from a second village to go back to Atitlan we come across this river where we get the chance to freshen up. I have not a clue what Heeyoung is doing, but it looks funny.
If there is one thing John forgot to pack for this trip, it would have to be his modesty. Here he is flaunting himself trying to attract the local wildlife or maybe the indigenous people...he certainly wasn't impressing us. Just kidding. Here he is enjoying a well earned bath.
DAY 5 (7/30/99 Friday)
Here we are at another village. I am reenacting the thinking man. I guess this was too early in the morning for me. This is the place that we had our meals. Immediately to my right is where they slaughtered the chicken. I couldn't eat chicken for the rest of the trip. Those rumors of chickens running around after their heads are lopped off are true. It's actually a lot worse than that but I'll spare you the details.
Professor Kim teaching the students, but as usual no one understands him. In this case it's not because he is too smart, but because he couldn't speak Spanish well enough to communicate with them, but on top of that, the kids didn't speak Spanish that well either, since their first language was of a different dialect.
We got to a river and took a bath and did laundry. The current is actually a lot stonger than it looks. The current nearly took my boxers off as I was submersed in the water.This was our first real opportunity to take a bath since coming to the villages. Near the conclusion of our visit at the river, two people on horseback passed us and started to bathe their horses upstream of us...but that's okay because we were doing all our chores upstream of a bunch of women who were bathing and doing laundry also. Here J.J., (Dr.) Darren Shin, and I are doing laundry before taking a bath. Wow...look at those muscles :)
DAY 6 (7/31/99 Saturday)
Dr. Lee and Mrs. Lee (Husband and wife team) with me, their son. Just kidding. They were very pleasent to be with though...reminds me of my parents. Here we are at the church of the 4th village. The church was basically outdoors between two building covered by a tarp (as you can see above) and wooden pews placed in the middle.
DAY 7 (8/1/99 Sunday)
Dr. Lee turned from being a medical doctor to a botanist. Here he is pointing to a fern he is convinced has to be an edible plant similar to the fiddlehead. The stem is as thick as the piece of stick that Dr. Lee is holding. Now if only it were edible...you'd have every Korean moving to Mexico to pick the vegetation.
Here I am resting by a small waterfall as we hiked up to our last village. This 4 hour hike took us up and back down from one side of the mountain to the other.
Here the team is making it down a trail as we near the last village. All our supplies were being carried by horseback, and as we made our way to this village, the trail was covered with poop from the donkeys and horses. Dr. Lee and his wife are doing pretty good keeping up in front of the group most of the time.
DAY 8 (8/2/99 Monday)
Here we are finally at our last village. This building is the church. We are still waiting for our supplies to arrive on horseback. As you can see some of the villagers were eager to be the first ones in line as they wait for us waiting for our stuff.
Here I am with John (we become known as "Don Juan" -- the Spanish name for John is Juan)...while sucking on a lollipop, testing out my newly found skills as I take John's vital signs. I couldn't hear anything...I think his head is a little hollow :) Just kidding. I actually got to be a pharmacist for a day. There I am sporting my pharmacy jacket. I can't think of an easier job than counting out pills for a career. I think I'm going to change majors :)
DAY 9 (8/3/99 Tuesday)
On our last day, we spend time touring through some of the popular areas of Oaxaca. Here I am standing in front of the largest tree known to man. In fact that trunk of the tree can't fit on this picture. You can only see one side of the tree. Right above the white band across the tree, you can see a huge knot of wood jutting from the side of the tree. People say that it looks like a lion's head. Look carefully and you'll see it too. The tree is said to have many images in it, including a persons butt. Littered all around the tree were these huge GOLIATH BEETLES that died because they were flipped up on it's back side, someone in our group was convinced that these beetles were merely sleeping...I don't THINK so!
Here we are sitting inside the foyer of a very ornate church in Oaxaca, but you wouldn't know that from where they are sitting. The churches in Mexico are very much like the churches you'd see in Europe...so ornate it's almost difficult to distinguish between Christianity and idolatry.
Here I am at the site of Mount Alban. It is a very pretty place that overlooks the rest of Oaxaca. It was built by the Mayans and Zapoltecs on top of a large hill thousands of years ago. This particular place is where the people of this civilaization played a ceremonial game. It involved hitting a ball made of leather from their hips and arms and keeping it in the air. This court is shaped like the capital letter "I" and the captain of the winning team was offered to the gods as a human sacrifice. In light of this fact, I was told this joke, "It's little wonder why Mexicans are chickens when it comes to a challenge."
You can see how high up we are. This civilization was built high up on a hill -- I guess to feel closer to the gods or something. At any rate, the view is breath-taking. John, Dr. Song, me, and Mrs. Yoon, pose for a shot. John really is that short when you meet him in person ;?)
Here is another shot of all the "juniors" that went on the missions trip. This shot over looks the city of Oaxaca. We are standing next to the entrance of the museum at Mount Alban. Look at all the beautiful smog. The air quality is really that bad...and if you think that's bad...you should see Mexico City.
Here Heeyoung is showing John a little dinner trick with toothpicks. The object is to make the toothpick appear to hop around when it touches the other one.
DAY 10 (8/4/99 Wednesday)
Early in the morning on the last day, mischief gets the better of us as we smear shaving cream all over Prof. Kim when he is sleeping. The funny thing is that as we were scheming of what to do next, he suddenly said, "DON'T THINK ABOUT IT", but little did he know that we had already covered him with shaving cream. We all started to laugh aloud so hard. That had to be the second most funniest thing on this trip.
Here is Rena (or Rina, or Rinna, we still don't know how to spell her name). Anyhow she is the missionary's daughter and she speaks Spanish, Korean, and English fluently. She lived in Mexico for most of her life. We had to be careful around her because if we talked about her, no matter what language we chose to speak in (Korean, Spanish, or English), she could understand. Her help was invaluable on the trip as our translator. I'm not sure, but I don't think John is snickering just because of those "bunny ears".
Here we are getting ready to depart from the airport in Oaxaca to our next layover in Mexico City. From left to right is Dr. Song, Prof. Kim, Mrs. Lee, and Dr. Lee. Mrs. Lee is holding one of those wooden sticks that makes a rattling noise as you flip it around. She bargained for it at about 3 bucks. You can find the same exact thing in one of those "nature stores" you can find at most malls for about twenty to twenty-five bucks.
Here Mr. Darren Shin is talking with others as we sit on the floor waiting in Mexico City International Airport for our next flight. This is where I depart for Los Angeles while the rest of the team flies to Chicago.
Just one final picture at the airport as we shoot the breeze a little while longer.