At the border

Our caravan of 20+ vehicles is sitting on the freeway waiting in line at the border in Mexico.  We're moving slowly enough that maybe I can post this along the way if I can get an internet connection picked up from somewhere. :-)
We broke camp this morning and got everything loaded up ion our cube trucks and vans.  Everything is SO filthy and covered in dust!  Our sleeping bags are disgusting, clothes and towels dirty and dusty, and bodies desparately in need of showers after three days!  I'm sure many of us are also bringing home crickets and other critters packed in our bags, as they seemed to love to jump on into our tents and chirp at us all night long.  Beth was most certainly not a fan of them in our tent.   Ella thinks they are cute.
Someone found another tarantula this morning out by our "tooth brush spitting area,"  hopefully no one is bringing one of those home!
We have a few students not feeling well from the heat and dehydration, including three of our kids (two of whom are currently throwing up this very morning).   Yesterday won out as the hottest day, which was also our hardest working day with several ambitious projects.  The thermometer registered 111 degrees out at our Faith teams' worksites!  It was a really hot day for roofing, for sure!
Our team had the delight of visiting with Maricruz and Jesus, the couple for whom we buillt on Monday and Tuesday.  She invited us into her new casita to see what she had done with it.  They had moved couches and chairs into the room, as well as their TV, radio and kids toys.  Photos of the kids were up on the wall, and they had built a shelf along one of the upper walls.  Curtains were in the windows and across the door to allow a breeze while  keeping out the heat and bugs.  She invited us to sit down on the couch, and Alex promptly made himself at home with the toys and watching TV.   After visiting for a moment, we excused ourselves to go next door where we were repairing the roof.  I asked Alex to come with me, because we "needed to check on the work we were doing next door."  He reluctantly came with me outside, stepped out into the yard, looked next door, announced, "The work is going fine," and went back into Maricruz's house!  I told her what he had said as best as I could in Spanish, and we laughed together over him.  She welcomed him to stay there while we worked, and they even started a movie for the kids.  It was a welcome relief for me to have him out of the sun for awhile on such a  hot day.
The other teams also got to visit with the families they had built for earlier this week, which was such a joy!
We made one of the vans into a "relief van," with the air conditioning running for people to come and take a break from working, or for those who weren't feeling well.  It was a hard day to stay hydrated, and after we drank all the water in our water bottles and the 6 five gallon water jugs we brought out to the site, we bought out all the little local neighborhood stores of all their cold water!  It was SO very hot.
A local church was on site in the neighborhood yesterday doing an outreach program for the kids.  We learned from the pastor that they had been there also on Wednesday and a woman had decided to follow Jesus that day, in large part because of the team that had been there serving her by building her a house the days before!
We were able to give that church team all of our remaining craft supplies and puppets to continue to use in Tijuana through their ministry!
I'll keep checking for a Wi-Fi signal and try to get this posted- otherwise I'll do it when we get back to Master's College.  However, if I have to wait, you better know that it will be later because there is no way that any unscheduled, required task is going to come before that shower! :-)