What in the world am I doing here?

     So I guess most of you reading this probably know what I'm doing in Mexico and why I'm here. However, if you don't, this is for you. First of all, I'm working with Casas Por Cristo, an organization that provides short term mission trips to teams via taking them across the border to Juarez, Mexico to build a house in a couple days for the impoverished people there. I had been on two trips with Casas in the past and really loved most everything I experienced. So while I was in Mexico on my Spring Break trip this summer, my team leader Brittany Girle ( if you don't know her you're really missing out) talked to me about being an intern with Casas this summer. We had this conversation last year too, except that last year I told myself I couldn't do it before I even seriously considered it. This year, however, I was a little more confident in my abilities and Brittany made me believe that I could do it.
     So I got super pumped about being here all summer and applied to be an intern. Well, I was accepted and hired as a Casas Por Cristo summer intern. Then a week later I got a call saying that they actually couldn't have any interns this summer. The registration numbers for teams coming down to build houses was so low that they really couldn't afford to pay people to do the jobs that they already had staff members for. I was pretty devastated. I also still felt like I was supposed to be in Mexico this summer, but I made arrangements to be in Athens and work at the dairy all summer. Well, in an exciting turn of events, one of the other fired interns had a pretty great idea: we could raise the money to build ten houses and we would be our own team of four people and still be down here building houses all summer. Instead of being team leaders, leading other groups' teams, we would just be a team by ourselves. After a couple seconds of thinking this was impossible, I decided to do it. So we started raising the money and got everything worked out and we came down and started building houses. And that's where I'm at now. Also, I live at the Casas Por Cristo Executive Director's house. With four dogs. And a pig. It's cool, he's potty trained.

So I guess you're wondering why...

     So, before I came to Mexico everybody told me I should blog about it. Well I didn't want to. And I kinda still don't want to. Who really wants to share their thoughts and feelings for everybody to see? But I am anyway. I guess I'm getting started on this kinda late in the game...I've been here 5 weeks and the summer's halfway over. But I really feel like to do justice to this summer and what it's about and the wonderful people of Juarez, Mexico I need to do more than just take pictures.
     You may also be wondering about the title of this blog. Well, this thought has been kind of a recurring theme of my summer so far. So many times I've felt so strongly about something I've experienced that I want to take a picture of it so everybody can see what I'm talking about and so I can remember it forever. But then I stop and think to myself, "If I took a picture, it wouldn't mean anything. People would just see a janky little house, or they'd just see some kids hanging out in a tree house, or they'd just see some people standing in a circle. They wouldn't be able to look at that picture and know the story I'm trying to tell with it." Sometimes when I have those thoughts, I take the picture anyway. Sometimes I just don't. But whether I have lots of pictures or not, this blog is about writing the stories of life that the pictures leave out.