Friday - Sept 26th

So we arrived safe and sound in Tuxtla. It was quite a trip. I basically spent all night Thursday night getting ready and only slept for maybe 20 minutes. I 'woke up' at 4am to shower which didn't allow me time to catch the bus, so I ended up driving. I made it to the airport early enough to get about 45 mins of sleep on the airport floor before my teammate Randy called to meet up at the gate. Randy is from Parker (south of Denver) so we traveled together on the 3 flights here. (denver to houston to mexico city to tuxtla gutierrex). The flight to Houston was packed, but the others not bad.
As I was walking down the jetbridge leaving Houston I thought "here goes nothing, time to take the plunge" - knowing there was no turning back and when I got off the plane I would be in a foreign place. The flight was fairly empty, and I had a row to myself so I was able to catch some more sleep.
Mexico City is crazy huge! It was a maze of streets and buildings flying over. No desire to go there! The airport there was the most challenging part of the whole trip. Customs was quick and easy although my large duffle got checked to see what food i was bringing in. Then the real fun started. Our ticket for the final leg had no flight info - only saying the airline name and to check in at the gate. It sounds simple, but it took a fair amount of wandering and a number of awkward conversations and helpless moments to realize we had to catch a train to another terminal, check in again at a ticket counter, get a boarding pass only to learn it didn't have a gate yet, and figure out where we needed to wait and watch a TV to eventually find out gate. Luckily we had the time to figure it all out.
It was very challenging trying to communicate - finding someone who knew how to offer the help we needed and trying to explain our situation in broken spanish without the key vocabulary such as gate (sala). Honestly it was frustrating and made me pretty uncomfortable & vulnerable. It's a hard realization to know you have little control and are at the mercy of those around you!
The team all met up at the gate for the flight to Tuxtla where we were picked up by the director of the orphanage, Bill. We loaded into the van and drove to our hotel. Silly me for thinking that flying into Tuxtla and staying in Tuxtla would mean a short drive. It was about 45 minutes from the country and windy roads into the city. On the rural parts of the drive, cars were passing us as we were passing those on the shoulder - and in the city, who knows what the real rules are. I was in the back seat so i couldn't quite see what was going on but we were doing our fair share of braking and weaving. The trip did allow a chat with some team members which was good.
We arrived at our hotel and had a late dinner at some american-ish chain next to the hotel. Everyone is pretty tired and after checking in we all just went to bed. I'm staying with Sam - an water engineer from Florida, originally from Korea. Breakfast is at 8, so it will be about 6 hours of sleep for me after staying up to write.
Today has been pretty rough - I'm tired - and feeling pretty anxious and stressed. I'm definitely out of my comfort zone here and the airport didn't help much for my confidence! I'm don't seem to do well with 'being along for the ride' and this week will be a lot of that. I hope it will get better once we get into a routine, but the unknowns are weighing in the mean time. My is already gurgling a bit and hasn't really been tested. I think stress is a likely culprit there, so I need to chill. I'm being reminded to trust and rely - and that is not about me!