Rancho Sordo Mundo - the long version (no, really - I basically wrote you a novel)

For those of you who were unaware, I spent last Sunday afternoon through Thursday evening at Rancho Sordo Mundo (RSM), a free home and school for deaf children in the Guadalupe Valley (near Ensenada). I went there as a group of seventeen from my college to do short-term missions work. A lot happened in five days, so I'm going to split everything up... it may seem kind of choppy, so bear with me. :)

My schedule:

• Sunday - Arrive right before lunch, eat with the kids/staff. Play soccer after lunch for an hour and a half. Settle into our two (boy and girl) cabins. Eat dinner (again with kids/staff; all meals were). Play outside for an hour or so, until the kids had to go to bed. Team meeting. Campfire at fire pit outside our cabins. Sleep.
• Monday - Breakfast at 7:30. Staff devos at 8. Work until snack break at 11, keep working until lunch at 1:30. Go back to work until 5:30, clean up, eat dinner at 6. Play with the kids for a hour, team meeting, taco run, campfire, bed.
• Tuesday - Breakfast at 7:30. Leave for Tecate at 8. Work (with snack and lunch breaks thrown in) until around 4:30. Clean up, grab helado at a local shop, head back to RSM. Eat dinner at 6, play with the kids for an hour, team meeting, campfire, bed.
• Wednesday - same as Monday, except add a viewing of RSM's origin story after playtime, nix the taco run, and make the campfire until 1am (it usually ended around 10 or 11).
• Thursday: Pack, breakfast at 7:30, say goodbye to all the kids, staff devos at 8:30ish, load up the trailer, visit the store, say goodbye to all the staff, head back to America.

What I did there:

     For now, I'm gonna leave out the part about the kids - that comes later. The work we actually did split us up into three groups - kitchen workers, brush clearers, and the one I was part of: house building! Two of RSM's staff members had recently had a baby, and they are in process of adopting one of the deaf kiddos, so they needed a bigger house. It was mostly built by the time we got there, but some rooms still needed drywall put up (which a bunch of our boys did), and all of the seams needed to be taped, then those and the screws mudded over (along with a couple other people, that was my job!). That was Monday and Wednesday's work, and it also continued on Tuesday for most of our group. For me, I volunteered to split off into a group of six just for Tuesday and go to the Tecate Bible Institute. There was supposed to be another group from our school going there during the time we were at RSM, but they couldn't find enough volunteers. Therefore, we six took a day trip out there to take off a roof. They are expanding their women's dorms into two stories, so we got to remove rafters and put boards on top of the de-roofed building to use as a base for the second story. Very exciting stuff for an acrophobic! I am definitely getting better at handling heights like a normal human being! :D 

The children and staff:

     Words cannot even describe how much I am in love with all these people. Every meal and playtime was spent in constant conversation with them. We were each allowed to choose what table we sat at every meal. Boys and girls sat at separate tables, but the seating arrangement at those tables seemed self-assigned. This meant that even though I sat at one table for the most part, I still got some rotation among the kids. There was usually a staff member at each table to translate for us, although there were a couple of meals at which Karla (one of my teammates) and I had to fend for ourselves. Some of the kids/staff I got to know better than others, and some I didn't meet at all. Let's start with the adults:

• Ruben - staff. Sweet guy who led the brush-clearing team and stopped in to check on our drywall team from time to time.
• Doug and Peggy - staff. Doug helped with our team a lot, while Peggy seemed to be running things in a different area.
• Howard and Janet Grobstein - staff. These two are in charge of the internship program, which I will bring up later. Both have come to my school on multiple occasions to talk about RSM, so they're the ones I knew best. Janet is a go-getter, with more energy and focus than most people I've met. Howard is very laid-back and sweet, and super intentional about getting to know people; especially prospective interns!
• Micaela (mick-aye-AY-lah)- staff. Fantastic girl! Probably somewhere around my age, daughter of Ruben.
• Alisha - staff. She was only there for a couple of days (having been on a trip when we first got there), so I didn't get to know her well. She seemed nice though! 
• Jason - staff. He was an intern two years ago, and he's been staff ever since! It was really weird meeting him, because I've been following his blog (jasonatrancho.blogspot.com) since he was an intern, but never actually met him until now. 
• Drew - current intern. Also has a blog (mexiventure.blogspot.com), and is really friendly and funny! Also, as he stand 6'3" tall, kind of a jerk when it comes to basketball. :P 
• Katie - staff. She interpreted for the table I sat at during most meals. Super sweet and friendly, very animated, and loved interacting with everyone around her, volunteer/kids/staff alike! She was a huge help to us at meal times. I loved that she always signed while she was talking and as we talked, while some of the other staff only signed when interpreting between us and the kids. Even if no deaf kids were paying attention to her, she would still sign as she talked with us or other staff members. It was so cool how she made sure no one would be left out of any conversation! 
• David (dah-VEED) - staff. He used to attend RSM as a student, but after his graduation he decided to stay on and teach other kids! He loved to mess around with our group and make jokes (which was impressive given the fact that we aren't fluent signers and he is deaf/mute), but he was also really helpful with translating for us, especially during playtime. If there was a sign we didn't understand, he would break it down into "baby talk" (super slow/deliberate) sign, or add together other signs that he knew we understood, or pantomime things for us until we got it. He was very patient with both us and the slower kids.

Now for the kids themselves! In order of when I met them...

• Fernando - mid teens. I didn't get to interact with him much, but he chose me for his soccer team the first day. Seemed like a really nice kid.
• Yahir- age 6. This spunky little guy was the poster child for adorable trouble maker. He would tease the other kids, wrestle with his buddy Alexis over who got to play with the frisbee/ball/flashlight/anything in sight, try to attract attention whenever possible, but was still super cute and funny while doing it!
• Mariam - late teens. Very confident and gave off a strong don't-mess-with-me vibe, but very nice at the same time. Sort of looked out for the younger kids from time to time.
• Leticia (le-TEE-see-ah)- I think 14 or 15. Shy girl with a sweet smile, constantly adjusting her glasses in a nervous sort of way. Wanted to find out everything she could about us (age, birthday, city of origin, favorite color/animal/food/movie, number of siblings, etc.), and absolutely loved giving out sign names! Probably about half the girls on our team got their names from her, including me. Make a sign language "T" with one hand and tap it against your chin - that means me! (Me as in Trish, not the word "me". Just to clarify. And it doesn't work for any Trish - just me.)
• Alexis (ah-lex-EES) - age 7. Sweet and extremely focused, this little fella loved to learn! When playing frisbee with him and Yaris the first night, I showed off a little by throwing the frisbee to him from behind my back. He immediately tried it, failed, and pantomimed me showing him how. I taught him the technique through a slow demonstration, and he practiced over and over until he got really good at it! The next night I showed the boys some shadow puppets under an overhead light near the basketball court, and he instantly tried to copy the rabbit I was making. He spent probably fifteen or twenty minutes with me trying to perfect it (he got pretty close near the end), and he would have kept on trying if I hadn't excused myself to play basketball with the others. The next night, as soon as I stepped out after dinner, he took my arm and dragged me over to the light again, haha! Very determined kid. 
• Karen (kah-REN) - 12 years old, had been at RSM since age 5. This girl was invaluable in our communication at her table, especially on days when we didn't have a translator with us! Not only was she fluent in LSM, but she could also read and write Spanish! As Karla is a fluent Spanish speaker and I'm fairly good at it, this made for easy communication when Karen was around, as we could write to her in a notebook I carried with me. Easy-going, very bright, and always smiling, she loved to teach us new signs and help us communicate with the others.
• Isabel - early teens. I think she's Leticia's sister, but I'm not sure. Very quiet girl, never interacted much in our conversations. She seemed to like watching us though.
• Celeste - probably around 12ish. She was seriously the sassiest kid I have ever met! She and Yahir would have lots of amusing little mock arguments about which one of them was crazy, and she loved to make sarcastic faces and flounce off, all in good fun. Spunky little personality! Oh, and she loves giraffes. 
• Lesly - age 14. She only came to the ranch a year ago, so she's still working on more basic stuff; Katie said she's at about a first or second grade level. Very sweet girl. Loved to take Karla and me by the arm and lead us off on adventures. Hugged us goodbye when we left and made us write down our names so she could remember us. *sniffle*
• Orlando - age 14. He too only arrived last year. Likes to be the "class clown" of the playground. Didn't talk with him much, but he was always fun to watch.
• Axel - mid teens. I only spoke with him on our last night there, but he was a neat kid. A little bit shy (David had to encourage him to ask me things), but he spoke enough Spanish that we could type to each other on my ipod. His favorite food is tacos. :)

The Internship Progam:

     Every year at the start of the spring semester, the ranch takes on an intern for four months. They tailor a program specifically for the intern's abilities and future goals in which they teach them the language both through specific language classes and through the full immersion they get by living at RSM, teach them about deaf ministry and missions both in Mexico and in general, etc. As I mentioned before, Howard and Janet have come to my school a couple of times. Two years ago they hosted a "breakout session" at our missions conference and told everyone about the ranch. I loved the concept and thought that it was an awesome ministry, but I had no desire to become a part of it. I definitely thought it was a calling made for someone else, and while I supported it, there was no further interest on my part. When they came last year, I went to their session again just to hear updates and to see them; they were such cool people, I couldn't resist a second exposure! This time though, something different happened. When they brought up the internship, it suddenly seemed like everything I had been looking for. While I protested that Mexico was a far cry from the rainy, cool climate of Oregon (where I wanted to move after graduation) and argued that I knew nothing about their culture or how to deal with deaf kids, God kept putting it on my heart and wouldn't let me stop thinking about it. After some prayer and a lot more arguing, I conceded that, if this was what He wanted for me, I would do it. I tried to get on a short-term trip with the school to check the place out a couple of times, but due to conflicts I was unable to make it until this Spring Break. I was nervous about going on the trip, worried that it wouldn't be compatible with me, and that God didn't really have that internship on my to-do list like I thought He did. FALSE. This was the best experience I've ever had with missions (and believe me, some of my VISION trips have been pretty stinkin' fantastic). From the staff, to the kids, to the place (yes it is hot and sunny, but at least it's a dry heat... and it's gorgeous there!), to the program, I am absolutely in love with it all. Interning is definitely a thing I'm pursuing. I already have a sort of "in", as last year I took their dvd of signs (which were only split by starting letter, not by individual words), broke up each sign into its own video file, and uploaded the videos to a Youtube site they provided. When meeting me again at RSM, Janet told my group leader that I saved them hours of work, as they are now designing a sign-teaching website where they will upload the files I split for them! Many conversations with Howard and Janet over this trip definitely confirmed that they want me and are excited about my coming - when discussing crafting a program for me, Howard even discussed my coming on as staff after! And they've only known me for a week if you combine all the days I've been around them in both countries! When I mentioned my desire to intern to Katie and Alisha, they were thrilled because they've had four interns up to now, but never a girl intern before! Haha. :) 

I got homesick for RSM the minute I crossed the border, and I haven't stopped dreaming about it or things related to it since the night I returned to America. Graduation from college is in less than two months, and after that I have the VISION trip. Then the applications for internship come out, then waiting for acceptance, and (if God wills and I receive the internship) then seven months of waiting until I can finally return to Mexico. Prayers for patience and direction would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading! :)

Any thoughts or questions? Comment below!

From left to right: Lesly, Celeste, me, and Karen