Backtracking ...

I am writing this at the Houston airport, as we wait for our first of three flights, with our final destination being Rome! HURRAH! So far so good – the Lord has been so amazing to us each step of the way. There have been countless adventures, but we are here and alive (and buzzing on coffee, heh heh).

To back track – we made it safely to Monterrey, despite the adventure of the trunk breaking. On Thursday, we drove up to San Antonio – we took the libre road from Monterrey to the boarder, and felt the hurricane that was hitting the Valley area. It wasn’t so, so bad, but it was VERY windy, rainy and that was exciting, having to pass large trucks along the way and not seeing in front. GB Cel who drove that part!

Anyway, we had an exciting border crossing. We got pulled aside, since the three of us girls were all born in different places – Philippines, Venezuela and Brazil. At first, everything was fine and dandy, according to procedure, but then they started to get nasty. I guess they thought that three blonds traveling in a car was a serious threat – go figure. At first we were being questioned at the amount of luggage we had (to which Celeste replied – of course we have a lot of luggage, we’re all girls! :D), but when we explained what we did, where we were going, etc, they eased off that.

But then they had us completely empty the car, they went through every single piece of luggage, and then drove the car off for an x-ray. By this time, we were getting a little annoyed, as they were being VERY rude, I had to answer a million and one questions – the same one at least 20 times (“Where are you coming from today?”) and so and so forth.

And there is the crowning moment – one of the female border guards came up, VERY serious and gruff, to ask whose car it was. When I told her it was mine, she asked the typical “Did you lend your car to anyone else? Did anyone else drive it?” etc. When I answered the negative, she then asked, “Ma’m, do you smoke marijuana?” Of course by now, we had explained we were missionaries in Mexico, etc, so I told her that no, I don’t and we don’t do that in our group – I don’t smoke at all. Then she said, “The reason why I am asking is because we found seeds in the trunk of your car.”

Okay, I had no choice but to laugh and then gave an explanation – the ‘seeds’ in the back of the trunk were sesame seeds! Someone had donated a bag of sesame seeds (along with a bag of flour, sugar and various other dry goods), and that bag broke all over the trunk. I explained all of this, but they still didn’t let us go – maybe they realized what a dumb mistake it was so had to make up for it some other way … or something.

By now, it’s been over an hour – another female guard (what is with the female ones? I think trying to prove something …) had us remove our shoes, take the soles out, pull out our pockets (even though the shorts I was wearing had no pockets, this wasn’t good enough, ha!), etc.

NARGH – we were all tired and frustrated by now. They finally bring the car back around, and as we go to load up the car, the bottom part of the seat in the back car, was torn off and the fixtures broken! Those who know me, know how I am like with my car, so this was NOT GOOD. Thankfully Celeste took over, and gave the guy an earful and asked for the supervisor, heh! So they came and fixed it, after some time, and we drove off – haha. Lordy, we do good with these kind of adventures.

Wow, this is getting long. Anyway, we drove to Fiesta that day – thank you, Fiesta Home, for having us! The moment we got it, we were told that POA (that would be the band, not Power of Attorney, ahem) was doing a gig at a bar/club that night, so we could go. I have photos, just not with me, but will post them in a bit – that was fun, but tiring, ha!

And that’s about it – we drove to Houston on Saturday, and now we’re on our way to Rome!!! SO COOL! I can’t get it over it, the Lord is way too good to us! It didn’t hit me until now, coming to the airport, ha! Can’t wait!

Photos will be posted shortly, promise. Please continue to keep us in your prayers!