Super Trip Part 2 -- Mexico

For the past few years I have wanted to take my children to Mexico and do some volunteer work. Part of this stems from a recent realization of a scriptural emphasis on the importance of caring for the poor. For example, "It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin" (Doctrine and Covenants 49:20 -- maybe I'll share more about those scripture ruminations in another post).



In any event, our efforts to go to Mexico have been stymied, primarily out of concerns about the safety of going to Tijuana (the most accessible part of Mexico for us). We did service trips to St. George in 2011 and 2012,  but still wanted to go to Mexico. We decided that this year I would take our two oldest children (Levi is 12 and Annemarie is 10) and test out the waters. It was an amazing experience.

Gordon Carter at Charity Anywhere, arranged everything, and on the morning of August 2 we crossed the border.

An incredibly kind man named Rick picked us up 1/4 of a mile later and began showing us around. He lives in Mexico and is a full-time humanitarian. He took us to a few different places, and eventually we arrived at the house of a woman named Abril. Abril is a teacher at the community center Rick sponsors and when Rick was asking about possible houses to paint Abril suggested hers as a candidate.

Abril lives in an area where there are no paved roads, and there are few painted houses. Here's the view from her front door (keep in mind that this is only 40 minutes from the US border). 

 

So we set to work on painting the house.They had recently patched several holes in the cement in preparation for the painting and we spent some time wiping down the cement, making sure it was ready to be painted. Then the fun began!

 After a few hours it was starting to look much better. Abril's mother made us a tasty lunch and we ate together with her family. We needed to get some green paint for the trim before we could continue, and that was across town, so we told Abril's family we would come back on Monday to finish the job.

We were staying at a retirement center, and one of the directors was also the primary president. As luck would have it, there was a primary activity that night -- going to see the Smurfs 2 (at the theater, in Spanish). So we went to the activity and everybody had a blast. I think my favorite part was how 25 kids and 7 adult leaders crowded into the 12 passenger van (which had seats removed to making squishing together easier) so we could all travel together. It wouldn't have passed US safety standards, but it was a lot of fun!

Saturday morning began with Rick taking us to an orphanage. A group in Bountiful, UT had made quilts for the children. While the children were happy to see us, there was a sick baby who was not cheered up by the quilts!

Overall, the orphanage was quite a discouraging place. There were about 30 children there with extremely poor facilities. I felt like I could take the entire resources of my little family (both time and financial) and pour them into the program and not even make a dent into helping their needs. 

We went to Rick's school and were amazed at the efforts he is making to provide a good education to his students. Then we arrived at the community center, which has been the target of a lot of vandalism (many buildings in the area were). We set to work on repainting the building.

It was a big task, one that we could not have completed alone. Fortunately, a group of teenage Mexican volunteers happened to be wandering through our area and volunteered to help. With their assistance we will able to paint all four sides of the building in just a couple of hours.

Rick had to go to work, so we next teamed up with Gordon and his nephew to build some bunk beds for some families in need. The process of building the bunk beds was pretty straightforward. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

We started at 1:30 and it took us about four hours to finish building two sets of bunk beds. We couldn't completely finish them because they then wouldn't fit through the doors when we delivered them.  When we made the deliveries, the recipients helped assemble the beds.

We went to the first home in which there are 5 kids and 2 parents (plus additional kids not at home). A son had just returned from a mission and my heart hurt as I thought of him being a VIP in Chile (on the mission) and having a better standard of living as a missionary than at home. Their home was about 600 square feet. Concrete walls and floor, no paint on the outside or inside. Some kids were sleeping on be concrete floor. We had not been able to locate mattresses and as we were leaving I said to the father, "I'm so sorry we find could not locate mattresses" and he said, tapping on the slats and plywood, "don't worry, this will be plenty comfortable." That did not make me feel better.

We had to stop off at the retirement center and I decided to ask if we could buy two of their vacant beds and replace them later. Thanks to the incredible hearts of the workers we were able to get the beds. After delivering the 2nd bunk bed to a family (who also lived in really poor conditions) we returned with the mattresses to the first family. They were very glad to see them. I felt like it had all been worth it. We visited with the family for a little while. I learned that the kids had been baptized in 2008 and the father in 2010 . Within 1 year after being baptized, the oldest was off on a mission to Chihuahua. He's been home for a few years working and helping his family, now he's hoping to go back to school (he never completed high school).

Gordon sang a song that everyone enjoyed and we stopped by a store and a taco stand before finally getting home at 10 PM -- totally wiped out. We had a family prayer and debriefing and arranged blankets on the floor. Levi and Annemarie both wanted to sleep on the floor (one of the mattresses we had given to the other family came from our room) but ultimately Levi did and we finally got to sleep. We slept better because we shut the window and it was harder to hear the roosters (thankfully!)

Sunday morning we were blessed with hot water for showers (there had been none on Saturday). We went to church and the testimony meeting was awesome! People were getting up to bear testimony the moment the sacrament ended. Many powerful testimonies were shared that touched my heart. One came from a 21 year old who spoke of his efforts to fulfill the stake presidents challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 1 month!  He would wake up at 4, read 7 chapters, and then work/go to school until 10 PM and read 7 more chapters. His was an amazing example of faith. It was so inspiring to hear the wonderful testimonies of the saints there. 

That afternoon we went to the community center and played Uno with six children who were learning English. We played Uno to practice English with them and we also told stories to each other. It was a good time. These young people were amazing! I was so impressed with their desire and drive to learn.

Monday was our last day in Mexico. We got an early start and went to go and finish the house we had started on Friday. When we got there, la Senora told us that she wanted the house painted green and not white! So we painted over the white we had done and it looked pretty good. We didn’t have time to finish everything (we had thought we were just doing the trim) but we left the paint with her to finish with her kids, which I think she will enjoy.

 

We did a little tourist shopping in downtown Tijuana, the kids enjoyed using their limited Spanish to buy presents for their siblings.

Overall, the trip was a great experience. My hopes were to contribute in small ways to people's lives in Mexico and to help broaden my children's horizons. I know that the trip instilled in me a greater desire to serve the poor and I hope it did the same for my children. We are planning to return and hope you will come with us. We're so grateful to Charity Anywhere ... without Gordon and Rick (who was so kind and drove us all around, including to the border) we could have never done it. Learn more about Charity Anywhere.

Super Trip Part 1 -- San Diego Beaches

We were really blessed this summer with the opportunity to take a super trip! I'm going to blog about it in four parts -- Part 1 is the San Diego beaches!  We began our trip by driving to San Diego and spending the night with my sister Janet and her husband Jeffrey. They were gracious hosts and our kids had fun exploring their house and surrounding areas. 

The next morning we drove straight to La Jolla Shores, and spent a few hours at the beach. The kids loved it. We went "home" to Dale and Kathy's house. They are Lani's uncle and aunt and were incredibly gracious throughout our trip; it would not have been possible without them.

The next morning we went to La Jolla Cove and saw the Sea Lions up close and explored the caves. Some people tried to snorkel, but didn't do too well as the water was cold and choppy. That didn't stop the brave explorers from combing the rocks looking for sea creatures though!

We then went up to Torrey Pines. Even though Lani grew up in San Diego, she had never been there, but it turned out to be one of our favorite places. There were awesome hikes and and the kids loved boogie boarding. It was great! There was an incredible cliff hike, made doubly so as we hiked down cliffs towards the beach while the sun was setting. 

Wednesday we went to Point Loma and explored the tide pools, visitors center and light house for several hours. It was beautiful being out on the ocean, feeling the cool breezes upon our faces. Then we got pizza and went to Mission Bay to see some of Lani's old HS friends. Thursday we went to Silver Strand beach. Our kids were starting to get beached out (I didn't think that was possible!) and after a few hours wanted to go home. We stopped by the pier at Imperial Beach and had some seafood (Lani and I did this years earlier and have great memories of Imperial Beach. It's definitely underrated)! 

 It was good to go home early though, because we had lots of things to prepare for our trip to Mexico. Part two of the trip was about to begin....!

Summer School with the Hiton Family

When Levi turned five we just weren’t ready to let him go to Kindergarten. Florida had full-day Kindergarten and we thought it was too much for such a cute little guy. So we decided to homeschool. Well, it was harder than we thought and after a few months Levi was enrolled in school! But we’ve always remembered Lani’s parents saying “We put our kids in public school and do home school!”

So a couple of summers ago we started a tradition of a “home school summer school.” Basically the way it works is that before the kids can go out to play they need to do three hours of summer school. They can set their schedule for what they do each day. Some things are required (piano, math, writing), other things are optional (e.g., geography) and because our kids love to read so much, reading does not count. Lest you think we are mercenaries, we did do tennis lessons and counted that as “PE.” The kids make themselves a schedule and I make a chart to track their progress (they get to move forward one space on a little game board for every successful day of homeschool, receiving prizes along the way (mom, you know where I got that idea!)).  

This summer has probably been our most successful homeschool ever. The kids decided that they didn’t want to get robbed of their playtime and so they have been getting up at 6:00 most mornings to get an early start on homeschool. This has the great benefit of helping them to be tired out around 8:30 or 9:00 so we don’t have as many problems with late summer nights! There is something great about getting up early in the morning. The kids have had much more focused scripture study and journal time, and for the most part, everyone has stuck to their schedule. We’ve had a lot of fun with Khan Academy, Geography Quizzes and MindSnacks (Chinese and Spanish). We also bought a workbook for each kid and used math worksheets and letter tracing when we got desperate for activities (letter tracing only for Joseph and Katrina) :).

Part of the summer school plan is accomplishing at least one really hard thing. I love what Clayton Christensen wrote in How Will YouMeasure Your Life: “Self-esteem – the sense that “I’m not afraid to confront this problem and I think I can solve it” – doesn’t come from abundant resources. Rather, self-esteem comes from achieving something important when it’s hard to do.”

I sat down with each child at the start of the summer and invited them to pick one really hard thing that they wanted to do and we tied the “big prize” at the end of the summer chart to not only doing home school each morning, but also accomplishing the hard thing.

Levi wrote an awesome book called Journey to Oregon. We were able to go to BYU’s Y Mountain Press to see it actually get published.

 It’s an awesome book about a family’s adventures on the trail west.

Annemarie also took on a big writing task. A couple of years ago she wrote a short  book as part of her summer school challenge. This year she decided to translate that book into Chinese (she has been in the Chinese immersion program for four years). She put an incredible amount of consistent and focused effort (including about 20 hours in the past two weeks). With help from her Uncle Cameron, she finished this week!

 

Annemarie plans to print out the book like Levi did, and has also made it available as a Kindle book. Regardless of how many sales it gets, I think it has built her self-esteem because she’s done something hard.

Maria and Joseph are still working on their hard things and I’m sure they will accomplish them. All in all it has been a great summer of summer school!

Merry Christmas 2012

 It’s been a year filled with blessings of the Lord and growth for our family. Highlights: running out of gas on trip to Denver in Feb; marriage of my sister Sheree in April; family stay-cation in June including happy camping at Yuba lake; family reunions in Midway, Seattle, and Hobble Creek; trip to Las Vegas in the fall, St. George service trip in December; John and Lani trip to Chengdu; visits from family and friends, daily fun in our home and answers to prayer after prayer. Here’s a little update for each of us.

Katrina (3): smiles, laughter, cuteness.  A blessing to our family! She told me yesterday she loves serving because it makes her happy.  Easy to love. Loves to talk, talk, talk especially at bed time. Happy to play with friends, unhappy to run errands with mom. Also loves hugs, tickles, being read to, and using scissors to cut paper into really tiny pieces; loves anything tiny.

Joseph (6): fun, fun, fun. Quick to forgive, quick to help, eager to learn; Bikes, army men figures, legos, treasure chests, card games like Monopoly deal and Skip-bo, Great Dalmuti—amazingly keeps up with the older crowd; capable vacuumer, improving leaps and bounds in reading and piano skills, loves reading “Indian in the Cupboard” with his dad, kind friend to his mom, protective older brother; great at making deals, chasing people at recess, being a good friend at school and bringing peace to all.

Maria (8): loving heart, remarkable persistence, Chinese tenacity, loves to write, beautiful cursive and recently started the Harry potter series. She loves playing with the younger children, especially babies (good thing a new addition is coming to our family in 2013!). She tells me so is so excited and pats my growing middle. One of many goals she kept, was finishing the entire Book of Mormon before she was baptized. At times it seemed impossible to her mom, but she was self-motivated and often read for 40 minutes a day to accomplish her goal. She uses this stick-to-it-ness in piano; she’s willing to play songs repeatedly to get them right—all self-motivated. Younger siblings love it when she is home as she is so attentive and playful with them.

Annemarie (10): peacemaker, helper, reader, inquisitive, hard worker, master counter wiper: She really is a thoughtful, kind-hearted girl. She often will be the one willing to share or do without to bring peace and happiness to her siblings. She even shares ice cream and other favorite treats! She reads on average a book a day, yes that is over 300 books this year, at least. She can read, write and speak in Chinese. She pretty much amazes her parents. She also has improved a lot with persistent practice and can perform hymns, and some fun recital songs. Her hair is long and blonde similar to a favorite Disney character. She loves the scriptures.

Levi (11): valiant, kind, smart, leader, great cleaner and launderer: is learning that diligence pays off. He participated in his first piano competition performing “Tarantella” and “Scherzo in D minor” receiving “superior” marks from all judges. He also has seen rewards for effort and work, receiving all possible awards as a Webelo, earning the “super achiever award”, and already has 8 merit badges. More importantly, he is the most energetic playmate at home and makes all his siblings and especially his mom laugh and laugh. Very kind and thoughtful to Katrina. Uses his computer skills, more for family history research than computer games.

Lani: working on mastering motherhood, wondering how many times her children will need to forgive her for mistakes made; truly finds joy in her children, grateful for time to landscape, study, organize, write and love; enjoys: speaking to youth, traveling with her husband, speaking with her husband, finding super deals; thoroughly loves: playing with, cooking with, cleaning with, learning with, reading with, memorizing scriptures and poems with, talking with her children. Celebrates gospel learning and teaching. Grateful for a thoughtful, unselfish, brilliant (not to mention handsome!) husband who works magic in his family and professional life.

John: patient homework helper, full of ingenuity, time-efficiency master, proficient dish-washer,favorite professor and speaker to youth and Time Out for Women, writes, writes, researches and writes some more. 12 articles (wow!) published this year (see http://johnhiltoniii.com/book-of-mormon/ for his favorites), and a new book called The Big Picture with Deseret Book. A 2012 highlight for him was being a guest professor in China for one month with Lion Education.

Frequently the volume at the dinner table is way too high, or it seems no one is happy, but we are learning to follow my grandmother’s saying that “a grateful heart is a happy heart” and count our blessings rather than the perceived problems. We really miss this grandmother who passed on in March of this year, but we are grateful for her uplifting influence on us of love, forgiveness, gratitude, and kindness. We hope amidst all the chaos of a young family we are developing these Christ-like attributes as well.

Merry Christmas! Love, John and Lani Hilton Family

China Part 4, Two Great Tutors

One of the best parts of my time in China was the time I spent with my tutors. I primarily worked with two tutors, Hattie and Song. I used the site http://gochengdoo.com to find a tutor and I felt really fortunate that I was able to connect with each of them.


Hattie was kind enough to come to Sichuan University after I finished teaching each day. I taught from 11-3:30 and then worked with Hattie from 3:45-5:45. We would typically spend one hour going through a lesson that she had prepared and then one hour of either conversation or me practicing telling her stories. Hattie was an outstanding tutor. Sadly, we never took our picture together, but she was kind enough to send this picture of her.

I also met with Song each morning. He was very gracious and would come to my hotel room every morning about 9 AM. Our time together was mostly informal - we would have conversations, I would ask him about vocabulary words and would practice telling him stories. Originally he was only going to come from 9-10, but he kindly would stay longer each day just chatting with me. We did some fun things together, including going to Leshan and the Lotus Flower Market.I likewise neglected to take a photo of Song and I together but here is a picture of him that he sent me.

I thought it would be helpful to have two tutors because that way I could practice some of the same things with each of them without them getting bored. So I would review vocabulary with Song and tell him a story from my life (or from literature) and get feedback from him in the morning, and then review this same vocabulary and story with Hattie in the afternoon.

As I've written this post and look at these pictures of Hattie and Song I really am grateful for them. They really sacrificed a lot to help me, and I know that listening to me fumble around trying to tell stories in Chinese had to tax their patience. Having the opportunity to be with Song and Hattie on a daily basis was one of the best parts of my time in Chengdu. I was able to really get to know them and feel like I had close friends. Thank you Hattie and Song!!!!