now that i think about it, i remember my other missions trips...one to mexico, and another to the navajo reservation in new mexico. both times, our teams were totally roughing it. in mexico, our team camped out on the floor of this one-room building (there were absolutely no amenities - no electricity, no furniture, no indoor plumbing, but the natives did dig us a new outhouse, and there was a faucet in the yard that usually worked where we brushed our teeth and washed our faces.) the highlight of that two-week trip was not taking a shower for ten days. it got so bad that the natives eventually asked us to take a shower (basically pouring water over ourselves from a bucket)...our team had gotten so used to the stink that we didn't realize we were so smelly. oh, and i got sick. and my sleeping bag got infested with fleas...i think i counted fifty bites at the end of the trip.
in new mexico, we camped out for five weeks in the del cordero campground - five girls in one tent, five guys in the other. they were digging a well at the time, but it wasn't complete until after we left, so they would draw up muddy water into these drums and we'd get a bowl of water to wash up in the morning and at night. once again, no electricity on the grounds and no plumbing, so we had outhouses, and we ended up showering about once a week. once, we were actually able to use our family's shower, but the other times, we used the bucket method. some things i remember about that trip...driving the kcpc van in the mud (got stuck a bunch of times, and at the end of the trip, we had to take a team picture next to it 'cuz it was such a representation of our trip...sooo muddy.) del cordero-style discipline (think army bootcamp). struggling to stay awake during morning devotions. all-night prayer vigils. carrying an actual cross around the campsite. washing each other's feet. beautiful rainbows after warm rain showers...