Club Dust 08 June Itinerary

(the Olympic adventure!)

Wed.June 25th,

5 pm -meet at the terminal 2 parking lot at the San Diego Airport. Look for 2 Bayside Express buses parked at the bottom of the escalator. There will be several Olympic Mascots  waiting to welcome you to this year’s Club Dust Olympics.  One of them even has a cell phone (408)205-3045 if you are lost. You can call too  if you just need a friendly voice to remind you just how life changing the next few days will be for you and the families you meet in Mexico.

Bring extra space in your suit cases to help us bring into Mexico the shoes and baby clothes that we are giving away to the families near where we are building.  IF you are reading this before the trip itself please consider bringing along at least 5 pairs of new or “like new” shoes that we can give away during the trip. Shoes take up an exorbitant amount of the monthly wage of families in Mexico. Because of this we set up a no charge shoe store near the worksite and hope to give away at least 1000 pairs of socks and shoes. Make sure to see this part of Club dust in between the hammering and painting that’ll be going on each day.

Board the buses make sure you have your luggage in the luggage bay of the bus you are riding in. The buses all have restrooms on them and you’ll hear all about what to expect for the next few days while we are driving over the border. This is also when you’ll have to be paid up and have the liability waiver signed before you get off at the Olympic village which will be your home base for the next few days and nights.

6p.m.The buses will leave the airport at 6 pm sharp so don’t be late! (if you DO miss the bus get a rental car or thumb a ride to the Tecate/U.S. border where you can call the 408 number above) If you call we will come pick you up at the U.S. border office and escort you to join the other Club Dust athletes at the Olympic village  there in Tecate.

7 pm -7:30 pm Registration and bunking assignments are handled at the International stadium entrance as you get off the bus.

7:30 pm-8:30pm -Indonisian PUPUs  and a great Mexican Luau are served by the  grand pool complex all evening so take your time in getting yourself settled. Find a bunk and relax as you meet your new neighbors in the bunkhouse or the campground if you are tenting it in the polo fields behind the ranch. 

9 pm-Meet at Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies and instructions on your individual events. Bring your dinner or a cup of coffee but don’t miss this time unless you want to embarrass your country by missing the game rules and regulations.

10 pm-quiet time and a good idea to hit the sack as tomorrow will get here quickly! Make sure to have your earplugs or IPOD handy in case you are within earshot of  one of the famous snoremeisters!!

Thursday, June 26th

5:30 am- Bible study by the fireplace. Start your day with your mind and heart in the right place. Fresh coffee and hot chocolate served to you for the caffeine and sugar fix you’ll need at this early hour! 

6:00 am - Breakfast served at the food court gazebo. Enjoy and make sure you eat and drink enough for a long but fun day of work in the sun! Fill your sports bottles here at the Olympic Village and keep drinking throughout the day. Each house will have ice water and munchies available. We will have salt tablets and basic first-aid supplies if you need them throughout the trip. There is no medical insurance coverage through Club Dust so take responsibility for your health and safety while serving others in need. Tim Rocknowski is our Clubdust Health director and a working RN. Please let him know if you have brought any prescription meds or have any health concerns. Tim will be available via radio or cell phone throughout the trip. There will be a comfort tent set up at the house building site. It will be stocked with basic first aid supplies, salt tabs and Gatorade. This is a good place to chill if you need to cool down and get out of the heat for a bit during the day.

7:00 am- first bus leaves for the worksite as soon as it is full. Today is the day we get the framing and technical work done so anyone that actually knows what they are doing needs to be on this first bus. Bring your breakfast and coffee if you’d like. We are traveling local style in the Tecate town buses all of 25 minutes to the worksite. Once there take all your tools and personal belongings out of the bus as it will be circling back and forth between the ranch, the donation site, the church and the house building worksite throughout the day. Look for the chief Randy Strong from the country of Santa Cruz once you get to the worksite. He’ll give you directions to the house that you’ll be building and you‘ll then get to first meet your team of fellow builders. Each house has a team of people that are a combination of skilled and unskilled workers of all ages. Be patient and careful as you work together to give a family a home as the ultimate celebration of God’s love!

8 am- last of the buses leaves the Olympic village for the worksite and donation center. Don’t miss this one or you’ll miss all the fun of Club Dust in action!

 12 noon-chow-time! Meet at the comfort tent for a great meal and make sure you drink enough to stay hydrated and eat enough to have energy for a long fun day and evening! This is a great time to look around and see what life is like for the families we are helping with a new home. This site has few old shacks as it is a new development so you’ll need to check out the surrounding areas to see what we are replacing as typical housing. The best way to do this is to take one of our buses over to the railroad tracks where the portable homes are being assembled and also where the church/community center is being built. Many families start off with a house made of old discarded wooden garage doors nailed together into a box. Others use scrap wood or pallets wrapped with tar paper for a basic shelter against the wind and rain. The homes you are building are safe, functional and will last many years even in the hot summer sun and winter storms!

5 pm- first bus leaves the worksite for the Olympic village. The buses will continue leaving as they fill up until all the sunburned Americans are loaded up and heading to the cool pool and hot showers.

5:30 pm-Chow time at the food court starts whenever the first bus arrives with its sore and tired superstar athletes! The international culinary staff will be singing and cooking until 7:30 so take your time, wash up and get ready for a night of global fun and lots of silly team competition!

7:30 pm- follow the Olympic flames to the Olympic stadium for a fun night of games, music and team building.

10 pm-lights out and quiet time on the base. Any athletes found making noise after 10 will be subject to immediate tossing into the Olympic swimming pool so be forewarned!  Hang around in the Olympic hall as long as you want but remember the singing wake up alarm  comes early at 5:30 am!!

Friday, June 27th

5:30 am- Bible talk in the fireside room. Get some refreshing spiritual juice in your soul to start the day. This also gets you breakfast before the rest of the athletes roll out of the bunks.

6:00 am-Gold medal Breakfast time with a good mix of protein and carbs to keep you going all dayToday you get even STRONGER coffee for a good morning buzz and to make sure long through the heat and pressure of changing the world! 

7:00 am- first bus leaves with the team coaches and gold medal workers all aboard. Meet at your house site for a time of prayer and connection with the family you are building for before you start swinging the hammers.

8:00 am-last of the buses leaves the Olympic Village for the worksite. Grab your coffee or cocoa and a muffin and climb aboard the Tecate cruiser and head West to the worksites. 

11:30 am-lunch and hydrate at the comfort tent.  Look at how far we’ve come in just 30 hours as a team working together to serve our friends and neighbors! Remember to ask any of the Olympic organizers any questions you might have. We love hearing suggestions too. Just know that as you have any ideas of how to make Club dust better we will probably agree AND put YOU in charge of making those ideas  happen!

4 pm- first bus leaves the site and ventures back to the spa and massage tables back at the Olympic village. We will keep the bus shuttle going until we are all back to the beautiful Club dust Ranch.  Take a hot shower or a cool swim and relax as you’ll be feeling some new soreness this evening after working so hard all day.

5:30 Chow time again at the food court. Relax and kick your feet up while sharing a meal with your new friends and teammates. Remember to see when your team has KP duty during the trip so life stays easy for everyone that is part of the trip. (cranky, overworked cooks make for bad meals the next day!!)

7:30 pm- Its down to the Olympic stadium for some time of photographic review and mid adventure evaluation. We will also look at the progress that we have made on the church/community center and what is needed to get it completed in the near future.Be ready for a bit of song and worship before we get to know more about the families we are building for. We will have lots of photos to show by now so see how  you look on the big screen. Better yet look and see what a major difference we are making in the lives of these families that are receiving the houses or food and shoe donations. This is just by providing them what we want for our own selves and family members- basic, safe, decent shelter and a bed to sleep and dream in. This is the time too when we hold the Family Box Auction. No checks required, your credit and an open, loving heart is all that is needed to stoke another family with a box of personal shopper clothes and shoes.

10:00 pm- lights out and sleepy time for your tired bods. If you still have more energy hang out at the Costa Rican coffee bar and chat it up. This is a great time and place to talk and dream up new ways that your life can make a serious difference in the lives of other people around the world.

Saturday, June 28th

5:30 am- fireside room is the place to be at this early hour. Get some insight into the eternal world that motivates and drives Club Dust as an organization. Breakfast and caffeine served right to your chair by your trainers.

6:00 am- breakfast time at the Gazebo with plenty of black java and some good music to start your day in the right attitude.

7:00 am-first full bus pulls out like a Kenyan sprinter and heads straight for the worksites and church. Make sure to use your sunscreen unless you are looking to bring home a bad sunburn as a souvenier  from the trip!

8:00 am- last bus departs filled with smailing, happy people from around this great big world! Bring your food and drink along if you slept in a little after the wake up alarm woke you from your beauty sleep this morning.

11:30 am- lunch at the food tent at the house building worksite. After your house is completely done make sure to get a tour of the various projects that are happening at Club dust. This includes a no charge shoe and sock store, a furniture factory, a church and community building being built for the benefit of this community where we have been building for many years. Ask any of the Olympic organizers how to get in on the site seeing tour if you haven’t seen it all by now.

4:00 pm-first bus rolls out and makes a straight beeline dash for the comfort of your temporary home in Tecate. Make sure to get on a bus to avoid the long walk back for dinner.

6:30 pm-It’s the annual awards and closing ceremonies banquet at the Olympic stadium. Dress in your country’s colors as you represent your team up on the winner’s stand. Dinner is served at your table, tipping not allowed and no food fights please!

10:00 pm sleep if you want or enjoy the night together with friends and family. When you do choose to shut your eyes you are sure to sleep a most restful night as you think of the families in their new homes and beds. It is really pretty simple in the end of all things. We participants have excess money and resources to build homes with. They, the families we built for have a love and respect that we can learn and be inspired by and take home in our hearts. Put together it makes for a really great adventure for these 5 short days in Mexico but one that will effect us for a lifetime!

Sunday, June 29th

7am-the singing wake up call brings the start to a new day and the call to breakfast at the food court once again. Be sure to bring your luggage and sleeping bags to the basketball court for a quick load-up when the buses arrive later this am to take us back home to the U.S. 

8 am-Reflection time and sharing of those “moments” that you saw and lived out during the trip these past 5 days. This is also a great time when we pause and give thanks for how good a life God has designed and wants us all to live. We will take communion and spend some time singing songs of praise and worship. Feel free to hang out and take part even if this is new to you. Club Dust welcomes everyone who wants to serve and we encourage each participant to consider their own spiritual journey in life. We welcome you to think about what Christ said about how life could be lived here on earth. Please take a moment of peace and think about what you have seen, heard and experienced among the laughter of children and the sounds of building homes, furniture and a church. This is an equally important part of Club dust, that what goes on deep inside each of us individually. It is what we take back as changed people to the communities we live in across the country. It is what we apply to the rest of our lives making this world better by helping people around us and letting others help us when we need it too.

11 am- Time to load up the Bayside express buses and head back over the border to the San Diego airport. We will arrive by 1 pm so make your flights after 2 pm to be safe. Remember to take everything off the buses at the airport. They will make just one stop which is at terminal 1 (Southwest terminal). If you are flying out of terminal 2 you’ll need to walk the short distance (approx 500 yards) or take one of the various shuttles provided by the airport.

Thanks for being part of Club Dust 2008. We plan to have our new website up and running soon. It’ll have a new look and have the ability for you to stay in touch with us for future trips. We also have a snapfish site up that we encourage you to check out. The sign-in email address is ray@clubdust.org and the password is mexico. You can view photos and post your own Mexico folder of pictures there too for others to see and use in describing better what  Club Dust is to family and friends.

The next Club dust trip is December 27-31, 2008. This is a great way to celebrate Christmas by helping others in real need with tangible help and a spiritual blessing for those giving as well as the families who receive homes and basic supplies.  We hope you can join us and be part of a good thing as we give and receive to those in need. And in the process we’ll learn what life can really feel like when lived fully and with passion and love.

Yours in Christ,

Club dust leadership team

James 1:27