CMDA Trip

Throughout the school year, the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) organizes mission trips to Acuna, Mexico, which is across the border from Del Rio, TX. Tom goes once a year, so this weekend he headed off to Mexico.



He usually goes with his friends Andres and Sam, and this trip was no different. They got there Friday night and then woke up early Saturday morning to get started. There are a few makeshift offices (generally dental chairs set up in people's homes) scattered around the city. The people come to them to get teeth extracted, cavities filled, and whatnot.



So here's Tom working on a patient. I love seeing him all dressed up as a dentist. I actually start tearing up and get all emotional. He has worked so hard and gone through so much. This has been the HARDEST thing in his life and is such a HUGE accomplishment, and I'm just so excited and so proud of what he's done.







After a day of hard work, they sat down to talk about their day (and to take a few pictures), eat, and then to head back home. Now here's where the story gets really interesting. They crossed back into the USA about 8:30 pm. Tom was driving and had told everyone in the car that they needed to tell him where to go. In our car, he's the driver; I'm the navigator. I'm not sure what happened, but they didn't do the best of job at navigating. Shortly after crossing the border, they turned onto Highway 90, the road that would take them to San Antonio. I'm not sure at what point everyone fell asleep, but I know many of them were asleep for a good portion of the trip. After travelling some bit, Tom realized they should have made it to San Antonio or at least been close enough to see some signs, but they weren't seeing San Antonio signs anywhere.



They found some cross streets, got their bearings, and realized they were near FT. STOCKTON, TX!! Ft. Stockton is about 300 miles WEST of San Antonio. When they got onto Highway 90, they had headed west (away from San Antonio) instead of east, so the entire time they had been driving on 90 they had been going the wrong direction. Tom called me at about 1:00 am to inform what had happened. I just couldn't believe it. It was kind of funny, but really just sad. I felt bad for them. What was supposed to have been a 3 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive with Tom finally getting home at 6:30 in the morning. He had a headache for the next 3 days because of the messed up sleep he got. Poor guy. Despite the miserable ending, he had a good time and was glad to be able to go on his last mission trip with CMDA.