Two years ago, in April of 2016, it was the tail end of a service trip I took with Operation Smile in the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Over the course of the previous 10 days I had served as a student volunteer, my job being to prepare children before children before their surgeries for cleft lip and pallets by playing games and taking their mind off of what was to come. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent with these children and their families and I thought that nothing could be more eventful than those past few days. I was very wrong.
It was one of the last days of the trip and things were dying down as the mission was nearing its end. With a little free time on our hands, my mission partner, sponsor, and I decided to explore this cemetery located right next to the hospital we had volunteered out. It was a 'must-see' according the other volunteers who ventured out to see it in previous days.
We begin walking the short distance to the cemetery when all of a sudden, we hear a loud noise that sounded like a car backfiring, as my sponsor had told us that's what it likely was. We brushed it off and continue walking. But then we notice large groups of people gathering in the main road by the hospital and although this was really odd, once again we continue walking. We get to the cemetery and it's this beautiful array of above ground mausoleums ranging from large to small of all different shapes, colors, and designs. It showed how much love these people had for their loved ones who had passed on. Looking back, it is quite similar to the movie CoCo and how much effort is put into preserving these mausoleums.
About 20 minutes goes by and all of a sudden, we hear a loud boom that sounded to me like what a bomb might sound like, as morbid as that is. Then we look up and there's helicopters circling the cemetery and outside perimeter of the cemetery. The moment I lost my cool was when it dropped some kind of fire cracker onto the streets nearby. This was our cue to leave and so we head for the gates to leave the cemetery.
However, we get to the gate and the darn thing is LOCKED! Now I really lost my cool. I was scared, really scared. Seeing people outside the gates gathered and clearly in a state of unrest made me all the more scared. I didn't know what was happening. We try to find someone to help us and we stumble across a man carrying a wheelbarrow of vegetables in the cemetery. Turns out he was seeking safety here. He spoke only Spanish and luckily my mission partner and I could make out somewhat of what he was saying, which the jist of it was that we needed to find somewhere safe and/or get the heck out of there.
Finally, we get in touch with someone at the hospital we were volunteering at and he was clearly worried and asking us where we were. We did not know the extent of how dangerous it was on the streets but we knew something was happening and that we needed to get as far away as possible.
This man left the safety of the hospital and actually came and found us by the back part of the cemetery. Might I remind you, the gates were locked which meant we were left with two options: stay in the cemetery OR climb over the wall and run back to the hospital. We chose the latter.
My mission partner went first. She climbed on top of someone's mausoleum, onto the wall, grabbed a tree branch and then the man from the hospital helped her get down. Next was my sponsor who literally stood on my hands as I lifted her up onto the wall where she climbed over. I was last. I slide my backpack through the gate, climb onto a mausoleum, reach over to the wall and pull myself up. Once I was up there it seemed a lot farther down than I thought which freaked me out. So, I grabbed the branch and just jumped down just wanting to get the heck down.
The man helping us told us how scared he was and that we needed to get back to hospital as soon as possible and that we needed to run. All I can say is thank the lord that he was there to help us. So, we ran and made it back safely. My mission partner told me that I looked white and I can remember feeling completely shocked as to what we just did. It was crazy. Many other volunteers came outside and asked if we were okay and were relieved that we were. One doctor even said, “this will be a story to tell your grandkids."
This was an insane experience, but I would do it all over again if it meant that I could go back and volunteer at Hospital De Las Culturas. The people we met there were amazing and showed a level of kindness I had never seen.
With that said however, I am definitely telling my grandchildren about this badass experience their grandma had.
