Editor’s note: Charles Kyd, 16, recently served on a mission trip to Mexico’s Yucatan state with other youth from North Creek Presbyterian Church in Mill Creek. The group was in the area when Hurricane Emily skirted to their north. He returned July 20. The Lynnwood High School junior will attend Edmonds Community College this fall through the Running Start program.
By Charles Kyd
Special to The Herald
Last month, I was in the Yucatan with some people from my church for a mission trip to remember. We painted, mixed cement, put concrete beams in place, moved a pile of sticks and, on the second night there, a cockroach flew into my face.
We weren’t in Washington anymore, Toto.
After seven days of hard work, our leaders changed plans that had been set for a month. Hurricane Emily was coming and since God hadn’t audibly commanded us, “Stay there!” we drove as fast as we could to Merida, the state capital.
Byron and Inez Ahina, originally from Hawaii, offered all 14 of us their home to stay in. So we hung our hammocks on the hooks that came with his house and made do.
It felt good to be in another American’s house, speak English and eat Caesar salad after a week of exclusively Mexican and Mayan culture.
We had to achieve total safety, though. Everybody pitched in to board up windows, make room in the garage for Byron’s van and clear clutter out of his home office. It would be the second safest place for us to sleep (the kitchen was the safest, but since it was so uncomfortable we would only go in there if the storm got especially bad).
When our preparations were done that evening, my friend Garret Young and I prayed that God would stop Hurricane Emily. Within hours, she changed from Category 5 to Category 2. Soon after that, she changed direction.
We woke up promptly at 5 the next morning, ready for the worst. We all had breakfast together about 5:30, and we all blinked at 6 when the hurricane was supposed to punch us in the face.
We were bored for six hours, awaiting a fate that told us we would now see some action around noon – which came and then went. With dim eyes, I spent a half-hour playing Scrabble for the first time in years to help pass the 12 hours we had until midnight, when our trusty weather Web site predicted that we’d be trapped in that office, praying that our fortress would not be overtaken.
Finally, finally … we had a rainstorm similar to the ones that we Washingtonians have seen many times.
We looked at a map of where the hurricane was and where it was headed. The hurricane had passed us by; we had no more reason to be afraid, so we undid our work from the day before.
That night, we slept in our hammocks scattered around the house, as we did on our first night there. After one more day of conversation and shopping, we flew home, safe from wandering hurricanes and giant cockroaches.
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