Every February our church sends a group of students and adults down to Tiajuana, Mexico to build houses for families through an organization called Amor. Last year, Cannon invited Stevie to go while I took Emmy and London to St. Louis. This year we switched positions and I got to go to Mexico while Stevie went to St. Louis.
This was such an amazing trip that it's hard to sum it up in a few words in this post. It was amazing because we were able to build a house for a family in 3 1/2 days. It was amazing because I got to see how hard my son works and how good he is at speaking Spanish. It was amazing because I met new friends. It was amazing because I got to be a part of a tight community brought together by hard work, dust, sweat and bare-boned living. It was amazing because I unplugged from a technology infested world for a week and didn't miss it. It was amazing to see what God does in people's lives. And to top it all off, it was amazing weather.
In a nut shell, here's what we did:
Flew to San Diego very early Sunday morning.
Crammed 10 vans and two Penske trucks full of people and supplies and drove across the border and into Mexico. Set up camp on a dry, dusty field somewhere outside of Tiajuana. There were 117 of us! I shared a tent with 2 other ladies, Jessica and Beth.
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| That wall on the hill is the border between Mexico and the US |
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| Me and my tent mates |
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| Home sweet home for a week |
Every day we ate meals and had fellowship in a big circus tent.
Monday morning, we drove in a caravan of vans among the rutted, unpaved roads dodging dogs and people and crazy drivers until we got to our site.
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| The roads |
Immediately we got to work - our team, No Pollos! (meaning we're not chicken), was made up of 5 adults and 11 teenagers. Our pastor, Mark, was on our team and let me tell you, that man can work! Half our team started on the foundation of the house while the rest of us started framing the walls. Cannon chose cement and I chose framing as I wanted to hone my hammering skills.
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| The site when we started. |
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| Making walls |
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| Cannon and his cement mixing mask |
By the end of the first day we had a foundation poured (all the concrete is mixed by hand) and 5 walls made (all the lumber was cut by hand and all nails hammered by hand).
At the end of the day, you just want a shower, but the showers are a bit basic - like a gallon of water in the bottom of a five gallon bucket. It made for quick showers!
Day 2 - after breakfast and quiet time, we headed out early again to work. On the second day, you put the walls up and then the roof
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| walls going up |
The house is a two room structure with a concrete floor, a door and two windows, a roof and stucco outside. That's about it. No interior walls. No plumbing. No wiring. No carpet and bead board and crown molding. And consider that is luxury for most families.
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| The house is together! |
At lunch we'd pause and eat our sack lunches. The mom of the family (Patty, who was 20 years old) offered us some horcheta (a rice milk drink) but we politely declined. We all wanted to be able to finish the house without spending the rest of the trip in the hospital. She then offered us a courtyard to sit in, which we gratefully accepted since the weather was warm and the sun shining.
With the walls up, we started the roof while others ran baling wire all around the house in 4 inch strips Which then had to be pulled tight. The wire provides the support for the tar paper which goes on the house next.
This afternoon, neighborhood kids started showing up. They were curious and wanted to help. We would give them candy and other left overs from our lunches and try to talk with them in our very limited Spanish.
All the sand had to be sifted from a big rock pile.
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| The view from our site - that's a road in front. |
The house by the end of day 2 - beginning to look like a house!
Inside the house
Day 3 starts the same as days one and two.
Cannon and his friends, Eric and Casey
We started Day 3 by wrapping the entire house with a layer of chicken wire. The chicken wire gives the stucco something to stick to.
And then the stucco starts going on.
Stucco, in case you didn't know, is cement without the rocks. Which means more cement needed to be made and more sand needed to be sifted. The neighborhood kids showed up again and they wanted to help! As soon as they saw us shoveling sand into the mixing pans, they grabbed shovels and started helping.
Then they took over the job of taking stucco to the people slapping it on the walls.
Even this little guy was carrying big dollops of stucco - he was so cute!
About half way through the afternoon I turned around and saw a whole herd of goats coming down the street. There was a man herding them up the street like it's what you do.
Working together - big and small
At the end of day 3 - we have only one more coat of stucco to finish!
Right before dinner we were treated to a beautiful sunset.
Day 4 is a big, powerful day. We accomplish our mission today and finish the house and turn the keys over to the family.
After putting on the final coat of stucco, we added a few finishing touches - like cleaning the windows, laying a rock border for drainage and pouring a small front porch.
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| Final coat of stucco is on |
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| The finished inside. |
We had our last lunch inside the house.
Then Patty (the new owner) put Jesus' (her son) hand prints in the porch.
We finish by having a "key ceremony" where we present the family with the keys to the door. The keys were first passed around to everyone to say something to Patty (we never did see her husband who we assumed was away working). Cannon and another kid, Nolan, translated for us.
Our team leader also gave her a Spanish Bible.
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| Jesus and his new soccer ball |
Our team and the house.
The evening was filled with a special worship with lots of tears and laughs. It was a hard, gritty week that I would do again in a heart beat. Cannon has said he will come back next year from Hilton Head - it was that great.
Friday we packed up the entire camp and then headed back across the border. We didn't have a problem getting across and were at Moonlight Beach State Park in Encinitas by noon. We had to hang out there until we could get into our hotel rooms. We were all dying for those showers! But hanging out on the beach was fun and eating some good Mexican was good too. Cannon actually went in the ocean! The water temperature was 62 degrees. The kid is crazy!
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| One of those fools is Cannon |
That night we had a bonfire on the beach then all met back up in our groups to have the Great Affirmation. It's a time to share compliments about the other people on your team from what you have observed from the week. It was really neat as a mom to hear what others had to say about your son. And it was really touching to hear what the kids had to say about me.
Saturday morning we headed out to Mission Beach where we had a few hours before catching our flight home. I had contacted my friend Suzanne who lives in San Diego so she met me there and we had a long walk and lunch.
Waiting for our flight - tired, but happy!
