Student Zone

It feels like months have gone by since we arrived here at Baja Mexico when actually its just been a few days. In just these few days we’ve built two little but amazing homes that will impact lives of two families for a lifetime. 

Yesterday was day four of construction, the last day of work. All that was left in the houses to do was putting in inner walls, bed frames, a bit of roofing and painting. We split into two crews, the shopping crew and building crew. While the building crew finished up working on last touches and fixes, the shopping crew shopped for furniture, groceries and household items. Shopping was an experience. We first stopped at the furniture place. We needed basic furniture like a table, mattresses, chairs and shelves or dressers. It was an incredible feeling having to pick a dinner table knowing that this family would sit around it for every dinner. Although picking a table that could fit a family of 9  (or more!) was kind of tricky but we managed to find something suitable. After all the mattress “testing” (which was basically us jumping up and down on them to make sure they were good enough) and dresser picking was done we did some bargaining to get them as low as possible. And then we were off to the grocery store. There we picked about a months supply of groceries and necessities for them. It was nice to see and pick what things were going into the house, and more and more the house became a reality. 

The shopping crew joined the building crew in the afternoon to help put in those final touches. And voila! The houses were all done and they were beautiful. Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent with the family and children. Playing with the kids proved to be as tiring as hammering in nails all day. They wanted to be taken on never ending piggyback rides. And even though we were panting, trying to catch our breaths they wanted go again and again (they seemed to run on an impossible amount of energy). And who could say no to those eager adorable faces? 

For supper, we were invited by the lady who mortgaged the pieces of land we were building on, to her place. Traditional fish and chicken taco, dinner couldn’t have been better. After the traditional and fun dinner we headed to a house where we would be playing a movie on a big screen projector for the local community. We watched ‘Toy Story 3′ in Spanish. It was sweet to see the kids so excited about the movie. 

Overall it was a packed day and we were exhausted by the end of it. But all of us had a sense of accomplishment and that was calming. Today we are dedicating the houses to the families and we’re so excited! I have a feeling we won’t ever forget this day, and neither will the families.

-From Baja Mexico

Written by trip participant - Mark Rosvold

4:12 am, Saturday night, or Sunday morning. In the hotel lobby I see my cohorts standing around, bleary eyed, but filled with a undeniable energy, a silent excitement, and a bewildered look that can only come from the exhaustion of travel coupled with a mid-night wake up. We are leaving shortly, catching a shuttle to the airport. The air outside the hotel lobby is tight and chilled, our anticipatory breath hanging visibly in the air as we shuffle out onto the bus. A kindly gentlemen gets out of the shuttle bus and begins to load our luggage. His face bears an amiable countenance and his hair is slicked back, white as the snowy north from which we are leaving. After a quick ride, the airport looms in front of us, a behemoth of modern technological prestige. We have met the other half of our crew at this point; they come from UBC Vancouver. New faces; however there eyes are identical to ours, beaming with excitement. Check in a security flows smoothly for all of us…well, Adam has his body wash and sunscreen taken away, but apart from forcing the rest of us to share our anti lobster lotion with him, it all goes well.

On the plane we are much like small children. Not that we behave as they do, we are not childish (not mostly), but childlike. A stewardess comes by and says we have bright cheerful faces. I do not disagree.

Touchdown. Safely landed. God has brought us to San Diego. From the dreary cool Seattle to the north we have arrived in the southern United States, and the sun beams down on us like a smile from God, welcoming us to the warmth of our trip. Shortly after, Matt and Andrew arrive along with their wives. Bob and Sarah are there as well, from Hero Holiday. With the six of them, and Andrew and Dawn’s son Anthony, we students from the north pile onto a bus and begin winding our way south through the beautiful summery city of San Diego. Andrew informs us we are going to stop in south San Diego right before the border. We will be going into a posh store called (phonetically) ‘tarshay,’ he announces over the bus’ intercom. It is actually the superstore ‘Target’ that we stop at. This reminds me of the power of pronunciation, and simultaneously shows Andrew’s rather clever sense of reality.
After spending some time buying supplies at ‘tarshay’, and having lunch in the surrounding area, we get back onto the bus, better acquainted with one another, and with no division of campus’ remaining. From here, it is but a quick vehicular jaunt to the border. As we close in, there is that slight tension in the air: will we be stopped…hassles, large guns, it is on our minds.  No issues whatsoever!

Now in Mexico, the reality is devastatingly clear. Opulence and prosperity give way to sharply visible stratification, where mansions dot one part of a hill and structurally unsafe slums ensconce it. This Tijuana is real, it is not the poverty of studies or of textbooks, it is the poverty of reality, and it is a shock. But the colors are vibrant and Andrew informs us that these people we see sitting about looking dejected and sunbeaten, are warm, kind and loving people, with an inherent cultural altruism. I would find out later that evening, that the majority of us were fairly touched and shocked by this disparity, one created by a fence and a notion of non-united nations.

A new day. Monday, the first day of building. It was hot, it was dry, the wind was whipping strongly around us, and the sun lotion and water coated our insides and outsides…respectively. There is so much I could say about this day that I am finishing as I sit here and type with a semi groggy mind, but for the sake of concision I will mention just a few amazing points from our day. Sitting around the fire as the hot day descended into a cool night, reflections on the day were shared. There were many comments, but a few recurring themes. We were all struck by the reality of what we were doing, and how blessed we are to have the wealth we experience as north americans. Not that we necessarily relished our large homes and myriad vehicles and gadgets, but we did recognize the opportunities this wealth affords us. We are all in extended programs of education and most of us have cameras that cost more money than these families make in a month. It is hard to tell whether these realizations were high points or low points, perhaps they were simultaneously both. Personally I am being humbled and being shown a truth that can’t be recognized in the snapshots we see in magazines, but must be experienced firsthand.