I've been looking forward to going to Mexico to build a house and when the day finally came I had NO IDEA what to expect... I consider myself pretty handy when I need to be. Since I've had Victor around I haven't needed to be as much. My dad was a handy man when I was growing up so he taught me a lot. Still.... I was clueless as to what it took to build a house! My alarm went off at 4:30 am and we got ready and headed to the Church to meet up to get on the road to San Diego.
Our stop in San Diego was Amor Ministries. These are the people who allow us to do this work!
The drive into Mexico wasn't bad at all. The guy who lead us from Amor drove a little fast and the crazy drivers in Mexico was an experience to see for sure!
Victor drove his car into Mexico and we had a family from the Church drive with us. We got to know them very well in the several hours we were in the car together! Meet my "Mexico Family". They brought their 12 year old daughter to Mexico for the first time! Her first build at 12 years old! Sarah worked her BUTT off all day and it was amazing to see this 12 year old put her heart and sweat into building a house. I heart this family!
We arrived on location about 9am and our fearless leader Larry put us to work, but first the rules:
Rule #2 - You MUST drink a LOT of water all day long
Rule #3 - Listen to Larry for instructions
Rule #4 - No matter how cute the dogs are, don't touch them.
Really? Rule # 1, don't die?!?! Cause I wasn't freaked out enough about going to Mexico...
Our first Home build in Mexico! Bring it!!
My hubby about to work harder then we could even imagine!
Their house was going to be right there on that little patch of dirt.
Here is part of the V Family that we were building the house for. The two little girls and the mom in this picture. (dad not pictured). Their bio: Dad works in a stable doesn't make much money. They currently live in one structure. The roof is made of a plastic tarp and the floor is made of good old fashion dirt. They don't have an outhouse of their own. No electricity, no telephone or a car. Can you understand now why we are here?
For me and Victor, our first task was to build structures for the walls. While mostly everyone else was preparing the dirt for a cement foundation Victor and I worked together on building a frame for a wall.
With there being no electricity we used our muscles (or lack there of) for everything. Hand saws to cut the wood, hammer and nails to build the frame.
Victor and I built this frame! This will be used as one of the side walls to the house.
Amazing right? I'm super glad that Mexico doesn't have the same rules about walls as we do because I wouldn't have been able to complete this. But we rocked it! We hammered and measured and made it!
I THOUGHT that was hard work until I realized what the rest of the day was going to bring. You know that big dirt spot in the picture earlier that I said would be where the foundation of the house was going to be? Sure looked small right? Try mixing concrete by hand in a wheel barrel to fill that spot.... now seems like the biggest piece of land EVER. I would say between the 15 of us we mixed about 150 wheel barrels of concrete by hand. HOLY MOLY. The hardest work I've EVER done in my whole life. We poured sand, cement, fiberglass and water to make the perfect mixture of concrete. Barrels and barrels and barrels of it. Hours and hours of mixing with a hoe.
Super slow process. I honestly thought we were never going to fill it.
Did I mention that this was the hardest day of work I have ever done? They weren't kidding with rule #2, drink water all day long... I drank about 8 - 20 oz bottle of water in about 7 hours and never had to pee once. That tells you how much we were sweating. It was HOT and sunny the whole time. We did get a breeze a little later in the day.
It seemed like we were NEVER going to finish!
Larry and the older sister in the V Family.
At one point I thought I might pass out. I had a black hat on and with the sun beating down on me and the amount of hard work I was doing I needed a break. I sat in the shade for the last portion of it. I was able to feel better and help push through to the end!
We have some really talented people at the church that make this possible. Larry and his family have been doing this at LEAST once a year for 13 years! His sons were showing us the ropes and younger then 20 years old!
This is the foundation that NOCC built! This is going to be a house for one family.
Because we were able to rock out this foundation and there was still day light, we built 2 more walls so next weekend the group that came down would be a head of schedule! Our own Pastor Randy worked his tail off! It's so important to me to see our Pastor doing this same work. He doesn't just preach about it, he gets out and DOES. That to me makes me respect him that much more!
My work gloves by the end of the day showed my hard work. They were torn and warn down more then I could have ever imagined. This was just one day of work. These hands helped to build a better future for the V Family.
This one one of the best rewards to the end of my day! Mexico street tacos! I had 5 of them!
Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm. ~Sidney J. Phillips
At one point I thought I might pass out. I had a black hat on and with the sun beating down on me and the amount of hard work I was doing I needed a break. I sat in the shade for the last portion of it. I was able to feel better and help push through to the end!
We have some really talented people at the church that make this possible. Larry and his family have been doing this at LEAST once a year for 13 years! His sons were showing us the ropes and younger then 20 years old!
This is the foundation that NOCC built! This is going to be a house for one family.
Because we were able to rock out this foundation and there was still day light, we built 2 more walls so next weekend the group that came down would be a head of schedule! Our own Pastor Randy worked his tail off! It's so important to me to see our Pastor doing this same work. He doesn't just preach about it, he gets out and DOES. That to me makes me respect him that much more!
My work gloves by the end of the day showed my hard work. They were torn and warn down more then I could have ever imagined. This was just one day of work. These hands helped to build a better future for the V Family.
This one one of the best rewards to the end of my day! Mexico street tacos! I had 5 of them!
While the taco's where one of my favorite rewards of the day, the best reward for this hard work is knowing that this family that had dirt floors would now have a foundation to live on. They would now have a house to protect from the weather. To live in without worrying about the rain leaking in from the tarp. The amount of joy I have from helping this family, I can not even put into words. This experience has made me look at the world I live in, in a whole different way. It makes me so much more thankful for EVERYTHING in my life. Not only the material things but also the people in my life. Without the people in my life, I would not have most of what I have now. I thank God for everything I have and the people he has put in my life. I thank God for the opportunity to go to Mexico and help build this house!
In the next two weeks our church will make 2 more trips here to finish. The 10th they will go down and build more walls, put the walls up and start on the roof. Week 3, on the 17th Victor and I will go back down with them to help bring it all together and finish it! The most amazing day ever! I can not wait to see this little house and how much joy it will be the V family! And the fact that Victor and I can be a part of it is the best feeling ever!
Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm. ~Sidney J. Phillips
1 comment:
Great job Jamie!!
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