Reflections on the Week and Final Pictures

On Friday, for our final work day, we went to a new location. Esperazna is starting a brand new community in Rosarito (the next city south of Tijuana). So far there is only 1 house in this community, so we began the construction on the 2nd this week.

The mother of the family is named Maria, and her and her husband Jaime have 4, incredibly hard-working boys.  St. Louise (the other group here this week) did the demolition of their previous house and we starting digging the foundation and making the cinder blocks.  Maria's youngest son Jaime (jr.) worked alongside us the entire day. His friend and a young neighbor (Bradley, age 7) also worked alongside us the entire day.  There were points during the day that they worked harder than us!  As one of our students commented, 'these boys work hard just for the joy of working and helping their family or friends. They have no expectation to make money or get anything in return.  They would rather help than play video games or play soccer.'
These 3 boys made a huge impact on our students in just one day!

In our closing circle with Maria, the other women of the community, and the boys we asked Maria what color she wanted to paint her finished house.  Her response brought all of us to tears.  She talked about how she has laid awake at night for years dreaming of a better house.  She talked about how she has it all planned out in her head.  It will be tan with chocolate brown accents.  She has planned out her new furniture which will be chocolate brown with line green accents.  She said she has already envisioned the vases and artwork that she will decorate her house with.

This view into her dreams was an incredibly special moment!  I think it is so easy to get caught up in the construction of the house and forget that we are building dreams and fulfillment of hope more than anything.  These families have been dreaming of a safe and beautiful house for years.  They have dreamed of the decorations and colors of their house.  They have dreamed of a future for their family.  It is humbling experience to realize that we have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the creation of those dreams.  We are not working FOR these families. We are working WITH them as they move closer to the fulfillment of their dreams.

Esperanza builds hope, Esperanza builds dreams.

Thank you for being a part of the building of these dreams and hopes! Thank you for supporting us on this journey.
~Kelsey

I would like to share with you some of the reflections that our group wrote last night in our closing reflection. They capture the beauty of this week:

• Favorite parts of the week: Cement pours!!! Lunch time on the job sites. Fun times on the bus. Feeling empowered to try any job on the site and knowing I would be supported - succeed or fail. Learning about real life in Tijuana, both through simple observation and by the words of a local.  Enjoying the wonderful people of Sacred Heart as I never would have gotten to otherwise. ~Dyllan Freeburg
• How will you allow this trip to change your life: recognize all that I have and be grateful for everything; say hello and smile to people I see, not just to people I know but everyone; recognize when others need help and act on it; allow others to help as well, people can only give if there is someone who will receive. ~Nadine Huff
• Most impact-ful part: For me it as going to the orphange and seeing all the girls.  They are so happy with so little. Also I thought it was going to be hard because I don't speak a lot of Spanish. But it was surprisingly easy to connect with the girls.  It made me realize that language is not a barrier and that love and compassion are a language everyone can understand. ~Bailey Sexton
• Most impact-ful part: The most impactful thing for me was Eduardo.  He is an amazing man, always smiling and messing around. I had a few one on one talks with him. But his talk about the border is what really got me to open up my eyes and words don't really explain how happy I was to hear from him. And how he has been doing this for so long just really shows he is a nice person and I really look up to him. Even though it was only a few days he still made an impact on me whether he knows it or not. ~Michael Williams
• How will you allow this trip to change your life: be grateful for what I have; help others/allow others to help me more; tell people about the culture down here; be more open with people ~Evan Absolor

The blocks we made!

Jeri digging the foundation!

The 3 boys who worked incredibly hard!

Bradley

Maria is on the left.

Jaime, Nadine, Bradley, and Cruz

The whole group!

With Eduardo

Maria and Maria

Mexico Day 6, Thursday, August 8th

Tonight after reflection we celebrated the 4 students who have birthdays this week. How cool, that 4 teens would choose to sacrifice their birthday celebrations for a week of service!  Because we are enjoying each other's company, the blog will be brief tonight (and written by Kelsey). :)

Today we had the opportunity to pour the 2nd half of the floor at the same location as yesterday.  Cement is one of the best parts of Esperanza!  I love stepping back and watching all of it happen. Each person is integral to the success and once the cement mixer turns off after 2.5 hours of non-stop work, the reward of seeing a floor is one of the best feelings!  When I say non-stop work, I mean non-stop work. One of my jobs today was to run water to all of the students as they quickly drank some water and continued with their work.  Talk about hard, dedicated workers!  It was a joy and inspiration to work along side these amazing students today (and this whole week!).

Here is a video from today (similar to yesterdays) of some of the boys loading the cement mixer. (Unfortunately the blog won't let me upload videos over 20 seconds.)  Hopefully this and the pictures helps you understand the incredible thing that is an Esperanza Cement Day!  There is nothing else like it!

Nerissa getting her hair done before work by one of the women of the community. :)

Cement pour reflections.

Dyllan adding the cement to the mix.

Mom and daughter working hard!

Preparing the sand for the mix.

Passing buckets. Making a floor!

Loading the mixer.

Sacred Heart and St. Mike's. An incredible group of people! An amazing group to work with all week.

Our hardworking group with our finished floor!

Additional Photos

Here are a few more pictures that capture some of the beautiful moments of the week:

The girls at the orphanage LOVED Richelle and her nail polish!

Getting their nails painted by some new friends.

Eduardo, the Esperanza Volunteer Coordinator, tells us more about the program of Esperanza. He is a remarkable man!

Johnathon (the Esperanza long-term volunteer and an Archdiocese seminarian), Eduardo, and Pat at the border.

John making friends at the orphanage.

Pictures from Wednesday, August 7th

Here are some pictures from our 1st Cement Day, Wednesday August 7th.  A cement pour captures the essence of teamwork and community! Such a special thing to be a part of.  We made a floor!!!

Team Work! 

Prepping the blocks for the cement pour.

So excited to do cement!!! :)

Filling the floor with dirt before the cement.

Bucket line for cement!

Cement makers.

The father of the house, Victor.

Our finished floor in the back!!!

Mexico Day 5, Wednesday, August 7th

Today was a change of scenery. We moved to a new location that was ready for fill and pouring of the floor. Mixing concrete is a rewarding job to be able to see the finished result. Maria even got to operate her first gas powered compactor.

Then, we got the opportunity to visit an all girls orphanage. There we got to play soccer and dodgeball (their version, not violent). The group brought nail polish and the girls had a great time getting their nails painted and painting our nails in return. John even got his nails painted. He looked muy bonita. One girl, Socorro, offered to braid my hair. She had no idea what she was getting into however, because my hair was a MESS after being at the work site. She didn't give up though, and after a few hundred yanks (which the nuns found hilarious) I had the perfect french braid. All the girls were so sweet and cute. It was so hard to say goodbye.

Then we got to play even more soccer when we went to play arena futbol against the Esperanza staff and friends. The boys from our church were excited to play against the Esperanza team since Eduardo, the Esperanza Volunteer Coordinator, was talking smack the whole trip. In the end, they could back it up because they destroyed all of our teams. Two little boys, Marcus and Brian, ended up playing on my team. They were so good! They showed up all of our players. We were glad to have them on our team.

Today was a good day of community and teamwork. Can't wait for tomorrow!
                                                                   Love and hugs, Bailey


Here are a few videos that capture the cement line. It is an incredibly special thing to be a part of and to witness! Every single person is part of the operation and the whole thing would fall apart without someone.  From filling buckets with gravel and sand, to pouring everything into the mixer, to filling buckets with cement, to passing the full buckets, and returning the empty buckets to the mixer...it is a well oiled and functioning machine! (More pictures from today will hopefully be up tomorrow.)

Mexico Day 4, Tuesday, August 6th

Hello faithful followers of our Tijuana journey!

Today was another day of working at Martin and Martha's house, including digging trenches for the foundation, jackhammering out a concrete patio, and shoveling dirt, followed by shoveling dirt, with a side of shoveling dirt. The trenches we (hand!) dug finished out at 3 feet wide and 68 inches deep!! 

Our drive to the work site this morning included a white tiger sighting on the freeway (inside a cage on the back of a truck..... Parents of youth, continue breathing ;) 

Martin worked side by side with us all day, so we got to practice a little Spanish while doing our best to communicate with an incredible man who, in the words of Kelsey, is a "beautiful witness of working for a dream and dedication to your family and community." After a long day of work, we got the chance to look at and purchase the phenomenal leather purses Martin hand makes in his shop above the house as a supplemental income for his family. Martin makes 80 to 100 dollars a week at his factory job, so he has a side business making purses as well. Martin was grateful for our business, and we were happy to support him and blown away by his workmanship!

After saying adios to Martin and muchos gracias for the hospitality, Edwardo took us by a finished Esperanza house so we could see the final project that we got to be a small part of helping to create. The house was beautiful, and viewing it gave us encouragement to continue our work. 

Tomorrow we move on to a different site where we will be pouring a floor. We will get to meet a new family and community, see a new part of Tijuana, and get new muscles sore. 

Buenas noches from beautiful Tijuana!

With love,

Jeri and Dyllan

The tiger in our morning commute.

The jackhammer!

Shoveling lots of dirt!

Salvador, one of the neighbor boys, helping in the bucket line.

Enrique and Diego, 2 other neighbor boys, helping out!

2 sisters and 2 brothers! Nadine, Enrique, Diego, Nerissa.

Back from unloading the truck.

The lunches are home made and amazing!!!

View from the roof of the house.

We moved big rocks today!

A beautiful Esperanza house! It took them 14 years to save and continue to add on. It's gorgeous!