A Worthy Weekend

Several years ago, The Mister was asked to participate in a three day project building a house for some folks in Mexico. He and some of our kids went, and came back very excited about the experience. I joined in not long after, and soon we were hooked on spending our Veteran’s day weekends in Rocky Point. I’m going to show the process, and you will see why we think it’s a great way to spend a few days.

An organization called “Amor” (Spanish for “love”) has engineered a way to help underprivileged families in Mexico get a leg up in the world. They estimate that the families they help end up 10 years ahead, financially speaking. The system is very simple, and as meaningful (if not more) to the Americans as it is to the Mexican families. Amor screens the families who apply and selects those that have ownership of their lot as well as seem to be the neediest. On the other side of the equation are church groups and youth groups that will provide about 25 builders per house and the $3,000 plus for the building materials. Amor purchases and delivers the materials to the site, and provides some oversight of the building process, but the sweat and blistered hands belong to the groups tackling the house building. We are not allowed to use power tools, both because the culture in which we are working doesn’t have access to them most of the time; and of course, we are unskilled labor, and so it is much safer not to use power tools.

Okay, let’s start the tour. We left Phoenix early Friday morning and arrived at the campsite that Amor provides for the groups a little after noon. We partially set up our campsite, and then most of the builders went to meet the family and pour a concrete slab for the floor.

Our family consisted of the parents and five kids, and the mom was very pregnant, due in just 15 days. We didn’t get much contact with the dad because he is a cook’s assistant and he was working double shifts due to the motorcycle convention in town for the weekend. According to the information he gave Amor, he makes about $80 a week at his job. This family of seven, about to be eight, live in a two-room structure:

The walls are made of sheetrock; the roof is plywood covered with tar-imbued corrugated cardboard, which holds the rain out for a little while. But, unlike some families we have built for, they have electricity and a refrigerator, though no telephone or car. She cooks on a propane stove and does have access to propane and drinkable water.

Here are three of her girls sitting in front of the outhouse (with the blanket door) on the side of their current living situation. Note the clothes hanging to dry on the line next to the girls: this is not a clothesline per se, but a barbed-wire fence.

After the slab of concrete is poured (and all the concrete is mixed by hand and transported by wheelbarrow), the framing begins. One of the really great things about Amor’s system is that even the younger set can be involved and make a substantial difference. Here are some teenagers working on the framing:

And the men aren’t the only ones who mix or move the concrete; even moms can wheel a barrow with the best of them:

The slab is 11 feet by 22 feet, and our finished house will have 2 rooms. Sounds more like a good shed for your lawnmower than a house for 8 people, doesn’t it? But it will be sturdy and straight and will keep out the weather.

After the slab is poured, and some of the framing readied, the crew comes back to camp to eat and apply bandaids and get some sleep. The next morning they start again early and finish the framing and the inner wall and the roof, and then go back to mixing and barrowing, only this time it’s for stucco. They apply the first coat of stucco and let it dry overnight. Here are some stucco queens who are actually applying the finishing brushing touches to the second coat of stucco:

One more night back at the campsite, and this night every bone is aching and many fingers are blistered. Years ago I actually spent some time mixing concrete at the site, but The Mister requested that I restrict my contributions to the kitchen henceforth. I’m taking that as meaning that he thinks I’m a good cook, not that he thinks I can’t mix concrete. You may remember that I actually do run the kitchen at our annual camping experience called Ditch Camp, and so we have the equipment and the experience to fill folks with the calories needed to do this back-breaking work. This year a new group tagged along with us to learn the ropes a bit, so we fed 50 and built two houses. Here is a shot of camp in the early morning as folks get themselves excited about the new day:

So on Sunday morning the builders headed back to the site to finish the last coat of stucco and hang the doors and windows. Amor provides one door and one window, but we always pay the extra option to get a second window and door, and the mom gets to choose where she wants her windows and doors. This mom didn’t really want her window on the front of the house, so here is how it looks from the street:

We have a few Spanish speakers in our group, and they always try to spend a little chat time getting to know the family. The Mister can communicate well, especially about things like where she wants the door or where he can get water for the concrete, but he feels limited when it comes to issues of the heart and daily life. The kids that we bring along usually make friends with the kids that are there even though there is a language barrier. So we can’t help but feel warmth toward this family that we build for; and like any normal human being, we want to do more than just give them a 2 room lawnmower shed with no running water or bathroom. Amor strictly prohibits giving the families extra things, however, because they can’t control what is given and they don’t want to foster feelings of envy or disappointment. There are over a thousand people that come to build tens of houses over this weekend; it’s impossible to make sure the families would be treated the same by each group. The Mister, resourceful as he is, has come up with a way to satisfy our desire to give a little more. He has a photographic memory of how to get to every house we’ve ever built; and so after we finish with our current house and before we leave town, we go back and visit prior recipients and take them clothes and food and bedding and mattresses and such. Once again, this is as meaningful to us as it is to them, because we see how they have changed and prospered in the years since we built. Most of the houses have been painted, trees and bushes have been planted, and the pride of ownership is evident. This year a couple of our builder’s kids got very close to the family’s kids, so I’m sure we’ll be back next year for a brief visit.

Having handed the keys to the new owners and prayed for God’s blessing on the family, we take one last picture. The Mom and four of her kids are in the right hand corner, and the other daughter is in the lower left hand corner (Dad was at work):

We returned to our own palatial surroundings late last night, feeling satisfied and thankful to be able to help out; and I’m already thinking of ways to improve the efficiency of the kitchen for next year.