On the Road Again!

"It's never easy to leave this land of smiling faces and huge hearts. With that always present touch of sadness I once again said my farewells to families past and present, friends made over the years and another truly wonderful group of SOL students. The early morning fog enshrouded us as we drove by the labourers in the fields and headed north to the border. The sun broke as we were coming through the mountains leaving the valley's mist covered. After the dreaded stop at the border (the border guy got mad at me 'cause I invaded his 'space') we headed for lunch along the boardwalk in San Diego. Beautiful sunshine, amazing 'art' (a Palm tree made from leaf rakes!), good food - but the need to hit the road again - cut our R&R time short. A stop before the 'grapevine' yielded a gorgeous sunset and a snow free drive over the pass has put us here in Bakersfield CA for the night. A 8 am start will come all to soon. Please Dear Lord, keep my heart ready to touch as you taught me over these last eight days - wherever you take me. Blessed to be a blessing! But having received far more than I gave! Another Mexican journey comes to an end:):( Papa Les"

Going Home

We are leaving bright and early in the morning on our way back to Penticton.  It has an adventurous trip thus far, I anticipate a quiet ride home?  All the youth have been great they worked, played and ajusted well to all the things we accomplished.  We have changed a family's life and a communities, but they have changed ours more than we have changed theirs.  There will be tears when the bus pulls out tomorrow, the Student Leadership group that has lived and worked with us has been wonderful.  They have included us into their family and we have build geat friendships with them. 

Tomorrow we will go to San Diego for lunch at the harbour where the U.S. Navy docks it's ships.  Then from there we will head to Bakersfield for the night.  I hope that the road conditions will be better than our trip down.  The weather is looking good, 24 celcius for Bakersfield and 27 for SD tomorrow afternoon. 

Tanner just came by to see what the plan was for tomorrow he is busy cleaning up his side of the room where his bag exploded.  To Edie and Ian, he says hi and he did take a couple of pictures.  I took a couple as well of his clean side of the room!!! 

Another great trip almost in the books.  Hope to do it again, a big thanks to Hero Holiday for hosting us.    

The Boss

Keeping a watchful eye on the comings and goings of the house build.

Changing A Life

After the house dedication today I have been wondering what it takes to change a life.  Today we gave a family keys to their new home.  A home they would never be able to build or buy themselves.  The dad works like crazy to make ends meet as it is, food on the table, kids in school and land to pay for.  But to build a 20 x 22 house would never be possible.  It took 20 + kids and 4 days and $6,000 to change a families life forever.  Today was the first day Dad was around all day, he has been up north with his brother in hospital.  Not sure what is wrong with his brother but he missed a couple days work to be with him.  At $10 a day, american, getting ahead isn't an option.  Getting a loan at the local bank in not an option.  Going back to school and getting an education is not an option.  The only real option is to work in the fields and take what comes.  This is such a forgien concept to us, we borrow, re-train, and re-vamp every area of life possible to get ahread, all possible becuase of decent paying jobs, loans, and being well educated.  A small amount of the rest of the world has the opportunities we do.  Maybe we shouldn't take it for granted?  

My hope and prayer for this family is that this home becomes an opportunity for their children to stay in school and get ahead in life.  May their future be bright and life transforming, they have transformed our lives.

House Dedication Day

Today, Monday is the day our family will get keys to their new house. This is one of the best and hardest days as each person has an opportunity to share what this experience means to them in front of the family. What a day, to hand over keys and see their reaction as they get to enter the house first and see all the things the team has bought and brought them.

The family made us lunch today.  It was amazing food!!!

Speechless, no words could describe what this means for the family, to now have a house they can raise their three children and be able to have space to grow as their children grow. Amazing what four days will do for a family that could not have ever built a house on their own. It may not seem like much to us, but for them it is life changing. The house may not seem like much but the experience of meeting the family, playing with the kids and building relationships with the community is as important as building the house and school.

Tomorrow we will dedicate the school. The community is making lunch for us and it should be a great day of celebration and eating. Here are some picture from today.

Hola from Mexico

Hey everyone. This is Val saying Hola. The trip's been good so far, altho I've had a bug I'm just shaking now. It's definitely been different doing a trip with a group of teens. It's been really cool to see them interacting with each other and the local kids. And it's great to have kids that have been here before, they are leading the way. There's evening debriefings, we heard the other night that people in our income range make up less than 1% of the world! Really puts it in perspective for me and the kids, it gets brought up a lot when the locals make 150 pesos ($15) a day picking fruit all day. Clark did the talk tonight to get the kids to start thinking about choices they will make in the future. I hope this trip will infuence some of those choices.Hasta luega, Val.

House and School Build Day 2

Here is Ben taking a break waiting for gas to come for the mixer.  Ben has worked hard mixing concrete for all the posts for the fence.  Way to go Ben!!!

Here is Les teaching a young man how to hammer a nail.  The local kids love to come help with the school even though their help does require much more supervision.  The walls and main beam are up at the school.  Friday morning we will add 8 roof panels and begin to paint and sheet the roof.  It's my hope that the wind is nonexistent today as yesterday's wind gave everything a fine dirt dusting.  Everything is now the colour of of the ground.  Between the huge mud holes we have to drive through and the dust all the vehicles are brown.  Car washes here must do great business trying to keep vehicles clean. 

Here is a picture from the roof of the house toward the school. 

Another great day of building and painting.  We are off to a watch a movie back out at the build.  Not sure what movie we are watching but we have a bunch of popcorn for everyone.  It was hot and windy again today, really windy this afternoon.  We have a peach house on the outside, not sure what colour the inside will be but tomorrow the inside will be painted.  Lots of work still to be done but we will be close to finishing by tomorrow night.

House Build Day 1

With three different building projects going on at the same time we divided up the teams and went to work.  The house, school, and fence all started today with a nice sunny day to boot.  With water in hand and suncreen applied we headed off for a hard days work.  The house build went to work with the hope of getting the walls up and roof panels on.  At noon we were still working on the walls but by 3 pm we were ready to stand walls and throw on the roof.  The house got a lot of work done today but we have a long way to go to finish the house.  It was great to see people that had never swang a hammer grab a hammer and learn how to put a 3 inch nail into a 2 x 4.  

The school build did a great deal of work today with a site double a regular house build.  The crew painted panels, built walls, and are ready to stand up walls tomorrow.  The school is 20 x 44 with some larger windows on the long sides of the building.    

The fence crew mixed and hauled concrete and stood up poles today accomplishing setting up half the poles.  All the poles will be set in concrete tomorrow, ready to put the chain link fence on once the concrete dries.  

We got a bunch of work done today but just as important are the relationships we made while building.  Young kids came and nailed 2 x 4 together and help paint panels and each other.  The mom at the house site painted panels and helped stand up walls, she was impressed with our work.  Her house is now standing tomorrow we will paint inside and out and put the roof on.

Here are some pictures of the day.  

Walls of House

4 Walls UP

House Roop Panels

Concrete Mixing

Fence Line

Pre-school site

Interesting thought:  26,000 is the poverty line in Canada 86% of the rest of the world makes less then that amount.       

Meet the Family Day/Soccer Game

Since we arrived early, early this morning after a few hours of shut eye we has a delightful breakfast of bacon, pancakes, and fruit salad.  It was extremely scrumptious!!!!  After breakfast we packed lunch and headed to meet the family.

We spent a few hours playing with kids on the playground, meeting the family, and we had our first International game of soccer . . . that we won!!!  After lunch we made our way back to the Big House where we are staying.  For dinner we experienced Mexican STYLE pizza, if you haven't had beans on your pizza it's amazing.  The "Big Mexican" is really big and Mexican but you would have to see it to believe it. 

We are going to talk briefly about the day and then go to bed, we have a couple of busy days of building ahead of us.  It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and a bit of wind but it's better then rain and snow.  We are looking forward to getting at it tomorrow.       

Assistance publisher: Tanner Johnson

We Have Arrived

Our goal for today was to make it to Mexico.  We did accomplish this reaching the border around 7 pm.  We stopped for dinner for Taco's and then made it to our resting stop at 1am on Tuesday morning.

All is well we will take an easy day today, Tuesday meeting the family and giving everyone a rest as the first couple of days were eventful.  It's nice to have a bed and be at our destination.

March Madness

Day 1

The day of departure is finally here and as we headed out the rain came down in Penticton.  Maybe we shouldn’t have washed the bus the night before at the Husky station.  This was an adventure in itself.  I must say that was a first, finding a bus wash after 9pm in Penticton.  Thanks to Safeway being open and allowing us to empty them of their change the bus was clean before we left.  We headed to Abbotsford via Crow's Nest pass ran into some snow once we hit hope the snow was gone and the rain was minimal. 

We stopped just before the Sumas border to have lunch and pick up four more youth from Vancouver.   Saturday afternoon on the beginning of Spring Break may not be the best time to cross the border but after the border guards asked all 36 of us the same questions and scanned our passports we were away around 2 pm.  Now 4:30 and we are in stop and go traffic nearing Seattle.  The sun is out and the weather is continuing to get warmer as we head south.  Boats have been spotted on the water and one man was mowing his lawn. 

Driving all night will put us in Northern California very early in the morning.  We should hit San Diego sometime late afternoon Sunday. 

Day 2

We did come into California early Sunday morning we came back into snow as we crossed the border from Oregon.  The snow was coming down wet and heavy we made to just outside Weed, Calf. and had to be turned around due to road closure over Mt. Shasta.  After a good stop on the off ramp to assess the situation we turned around and headed back to Yreka.  By this time it was 6:30 am we found a Walmart and parked for the next 6 -7 hours until stores opened and the snow let up.  Apparently, having bus chains is not common in N Cal. However, after calling around we did manage to find a pair that would work if needed. 

11 am we again assessed the situation as the snow is melting and the sun begins to shine.  According the Ralph, the Wal-Mart greeter, the once- a- year big dump of snow just so happened the same night we were passing through Northern California.  The roundabout trip we would need to take to bypass the snow would mean another 24 hours of driving to make San Diego, rather than the usual 12.  With chains on board we turned the bus south and headed for???  A big thanks to the owner/operator of the Napa Auto Parts store in Yreka, your generosity getting us back on the road was a true blessing. 

Mt. Shasta did have about a foot of snow at the summit but none on the road with a long line of trucks and cars we head to Redding.  According to the weather report there could be snow in Northern Cal for the next couple of days, but now we are looking at green grass and a beautiful Lake Shasta, just after 1 pm.  We will make San Diego late, late, tonight but we will make it.  A big thanks to Andrew and Dan, our bus drivers for handling the situation like the Pros they are.  And I must say a big thanks to all the youth for “hanging out” for hours at Wal-Mart and McD’s without a complaint.  According to Butch, a local rancher new Yreka, “Every day is a good day” today is a great day just rather long. 

Day 3

I would like to say I am in the BW in San Diego and it’s early.  We did not make SD due to the closure of the Grapevine.  We are in the BW in Bakersfield, we arrived about 10 pm.  Snow has shut down the Grapevine; we will assess the weather in the morning after a good night’s sleep.  It is just after midnight and the rooms are quiet.  Tomorrow, Monday we will make Mexico though a bit later than planned we have having a great time.  Weather in Cal is a bit wet; water standing on the side of the roads, rivers running just at the peaks and it is still raining.    

At The Step

In an effort to conserve space there are things that will not go to Mexico.  Though I am sure that I could still do with less, one large bag if packed right can hold as much stuff as one can carry.  My one large bag, almost the size of a hockey bag is more than most people have in their closets in Mexico.  If they have a closet?  If I can make it two weeks living out of a bag then how necessary is the closet full of clothes I will leave behind. 

So much is taken for granted in Canada, space and unlimited clothes options are a sample of what we think is normal.  We travel on a bus for two day one full day and a full night then most of another day before we stop for sleep, showers, and a sit down meal.  The luxuries of home will be left at the step of the bus. But the change in heart, mind and spirit will prove stronger than the need for the luxuries of home like: indoor plumbing, hot showers, and cable TV.

Each year I come to appreciate what I have, and what I could live without. 

Fund Raising Completed

I am excited and delighted to say that we have completed a mammoth fund raising adventure with all funds in - our trip paid for and enough left over to provide furnishing and supplies for our family and playground equipment for the school.

Job well done by the To Mexico With Love 2011 TEAM!

Our Family

As the days wind down before we get on the bus for a short 36 hour non-stop ride to San Diego the organization that we work with in Mexico, Absolute Leadership Development has sent us info on the family we will build for.

Juan, Marcilina and their three children Yolanda, Ayaceli, and Juan Jose are currently living in a small camper trailer.  You can see the camper behind them in the picture below.  Juan and Marcilina work in cactus farms and have worked hard to pay for the plot of land for their new home.  The two older children attend a local school and hope that they will continue to attend a house will help this family have the space they need to raise their children.

Our second project will be to build a preschool building which is twice the size of the house we will build.  In the area we are building their is a new subdivision (dirt roads and fenced plots) the government would like a school there.  Once there is a building built the government will supply a teacher and the needed classroom equipment.  Along with building the building we will fence in the property and build some playground equipment.

The house we will build is a 20 x 22 building with three window and a lockable door.  The school is twice this size but even then will not be close to the size of homes we live in.  By the end or our two weeks in Mexico a family will have a new home to raise their three children and a community will have a school they can send their young children.  A home and school are both things that we in Canada take for granted but most people in the world do not have these luxuries.