Roof Tops and Breezes

It has been a very different trip for us.  Very often we are in the desert, with little shade and hot sun.  This year we have been working in the area of "Cumbres," which is just off the Pacific Ocean.  We are up on a hill and have a wonderful vista of the ocean.   All day there are welcomed breezes.   This is very helpful as that since Monday we have been working on the roof, getting it ready for the pouring of the cement layer.

The process is that of preparing cement forms so the cement doesn't run down the walls of the house, then laying a lattice of re-enforcement bar (re-bar) on the roof.  Once this is done, at each cross of the re-bar, the meeting point has to be wired together.  This is a slow process.   We haven't counted the number of cross-overs but it is in the hundreds but seems like thousands.


It can be a hot job, but with that welcome breeze from the ocean, and the ability to look out a beautiful scene makes it doable.   All while working a large speaker is pumping out music of the great Vicente Fernandez, or just the well known Mariachi music.  Of course, there is a healthy mix of current American hits.  All this makes the tedious job of wiring this rebar together more bearable.

Each day we are treated to great food by the women of the area, who are helping as part of their commitment to getting one of the next houses.  We have had a chicken mole, the most wonderfully spiced chicken BBQ, and a chicken caesar salad.   Usually, each main course has rice, beans, and tortillas with it.   The juice is real fruit juice made with melons, cucumbers or other fruits.  A welcome refreshment after the work on the roof. 

When we finished our work we headed out to the 'border' to experience the border and the wall as Mexican's experience it.  It always strikes me as strange, because the Mexican side is full of life, music, laughter, and all the joy of any beach town.  The US side is just empty, silent and desert life.
The Mexican side of the wall is painted with pictures of hope and happiness.  The US side is just rusted. 

Last night a large group of participants headed out for a professional soccer game and others went to the orphanage to play with the children.  On a sad note, the orphanage run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart has closed.   There were some financial problems we have been told.  We pray the girls are in a good spot.

The other group we have been with has been doing similar work at another site, (with the breeze).  Today all 40 of us head off to there to begin the roof pour.  We will pour that roof today.  Tomorrow we will head back to Cumbres and pour that roof.   With that our week will close.

If the internet is good I'll post how today went.   Thanks for your prayers and support.

It begins!

The internet has been a bit sketchy here so this is the first day I have been able to post.  All arrived on Saturday with few flight problems.    We picked everyone up and headed toward the Mexican border which only is about a half hour from the airport.  This year we had no inspections at the Mexican customs and sped right down to the Posada. 

The Posada is a large volunteer center built by Esperanza which can hold up to 80 Volunteers.   We knew we were joining about 10 Volunteers from Seattle who come from Trinity Lutheran Church, but we were also met by 20 High School students from Davis, CA.   They were scheduled to go to Honduras, but because of the violence there, their trip was canceled.  It is a group of young people who have been in a Spanish immersion program since kindergarten.  This trip was another step in that education process.   Nice young people and hard workers.  Another surprise was that (Dr) Marcel Tam met us.  He was a college student 17 years ago when I first took a group from LIU to build houses here. 

We settled in on Saturday and got to know the larger team a bit.  On Sunday we headed to a small church just down the street.    After Mass, we loaded up the van and headed to Puerto Nuevo which is a little fishing village about half hour away.   Some of the group went shopping and another group headed to a restaurant looking out onto the ocean for fish tacos.   It was a wise choice.  Our final day of relaxing ended.

Yesterday, Monday, began with a large meeting of the whole group with the director of volunteers who spoke to us of our work, safety and many things we needed to know.  We loaded up the Vans and headed out to our work areas.   The "Shrine" portion of the group headed south to a very remote piece of land on a mountain that overlooked the Pacific Ocean.  I will get pictures today!   Being close to the ocean provided us with a beautiful view and wonderful breeze.  It was hot and so we appreciated the breeze.

We were met by "Louis" who owned the land and currently lives in his broken down trailer.  He complains that it is very hot in his little mobile home. Louis had been a truck driver in the US and knew of the Providence-Boston area.  The walls of the building already up and our work was to prepare the roof for a 'pour.' The roofs are cement also but before the cement can be poured (buckets of cement lifted to the roof one by one) forms have to be made to hold the cement in.  That is our work for the next few days.   Our work is more exacting than hard.   We value Andrew Sanchez, part of our group who comes with amazing carpentry skills.

Here are a few pictures of our first days. 

2018 Pilgrims of Hope Project about to begin

Ten hearty east coast builders will be arriving tomorrow at San Diego airport and then the drive to Tijuana.   Everyone is excited.   We will join about 10 others from the West Coast.   We expect another great week.  Please pray for us!

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Clean, My Own Bed and the Aftermath

Most of us are back, with most of the cement washed off and have had a good night sleep in our own beds.   Friday and Saturday were eventful days in very different ways.

Friday morning, before we left for the work site, Eduardo, the head of volunteers rounded us up for a debriefing regarding our total experience but most especially our experience at the border.  He wanted to know what we thought of the wall (it has been up for years in Tijuana) and did we think Mexican people were dangerous.   Both Mexicans and US citizens all agreed good border security is a good thing.   The Mexican people don't want our drug dealers, our violent criminals or problematic people any more than we want theirs.  Everyone agreed border security is important, yet standing on the Mexican side made many of us wonder about the level of fear in the US at this time.   We all wondered how to fix our broken immigration system rather than build more walls.

After this very deep conversation, we headed to our final work site in the Puerto Nuevo area.  We set up the cement mixer, put about 8 people on the roof while the rest of us lined up to shovel sand or gravel.  Others formed the famous bucket line to pass cement from the ground to the roof.  Others formed a line to catch the empty buckets coming from the roof and prepare them to be refilled with cement.   For the next 4 hours, with water breaks, we made cement and passed bucket after bucket to the roof.  In total, we passed 50 tons of cement.   The final putt-putt of the cement mixer as it was shut off signaled our week of work was over.

All during this work, we could smell the great food being prepared by the family who is receiving the home.  We could smell steak, tortillas, and beans being cooked.  If we walked by the kitchen we could see juices being prepared which would quench our dry mouths after the work.   The cement mixer stopped and were invited to the feast.  There we laughed and joked with our hosts as we enjoyed the goodness of being together.  We communicated with smiles and nods.   When finished we gathered with the family.   The family, again and again, expressed their thanks through floods of tears.  The familiar "Mi Casa su Casa" (My house is your house) was heard again and again.   Our group expressed words of thanks and what an honor it was to work on their house.  Inside jokes were exchanged and then hug after hug.   We loaded up the vans and the week had ended.

We arrived back at the Posada and was treated to breakfast for dinner.  We cleaned the Posada and prepared ourselves for an early morning departure.

Saturday morning:  5 AM came quickly.  We scurried around and packed last minute items, re-checked our passports.  The vans were loaded and we headed back.   There was little traffic on the road and within an hour we were all back in the USA.  We drove another 10 minutes and stopped at Auntie Emma's pancake house and had a great final meal together.  With time to kill before people flew home, we stopped at Coronado Island. Some went swimming, others toured and still others just sat with coffee and watched the ocean, with plenty of memories to sort through.

The 2017 Pilgrimage of Hope to Mexico was completed.

We thank everyone who supported us.

Fish Tacos, More Cement and Orphans

Lunch in Puerto Nuevo  (photo Samantha Delabruere)

Roof Preparation (Photo by Christie Cardinale)

Another bright and beautiful day greeted us yesterday.  After breakfast, we packed up the vans and headed to our work sites.   Again a large group went to Puerto Nuevo and another more inland.   Both groups picked up from where they left off.   Puerto Nuevo continued putting up a foundation and cementing it in, and the in-land group continued roof preparations.


Today we all go inland to pour the roof.  I was lucky enough to be at the Puerto Nuevo site which had wonderful sea breezes all day. The whole local community gathered to help, and by 3 PM we were finished and headed back to the Posada.   Everyone was tired but happy.

We arrived back to the Posada showered up and could either go to the orphanage or hang out.  There were only 11 girls at the Orphanage this week because many are at camp before school starts next week.   Christie Cardinale brought pictures from six years ago.   Sadly she met a girl she met six years ago who has not been adopted but the little girl was excited to think someone remembered six years later.

Today we bring to a close our week here in Tijuana.  Our memories will be as bright and warm as the sun that blazed above us.   Here are some pictures taken by Dick Crawford from Montana, part of the "East-West"  team.  We thank Dick for letting us use his picture.

Cement, Cement and Ocean Views

Yesterday we  split into two groups once again.  Most of the group went to a house down near Puerto Nuevo, where we could see the ocean and benefit from the ocean breezes.  It was beautiful.  The family cried as nearly 30 of us emerged from vans.   (Remember we are with other groups, nearly 60 in all.)    We did the final work for the foundation.  The far corner of the foundation is about 7 feet deep.  We passed concrete blocks for the foundation for about an hour or so, prepared the re-bar supports and did some final sand work.  The morning was full.
The breeze made the work comfortable and the beauty of the place and the goodness of the people made it even easier.

Picture from Paul McGininity

The family was busy setting up about 10 small tables with umbrellas for us.  We broke for lunch and sat for a wonderful meal looking out at the Pacific ocean.  The laughter was rich and English, Spanish and Spanglish wafted over the table.  We all agreed we had just experienced a bit of heaven.  With all the hatred in the world currently, it seemed that this was a sign of the kingdom of God breaking in.  I think we all left knowing what Jesus meant when he said "The Kingdom of God is in your midst."

An ice cream wagon came by and to end our little break from the work,  many of us enjoyed cool, refreshing popsicles or ice cream sandwiches.   We all looked like little children enjoying the surprise visit of the ice cream truck.


The after brought us a the loud putt,putt, putt of cement mixer.   For the next 2 hours 20 bags of cement was mixed, scooped into buckets, passed from hand to hand and finally poured into the foundation blocks.   It was hard work but the hard work of so many made it go easily.  Of course when we got a break many would break out into a little dance with music from huge speaker Eduardo brought.

We finished our work and then headed to Casa del Migrante, which is a center run by the Scallibrini Fathers which cares for the migrants of the world.  Most of the people in the Center have been deported from the US.   We were given an orientation and then ate with the residents of center.  There were currently about 100 people living in the center, all planning their next steps.  They talked wistfully of their wives and children back in the states.  Others resigned to the fact that getting back is going to be hard and will do their best to make a living here in Mexico.  Most of our participants agreed it was the most significant part of the trip.  (later today I'll get some pictures up of our visit.)

We head out soon to our work site, so I need to get going!

Walls up: Roof Preparation

Yesterday, we once again split into two groups and both groups did prep work for walls and roofs.  The day was cooler than Monday which was a blessing.  I'm not sure how hot it was yesterday, but in my memory, it was one of the hottest days we ever worked here.  We appreciated cloud cover yesterday.  As beautiful as it all is with bright blue skies, bright blue skies say HOT.

Part of the group did more excavating and getting the foundation for the house set.  That will mean cement today.  The group will be larger there because of all the demands of mixing cement, carrying it and finally pouring it.  The extra help will be welcomed.

The other group prepared a roof. When we arrived four walls were up.  We moved lumber in and put down plywood and underpinning, which will hold the cement roof until it cures.  Today that group will make beams and 're-bar' supports.  We will pour that roof on Friday.  That can demand up to 120 tons of cement moved one-half bucket at a time.  The prep work is crucial so that it goes smoothly.

After the day's work, we headed to the 'border' where the now famous wall has been in place for years.Actually, it's two or three walls depending on where you stand.  It is about 15 feet high, and the second wall a mostly strong chain link fence perhaps another 100 feet in.    The people have painted the wall on the Mexican side with messages about how it feels to be behind such a wall.   The Mexican side of the wall hosts a large beach village.  Much like any beach town, there is much activity.  Kids swimming, families walking the board walk, eateries, and places for kids to play games.  The US side there is 'nothing.'   The beach is empty, there are just dirt roads, some grass and the border patrol going up and down.   It is sad.

We returned to the vans, and for a while it's quiet as our workers let the experience sink in.  Some people slept on the way back, but slowly the energy returns and we had a pizza party.  People relaxed and then headed to bed.   The crowd is gathering now for breakfast and soon we'll head out for day three.