Youth Mission to Tijuana, Mexico

October 1, 2008

In June of 2008, several Peace youth along with leader Elizabeth Felts, traveled to Mexico to build housing in the impoverished Nueva Millenio neighborhood of Tijuana under the auspices of the Corazon organization. Together with youth from St. Clare’s Episcopal Church of Pleasanton, Bob, Alexei, Sara and Elizabeth completed construction on a home addition for the growing Chaves family in a single day.

What follows are reports from two of our youth on their weekend experience. To view additional photos please click on the image to the left.

.My impressions on the trip to Tijuana were pretty drastic as compared to coming from California and seeing all the things we have. As soon as we made our way over the border, the setting immediately changed and there were more buildings painted with multi-colors and it seemed as if all the shops were closed and out of business. Another thing I noticed was that most buildings were not complete or under reconstruction because the people who live in them or work don’t have to pay taxes to the government which causes a big issue for the government and that’s the reason they can’t try to restore parts of the town. As we got into the suburbs of town, paved roads turned into dirt trails and the Mexican police escorted our vans to the work site. Almost all of the houses that people were living in were just small shacks with maybe one room or if they were lucky, two and they were built right on the sides of hills or any piece of land. Now the nearest store was probably 5 to 10 miles away and even though people owned cars, it didn’t look like they could work anyways. The house that we were going to add on to was literally on the highest point of a hill because the land was cheaper and for the most destitute people. The family we were building for consisted of the mom who was pregnant, her brother, and son who was like 8 years old. They were very glad to have us add onto their house and be part of Corazon. Fortunately for us it was foggy and cool until around noon when it got to about 80 degrees max. The lunch the family cooked for us was great and in a large portion so we weren’t hungry for the rest of the job. Once everything was said and done, the total amount of time it took for us to build the addition was like 10 hours which took a long time because there were some problems with the equipment and getting things to fit. The drive back in my opinion was more interesting because even though the line to get back into the U.S. took 4 hours, there were just a bunch of vendors selling things from ceramic turtles or monkey surfing statues to rugs and freshly made churros which we ended up buying a dozen bags of for our whole group. Once across the border, we tried to digest everything that we experienced that entire day. Now in general, I don’t know if this is true for all of Mexico, but not every city is so bad, for example, places like Cancun or Puerto Vallarta are really beautiful tourist destinations and have some character of their own. The point is that I enjoyed serving this family and making new friends along the way whether in Mexico or from Pleasanton. - Alexei Griesbach

We reached the build site at about an hour after daybreak on Saturday morning. The weather was mild and it was over cast. Perfect working conditions for us gringos. We met the family we were going to build for which consisted of a pregnant mother, her son, her brother, and her brother’s kids. Unfortunately it was not my job to play with the family, but to do the big body little brain work instead. The crew went around back to where the action was to take place. The concrete foundation was already laid, and the wood was resting in a neat pile on top of it..

The blue shirts, the guys in charge, wasted no time and split us into two groups, the painters and the nail pounders. I was a nail pounder. Our first job was to carry the plywood down the hill to where it could be painted. Every one grabbed a 5ft. X 8ft. sheet and carried it down. Some worked in pairs and some carried alone but it all got down the hill. The next order of business was to carry the 2 X 6’s down the hill to be cut by Jay on the circular saw. Elizabeth dutifully and skillfully filled her role as photographer and suraget mother making sure Alexie, Sarah, and I all had a water bottle and sun screen.

Next we hammered down the lumps in the foundation, using our hammers in a way that would make the manufacturers cringe. Now this is the confusing part. On this build we had an Alexa and an Alexie, two Tylers, a Taylor, two Amandas, two Jays, and of course two Bobs. And to make it even more interesting Alexa Taylor and one of the Tylers were triplets. Nicknames were important on this trip.

After the foundation was smoothed down and the wood was cut we got to carry the 2 X 6’s back up the hill. Finally the nail pounding began. We started by framing one of the walls that was to be 9 ft wide and a smidge over 8 ft tall. After that wall frame was done, for some strange reason, Steve, the head blue shirt, decided to start framing one of the roof sections. When that was complete, we layed it up against the side of the house and began the other 9 ft section of wall. After, we began the 16 ft wall, then the final roof section.

When we finished laying the walls up against the side of the house, we got to lay them back down again! Then we got to bring all that plywood with half dried paint back up the hill! As you have probably guessed. I didn’t need to go too the gym after this work out. After we got all the plywood up the hill we began to “tack it down” to the frame. Whan all three walls had plywood coverings we tilted them up and nailed them together with metal bracers. But some how ,after all was said and done, we managed to have one section of roof on the outside of the house on the opposite side of its final resting place, and the other section of the roof in the middle of the new room we just built. And further more, the blue shirts had not yet gotten around to cutting a door in the additon. Luckily we had Doug, who is an artist with a circular saw, and had that door cut in a jiffy.

Next came my favorite part of the entire build. LUNCH! Food always tastes better when you work for it and Saturday was no exception. We had the traditional rice, beans, and corn tortilla ( that never gets old) and a new favorite. Cactus which actually tastes like pickled green beans. Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds.

After lunch it was back to work. We had the walls up but we were only half way done. Our next challenge was the loft. We had a bunch of wood on the outside of the house that we had to get inside the house, and it wasn,t going through the front door and it wasn’t going over the top. So I scurried up the side of the hill and we fed it in through a window. After we had the framing for the loft, you guessed it, we brought more plywood up the hill and tacked it down. Next was the tricky part. We had to get the roof from the ground to the… well the roof. So six guys three on the ground and three on the loft counted to three and muscled the roof into place. Then I got the fun job of holding it in place while it was being nailed down. Then Richard, another blue shirt unceremoniously replaced me with a plank of wood to keep the roof from dropping. Then we repeated the process and layed the two roof sections together. A few adjustments and seven metal bracers later the roof frame was squared away.

We then took more plywood and tacked it down to the roof frame. Then layed down the tar paper and I met my new love. The Tack Hammer. This thing is a stapler on steroids, and we had that tar paper in place in no time. The last order of business were the shingles. Let me tell ya. If being a musician doesn’t work out for Alexie, he has a future in the roofing industry.

After all the construction was done we cleaned up, packed up said our good bye’s and piled into our vans, dog dead tired, but satisfied knowing we had just improved a deserving familie’s situation, and all I can say is, “I can’t wait till next year!” – Bob Winter