Over the long President's Day weekend I went with the Kruckenberg's down to Rocky Point to build a house with an organization called 1Mission.
We left around 2ish on Friday afternoon and made it to the border by about 5pm.
Dinner at a restaurant called Bryan's...it was full of Americans.
And it ended up having better food than what we were expecting.
Saturday morning before we started. These were some of the shelters in the neighborhood.
This is the current home of the family that we were building the house for. I don't know for sure what the status was as far as the roof.
Bunny...that was the name of the rabbit.
Bella, Brian, Faith and Kylie
Lydia and Bunny...she carried that rabbit around like it was a cat.
I think the thing with towels around it was their current bathroom.
The outline of the foundation was already set up for us.
Jaxon ready to get started.
Gina and Amy mixing cement.
Faith and I. In total, the foundation took about 100 wheelbarrow loads.
The girls were the water carriers for the cement. Jaxon and Eli worked hard in loading up everyone's wheelbarrow with 10 shovels of dirt and 2 shovels of cement mix.
The pig. I don't know if this is a pet or food. Either way it was in a tiny pen and I felt sorry for it.
Cutting 2x4's for the frame. The family helped us build the house.
Building walls.
The neighbors house. Although I don't know if anyone was currently living here.
Starting the foundation.
Bella helping with cement mix.
Amy and I driving wheelbarrows into the foundation.
LGO even in Mexico.
Lunch break on day 1.
Me and Lydia. We couldn't communicate well but she liked hanging out with us.
Eli doing a little crossfit.
Flipping tires.
Good job!
More cutting of 2x4's.
Frames for the walls.
Foundation is complete and ready to dry overnight. End of work day 1.
We went back to the house and walked down to the beach for a while.
Bella.
This was the house we rented - it wasn't amazing but our other option was a tent. This was so much better than a tent.
Sunset on Saturday.
Bella at the house.
A little about the family we were building for.
Every night we went to Basecamp for dinner and fires. The majority of the people stayed at Basecamp - in total there were about 300 people there that weekend building houses, and each team had about 30 people so approximately 10 houses were built this weekend.
The kids sifting sand for the stucco mixture.
Brian and Gina - putting up walls the morning of day 2.
We were great wall holders :)
Starting to look like a structure.
With windows.
Eli.
This is the family's dog, Chocolate (pronounced with a Spanish accent). He was so skinny - I collected leftovers for him after lunch every day.
Kids playing in the dirt.
Wrapping the house. I guess this was for insulation and to keep it from leaking when it rains. This turned into a bit of a disaster since we were initially trying to be too precise.
Ready for water to make stucco.
Tamales - lunch day 2.
Sifting more sand for stucco.
The family - Josselin (mom), Carlos (dad), Andrea, Lydia, Chuy and Derrick.
Brian starting on stucco.
Amy.
Shoveling cement mixture for stucco.
Eli and Jaxon.
The house was wrapped in chicken wire and that is what we put the stucco on.
End of day 2. One layer of stucco and the start of putting insulation (it looked like glue) on the roof.
Sunset day 2.
For dinner on Sunday night they invited all the families and each family shared what the house meant to them. They also shared what they had done to work for their house (they were required to do 200 hours of community service before they were eligible for a house).
Kruckenberg family morning of day 3.
The team. It was New City, Camelback Society and Missio Dei Church.
Me with the family.
The Brown's taking a creative picture.
We had extra cement mixture so we made them a stoop. The family all wrote their name in it.
Me, Gina and Faith saying adios to Josselin.
Praying over their new house.
Heading back to Phoenix Monday afternoon.
Ground to house in 2.5 days.
