Highlight of the Day

Today was an amazing first day to a new house build! We're working with a team from Penticton, B.C this week and they are all hard-workers! In one day we got all the lumber cut, the roof panels and the walls put together and painted, and the whole house standing up on the cement pad! It was the fastest I've ever seen a house go up! It's really great getting to know yet another Mexican family whom I can call friends. This particular family has four children, one son is 21 and married to an 18 year old girl and they have two children together. Their next daughter is 18 years old and married with one child. They also have a 15 year old daughter and a 13 year old son as well. It was so interesting conversing with the two 18 year old girls who are both married and have children already. They both asked me how old I was, followed by the question: "How many children do you have", followed by: "Are you married?", followed by: "Well, do you have a boyfriend????". They were very shocked to think that at 19 years old you could still be living a single life back in Canada.
One of the most exciting parts of my day today was walking back to visit the family that I built for last week with my last group. I had seen their son around the neighborhood and decided to take a stroll over to their house to check in on them. I was so amazed at what I saw. Rogelio (the father of the family) was standing on the roof of his family's old shack, pulling off the remaining pieces of plywood and tarp. As I got closer I realized that he was wearing the tool belt that my father had given him last week on dedication day and had my dad's hammer in his hand. I felt so proud knowing that not only had we given this family a house to live in, but also the tools to maintain it. As I greeted the family I was flabbergasted by the smiles on their faces and how happy they were to see me, even though the rest of the team had already departed and headed back to Canada. They didn't hesitate one bit to welcome me into their home, show me around and point out all the finishing touches they had made to transform their "house" into a "home". It was an amazing feeling knowing that this family now considers me part of their family after only one month of knowing them, and seeing how much of a change we had in the future of this family. Felicidad told me that they plan to keep all of the old building supplies from their old house in case they plan to build anything more in the future. A month ago they told us that their plans for the future were to get a proper house for their kids and it's amazing to me that now they are able to look to the future and think about what else they might be able to make and achieve.

Hero Holiday - Give love, Bring hope, See change.

Hero Holiday Numero Uno

This past week was a very exciting one for me! Not only did we have 150 high school students here from Victoria, Vancouver, and Madawaska, and not only was it my first time helping lead a Hero Holiday trip, but I was also privileged enough to have my parents come down to Mexico for the week to participate in our house build. I was personally involved with the team from Victoria, a group of 30 amazing students grades 10-12. These kids were so ready to help everyday as soon as we got to the build site and were never ever sitting around with nothing to do! We quickly got ahead of schedule on our house build which allowed for some extra exploring time! The community we've been working in is called Padre Kino and it is actually just a dry open field with a few shacks here and there made of cardboard and tarp. There is no running water and no electricity in this community. In order to get drinking water, the families have to wait for a truck to come by once or twice a week and fill up their small water jugs. Our team split up into two groups which each built their own house for two very deserving families. The family that I helped out with had three kids, one of which was very shy and had a speech impediment. However, by even the first hour, he had opened up to everyone and was right in there with all the other kids helping out and proudly painting his own house. Most of the kids on the trip had never been on a humanitarian trip before so it was really cool to see how they grew and what they learned. Every night at group debrief, the kids blew me away by the things they said. You would never have imagined that just one week ago, half of these kids would have never talked to the majority of the people on this trip. They all got along so well together and began to trust each other with their personal life stories. I got to know the group really well and it was hard to say goodbye to them today, but it was really cool to see how much of an influence I had on their lives. The girls were constantly asking me questions about my leadership program, my plans for the future, and what got me interested in Hero Holiday. It was really encouraging to see how much of a role model I can be in young lives. Seeing such an amazing group of young kids really had a big influence on me! I'm really going to miss them and can honestly say that it will be pretty tough to find another group as awesome as them.
I felt so lucky to have my parents here for the week as well and get to show them what I do here and why I love it so much! I'm really going to miss all the people I spent the past week with, but it's exciting for me to think that I may have planted some seeds in a few kids lives.
So far this week we've built 8 houses, which leaves 4 left before the end of the month.
I can't wait for the next team to arrive on Monday! Let week two begin!

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This video was supposed to go with my last blog update, however I forgot to tag it in here, so please take a moment to watch it now! It's so good! Look for me, I'm shoveling! :)