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!