Overview of the First day of Work

Hola from Tijuana!

My name is Alex Dereix and I am a junior at the College of Wooster originally from Centerville, Ohio.  This is my first time on the Esperanza trip and as well as my first time to Mexico.  Every moment we are here, I am amazed by the colorful sights and the festive sounds of this beautiful country.  This morning we woke up bright and early and headed down to the street market to buy fruit and fetch freshly made tortillas before starting our work day.  After having met Eduardo, the volunteer coordinator, we divided into groups and headed off to the various work sites.  Our group went down to help build a house, and get the structure established before pouring the cement roof in on Friday.  The sun was out, and after lathering in sunscreen multiple times, I still think that half of us got sunburned.  This was surely different than the snowy Ohio we flew out of three days ago!

This experience has been eye-opening and has given me a different perspective.  Something that I will really take away from my time in Tijuana is the appreciation everyone has of community and the trust instilled in our fellow neighbors.  I hope to remember the importance of family connections when I get back to the States; knowing that the most important part of life are the people, rather than the things, we chose to surround ourselves with.  Even though we are only three days into this experience, this is much needed to give me a chance to see another part of the world and learn to step back and re-evaluate how I approach situations on a day-to-day basis.  I am so lucky to have the chance to work on this project; I hope everyone else can have a similar opportunity.

A Great Community

Hola!
This is Sarah Laper and I am a junior at the College of Wooster and this is my first time in Mexico.  So far it has been a great experience.
The first time I asked my mom if I could go to Tijuana, she said no way. Luckily, I finally convinced her to let me go, but she was still hesitant.  Today we met Eduardo who works with Esperanza and was helping us at the work site.  He said that the US news about Mexico makes him sad because he loves his country and US news makes it look so bad.  Also, the news makes it look like everybody is trying to get to the border and into the US but that is not true, some people want to stay in Mexico, he is one of them.  Eduardo's son can go to school in America but he doesn't want him to go because Eduardo can't go to America and also he has seen a lot in the news about people bringing guns into school in America.  Just like my parents did not want me to go to Mexico, Eduardo does not want his son to go to America.
I have only been here a couple of days but I've noticed that there is a great sense of community here that is different than what we have in the States.  Yesterday, we went to a birthday fiesta and everyone there acted like they were part of one big family.  They were all so nice to us, they loved when we all sang and danced together.  I felt very welcomed even though it was the first time I was meeting everyone.  Today at the work site, a bunch of family members and neighbors came and helped us work.  We were digging a drainage ditch for a retaining wall and both family members and our volunteers dug and passed buckets of dirt side by side. The daughter, Lucia, wanted to help and I thought the buckets would be too heavy for her but she insisted on wanting to be part of our bucket brigade.  When someone shoveled dirt onto my pants, I didn't even notice, but she reached down and brushed them off for me.  Even though I didn't speak the same language as Lucia or the other family members, a smile goes a long way and I had a lot of fun working today.