ReBuild Mexico 2016 III

"Wait... so these are garden hoes?"

Hello, if you've just joined our Mexico blog posts - Welcome! If you've been following our journey so far - Welcome back!

To read our first Mexico 2016 blog post, click here.

To read our second Mexico 2016 blog post, click here.

"It was such an awesome experience, building a house for a family who needed a safe and secure home... I was able to see how happy people were even if they don't have the basic things in a home or even a proper structure around them. They live life to the full and are so thankful. Seeing a 15 year old boy watch us solidly whilst we built him a house really got to me as he had a smile permanently on his face... It really hit home how grateful and thankful we should be for every bit of detail in our lives... I am changed!"

- Emma Matthews

A local family surrounded us as we stepped out of the bus ready to embark up the big hill to the build site. They were trying to sell us beautiful handmade bracelets, headbands, ponchos, and blankets. Whilst we wanted to give them everything we had, we needed to walk on, leaving them with a few smiles and nothing more. Although the story doesn't end there. The same local family visited us a couple of days later, when we were on a break, and we bought our 'souvenirs' from them, knowing that the money would be supporting their household that week.

The open door of their too-small-for-eight 'house'.

By this, our second day on the build site, we were pretty used to our surroundings - including the animals: the chihuahua puppies in the all-too-small cage, the larger dog held on an all-too-short lead, and the flies that would not leave the entrance of the house alone! Putting our used toilet paper in a bucket so that it didn't go down the baño had become second nature and climbing down the 10ft makeshift 'double ladder' was no longer a challenging task. It was fact: we had settled in.

Just as soon as we were feeling slightly comfortable, Emma and myself (Amy) leapt at an opportunity to experience yet more unknown surroundings. It was time for Kids Club day one.

"Pato, pato, ganso"

As it was the first club of the week there were only a few children around before word got out. This meant that to start with we had more than one volunteer per child. So Emma and I stepped back and chatted to a lady from Amor. She taught us how to ask an older lad, who looked about 15, what school year he was in. Emma tried it out loud a few times before approaching the young boy and asking '?dónde está mi piña?' The confusion on his face scared Emma into asking again, this time she altered the intonation in her question. An even more confused look arose on his face as he realised she actually had asked where her pineapple was the first time. Much to Emma's distress we all found it extremely funny. Emma then learnt how to say sorry and the lady from Amor explained to the boy that she had played a trick on Emma. He laughed along too.

There's so much more to kid's club than we could ever put into words. Each individual child brings a story so precious. A little girl was sat making bracelets with us out of pipe cleaners and plastic animal-shaped beads. She taught us how to say the word for 'hippopotamus' and then threaded one onto her masterpiece. Once she'd finished the bracelet she took my arm and tied it on, signalling for me to keep the present. How amazing it is that we can give so much to children who have so little and they find joy in giving back. It wasn't about material objects for her; it was about making me smile, that's what made her happy. Wow. She really gets it.

They did it! Slab complete.

Upon returning to the build site we found an impressively smooth completed slab and some very tired and happy teammates! Emma and I had been fortunate enough to visit 3 of the 4 other builds which had really shown us how tough everyone's sites were and gave us another boost to keep pushing forward to complete the house in the time we had left.

The post-build discussion swayed towards the Camp Ronald decision. The Camp Ronald (as in Ronald McDonald) dates back to an old mistake made one year on ReBuild involving a lot of hungry kids and an under-staffed McDonald's. Since then Urban Saints have found a Camp Ronald at the end of each ReBuild trip. This year they decided that each build team should nominate someone for this title at the end of every day. Each nominated Ronald then had to play the pie face game. 

Day two's Camp Ronald from King's Furnace was Sam.

Sam's Pie Face.

Sam saw a pile of clothes in his tent and thought that they would make a comfortable seat. Comfortable though the seat may have been, his suitcase below was now broken. Unable to close or zip the suitcase back up he panicked that he wouldn't be able to take anything back home on the plane with him. Classic Ronald.

*Later that week his suitcase was fixed and he didn't have to leave all of his belongings in the Mexican desert*

Day 3 is when the build really came together, and we've got a time lapse video coming your way in the next post. Stay tuned...

To read the next blog post about Mexico, click here.

To read our first Mexico 2016 blog post, click here.
To read our second Mexico 2016 blog post, click here.

Guest post written by Amy | Girl With A Dream