Vicente Guerrero Part 2

The weather on Monday was pretty nice, it was sunny and warm but there was a cool breeze.

Here are some of the boys. You can see in the background where family #1 takes a bath and washes clothes. I worked on the house for Virginia (family #2). Her oldest son is the second guy from the left. His name is Indalesio.

Sandra, on the left, is Virginia’s only daughter.

The first day, we built that walls and the roof panels. I worked on helping measure and mark the 2x4s so they could be cut to the proper length. And then did a lot of hammering with long nails to put the 2x4s together and then also to sheet the walls with plywood. By the end of day one we had framed the roof panels and walls.

Day 2
We lifted up the walls and put on the roof panels. This was the most physically demanding day. But with team work and help from the supervisor from IDT we were able to get it done. We had a lot of people help raise the roof and used 2x4s to help put the roof in place. The funnest part of the day was sheeting the roof. On the roof, there was a breeze and a nice view of the valley.

The family sacrificed a lot to make us tamales for lunch. These were muy delicioso. This was the other meal that was tied for the best. However, since it was home-made I enjoyed it the most. I ate my two and since other people didn’t want to eat their’s I ate another. Three tamales and macaroni salad made me stuffed.

Here is a photo of the house that I helped build. You can see that it is really close to the old house. And their view is pretty nice since it is on a hill.

Posing in front of the house.

Day 3

We put on flashing and tacked in the tar paper on the roof. I spent most of the time on the roof. I also worked on installing a whirly bird to the roof and helped install an interior wall. Not only did I use a circular power saw, I drilled a large concrete screw into the concrete floor using a power drill. I asked someone on my team, “are you sure you want me to do it, I am a financial analyst?”

Here is the old house that we didn’t demolish. In Baja they tend to keep building and not tear down the old structures.

The kids were resourceful in using the wood scraps to build tables and boxes.

Day 4

I worked on making bunk beds. I was thinking I could make a wood bed for k. We’ll see. I also worked on stapling electrical wire.

Here is the completed house

Here is the bunk bed I helped make. Here is my buddy Roberto, another of Virginia’s sons. There is another brother, Jose-Luis, who is not pictured.

Kitchen table.

I spoke Spanish with them quite a bit even though I forgot most of my Spanish. I used a lot of words that didn’t make a sentence; however when I added in pointing it helped. I used more Spanish this time then when I went down to Mexico right after high school when I knew the most Spanish. This time I wasn’t worried about making a fool of myself. I missed my family quite a bit; however I enjoyed playing with the kids and they made me feel welcome. The dedication on Thursday was touching and I cried since it was amazing to see God use us to bless the lives of that family.

On Friday I swam in the ocean and it was cool but nice.