After our home visits, we had a free afternoon and evening.  For lunch, we returned to the fish taco stand.  There is also a shrimp taco stand, not too far away, but I wasn’t able to try one this time around.

Next door, a guy was making a fresh batch of chicharrones.  One of our team members bought a bag and shared, but we declined.

Just around the corner is an outdoor market where people sell trinkets and souvenirs.

D and I bought a couple of hacky sacks for the kids and a swordfish figurine that now resides in our kitchen.

The kids here are very aggressive about trying to get you to buy things.  They were following us around with puppy dog eyes.

Our final stop was for paletas.  D and I shared a coconut-chocolate dipped-peanut one, and fresh mango with big mango chunks.  Yum!

Next was an outing to the beach, just about five minutes away by van.  This is where D ran to every morning.

There were tons of smooth rocks.

Our celebration dinner was at Don Diego’s. 

Shrimp with garlic butter

Fish-Vera Cruz style

Flan and pecan pie

On Saturday we were ready to go home just after 6 a.m.  We had to make some extra stops, and it ended up taking us about ten hours, without a lunch break!  I think we waited at the border about 1.5 hours. 

Here are a couple of yogurt drinks we picked up for breakfast—mango and coffee. 

All in all, it was a wonderful trip.  It was nice to serve alongside D and my church family.  This was my first mission trip since high school.  It was inspiring to see families with older kids go together, and I hope that D and I can bring k and n someday. 

On Friday morning, the team made surprise visits to past home builds to check in with the families, say hi, and bring some food.  I’m not sure I would want 40+ people unexpectedly coming over to my home, but the families we visited were all very welcoming and seemed happy to see us.

But first, Friday morning was our last meal at IDT: scrambled eggs, tortillas, rice, and fruit.

These pictures are from the first house build.  (This is where D went on Wednesday to re-roof).  The woman who lives there started a house church, and they meet in the courtyard in between her new house and her old house.  Pretty cool.

The following picture are from last year’s house build.  Everyone loved the color of this one: Newport Blue.  This house was so neat and tidy!

The next family seems very resourceful.  Notice how they made a screen door, made their own toothbrush “station”, keep chickens and ducks and rigged their own irrigation system for growing food. 

The last house struck me as being very decorative and homey.

They even painted the interior walls, which makes a big difference, I think. 

I thought it was nice how our church has been able to maintain a relationship with the families we have built for.  I hope that we will be able to continue doing so for many years to come. 

Breakfast: potatoes, tortillas, and fruit.  I should show this picture to my kids since I don’t think they’ve ever eaten anything but seedless watermelon! 

When we arrived at the jobsite, Dean, one of our team members, took the families out to a restaurant for breakfast.  This was the first time they had ever eaten at a restaurant!  His job was to keep the families away from the houses so that we could furnish them on the inside before they came back. 

Dean did a good job, so while we were waiting around, we took some team pics:

The Gen Xers (that’s us) and the Gen Yers.

The men.

The women. 

When the families returned, we welcomed them through a human tunnel. 

With the help of a translator, Gerald conducted a dedication ceremony for each of the families.  He reminded the families that these houses were a gift from God, and that all glory should be given to Him.  This young couple is expecting their first baby (a girl) next month!

Roger, a talented woodworker at our church, made these lovely signs for the front of the houses. 

This was my favorite day of the house build, for obvious reasons.  I also enjoyed helping to make the inside of the houses a “home”.  I made beds and laid out the clothes that we brought.  It was a lot of stuff, and the families are always surprised, because they think they are just receiving a house. 

This room is dark because the family did not want windows on this side due to a neighbor who sometimes gets drunk and throws rocks.  We wired the houses for electricity, but they are off the “grid” so it won’t function until the power lines come closer to their property. 

Three generations.

Little Paloma with the key to her new house.  Love those cheeks!

Showers were delivered.  There is no plumbing—it is basically a bucket system, but a great improvement from what they had before, which was basically a tub of water outside. 

The clothesline turned out nice.  I liked the cheery clothespins from Daiso. 

Earlier in the week, the families persolnaized their outhouses.

As a reminder, here is where one of the families was living beforehand.  I cannot even imagine how different it will be for them to live in their new house. 

Afterward, the VBS team held a hot dog lunch at the local church.  I ended up in the van that went for a fish taco run.

Wow, these were so good.  My favorite tacos of the week.  Hot and fresh from the fryer.  Two tacos were plenty for me.  A couple of the young guys ate NINE.

Afterwards we stopped at the candy store to browse.  I thought these large Coke cans were interesting.  Wonder why they don’t sell them in the U.S.?  (I placed the small cans on top to show the scale). 

That afternoon/evening, my stomach wasn’t doing too well.  Let’s just say I had to see “Dr.” Miles again, this time for some Immodium.  The team went out for tortas (one of my favorites, darn), but I stayed behind in my cabin, eating saltines and rice crackers.  Thankfully, I felt better almost immediately, and I was fine for the rest of the trip. 

Breakfast: oatmeal, bananas and carrot cake.  This was a welcome change in food.

This was the day where D was sent to re-roof another house with a small crew of guys.  Our team worked hard on finishing the houses, including laying down new cement for the entryway (the original porch was placed in the wrong area before we arrived, as can be seen here).  I did not feel too useful on this day, but I did a lot of sanding on the inside since the wood is unfinished.

On the left hand side you can see the hole that was made for a whirlybird, which allows for ventilation.

Cement was also needed for the clothesline.

The families were excited to see the arrival of their mattresses and beds.  Two little kids put together the beds in no time flat.

The families graciously provided lunch for us.  This was no small feat, especially since our group was so large.  Check out this wood burning stove! 

Fried chicken, macaroni salad, beans and tortillas.  There was so much food, and they kept on offering us more.

For dinner we had chicken wrapped in foil, salad, rice, flour tortillas and fresh guacamole.  I think this was my favorite dinner at IDT.

There was a spectacular sunset after dinner. 

Before we went on the trip we were told to bring our own snacks.  D said not to worry, because “this is WPC, of course there will be plenty of snacks”.  Sure enough, there were more than enough snacks to go around. 

The kids stayed up late most nights playing card games.  D and I hung out for a little while before turning in early. 

Chilaquiles for breakfast.

Today was painting day for me, and roofing day for D.  The future homeowners and friends/relatives helped us paint.  It was nice that they wanted to contribute.

One of our team members was able to have the paint donated by Dunn Edwards.  I think the colors turned out nice, and they looked nice side-by-side.

D hammed it up on the roof.

Coming together…

Dinner was posole.  It was good, but I needed a palate cleanser—too much of the same flavors was getting monotonous.

Ice cream outing to the rescue!

I think this guy stayed open a little later just for us.  I’m sure our large group made it worth his while.

Una paleta con cajeta.  I thought it was an ice cream bar with a block of caramel, but the brown part tasted kind of fruity, like a fruit leather.  It was good, just not what I was expecting.

D woke up early to go running, as he was able to recruit some running partners (not me, of course).  At 6:45 a.m. we had a short devotional message by Gerald.  The theme of the week was God as the Potter, with us as the clay. 

Monday morning was probably our best breakfast of the week: egg, potato and bacon burritos.

We loaded up the vans and headed for the worksite.  Turns out that the two houses we were building were on the same lot, and the church  where the VBS was held was also within walking distance.

This is a picture of where one of the families was living.  (The boy in the wheelchair was a friend/relative of the family we were building for).  The two outhouses in the back were donated by our church not too long prior to our arrival.  (That’s what we used to go when we were on the jobsite).

Inside shot.

There were various kids that appeared throughout the week to check out the progress—very cute.

Here is a picture of the materials we started out with.  It is hard to believe that we were able to make two houses from this.  The only thing that was pre-made was the cement foundation, which you can see in the back left.

D and I worked on different houses.  I think most of the spouses were split up.  I was assigned to the wall team and D was assigned to the roof team.  The first day there was a lot of measuring, cutting and nailing.  By the end of the day, the walls were up and the roofs were in place!

As you can see, it was pretty overcast in the morning.  The cool weather was definitely a blessing, and it lasted each day of the build.

For lunch we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, chips and snacks.  The afternoon brought the heavy lifting.  Knowing that I could not be of much help, I decided to document the process. 

There was barbed wire right near the edge of the house, which made putting the roof on even more precarious.

D had the privilege of using the “Red Head” to attach the wood to the concrete for the first time.  These are the casings as evidence.  I think he just enjoyed yelling “Fire in the Hole!”

It was a good, productive day.  No major injuries, just sore muscles.

For dinner we had “Eat Like a Local” night: beans, rice, corn tortillas and nopales (cactus).  This vegetarian meal did not go over too well with some, especially after the hard day of work.  The nopales were reminiscent of green beans, and did not have much flavor. 

Norma did make us another cake though, so that was nice.  D and I both went to sleep early—we needed it.

This is the team that our church sent down to Baja this year.  This was D’s fourth time going, and my first.  We had a big team this year, 40+ people.  We built two houses and ran a VBS for the kids in Vincente Guerrero.

We rode down in four 14 passenger vans, plus two vans for another church from Northern California, Orchard Valley.  D was the navigator for our van, although our veteran driver Gerald, knew where he was going.  D was in charge of giving the driver the tolls.

We said goodbye to our kids in the parking lot.  We are so fortunate that they were able to stay with my parents for the week.

We left on Sunday, soon after our scheduled departure time of 8 a.m.  The ride was bumpy, and the back seats have no head support, so I started to feel carsick.  Fortunately, it was not too long before our first stop at a Costco in Ensenada.  I was able to get some Dramamine from “Dr.” Miles, and felt much better the rest of the way. 

The Costco food court was almost exactly the same as in the States.  D had our van’s food money and ordered hot dogs, and a pizza for us.  FYI, the exchange rates is about 12 pesos to a dollar.

One different thing is that they have mango slushies, which were very good and refreshing.

Our kids love mango, and they would have loved this drink!

We arrived at our base camp at around 3 p.m.

We received a short orientation and were told that the other group that was scheduled to be there cancelled.  We were happy, because that meant more room for us!  We picked out our beds, and unpacked our things.  About an hour later we were informed that it turned out that the group was in fact coming.  We had to consolidate rooms to make more room, and we ended up having to squeeze nine women into our cabin.  I ended up on a top bunk, but in the end it was fine. 

Here’s a picture of D’s room, to give you an idea of our sleeping quarters.

Here are some pictures of the IDT facility…

Kitchen

Dining Hall

Santiago’s—a small gift shop.

Bathroom facilities:

This policy took some getting used to!

For dinner, we went out to get tacos.

I ate one pork taco and one beef taco.  Both were good, but I especially enjoyed the pork, which they cut off a spit, as shown above.

D went across the street and Lynnus bought him a container of mango that was cut fresh in front of them.  I think this huge cup cost only around $2!  Again, the kids would have loved this.

Back at IDT, our leader Gerald had the kitchen staff make a special birthday cake for Pastor Curt of Orchard Valley.

Tres leches cake with fresh strawberries—yum!  We were well fed for the next day’s build!

Both k and n completed two sessions of swim lessons.  The surprising thing is that they both seemed to actually enjoy it.  Well, it is surprising to me, since I hated swim lessons.  Both kids made good progress this year.  They are still spending plenty of time in our community pool with D on the weekends.