The recipe for a life-changing experience: one part dirt, two
parts wood, a heap of hard labor. Mix with love and ministry.
Members of the youth group at St. Mary Catholic Parish
discovered a way to open their eyes to the world during a
house-building trip two years ago and haven’t looked back
since.
The recipe for a life-changing experience: one part dirt, two parts wood, a heap of hard labor. Mix with love and ministry.
Members of the youth group at St. Mary Catholic Parish discovered a way to open their eyes to the world during a house-building trip two years ago and haven’t looked back since. Although expensive and labor intensive, the experience has attracted more participants each year. Now planning a third annual summer trip to Mexico, students look forward to forging bonds between each other and getting a glimpse into the lives of those less fortunate.
Caroline Morris, an 11th-grader who has participated in the youth group for four years, remembers a little boy named Juan that she encountered during the group’s first trip in 2002.
Morris was part of a group that was building an addition to Juan’s family’s home.
“I don’t speak Spanish fluently, but the communication that we did have was just so powerful,” she said.
Juan spent time with Morris, taking time to show her his few prized CDs and “a little, old boom box” that played them.
The love poured out by Juan and his family upon Morris and her group is what she remembers most about Mexico.
“The family was just so incredibly happy, even with nothing,” she said. “They’re amazingly happy.”
What little they did have, Juan’s family was willing to share. One evening, as the group was finishing its work for the day, Juan’s mother presented the 15 St. Mary’s parishioners with a home-cooked meal of tamales.
A group that went on last year’s trip stopped by Juan’s house to visit, but Morris was with another car and had already left the country, but she will be joining this year’s group and making the trip for a third time.
“I’m hoping that I’ll go back and see him again,” she said.
David Almeida, who has also made the trip twice before, remembers the Mexicans whose lives touched his as he toiled, building a home from the ground up.
“A lot of (the kids) came over to look at it,” he said.
When the project was complete last year, a woman broke down in tears at the sight of her new home.
Michelle Adams, coordinator of youth ministry, knew the experience would impact St. Mary’s youth even before the first trip.
“I thought maybe we’d have five students, and we’d go along with another church in the diocese,” she said.
Instead, 31 students, college-age adults and adult supervisors signed up to go, and more have joined each year: Last year, it was 52 total and this year there’s 89: 56 teens, five college students and 28 adults.
The participants will spend five full days constructing houses from scratch, using only hand tools donated by local businesses.
Performing the labor makes for a more meaningful experience, said Almeida, a freshman who will also make the trip for the third time this summer.
“It was harder than it usually is,” he said.
His dad works as a contractor, so Almeida has experience using power tools to get the job done quickly.
“We could’ve brought battery-powered saws, but instead we did it all by hand.”
“Instead of going to the store or using a cement mixer, we actually mix it by hand, and I think that’s the most powerful thing,” Morris said. “The first day’s the hardest day and everyone knows that.”
The trip, which costs $525 per person, is organized by Amor Ministries, based in San Diego. Numerous fund raisers include a dinner dance, bake sales, Chevy’s nights, selling Gizdich Ranch pies and the upcoming Spring Jam, featuring an all-music talent show, on May 15.
“There’s $20,000 that we still need,” Adams said.
The fee pays for camping equipment, rental cars and materials to build the houses. Students also hold a toy drive to collect presents for the children in the neighborhoods where they will work.
Adams said the group will need tool donations once again this year. She plans to approach Lowe’s Home Improvement and Home Depot.
“If we don’t get enough donated, we’ll probably do a tool drive like we do a toy drive,” she said.
Although many students, like Morris and Almeida, have made the trip once before, some are preparing for a first experience with impoverished conditions.
“Nothing prepares them to see the poverty that people live in,” Adams said. “They learn to appreciate what they have, and immediately within the first day, they say they’re coming back next year.”
“There was a lot of poverty,” Almeida said. “It was neat to see a lot of people who were so happy with so little. And I have a lot, and I realized that I need to be thankful for all that I’ve got.”
At the end of the day, the students don’t return to their usual living conditions, either. They are roughing it during their five-day stay.
“Basically, we’re camping in a rock refinery,” Adams said. “They’re not in a hotel, they’re not in a church or gym, they’re in the dirt, and they get two gallons (of water)a day to take showers with.”
Morris said she was expecting fields and trees, not rocks and outhouses.
“It was just my first experience in a Third World country,” she said. “It blew me away.”
Stephan Christensen, a 16-year-old exchange student from Denmark, said he is prepared for the harsh conditions, if it means he can continue his multicultural study.
“I went to America because of the culture, and although it’s just a week (in Mexico), you get to see the culture,” he said. “You get to see the difference between poor and rich. I’m looking forward to meeting the kids we’re building the houses for.”
Christensen said he wants to play games with the children and talk to them about God.
“You help some people; you get the opportunity to do something that has some deeper meaning,” he said. “It could be a fun trip.”
As the trip approaches, the teens become more conscious of the fact that it will include much more than construction.
“They start thinking, ‘I can buy this, or I can save it for Mexico,’ ” Adams said. “It’s not just building a home, it’s helping in the community, and they know that.
“One night our of the week, we bring the family back to camp and eat dinner and pray.”
Some of the students speak Spanish, and one of the adults speaks Portuguese, but, mostly, hand gestures and smiles take the place of verbal communication, she said.
St. Mary’s youth group members will leave Gilroy on Father’s Day, June 20 and return June 25, and three full days will be spent building.
More volunteers each year means the group can build more houses. The first year, two houses were built, and last year the group finished three.
“One thing that happened last year was, (the students) built houses the year before, went back and the kids all said that they left there thinking they built a house, and realized they had actually built a home,” Adams said, “one that’s filled with pictures, and … it was a huge realization of what they had to do.”
With so many participants this year, the group is on the waiting list to build a school or a church.
Morris, for one, would like to work on houses again.
“Me, personally, I feel that with smaller groups of people, we can build a community,” she said. “Because I feel that with a small group I can make connections easier.”
Regardless, Morris hopes that the teens and adults going on this year’s trip take as much away from it as they put into it.
“I hope they get an understanding of how much we have – and other countries, how much they don’t have.”
Tickets to the May 15 Spring Jam cost $5 and will go on sale April 12. Contact Adams at 847-7799.
