“Friends” – Final Thought From School Of Leadership Community Build In Mexico

Thursday was our last day of building and consisted mainly of spreading and smoothing skim-coat on the walls. We had a late start and then spent the day filling all the corners and cracks with cement, of course there wasn’t much to do so we got off track a few times. Onesimo and I got in minor water fights all day. I decided to end the day by dumping water on Onesimo and then running to the van as it drove off, I got him nice and soaked and then ran off. However, we realized that we had taken all the drills and they needed one for the door. When we got back Onesimo was waiting with a bucket but got more water on himself than me. A great end to a great day.  It was a honor to work along side the community of Zapata and to get to know these incredible people as our dear friends!

Generations

Day 4, Generations.Today was a roofing day. I like this day, my favourite place to be is the roof and there is yet to be a build I am part of where I have not been on the roof. I don’t know if it’s the tar that is impossible to get off, or the scratches you acquire all over your legs from the plywood and shingles, or maybe even it’s the cramped hands and sore wrists you have by the time you are done hammering hundreds of 1/2 inch nails in, something about it is just appealing to me.Emily, Leah, Sarah and myself (Deryn) made up the roofing crew, I was sort of the leader since I knew how to do everything where as the other girls had only been on the roof once before, or in Sarah’s case not ever. We worked great together and it was more of a team effort than anything. We did the first 3/8 rows before lunch and then got right back up there after lunch to keep working on the roof. When we finished it would be time to leave. We did nothing but work all day, while the boys stood around a lot (claiming to be working) and spent at least the last 30 minutes of the day watching us and heckling us from the ground.In the end, I think we did a fabulous job with really no mistakes. I think Emily hit her fingers more than she hit the nails but other then that… oh wait, there may have been an incident involving the leftover piece of shingle and some wind, but no one was injured. During the day Ponchito’s dad stopped by, it was really cool because he is the man that started the volunteer ambulance organization we were building for. This team of volunteers which Ponchito is now the head of and whose son, Noe, is a part of the team of paramedics. It is just amazing to see how it has evolved over the generations and hopefully it continues to grow and be a huge help to the people of this community.After our day of work we got come home and scrapped the tar off our legs and got ready to go out for tacos! We went to Smokeys and La Taqueria Diferencia, they are really close to each other so you could eat at whichever you wanted, or both if you’re the boys. Then the girls got ready for Zumba!  Definitely can’t move my hips like those Spanish chikas. But we got sweaty and had a blast, it’s too bad it only lasts an hour!~ Deryn, a School of Leadership student living in MexicoThursday was our last day of building and consisted mainly of spreading and smoothing skim-coat on the walls. We had a late start and then spent the day filling all the corners and cracks with cement, of course there wasn’t much to do so we got off track a few times. Onesimo (our Mexican friend helping on the worksite) and I got in minor water fights all day (whilst being yelled at by people working to get to work) and were generally not productive, it was a great day. I decided to end the day dumping water on Onesimo and then running to the van as it drove off, I got him nice and soaked and then ran off. However, we realized that we had taken all the drills and they needed one for the door. When we got back Onesimo was waiting with a bucket but got more water on himself than me. A great end to a great day.~ Colin

How Many SOL’s Does it Take to Build an Ambulance Station?

We aren’t Metalica, but we do have a lot of metal… literally. In the time it took me to actually come up with that joke, we would’ve had two walls built already. While driving back up to the work site this morning, I realized just how much we actually got done yesterday. Still knowing that we had much more to do, I got out of the van, put on my gloves, and picked up a drill. If you knew me, you’d know that power tools are not particularly my cup of tea, but after drilling all day yesterday with only one injury (a sliver to be exact), I was ready for round two. Should I mention that I actually enjoy it? With the roofing under our belts come lunchtime, we headed back to the house for some food. As soon as we got back to the site, we were ready to put the roof on! A few of us left early on in the afternoon to make 99 bags of popcorn for our movie night at the wonderful school in San Quintin. Trying to avoid work you might ask? I guess I forgot to tell you that this isn’t your regular microwavable popcorn, it was all made on the stove top! After our hours of work, the popcorn was gone in just minutes. Sitting on a tarp under the stars, watching Megamind on the side of the school, listening to the chomping of popcorn, and having kids giggle while sitting on your lap.  That’s something that is irreplaceable. Much like any building project, in this case an ambulance station, we won’t fully understand how much of an impact we have just by setting aside a week to use our hands and feet to help others out. Today, while on the work site, one of the paramedic’s that’s helping us build this week received a message on his walkie-talkie about a car accident that happened: a car rolled 100 metres. The ambulance came to take the patients to the main hospital, which was hours away, and found out that one of them had passed away in the vehicle on the way. I will never know how much the four walls I’ve been building mean to them, but it feels good knowing that I’m helping to play my part. It’s not hard to pick up a tool and just do it, and trust me, if I can do it, anyone else can.Mucholovefrommexico,-sarah! : )

Day 2 and 3 on the SOL Build

In the morning we (my famjam) helped the other SOLs with Day 2 of the ambulance build. Day one the SOL’s were very productive building the four walls. I was happy to be back and building. My dad was in heaven, he loves to do projects like this and Luke (my brother) always likes a challenge and loves to build stuff, so it was awesome. Mom and the babies (Holly and Griffin) tagged along to see where we’d be building and to experience the building atmosphere we have while at work. Although the workplace is not a place for children, Holly & Griff loved to play in the huge sand box (the desert road) along side the build. Day 2 we placed the frame of the roof onto the four walls, and started to cover the roof in plywood to start the roofing process; we also cut holes and placed the windows in the walls and screwed the metal in the walls into place. It was a productive day. It is weird but great to have my family here helping out. It’s an awesome mix of home and Mexico all in one. (:For dinner we ordered 2 JUMBO pizzas which are HUUUUUUGE. Later we watched MegaMind in Spanish at the San Quintin school. It was great to see the kids again! And I am so happy that my family had the opportunity to get to know some of the kids as well. It was a great night!Day 3 of the SOL build didn’t commence until around 10am, YAY! we got to sleep in… kinda. I was up at 7:30am so I guess I didn’t really get to sleep in. Once the work day started we began applying fiberglass panels to the outside walls of the Ambulance station and finishing screwing in the other half of the roof’s plywood. All in all it was another productive day. It’s so cool having my Dad around to help out and I even got to take advantage of his saw-abilities while I was on the roof needing some specially cut pieces of plywood. Luke has been a big help as well! He has been up to doing whatever he can to get the job done. Luckily he’s tall so he helped a lot with placing the roof structure on top of the walls of the building. It’s just so awesome having my family here with me in Mexico! After working until about 3 p.m. we returned to the big house where Ma and I started on dinner, Fetticcini Alfredo! I had to run to the store to get a few more veggies and then we began dinner prep. It was so much fun rocking out to Creed and Default while making dinner with my Ma, something I didn’t do enough back home. Once dinner was ready to eat, we waited until Julia, Edwin, Dawn and Anthonie showed up then we began to dig in. Dinner was DELISH!!Later that night Ma, Luke, Nettie, Der, Lee and myself played 6-way dutch blitz, BEST GAME EVER. Because there was six of us, we partnered up and it was a big tourney up to 200. It was soo much fun!Emily, a School of Leadership student living in Mexico

Giving to the Community of Vincente Guerrero, Mexico. SOL Build Day#1.

To you, it was Sunday, April 16th, 2011 – jus’ a regular ol’ Sunday. But for us LiveDifferent (formerly Absolute)-rs down in Mexico…it was work day number one! And more importantly, for the volunteer paramedics from Vincente Guerrero – it was the first build day of their new centre. This week, we’re building an 8 x 8 foot building for a group of people that volunteer their time & effort to saving people. Ambulance services are privatized in Mexico, and there aren’t many. So in Vincente Guerrero, there’s a group of people that work as volunteers on a very small budget for saving a lot of lives.

After a morning of standard Hero Holiday sandwich making (you know we love our bimbo bread!) & packing lunch into the cooler, we grabbed our water bottles and headed for the site. This build is different than others for a few reasons – one of them being that the land we’re building on is just 5 minutes away!With the concrete pad so close, we got to the site quickly and jumped out of Gus (our trusty van), ready to build. Deryn, Sarah, Josh, Colin, Emily and I, alongside Nettie, Andrew, Dawn, Anthonie, and Santiago are working this week. All of us SOL’s are pretty excited about this project because it’s one that we’ll leave behind knowing we did as a team, a building that binds us all together a little more. Other reasons we’re excited? Well, this isn’t just ANY old build project – like I said, it’s different! This building isn’t just an experience for us SOL’s, it’s a learning experience for everyone involved. Usually, when you arrive at a build site, there are lots of people to meet, tool belts to put on, instructions to give, and work crews to join. But today, what met us wasn’t a family or any tools belts. Instead, we met Noe, his brother & father – our teachers for the day & the leaders of the build. Noe runs a steel construction company – he builds houses & buildings, out of steel rather than wood. So, rather than strap on tool belts and start hammering, we unloaded a trailer full of steel studs and set to laying out the framework.Using steel as an alternative to wood is an experiment we’re trying this week; and it involves some serious teaching because none of us have ever worked with it before! Although neither Noe or his family speaks that much English, they communicate well in what I’ve deemed ‘build site Spanglish’ – a mix of Spanish, hand gestures and Santiago translating! All day these 3 were really patient, teaching us & laughing with us, instructing us where to place screws and chalk lines.At first, I was really startled by how few tools there were. We only had one tool box, and there were more tape measures than anything else in it! But, as the day went on, I came to see that one of the benefits of steel built houses is that you only need a few items – power drills and screws are important, but those tape measures turned out to be our MVP – getting the screw on the line & into the stud is hard without them! Speaking of tools… holding a power drill feels pretty cool. Not only do you look really awesome, you can get A LOT of work done in a very short amount of time. Did I mention that you look REALLY AWESOME?! Another plus of power tools is that all day you don’t hear the sound of hammers banging – rather, the site sounds like…home to a Nascar PIT CREW! Which of course means that at least once, a race is necessary. Kudos to Nettie for beating Anthonie that one time! I was feeling pretty ‘superhero’d’ out with my special steel work gloves (all of us were issued a pair for maximum hand protection!) and my yellow drill – and a favourite phrase of Sarah’s, drill in hand? ‘If I can do this, anyone can do this!’The work seemed to go incredibly fast and by the end of the day, we had all 4 walls framed, sheeted, and standing! Plus, we’d had time for A LOT of joking, and some ice cream on the side. Noe & his family are involved with the Paramedicos and really care about the work they’re doing, both at the build site and in their ambulances – you can tell by the intent that they do it with and the care they put into each piece. Today was a collection day (the paramedics budget is made up of donations, with no extra funding. They wait at the busiest intersection in town and collect change from passing cars – so this is an important day of the month!) but at the end of their day, a couple of them in their crisp white shirts showed up, bearing cold drinks and smiles. The best thing about this build is that we get to work right in the community, close to home, and with people that really care about helping others – and for a cause that truly deserves it. These paramedics save upwards of 600 people a year, running off donations and often volunteering alongside other jobs. This building will mean they can move out of the space they rent & use that money for improved medical technology, as well as keep the ambulances running.Sunday, April 16th – day 1 for the Paramedico Pit crew (and the use of super cool power tools!) and we’re proud – the 4 walls of a better future are screwed in & raised.~ Leah, a School of Leadership student living in Mexico

School Dedication – Penticton Students

Yesterday we got to sleep in so that was a nice change. After breakfast we went back to the build site to dedicate the school. It felt good to be a part of something that could possibly change countless lives. We gave them a better and safer place to be educated and it felt great. After the dedication we got to play with kids for a short while and then we had to say our goodbyes. It was very hard to let go of our new friends that taught us so much about life. We came down to build them a school and a family a house. We built so much more than that, friendships and memories that we will always carry with us. We built them a new life.     Later that day we went to the orphanage and played games with the kids. Cody and I  took part in a game of marbles and got our butts whooped. The imagination and creativity of the children here are so much greater than the ones at home. Everyone has changed a little from being here, all of our hearts have been touched by someone. I will never forget the faces and new friendships I have made. I hope that I can come back one day and see them again.-Jeremy: Group Participant

Orphanage, Dance Party and Road Trip! – Final thoughts from our Penticton friends

The story of how the orphanage in San Quintin came to be is an inspiring one, a woman turned her life upside down, just to follow her heart and help those in need. Those kind of morals and the passion she had is still displayed today at the mission. We visited the children at the orphanage on Monday, for a few hours we played soccer, jumped rope, painted faces and drew some pretty epic sidewalk chalk masterpieces. It was interesting to see the contrast between the children at the worksites we had been at and those at the orphanage, you can tell that they are in better living conditions and have nicerclothes. It made me happy to see that they were cared for in such a loving way, and that the people watching over them were there to help and love, these children come to the orphanage with such tragic stories, and have lost their parents through situations that some of us could never imagine. It was a great thing to tour through and see that even though they had been through hard times, they’re in a place of happiness now.Monday night we had a little bit of a fiesta for Ben, one of the guys who had his birthday during the trip. We broke a pinata, roasted marshmallows and danced to a pretty interesting mix of mariachi and dub-step. We all enjoyed ourselves, but one of the things that struck me most was the sense of comfort we all found in one another as a group. Coming into this, not a lot of people knew most other people and most socialization consisted of small talk around the dinner table, and shy smiles on the bus. But after just a week and a half together, there was a full throttle dance party happening on the porch, and it was amazing to see.We’re now heading back, after stopping in Bakersfield Wednesday night, we drove all Thursday night and we’ve finally arrived in Abbotsford. We have duck taped a girl to a seat, given enormous groupgoodbye hugs to our newly-made friends and almost made it through a Starbucks drive through in a shopping cart. All in all, we’re a pretty great group of friends now. It’s been really incredible to see how these experiences have affected the people who had never seen or walked through poverty before. Lives have been changed, not only those of the people we have helped, but also those of the ones who have given their time and love to those in need. Its been an awesome trip and I’m so grateful to have experienced it with everyone.

Penticton House Dedication

Dedication =  a ceremony in which something (as in this case, a house) is dedicated to some goal or purpose. That’s what we did, we built a home for a family for a purpose. A family filled with heart and faith. Seeing the mom’s face when the keys were handed over was a life changing experience that I will never forget. However, the moment that touched my heart the most was when little Ayaceli (age 6) ran into my arms and whispered the words, “thank you”. Her and her sister, Yolanda, were so overwhelmed with joy at even the thought of having a bed to sleep on, something we take for granted everyday. The saying is true that even if you are just one person you can make all the difference in someones life. Whether it is deciding to go on a trip like Hero Holiday or standing up for something that you feel is right when everyone else turns away. When everyone looks back on that day I hope that they will remember to “keep their dreams alive”. Understand to achieve anything requires faith andbelief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe! And you truly can make all the difference .

In Mexico, You Know Everyone

As a first timer, I didn’t know what to expect. I was told all these times, dates, and activities, anticipating what will happen when I get to Mexico. The first day on the bus was already not what I was expecting. When we finally arrived at the Hero Holiday house, it was twelve o’clock with our tummies already filled with fine Mexican cuisine. (Side note: I don’t really like tacos or Mexican food, but these tacos are delicioso!). Even though it was midnight and most of us were half asleep, we still found the will to talk. We wanted to get to know some of the School of Leadership students staying in Mexico. After a good seven hour sleep, we woke up and started the day all over again with a plate filled with fresh pancakes and fruit. The energy in the house was good, with no one complaining about the three day long bus ride, but rather chatting it up with the “experienced” and talking about what to expect and who they are mucho excited to see. When we arrived at the building site, we were all greeted by many children. Most were already covered in dirt. At first, I was shy to play with the children but my walls came tumbling down once I started to share smiles with children who I have so little in common with. My mind was blown when I saw how all these children live. With close to nothing, these children were the happiest people I have ever seen.After a nice afternoon filled with smiles and laughter, we left with the promise of coming back again tomorrow. Once we left, we were off to a grave yard. Once we arrived we were told about the realities of the high rate of infant mortality here in Mexico. We were also told about a personal experience that one had with this reality. The story was very upsetting and opened my eyes to the problems of an average citizen in Baja California. DAY DOS (2). We finally started to build the house and school. As much as I would like to say I worked hard, I will admit that the eager little Mexican boys worked harder at hammering down nails in an hour than I did the whole day! It’s not that I didn’t want to work, it’s that there was simply not enough hammers and tool belts for everyone. Not only did I learn how to properly use a hammer on this day, I also learned how to use a chop saw thanks to Cody. Even though my day will filled with lots of smiles from the children, my favorite part of the day was at the very beginning. While I was listening to Les teach is how to use a hammer and telling us which part of the nail goes down, I was greeted by Yolanda. Yolanda is eleven years old, and one of the daughters in the family receiving the home this year. While I was standing, I felt a little hand creep into mine. I have only spent a couple of hours with this girl the previous day and she ready feels comfortable enough to hold my hand. In Canada we are taught not to associate ourselves with people we don’t know. In Mexico, you know everyone! DAY NUMERO TRES (3). I worked on the family’s house instead of the school. I helped assemble a roof and improved the number of hits it takes to hammer a nail in. I went from about fifty hits to around ten. After a full day of building and playing, we headed back to the house to eat dinner and then got ready for the movie night Hero Holiday hosts for a small village of kids. With a kid or two in everyone’s lap, together we watched Toy Story 3 en Espanol under the stars. Even though I miss my mom and dad very much I wouldn’t give this experience up for anything. I have learned so much on this trip and will probably keep learning. Sure, two weeks of skiing and partying would have been nice, but this is so much better.~ MarissaP.s. Mom, don’t be surprised if I don’t come back.

Penticton Students Head to Mexico For The 7th Consecutive Year!

It is a pleasure for us to host students from Penticton again this year in Mexico.  For the last 7 years they have been faithfully coming and have made an incredible contribution, building over 20 homes and a couple of primary schools in the Vicente Guerrero Area.One of the unique things about this group is that every year they insist of traveling to and from Mexico on our Hero Holiday bus!  They can share countless stories with you about the good times on the road together!  They left Penticton yesterday morning and were slowed up for a few hours with traffic at the border in the Seattle area.  After getting out of that they spent a few hours of the side of the road this morning in Northern California because one of the mountain passes were experiencing some poor weather.  They just texted me from the road a few minutes ago to let everyone know that conditions have improved and they are on the go again.  The delays were insignificant and they should still arrive in San Diego this evening as planned.  Stay tuned for more updates of their trip, both here and on our Facebook page (FB-livedifferent.com).Not only are we anticipating another successful year of building and fun, but this group has many local friends in Mexico who are eagerly waiting their arrival!