Glowing Faces

I was in Mexico last year for a Hero Holiday and when we pulled up to the house this year it seemed like I had never left. After we arrived we quickly unpacked and climbed into the bus to go meet the families we would be building for the next couple of days. The parents of the family we met are just teenagers like myself. The father, Jesus is nineteen years old and his wife Katherine is only seventeen; their boy’s name is Abdiel and he is 10 months old. I was assigned to help build their house and it really struck me to see how mature they were. I have never met others teenagers like both of them in my life.

When we arrived at the worksite on the first day, Jesus told us that Katherine, himself, and their son Abdiel had been walking back and forth to the gas station trying to see our bus because they were so anxious to meet us. Their faces were glowing when we showed up and none of us could wait to get started. We said our hello’s and we got to work. Before lunch we were already building the walls. By the end of the day we had our walls up and we were ready to put the roof on.

Today was our second day working on the house and we have the roof on and almost everything is painted. We are officially one day ahead of schedule according to last year – apparently we are making record time! After we finished building for the day we took our families to the beach and it was amazing. This whole time building I had forgotten that Jesus and Katherine are around my age. Seeing Jesus’ face light up when he saw the ocean and dash for the water put the biggest smile on my face. It hit me and I remembered that he is only two years older than me. He was having the time of his life and it was amazing to see our two families finally able to relax.

Tonight we had taco’s for dinner and we got to go to the candy store. During dinner there was a guitar player performing and we started dancing. Everyone was laughing and smiling and having the time of their lives. However the dance party did not stop there. We were soon dancing and singing our hearts out on the bus to Adele. Tonight we have bonded considerably and I believe that tomorrow will be that much more spectacular because of it.

– Jeremy