Loving it! (Mexico August 2009)

So here I am in Mexico, on a Hero Holiday, and so far, I am LOVING it! Our drive down from San Diego was great because we drove along the coast, and I couldn’t keep my eyes away from the window; that is one thing I love about being in a new country: having brand new scenery to look at.When we arrived at our new home for the week, we were all really excited. We are staying in actual houses, dorm style. There is the main Hero Holiday house where we eat, and hold debriefings. The boys are in one house, and girls in the other. There is a big yard where we can play football or soccer and right outside of the boys house is where we have bonfires.Our team is working on two projects this week: an extension to a school, and building a home for a family of 12 currently living in a very small home. The first day on the site I worked on the school. The concrete pad was already laid, and so we started working on putting together the roof panels, the walls, and painting the existing school. There were a few kids around, and they were VERY eager to help. They would take the hammer right out of our hand and start swinging it…and they were actually really good at it. There was also one local man who set up a stand for us to “shop” at. Some of us bought things from him, since buying from a local vendor is much better than buying at a commercial store. Our team worked really hard on the school, and by the end of the day we were exhausted. However, we were all looking forward to tacos for dinner!!! We went to a taco stand down the road, and I ate the best tacos of my life! Later on, after a very thorough debriefing we ended up at the circus! It was a very funny show and a great way to end off our very first working day in Mexico.The second day of work I spent at the house build. We finished building the walls and put together the house. This took us until about 11am, and then Charles had a great idea. I had been told by the team there the previous day that the family was very, very shy. So he decided that we would all take them out for ice-cream to break the ice and get to know them better. It did work, and they started talking to us more.After lunch, we put the roof on the house, and paneled it. We also painted the trim that will go up on the outside of the house and I had some of the girls and the kids helping us out with this…they really enjoyed it. This took us all afternoon, and the roof required us to really work like a team. It took all of us, and all of the strength we had to lift the roof panels on top of the house. When we got home, we had some time to relax before dinner. After dinner, we had a late debriefing and then had a huge bonfire, with Chase, one of the guys on the trip playing guitar and singing. It was a really fun night.Having been on three Hero Holiday’s in the Dominican and spending some time there on my own, my natural thoughts are to compare it with this trip and the Mexican needs and culture. Since I have never been to Mexico I was not really sure what to expect and I have found that it is not much different. The people seem to have the same attitude; happy with what they have and very grateful for us being here. There is a lot of need here as well, however I have found that the homes are much more spread out than in the Dominican. I feel right at home here, just like I do in the DR and I cannot wait to finish the house and hopefully make our family’s lives a little bit easier.Melissa (Hero Holiday Participant)