Loving the Second Day in Mexico

After many hours of driving from Vancouver to Vincente Guerrero, Mexico (including my flight from Winnipeg), we are on the morning of our second build day. Its amazing to see how much Hero Holiday involves growth. Growth between people, growth in the the house we are building, the relationships with people, and our knowledge of what we can do to make a change. My relationships between people has definitely sky-rocketed in the past couple days, seeing that everyone is comfortable enough to crack jokes about my Winnipeg location. Still, what I love is that it doesn’t matter where we’re from out here and no matter how much people will kid around, in the end everyone is equal and we are all here for the same purpose. Yesterday was our first day of building and it was amazing. Just to see the love and appreciation in the family and communities eyes. People here base their happiness off of love and the relationship between each other which is so refreshing coming from a society whose happiness comes from money or the things we have. I played my first game of baseball with a few of the boys from the community of the build site and the whole time I’m sure I just had a huge smile plastered on my face. Another highlight so far was the chalk wall that we created. Almost all the participants and kids filled it with names, peace signs, hearts, suns, and illustrations of each other. I love how willing everyone is to interact with us, even though they have no idea who we are, and do not even speak the same language. It truly is the people that are making this experience so special for me, and I can’t wait to interview some of the people today on the build (an assignment given to each of the Hero Holiday participants). In a country that’s foreign to me I can’t believe how incredibly safe I feel. Yesterday we all went for ice cream which was on the side of the main road. When the cars would come by honking and staring, the guys of our group would wave and yell hello back. The love that the community is sharing with us makes me feel at home. I already have decided I want to come back next year, and I can’t wait to continue the rest of the week even though I don’t want it all to end!