We are Woman

It’s two days into house build number two for us LiveDifferent Academy Students and although it has only been a few days a lot has been done! This week we are building for Maria and Pedro and their four kids who are ages four to sixteen. This family has a special place in my heart and building for them has lit a fire in my heart. They have so little; I brought more to Mexico with me then this family has but yet they are still able to give. We found out the day we interviewed them about their application that Maria always gives what she can to others and her children now
do the same. We have about four teddy bears in our house now that four year old Lupe has given us. But don’t worry we will be giving back to them! I can’t think of a more deserving family then this one although I know there are hundred’s of families that need new homes.

Maria and Pedro work in a tomato field that is about an hour away from their house and in order to catch the bus on time they have to leave their house by about 3 a.m. But before they can leave they have to make breakfast and lunch and make sure everything is ready for the day. Then they go off and work a nine hour day picking tomatoes which the girls and I know from personal experience is really hard work. And to add to this they don’t get home until 8:30 or 9:00pm and at least one parent is usually working every day. That means that they only have about five hours at home before they have to start the next day and to me that seems impossible, but to this family my impossible is their reality. However, this family completely owns their own piece of land and all of their children go to school which is a lot, especially for their situation.

So! This family really deserves a house and we are working extremely hard to give them one! But it has been a little crazy trying to build; we started a day late because it decided to rain a couple days before we were starting to build and we were given the wrong kind of wood twice! Also it is a very small space that we are working in so there has been a lot of moving of 2X4’s and sheets of plywood so that we are organized and won’t run into problems later! Can you tell that we are an all women group!? But being all women has not slowed us down and instead it has fuelled our fire! Because we started a day late we have now put in two full days of work and are right on schedule, we stood up the house today and completed the inside walls and painted over half the house! Our goal is to be done by Friday in hopes that we can dedicate the house to the family before Dawn has to go home (Dawn used to live here in Mexico working with Hero Holiday and is visiting for the week). I think that if we keep working as hard as we are we can definitely meet our goal! We have given a whole new meaning to being a woman this week. And we are also extremely happy to give back to this family for all the times they have given to people that they know to help them. In just a few more days this family will have a new house and I am so very thankful that I get to take part in building it and giving it to them.

Written by Britney Favreau, LiveDifferent Academy student living in Mexico