Service in Mexico was a great break from self
It seems like everything I do here in college is centered around me: I go to school. I go to work. I go to the gym or hang out with friends. Even when I do manage to squeeze in a little service, it is not comparable to the time I spend serving myself. By the time spring break came around, I was ready for a break from me. And that’s just what Save the Children Mexico is all about.
Fifteen members of the Spanish Club went down to Sonora, Mexico over Spring Break to help build a house for a family in need through La Fundacion de Ayuda Infantil (FAI), or Save the Children Mexico. The new house is being built right next to the family’s current residence: a horrible ensemble of metal and wood scraps.
The adobe bricks for the new house had already been stacked to form the walls when we arrived, but there was still a lot to be done. The floors needed to be leveled. The bamboo for the roof needed to be cleaned. Many of the men worked on digging the hole for the water tank: 10 feet deep, 10 feet wide and a whole lot of rocks. Some of the guys had to duct tape their blisters so they could keep working.
Also to be done were two windows made of glass bottles and cement. The bottoms of the bottles face the exterior and inside, marbles are glued in place of a cap. The light shines through the bottom of the bottles and the marbles disperses light into the room, the architect Jose Francisco Cáñez Bravo explained.
By the end of the week, everyone except the diggers had the same task: placing small rocks between the dozens of levels of adobe bricks. Plaster will cover all the walls of the home and the small rocks help the plaster stick, Bravo said. Each row had to be scraped out, rocks had to be broken and mud had to be mixed to hold the rocks in place.
Spanish Club members who went to Sonora include: Ron Godfrey, Tim Cannon, Dave Cox, Aaron Parker, Patrick Jolley, Jordan Singleton, Casey Reynolds, BrandyTrygstad, Jacque Parker, Channing Hamilton, Cassie Carven, Jennifer Huish, Christina Guymon, Angela Squires and myself.
Besides working on the house, the group also visited the FAI after school program, the local university and the beach in San Carlos.
The project truly made a difference, especially in the lives of the children who will be living in the new house. Several club members commented that their favorite part of the trip was at the end of the day when the kids would come home from school and help work … or convince us to take a break and play some volleyball.
The moment that had the most profound effect on me was on our last day of working when Josefina, the mother, celebrated her 50th birthday. I will never forget her face while we sat singing happy birthday to her. She blinked hard and avoided eye contact as she attempted to swallow her emotions. And suddenly it hit me: a feeling that I cannot recapture. It was something like an overwhelming understanding of the blessings in my life and the reality of the lives of Josefina and her children.
I am shrouded with gifts and a table full of people singing to me on every one of my birthdays. I am given clothing, entertainment and little novelty items that could pay for an entire meal in Mexico. A gift to me will never be a decent home. I cannot even grasp something so simple and necessary being absent from my life.
It is interesting and sad to me that such a big feeling can be washed out in only a week’s time. We arrived home on the night of Monday after Spring Break. School had already started again, and I had two big tests before the weekend. I was forced back into fourth gear with no time to ever just sit and think about things. I now realize that experiences like that can only be truly savored for a moment, but they do change you in small ways that last throughout your life.
Ash Schiller is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comment may be sent to her at ashschiller@cc.usu.edu