March 25th Day 1 of build.
Today we arrived at our worksite to be greeted by Nelis, mother of six, and grandmother of seven.
Herself, her husband Jose, their son Javier, and grandson Hugo currently live in their small one-bedroom house. One of her other sons, Antonio lives just around the corner with his wife Maira, and their two girls Ximena and Kimberli. Both households share a bathroom and a kitchen together, and they are very grateful to live so close.
We learned a lot about the Rodriguez family today. Nelis shared with us some hardships she had to face early on in life which, in turn, led her here to Tijuana, starting her beautiful family when she was just 14 years old. Nelis has known her husband Jose since she was two! They've been married for 37 years.
We are so excited to be helping the Rodriguez’s expand their lives by making more room for their growing boys. The house we are building will be used as two bedrooms; one for Jesus and one for Victor.. although their little dog may have claimed it as his own, if you look closely in the photo you can see the signature and the culprit.
The team worked exceptionally hard today. We finished pouring our concrete pad at about 1 pm, so we could move on to building our walls! At this rate, we may have time for a taco party with the Rodriguez’s on the last day 😉
With minimal sunburns and no injuries, we leave our site back to base camp to eat some spaghetti, huddle around the bonfire, and call it a night. And after last night, we’re all praying for no rain.
