Second Mexico Trip
Below are photos taken during a second homebuilding trip to Tijuana, Mexico over Winter Break 2004-2005.
This is Chicago Union Station's Great Hall, as I waited a few hours before my train departed. I had initially been scheduled to take the Ann Rutledge in the morning, but it was cancelled due to downed power lines on the tracks in Bloomington, Illinois, so I waited a few hours for the Southwest Chief instead.
Our three vans are parked at Mama Rosa's restaurant in Topeka, Kansas, where we picked up Joel and Kerry. From the left, they are Knight Rider, Blue Steel, and Nugget.
Our group, and especially Matthew, near a Love's Travel Stop in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
Adam checks the oil at a Love's Travel Stop near Erick, Oklahoma.
A game of hacky-sack ensues while waiting for a mechanic to arrive to help Blue Steel in Erick. If I remember, it needed some sort of clamp for the power steering.
This dark photo shows a broken down Knight Rider near Shamrock, Texas. AAA would tow us to Amarillo or Oklahoma City, neither of which seemed good options. As we kept driving, the van basically fixed itself.
The group waits at a gas station in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Another photo taken at the same gas station.
The famous saguerro cactus of the West, somewhere west of Casa Grande.
In Yuma, Arizona, we realize that the cool-air intake was not attached in Knight Rider, and fix it.
Jeremy Jordan takes a seat outside of one of the vans at the Yuma stop.
Up ahead is an inspection station we had to drive through shortly after we arrived in California.
The sand dunes of Southeastern California.
East of San Diego, near Devil's Canyon, there are giant hills made of rocks and boulders.
Camp in Tijuana, just before we head to the worksite the first day.
The bumpy, muddy. wet road from the campsite. I thought the contrast between the GPS receiver I was using to plot our path and the primitive road was kind of funny.
A photo taken from the worksite looking down on part of Tijuana.
This is the house our family was living in.
The place where we were going to build the house wasn't level, so we had to make it that way.
The father of the household helps us saw some boards. I think these would be used for the walls later on.
As you can see in the background, we had some fun with the kids.
Here we have the mixing and pouring of the concrete foundation.
Because of NAFTA, Kerry is able to recruit a small Mexican workforce to help her shovel dirt and rocks for the concrete for cheap.
So we had a little bit of fun with a pinata for New Year's.
Still more of the foundation to make. You can see Jenna tamping in the background.
Matt and Joel sifting some sand for stucco. We put stucco over the concrete, covering up the cat prints and such that had been made overnight.
This photo was also taken from the worksite. No trash pickup, so you just kind of throw it into the ravine.
Matthew and Julie work on framing the walls.
Matthew hammering at the walls.
I'm really not sure whether this photo was supposed to be of the child or the people in the back.
This little fellow decided that his house needed some stucco on the floors inside. See if your mom lets you get away with that.
Jenna and Elizabeth cut fireblocks for the walls, and Matthew and Julie put them in.
We built the 7-foot walls up on the road, so we had to carry them in under the electric wires.
Our nighttime campfire. We were unsuccessfull in starting a fire our first night at the campsite, although Blair, an Amor staff person, tried to help us out with a little gasoline. Quite a flare-up, but only for a second.
Driving over a large dam on the way to the worksite.
Some of the walls are up and being hammered together.
All of the walls as seen from above.
Amy puts some nails in the walls to string the bailing wire on.
Joel and Kerry make sure the windows are square.
Hoisting up the roof.
Blair, Matthew, and Jenna secure the roof.
Matt makes double sure those walls are together.
The Mexican cog, or cow-dog. See what happens when you don't follow Bob Barker's advice?
Blair puts some big sheets of plywood on the roof.
Look at all that dirt we sifted!
Kyle is putting in a window.
Jeremy and Blair put some tar paper on the roof.
Beth looks into how well a window is fitting.
Matt screws in a door.
Covering up the tar paper with a shingley material.
Some writing in the dust on one of our vans. Because of the hilly, muddy road to the worksite, we had to park the vehicles some distance away. On the first day, Blair's truck was broken into and some CD's were stolen, so from then on we kept a guard at the vans.
Forecast calls for rain all day, so we go to the Tijuana Christian Mission, City of Refuge. Look, water in the Tijuana river!
Lots of water on the Via Rapida as well. They hadn't seen so much in 2-3 years. When it rains in Tijuana, children get off school and businesses close.
A view from the top floor of the orphanage (COR).
The room where we stayed. Quite cold at night, but at least it didn't rain inside.
Some of the kids playing in the courtyard.
Ahh, lunch.
Well, I actually got a photo of me. This little fellow was fascinated by the camera, and took many photos of his own -- that didn't exactly turn out.
Craft time! In the back is Stephanie, who translated for us.
Jeremy Jordan teaches a lesson on Noah's Ark.
Lucy and a couple of other children on the piano.
Scrambling for candy after the broken pinata at the orphanage.
Enjoying the candy afterwards. Aunt Linda can note the green Hershey Kiss evident.
A hot chocolate I enjoyed at a cafe on the beach.
Yes, still raining. Jenna puts some tar paper on the walls.
Next goes the chicken wire. We're trapped!
Jeremy demonstrates proper application of stucco.
A view from inside the house. Although we cleaned it up, this is basically what it looked like from the inside when we were done. Some families use the boards as shelves, some put up dry-wall, we leave it to them.
My, look at all that mud. There was really a lot of mud. No photo could ever capture just how much mud there was.
Here is the mother and some of the children. The stucco is still wet here, and we were only able to get one coat on. Blair later came back with another group to add the second coat.
The old and the new.
Bonnie and Jeremy play with the kids later that day.
The U.S.-Mexico border, as seen from the orphanage. Tijuana seemed much brighter than San Diego. I think San Diego is much taller and more compact.
We say goodbye to City of Refuge and head for Rosarito. And the van roof falls down. We had been joking that as soon as we reached the driveway in Kirksville everything was just going to fall apart.
The taco stand where we had lunch.
Yummy quesadilla.
We make music with soda bottles. In Mexico, the Coca-Cola is make with real sugar.
And after lunch, we went for ice cream.
Yes, yummy ice cream.
We approach the Pacific Ocean.
Telling stories on the beach.
Yep, it's pretty.
Matt looks for shells before we leave.
A wall along the Mexican side of the border as we head toward the border crossing.
A large swath of land called "no-man's land" along the border.
People selling things in the border line.
The border. The ticker at top just seemed to tell a bunch of random facts.
A mechanic in San Diego tells us that our two big vans both have problems, but are both driveable. When we found in Tijuana that one van was missing a belt, Joel said that they were probably "running on the Holy Spirit" at this point. It turns out it was missing a smog belt, so while we were polluting like crazy, we could still drive.
We dropped Joe off at the San Diego Airport. The Port had a cruise ship, medical ship, and aircraft carriers at anchor.
A rest stop north of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
U.S. Border Patrol, Las Cruces Inspection Station. I think we had to stop for inspections 4 times on the way home. I was awakened once during the night by large men shining flashlights into the van. Much fun.
Sleeping Blue Steel, before Hutch, New Mexico. This is what the van looked like much of the time.
What a cool name for a town!
Ahh, yes, welcome to Missouri.
The Welcome to Kirksville sign, as seen through snow, fog, and a foggy windshield.
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