Baja Build off.

My trip started out with a 4:30 am wake up call,some coffee ,waking up my brother Josh and we were off to the airport! I met Justin our team leader at the airport looked tired but excited and I'm pretty sure from the 1 am email he sent me he had gotten a lot less sleep then me.

Our flight went well and after a few naps and some light reading we touched down safely in cloudy San Diego. After grabbing my luggage Justin and I called Evan another one of our team members who had just driven into San Diego from Las Vegas on a road trip Seattle. Evan was doing amazingly well running on Energy drinks considering he had less sleep then Justin and I and did an amazing job of navigating with So-Cal's rather interesting driving style which is some where between super aggressive and grand theft auto. We managed to find a very nice little deli with free coffee and delicious sandwiches and recharged while waiting for Trevor the last member of the team who was riding with us from the airport.

With Trevor successfully picked up we headed to the Chula Vista East lake community church with a quick stop off at Target and Rite Aid to find some cheap sunglasses and some ummm amazing target deli food. We killed some time at the Chula Vista ECC by playing frisbee with Trevor's awesome floppy frisbee which seemed like a cross between a hacky sack and a fabric hat. Soon after our arrival the rest of the team members arrived and all assembled in the auditorium to meet the other team from CVECC and Karla who is in charge of CVECC's mission trips. After some quick paper work and orientation Chris,W busted out some goodies one of his factory reps at Ironclad had sent us and proceeded to show us how good he looked in a pink tool belt and gloves. After a group picture we hopped on to YWAM's(youth with a mission's) cargo vans and headed towards the border and Tijuana. 30 minutes later we were sitting in line at the US/Mexico border which moved fairly quickly. Once we passed through the contrast was like night and day it was like night and day with garbage littering the streets and most of the buildings having concrete fences with broken off bottles on top to ward off unwanted visitors. Once we got about 20 minutes outside of Tj's and on the highway the area looked more like eastern Washington on the ocean with the majority of the coastline crammed with houses and condo's

At about 4pm we arrived at the YWAM facility and were amazed at how nice it was! I think most of us were expecting cots,sleeping bags in a wear house but were instead greeted by a complex of buildings that resembled a small Mexican resort minus the beachfront. Once we unpacked and relaxed for a minute we were split up in rooms. I roomed with Chris,Trevor,Joel and Ryan in a room with 3 very comfortable bunk beds and I had flash back's of camp which is the last time I think I've slept in one. After claiming a top bunk Chris and I went for a run across the highway,down some cobble stone streets and found our way to the beach which was not quite Cancun but still nice after a long day on the road! After a nice 45 minute run we made it back to the YWAM facility where we were asked why we would want to run while on vacation.....I guess we are just a little different ;)

Soon after we all went up to the Defender building which was there meeting area and received a run down on YWAM and what it does and were told that it was founded in 1960 has more then a 1000 locations in over 150 countries and a staff of nearly 16,000. The Mexico Branches have built more then 2000 houses so far! We watched a movie on the poverty of a large portion of the Mexican people and I think we all felt a little selfish for how much and how good we all have it in the USA compared to the 3rd world countries. After our orientation we went to the mess hall for a traditional Mexican dinner of spaghetti and salad with ranch.

After Dinner some of us explored the small village by the highway and topped the night off with appetizers at a traditional mexican italian restaurant ;) That night we all slept amazingly well until my alarm went off at 4:30 am that I had forgotten to turn off from the morning before. Saturday morning we all woke up bright and early and headed to the Mess hall for a nice meal of pancakes,bacon and forted flakes with yogurt(at least for a few of us). Then we all watched a quick video on the do's and don't's of building a house and hopped in the vans and got on our way to the build site. we drove about 20 minutes south and headed east when we got into Rosarita. After arriving at the sight we got to meet the family that would be living in the house we were about to build. The Dias Zuniga family consisted of the mom and her two sons and three daughters they were living in what appeared to be a ramshackle 1950's 1 room travel trailer with electricity coming in by 2 old lamp cord wires tied around the over head wires that Alfonso told us the mother had installed. He told us that most of the people that do have electricity in the area get it this way or by bribing the power company to hook it up and often times have very sub par and dangerous electrical instilation's as a result

Alfonso the YWAM foreman split us into 4 groups cutting,walls,trusses and painting. I joined the wall framing group and with in a few hours we started making some progress we made the walls by nailing siding that the painting crew painted and nailed them to the studs and then installing windows , and by lunch we had gotten all four walls up and nailed together! Deigo the oldest son was a great help and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the building process!We all took lunch and enjoyed some ham and turkey croissants. For dessert we tried Don YWAM's handy man's invention of peanut butter and marshmallow whip and two pieces of bread which we called a fluffier nuttier and as odd as it sounds it was pretty amazing!! After Lunch we started on the dry wall while the trusses were being put on top of the house which made for a lot team work! By the end of the day we had gotten the trusses,most of the drywall and the sheeting on the roof.

After a long day we were all ready to head back and relax and enjoy some more italian food ;) We were all surprised when we got to the mess hall and found that they had made us a huge beef taco feast! After stuffing ourselves we convinced Brody and Don to drive us into Rosarita where we walked around and explored the town which sits on a beautiful beach with a long board walk/dock that extends into the sea. Aside from the promoters and vendors who would aggressively try to sell you club entrances and and souvenirs it was a nice town. We had one vendor that tried to get Chris to go bungee jumping by telling him that its a lot of fun and no one has died yet lol! We found a great taco stand with $2 taco's and later on found a really cool little restaurant that was decorated almost entirely with cactus wood with an almost medieval like setting,high back leather chairs,low lighting that that streamed through the cactus chandeliers. They served baskets of warm flour tortillas that were almost like crepes :p

The next morning we got up bright and early and had another great breakfast and headed off to the build sight to finish up the house! The truss crew started on the installing the 3-tab roofing while the painting crew started doing touch up paint to the interior and exterior while the framing crew continued to install the drywall and trim. After lunch some members of the crew took the Dias Zunega family shopping for groceries and school supplies with some extra money that everyone pitched in! While they were gone we unloaded the extra furniture and stove that we all had pitched in to get for them! The guys started on the table and chairs and of course we didn't read the directions before so we ended up with to many long screws and not enough short one……after pulling them back apart and reinstalling them we got it right on the second try . We got the bunk bed set up in the bedroom and Chris and Trevor showed us their technique for installing light bulbs with out a ladder and answered the age old question of how many electricians it takes to screw in a light bulb, which was two one to hold the light bulb and one to spin and hold the person with the light bulb. After we finished with the furniture Joel and Ryan showed us how domesticated they were by setting the table and putting the forks on the right side of the plates. When the Dias Zuniga family returned we all gathered in a circle and passed the house keys from person to person and telling the family how much this meant to us and how much we enjoyed helping them out then they got to go in and see the finished house for the first time! Our translator listened with her ear at the window telling us all how amazing the family was saying the house was!! The Mother came to the door with tears running down her cheeks and told us all how happy she was with the house and how blessed she felt!! After a round of hugs,tears and laughing we all headed back to the YWAM facility with a feeling of pride excitement at what we had just accomplished!!

As soon as we got back we got packed up and hopped back in the van for our trip back across the border. We took the east border entrance as Sam a member of the San Diego crew who worked in mexico on a regular basis told us it would be quicker. When we got close to the border our driver realized that she had forgotten her passport and we stopped off to grab food while it was brought for her. Sam showed us an amazing taco stand that had $1 fish taco's that were amazing! After we stuffed ourselves with tacos we headed to the border and got in line. There were many different vendors,performers and panhandlers walking up and down the congested line to the border the more memorable being the sister standing on her sister's back while juggling,the man with no legs pushing himself on a skateboard and the guy selling puppies as if they were souvenirs…..we made it safely across the border and back to the Chula Vista ECC where Karla met us with a large van and brought the Bothell ECC group to In and Out burger before taking us to our host families house for the night.

The next some of us went to the airport while others who made extended vacations out of the trip headed to the beach :)

Thank you so much for all of you for your support,sponsoring and helping us all make this happen.

You can download any of the trip photo's by clicking on the slideshow this will bring you to my hosting sight where you can right click on the images and save them to your computor. Photographer when posting is appreciated but not required thanks!!

Peter John