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By Dave Bezaire, February, 2006 (Click photos to see full size)
Life in Amecameca relates stories of the people we met and worked with for two weeks in Mexico. Told here primarily through pictures, they give a glimpse into agrarian life, Habitat for Humanity's work, and our Global Village team.
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Amecameca is a city of 40,000 in the highlands of central Mexico
This partially completed Habitat house sits beneath the Sleeping Lady volcano.
Amecameca was only a 90 minute van ride from the Mexico City airport.
We were treated to gorgeous sunrises and sunsets each day, such as these from our hotel.
Where we were building just outside of the city, farm animals were a common sight on the streets.
Amecameca is struggling to rebuild its economy as its agricultural base is crowded out by competition from lower elevations.
Industry shies away from the area due to the threat of volcanic eruption. Some residents commute 2 hours by bus to Mexico City for jobs such as police officers.
The Building Site
Building two new houses on a lot already owned and occupied by one of the families
Virtually all property in Mexico seems to be behind walls along the streets.
Here we pass through a gate and passage way to enter the building site.
From the outside, it is clear that Concho and Gabi's house is barely holding together.
The sink drains through the wall onto the ground.
One room houses nine people.
A bucket serves to flush the toilet.
Washing hands at the cistern.
Even the smallest helpers start the day with official Habitat duct tape name tags!
Behind the houses is farmland, which is worked manually.
Imagine cutting this entire field with a scythe, or plowing it behind a mule.
Chickens on the building site.
The well-worn shelter houses the "garbage disposal".
Construction
Habitat for Humanity in Mexico builds strong, durable, brick houses
One of the two houses we worked on was almost complete when we arrived.
They are about 25' x 24' feet, with 2 doors and 5 aluminum windows.
The other house we worked on is 15' away.
When we arrived, the homeowners had already completed 6 of 16 required courses of brick since beginning work three months earlier.
We added 8 additional courses in our 9 days.
Here we see the 2 bedrooms in the foreground, a combination kitchen / dining / living room in back, and a bathroom nestled in between.
Building with brick and mortar is slow, exacting work. The homeowner acted as house lead, directing our efforts and teaching us the techniques.
No one on our team had prior masonry experience, so the first couple days involved much practice, trial and error, and rework.
The walls are reinforced with steel, vertically at joints and corners, and horizontally at the bottom, middle and top.
Plumbing was a huge challenge.
Brickwork on the first house was completed already, so we had to cut channels in which to run the copper pipes.
On the second house we built the brick walls around the piping.
This is the bathroom in Consuelo & Doroteo's Habitat house, which we visited one Sunday afternoon.
It had been started about 9 months earlier, and was to have been occupied a couple weeks after we left.
The concrete floors were coated with a fine finish layer and troweled very smooth.
The roof is an insulated sandwich of two resilient panels surrounding a Styrofoam core, an efficient design for an area with daily temperature swings from the 30's at night to nearly 80 at mid-day.
By the middle of the build we had pretty well hit our stride, making for a reasonably well organized and busy work site...
... and some very tired people at the end of each day!
Homeowner Families
Meet Gabriella, Concho, David, Imelda and their lovely children!
Gabriella and Concho and their seven children will soon be moving into a new Habitat house!
Concho is a policeman in Mexico City.
Ceremonial pictures are quite the undertaking with so many little ones.
Here we got mom, dad, and 6 of the youngsters all together.
All the children help…
…even the baby twins tried to get into the act!
Concho's 15 year old son, Pepe, worked alongside of us whenever he was out of school.
Little Itzel tried to do her part by helping care for her baby brothers.
Boys like their toys just like Dad's!
Many precious faces help to make all the hard work feel worthwhile!
David and Imelda will own the second house we worked on
Concho and Gabriella gave the land to Concho's niece, Imelda, so she and David can build next to them.
Two of their boys are Carlos and Alexander.
Their younger ones are Israel and Diego.
Food & Fellowship
Shared meals brought our team and the homeowners families close together
To save money—and to give them an opportunity to earn some—we asked the families to prepare our breakfasts and lunches.
Each day we gave them funds, and one of our team helped with shopping and cooking.
We enjoyed wonderful meals, such as the beef with cactus and onions.
How else could you vacation in Mexico and enjoy such great home cooking—both preparing AND eating it?
The first day, with a table only big enough for our team, we ate first and the families ate separately after us.
The second day and thereafter, we used the scaffolding to make a very large table so we could all eat together.
Eating together fostered friendships despite our language differences. It is amazing how much communication really happens even without common words when it is really necessary!
Dale and Doroteo share a scrumptious lunch.
The next door neighbor brought a basket of sweet breads to share at one of our meals.
Future homeowner Harim invited us to her farm in the mountains for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon hike and horseback ride.
Harim and Maribel accompanied us to the market one Sunday afternoon. There we enjoyed a tasty meal of barbeque lamb together and feasted our eyes on an incredible assortment of merchandise.
We had people from five countries working on site: USA, Mexico, England, Jamaica, and Canada.
Advocacy
We helped spread the Habitat for Humanity message in Amecameca
Each Sunday we visited several local churches where our presence facilitated a brief talk by a Habitat family member that stirred many questions and conversations.
Mario, volunteer president of the local Habitat group, explains the program to the gathered crowd.
One friar, pictured here with our team at his church, became very excited as he learned about the Habitat program and the possibilities for the local area.
Here he is blessing the house and workers at our closing celebration.
One of the nuns we met at church brought her guitar and shared musical prayers as we enjoyed breakfast and a picturesque mountain sunrise.
A minister and her parishioner from the Mormon church toured the site the Monday after we visited their church.
Prospective volunteers and homeowners visited, inspected, questioned… and signed up!
By the end of our two weeks in Amecameca, the roster of prospective homeowner families had expanded from about 10 to nearly 30.
More Homeowners
The Habitat homeowners form a tight-knit community in Amecameca
Maribel and Harim began work on their Habitat house the week after we left.
The girl in green is Haylim, the bright and ambitious, 15 year-old daughter of Harim.
It's heartbreaking to hear that there is no money for the higher education she so desperately seeks.
Doroteo frequently worked with us, showing us many finer points about masonry. He is a strong mentor for Concho, who said he trusts him like his own father.
Consuelo and Doroteo had been working on their Habitat house for about nine months prior to our arrival. They planned to move in within two weeks, and proudly showed us all the details.
The view alongside Consuelo & Doroteo's new home shows their current house in the background.
Here Doroteo is holding one of Concho's twin sons.
Andrew is a landscaper from Toronto who volunteers during the cold Canadian winters. He worked with us the last couple days.
Mario is a tireless volunteer who helped with many arrangements for our team. He was to begin building his Habitat house soon.
Future homeowner Angel worked with us many days, and her husband Gabriel was there on Saturdays.
Roberto's Habitat house had been complete for a number of months. He was there helping us on Saturdays.
Lulu and Alfonso are on the list to become Habitat homeowners soon.
Rebecca is Gabriella's sister. She accepted the job of washing our clothing, for which we paid her the typical commercial laundry rates in the area.
Margarita and her daughter are eagerly awaiting the start of construction on their Habitat house.
Alejandro and Virginia built the first Habitat house in Amecameca.
On the right is their old house.
Alejandro and Virginia's new house. Their old house can barely be glimpsed in back, along the left side.
Their son reading in his new bedroom.
Alejandro and Virginia operate a clothing business. Their merchandise is sold in Mexico City. They used to live next to the sewing machines.
The business now operates much more efficiently and at higher production level than was possible in their old house.
Celebration!
The Celebration on our last afternoon attracted about 50 to 80 people
A couple of the "official" poses.
Team Leader Susi cuts the ribbon with Imelda to open her new door…
…and poses with Alfonso, Executive Director of the Mexico city affiliate.
Contrast Concho's wary, worried look on the first day,
with the warmth and friendship we were enjoying two weeks later!
Everyone shared a few words, many smiles, and warm hugs.
Richard is a volunteer from England who has been working with the Mexico City Habitat affiliate for nearly a year.
Susi challenged the crowd to keep building after we leave… and provided lots of gloves for everyone!
Markets & Merchants
Lovely views looking down from the tallest hill near town…
…which is itself crowned with two ancient churches.
Adrian was the taxi driver who got us to work each day.
A restaurant owner kept his shop open late to accommodate our schedule.
We visited a local baker…
…and a pottery maker
to see how they do their daily work
One team member was thrilled to find a welcoming branch of the AA family.
Many families created personal shrines such as the one we saw at Haylim's farm.
The Sunday market was an amazing array of food, colors, people and merchandise.
Looking out over the foothills agricultural land.
A lazy dog on a lazy street.... he slept there one morning as we ate at a sidewalk cafe, moving only to scratch.
R & R
After nine days of construction and two busy Sundays, we enjoyed two days of R&R en route home
We explored Puebla, one of Mexico's oldest cities, and it's charming European architecture.
The pyramids at Teotihuacn, about 2 hours north of Mexico city, gave us a fascinating view of life in Mexico 2000 years ago.
Half of the team stayed an extra five days to explore the Gulf Coast area near Veracruz where we saw this waterfall at Salto de Eyipantla. We had this beach to ourselves except for the horse getting a bath in the tributary on the right.
Team Members
Eleven people dedicated to having fun and making a difference
Aren't we a cool bunch??? (That's cuz we're shivering in the early morning chill!)
Dale, who worked in the Peace Corp in Ecuador for four years, has excellent Spanish language skills that were invaluable to the team and families.
Tony, who marked this trip as the beginning of an odyssey of giving back in gratitude for the Peace Corps volunteers who educated him as a child in Jamaica.
Scott, a dedicated Habitat volunteer in Columbus, was on his second Columbus Global Village Team trip.
Dale, Tony and Scott all work for American Electric Power.
A picure of Scott clowning a bit.
Erik, Construction Director at Habitat for Humanity Greater Columbus, enjoyed hands-on work instead of leadership for a change.
Kathy, who is a veteran Habitat House Leader in Columbus and an experienced church mission trip leader, now works full-time organizing volunteer hurricane relief efforts in Florida.
Kia, who is a high school senior with good enough grades to be away from classes for 3 weeks, will be in college next fall.
Laura, who graduated early from high school to spend her last semester traveling, is heading to college in the fall to prepare for a career in ministry and service.
Kia and Laura on top of the world…
…well, at least on top of the pyramids!
Cabrini, a recently retired psychologist, remains dedicated to adventure and service.
Frank, whose faith compels him to dedicated service, is retired from a career as a civil rights judge.
Dave, who is a dedicated Habitat House Lead in Columbus, enjoys learning new construction techniques even as he tries to teach the team how to do them.
Susi, who has volunteered with Habitat in Columbus for over 15 years, makes all this possible by organizing and leading the Columbus Global Village Team.
The obligatory "formal" photos, one with faces and eyes hidden by hats and glasses, the other squinting!
The team together on a Sunday hike to the top of a hill just outside of Amecameca.
Who
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Alejandro and Virginia operate a clothing business. Their merchandise is sold in Mexico City. They used to live next to the sewing machines.
