I’m back from building homes in Tijuana, Mexico – also known as TJ for all us cool people that are too lazy to say T I J U A N A. I have to be honest with you: At first, I signed up cause it was a free trip to Mexico and I wanted to lose the desk for sunshine, beach and cold Coronas. But now that it’s over, I am so happy that the trip wasn’t about “chillin on a beach”. Working with “Homes Of Hope” to build homes for the poor in TJ has made me a happier and more fulfilled person – “chillin on a beach” doesn’t even come close to giving me the satisfaction that I have had with this experience. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. If you feel like somethings missing in your life – you need to pop the “Homes Of Hope” pill – it will change you. I promise you that. I took a few pics of the trip – enjoy!
We had two charter buses that took us to the Youth With a Mission office in National City, CA. Each bus played a movie on the little TV’s – our movie was “Elizabeth” and the other bus was playing “Juno” (I didn’t watch any of it – who could with those tiny TV’s? I’m used to my 47 inch LCD at home – I can’t watch movies on anything smaller than that so I Twittered the whole trip down)
This is my “I can’t believe they’re playing ELIZABETH” look! Of all the movies in the world someone picked “Elizabeth”! IT HAS SUB-TITLES!!! How can you read sub-titles on those TINY screens??? Give me “Juno” any day! It’s the Movie Of The Year in my book – I don’t care what the Oscar puppets say. :)
The charter bus was great – my only observation (and it’s not a complaint) is the leg room – it’s a little tight, don’t you think?
The bus had a bathroom – this was my tweet somewhere around San Diego: “Random thought: Can i fit in that tiny bathroom at the back of the bus? Hmm”. Needless to say, I got in ok and found this picture inside..what’s up with that hat? Do guys with stupid hats have to sit down? I stood – cause that’s how I roll.
Yay! We made it to National City, CA!
We ditched the buses for these vans…
We played “who-goes-with-who” for a bit…
We finished playing “who-goes-with-who” and jammed our luggage in the back of the vans. I wonder what’s in the big yellow plastic bag?
I thought I heard someone say you couldn’t take fruit into Mexico but I didn’t know if that was true or not – just to be safe I hid my two bananas…can you see where I hid them? :-)
My tweet explains it all: “We’re rolling! We’re in a convoy of vans heading to the border…it’s kinda cool and i’m riding shotgun! I feel important :-)”
We made it to the US / Mexico border! Here’s my tweet: “ Ok that was lame. Just crossed into Mexico – where are the guys with guns? I thought there were guys with guns!”
When we arrived at the YWAM base in TJ they had a mariachi band there to greet us!
YWAM served us chips and fresh salsa before dinner!
Mmmmm…S A L S A! It was sooooo good!
After dinner we checked into our hotel. This is the lobby of the Rosarito Beach Hotel.
Restaurant in the Rosarito Beach Hotel.
Some of the art in the Rosarito Beach Hotel.
Even the ceilings were painted in the Rosarito Beach Hotel – Very cool!
Here’s the view outside my balcony. I left the balcony door open all night and feel asleep to the sound of the ocean.
I wanted to take a shower but was confused with the 3 knobs since I’m only used to 1 or 2 knobs, so I took a picture of it. I know cold water comes out of the first knob, hot water comes out of the third knob, so what comes out the middle knob? Hot chocolate? It took me awhile but I finally figured it out. Have you ever seen 3 knobs before? Is this normal?? I missed breakfast cause of that stupid middle knob!
Group photo! I took this when the camera guy was taking our group photo! I title this work of art: “Corri in a picture of Corri taking a picture of Corri” Yay – say that 10 times as fast as you can!
We finally get to the work site. Here’s a few pics of the neighborhood we worked in.
Cute doggie but don’t touch! :)
These homes are all built in this landfill. Very sad. (Side note: This is a good reminder for everyone to recycle!)
This is home for A LOT OF PEOPLE!
This is the home of our family of 7!!! The mother and father live here with 5 kids!!!
This is Justin – he’s with YWAM and he was our builder. There were around 15 people on our team and Justin would tell us what to do. Not sure why his pants are undone but hey, that’s how he rolls.
This is Abraham – he’s one of the 5 kids in the family who’s house we were building. Abraham is 10 and he WORKED HIS BUTT OFF!!! Abraham is the coolest kid I have EVER met and he worked NON-STOP for HOURS. It blew my mind how awesome this kid was! I’ll miss him. :(
This is our house! We built this sucker with our bare hands! It felt awesome to do some good in this world.
Your’s truly helped with the drywall! ;) Oh yeah baby – I drywall now!
I also worked on the roof! Oh yeah baby – I roof now! ;)
The home got built, the family was happy and then it was time to go home. :( The border traffic was so bad it took us 3 and a half hours to get across! I was sad to leave TJ but thrilled to know that there will be another opportunity to build more houses! Here’s the website if your interested in learning more about YWAM and “Homes Of Hope” – click here
Thanks for sharing. It’s so great that you were able to be a part of this and make a difference! Congrats!
Love the commentary with the pics Corri. Looks like a successful trip. Glad you shared with the rest of us.
Great pic’s Corri….although I’m a little concerned for the family, I’ve done construction work with you before. Was there a safety supervisor on-site? :)
Lane: The safety supervisor was Justin – Mr. “Pants Undone” himself! :)
Dude, you are hilarious.
If it’s anything like S.E. Asia, that doggie might be on the dinner table by 8.
What about the middle knob?
The middle knob turned the shower on and off…weird, right? Thanks everyone for the comments! :)