Mexico Trip, June 26 – Day 2

Dear friends and family…

Today we met our family and started working on their home. Annielu is a single mother and has three children. She earns about 150 pesos (~$12 USD) per day and currently lives in a camper with a small room attached to it. Altogether we started working on 6 homes. The families that receive the homes are selected on a needs basis through an interview process. There is no requirement to attend the parish here, mostly because they are spread all over the area and have limited access to transportation. This is a service that the orphanage and the Project Mexico team perform for the community to provide mercy for those in need.

Annielu and family…

The focus of today was to level the ground and put the foundation in place. The home will be a 12 x 24, two room home, and completed in 4 days.

Getting the area ready for the foundation.

Upon completion of the leveling and formwork we went to work on pouring the slab. All of the concrete is mixed by hand with two teams working side by side in order to keep the concrete flowing throughout the process.

Frantically mixing the concrete.

The final steps of the process were to float the foundation and add the anchor bolts for the walls. It was so cute that Annielu asked if her children could put their handprints into the concrete.

Floating the foundation and inserting the anchor bolts.

Handprints in the concrete…

Our team did great today and finished the foundation in record time. We were rewarded with a stop at the local taco stand for an afternoon snack.

Tacos…original style.

If you would like to get more information on Project Mexico and St. Innocent Orphanage you can check them out at http://projectmexico.org/Home.aspx. I have also been posting updates on Facebook (david.b.short) if you would like to follow those updates.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts.