Week 5: My first experience leading a team with no staff.
One other intern and I lead a team from Kansas in building a single. There was
certainly frustration along the way. I butted heads with the team leader on a
number of occasions about different ways to build. We were also short on lumber
and had to wait a whole day to get it. That put us back about half the day and
further frustrated the team leader. Finally, I was rather humbled when I got
into a car accident and had to deal with the other driver, Mexican police, and
the insurance rep. It was a minor crash and eventually it got worked out.
Someone at the church we were staying at fixed the other car; we paid for the
materials, and neither the police nor insurance were further involved. But even
with all the challenges, I still consider the week a success. We built for a
young couple with a young child. They had been waiting for a year for the
house. The husband was eager to help with the build. It’s sometimes difficult
to remember why we’re here in the midst of trouble, but when we make that
perspective shift we start to realize that there are more important things than
our comfort.
Week 6: This week was Team Casas, which is the pre-scheduled
individual trip that anyone can sign up for. It is a chance for people who
don’t have a group to come with to build a house. The build went pretty
smoothly. The first two days especially were not hard at all, work wise. And it
was nice to get a break from being in charge. All the interns were working with
the individuals who came down. Some of them had family working/visiting. That
sort of made me miss people back home more, but that’s just something else to
give to God.
Week 7: This week was also spent in Acuña, Mexico. It was
the hottest week yet, especially with the high humidity. Again it was one other
intern and I leading a team. This time, though the team was one third of a
large team that was building three houses. During the week, the interns
starting going to one of the other sites to work after our building day was
over. It was in a very tight place and coming along slowly. It was strangely
energizing to get away and just do work for a while. Maybe it was because the
later we worked the better the weather got. It was nice to be able to work out
of the heat. The team was great and all the challenges were dealt with.
Week 8: Our second intern build. This time we were building
a single and it went much more smoothly than our double. We all now have more
experience and are faster at our jobs. We only had minor issues with building.
We even got some rain during the week. It was mostly after we were done
building, but it looked like rain as we were putting on the roof, so we got a
bunch of people to work on it and got it done very fast. Relationships did get
a little strained during the week. We are all being stretched this summer and
are easily frustrated. It is good practice for everybody to have to work
together even when we get upset. That’s just one of the many things we are
learning this summer.
June 15th:
Weeks three and four are now behind me. Week three was a staff-led
build in Acuña, Mexico with a team from South Dakota. Acuña is very humid, and
just as hot as El Paso. The team was really great. It mostly consisted of young
people, and they knew how to work hard and play harder. It was a new dynamic to
learn how to be in charge instead of learning. It was also different to be telling
people what to do more than building. Those are things I will be switching back
and forth between during the summer. All in all, it was a pretty good week. The
build went smoothly, the people were great, the weather wasn’t, and life keeps
going on and on.
Week four was our first intern build. The interns all set out to build
a double together, with no staff. It was a very long, hard week. We worked a
total of 51 hours, twice a normal build time. We were stretched to the limit in
every way. The biggest challenges were needing to know everything ourselves,
having very few people to do a lot of work, and needing to get along with each
other even when we were all tired and easily angered. For me, this week made me
reach out to God in a way I haven’t had to before. I had to in order to keep
going. I was amazed time and time again at how many times he met me and gave me
the strength to keep going. I have him to thank for getting me through the
week.
March 26th:
For the past two weeks, we have been learning all about how
the houses go together. We have been learning by building them ourselves. It
has been quite a challenge, trying to understand and memorize all that
information in two weeks, especially knowing that it won’t be long before we
will have to use it ourselves without any help.
The first week we learned how to build the smaller of the
two house option, known as the single. The weather was actually pretty nice,
and we finished in two and a half days. In that time we learned not only about
house construction (which we reviewed over and over), but about logistical
things as well such as how to meet teams, what we need to tell teams, how to
take them across the border, the rules they will have to follow, how to
organize the days, and how to make their time in Mexico as effective as
possible (both to the people they build for and the teams themselves).
After building the single normally we would have gone back
to El Paso to do office work on the weekdays and relax on the weekends. But
this week was different because there was a special occasion. The Casas Por
Cristo staff was in the process of building the 4000th house that
Casas has built. So when we were done, we went to help with that. It was nice
to get to meet the people we were going to be working with and to be a part of
such a neat accomplishment.
Overall the first week was pretty overwhelming. It was a
very challenging transition from Colorado to El Paso, and I had a hard time
getting settled in. After that we were flung headlong into a huge learning
process. We also did not get very much sleep because we had to get started
early in the morning. But even with all the difficulties, it was great to be
doing God’s work with God’s people. And it was a comfort to know that he would
help us get through.
The second week, we learned how to build the larger house,
called the double. It was similar to the first in a lot of the aspects of
construction, so there was less learning. But there was still a lot of review,
both of the stuff we should already know and the stuff we were learning. This week
was easier as far as mentally getting used to being here, but it was harder
work. It was very hot (up to 100° a couple of times), and the last two days
it was very windy as well. The last day was the hardest. We took a very long
time doing the drywall and long before we were done the wind started blowing
dust everywhere. By that time we were all tired and ready to be done, so
working was hard and slow. But we got through it and it was great to have our
training officially behind us. We still have a lot to learn, but in two weeks
we build two houses ourselves and learned enough, hopefully, to be able to
build them on our own.
Overall, I am grateful to be in the place that God wants me.
I know that he has big plans for this summer, for all of us, and I am excited
to see just what he has in mind.
Training is over.
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