'Real responsibility, real work'

from The Watertown Daily Times

Summer time is when kids are out of school, and they have time to taketrips and lend a helping hand. This one is for building houses in Mexico. - Kale

MEXICO MISSION: Local teenagers brave variety of challenges to build houses for the poor

By GABRIELLE HOVENDON

The 10 adults and 34 teenagers who signed up for the fifth annual Watertown First Presbyterian Church Mexico Mission Trip found themselves faced with poverty and tough conditions when they arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 1.

The group, led by the church's associate pastor, the Rev. Matthew D. Schultz, partnered with a San-Diego based organization called Amor Ministries to build three houses for Mexican families.

The ministry was founded in 1980 and has built more than 12,000 homes in poverty-stricken Mexico since its inception.

The two-room structures measure just 11 feet by 22 feet and lack both electricity and plumbing. However, to the 800,000 Mexican families that Amor Ministries says lack basic, secure homes, they represent a big improvement.

The teens and adults alike were struck by the number of tiny, ramshackle dwellings that passed for houses in Tijuana.

Jillian R. Sanzone, a June graduate of Watertown High School who is the only person to have participated in all five First Presbyterian Mexico mission trips, said that seeing the poverty is still overwhelming.

"Every year just makes you realize that none of our problems really matter that much compared to what they face every day," Miss Sanzone said of the Mexican families' living conditions.

The houses constructed by the Watertown group were designed to improve the poor living conditions for three families chosen by Amor Ministries and local Mexican parishes. The structures were built by hand from the ground up with the most rudimentary materials and no power tools.

Teams of students and adults from various churches in Watertown worked together at three separate locations to level ground, mix and lay concrete foundations, and construct wall and roof sections out of two-by-fours. They then covered the roofs with plywood and tar paper and the walls with layers of baling wire, tar paper, chicken wire and stucco.

The work was difficult, at times backbreaking, and challenges were faced by each of the three building teams. Blisters and bruises abounded as muscles ached with the physical demands of shoveling gravel, lifting lumber, mixing concrete and pounding nails.

"The first day was extremely tough. It's some of the hardest work I've had to do in my life," said Stephen A. Hirst, a rising senior at Watertown High School.

Mr. Hirst's team faced the unusual dilemma of having an uneven base to begin with. To solve the problem, they were forced to add enough shovelfuls of dirt and rocks to raise the ground 3 feet, a process that delayed the laying of the concrete foundation for hours.

Miss Sanzone, one of the leaders for Mr. Hirst's site, agreed that this was a difficult year. In addition to the problem with the uneven ground, she said, a mismeasurement made the entire roof bow sideways and led to hours of extra work when fitting plywood.

"The other houses have been pretty smooth for me," Miss Sanzone said about her previous experiences in Mexico. "I'd say this one was one of the more challenging years."

In addition to the demands of construction work, the builders dealt with less than luxurious living accommodations.

From July 1 to 5, the group slept in tents and showered with buckets at an Amor Ministries campground in Tijuana. The steep, bumpy roads to the work site were difficult to navigate and often unpaved, and outhouses at the campground and work sites could be counted on to add an interesting flavor to daily life.

Dehydration and sunburns were major concerns, as was the issue of safe drinking water. Average temperatures for the week ranged in the mid- to high-80s.

And yet, despite all the hardships, it would have been difficult to find someone who regretted going on the trip. Mr. Hirst, a newcomer to Mexico mission work, was completely satisfied with his decision to come to Tijuana by the end of his first workday.

"It's a great experience, and I'm already getting from it, being here, what I wanted to get from it. It's fulfilling my expectations," he said.

The Rev. Mr. Schultz agreed that it is the chance to have these experiences and make a difference that attracts many of the students. Adults chaperone the trips and oversee projects such as the mulch-sale and spreading fundraiser held in Watertown, but the students participate fully in the building of the houses.

"I think that young people go on the trip frequently because they see they're being given real responsibility and real work to be done. Every nail that goes in is done by the young people, and every single job is accomplished by the young people," said Rev. Mr. Schultz.

Students also join the mission trip for an experience that transcends the physical actions of building a house, added the pastor.

"They have the chance to actually engage in the lives of the people that really live there, and that affects them on an emotional, personal and spiritual level," said the Rev. Mr. Schultz.

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