Mexico - 2013 - part 2

We arrived in Mazatlan by noon, took a tour of Rancho de los Ninos and then got started on our work projects. We finished in time to have a hot dog roast with some of the kids. This was such a great way to start the trip and interact with the kids. Most needed help cooking their hot dogs and that was our job - to get in there and help them.

And of course we followed the hot dogs with smores!

Speaking of work projects....

We had two big projects to complete - building new benches for the kids to sit on around the table and rebuilding two front walls to two closets.

Jodi and Steve set to work on the benches

Here's the finished project - aren't they pretty?

These are the three responsible for making these beautiful new benches.

The rest of us set out to tear down and rebuild these walls. They were made of dry wall and were constantly getting holes in them.

The goal was to rebuild them with bricks, mortar and cement. We bought our bricks from the local brick guy who hand makes each brick and sells them for $ .10 each

Here's a look at the brick making "factory". He digs up the clay, puts it into a brick mold and then lays them out to dry.

Once they are fully dried, he stacks them up into a huge kiln of sorts and lights it on fire. It burns for about three days and then the bricks are ready to use.


Anyway, back to the wall. Teresa and Mallory mostly worked on this wall and I worked on the other wall.

This is "my" wall. 

On Saturday everyone else was busy, so I was assisted by these three helpers. Mostly it was Juan Antonio (closest to me) who helped me. I think he stayed and helped me for 3 full hours! It was so much fun to work with him. I would say, "Otro ladrillo (another brick)" and he would hand me a brick!

After we had all the brick up, we had to cover it all with cement. We worked really hard to finish it, but didn't quite make it. When we left Monday morning, a local man from the church was finishing up what we couldn't get done and he was doing a much better job!

I was certainly stretched in the work projects. Although I didn't really feel qualified to build this wall, it was fun to learn and try something new.

One thing I forgot to mention was that when we tore this wall down, three rats jumped out of the wall. This closet is the food pantry and they were taking up residence in the wall - with easy access to the food. We are hoping these new walls will keep rats and other critters out. (This is also the closet where we saw a scorpion last year).