Over spring break, 14 Notre Dame Architecture students worked under
the direction of Amor Ministries to build a home for a family in Mexico.
For more information about Amor Ministries and their mission trips visit:
http://www.amor.org/MissionTrips.html.
Read about the students' 2002 service
seminar in this article from the
November 2002 issue of The Archi.
A Week in Tecate
Building Small Homes for Families in Mexico
The Archi, November 2002
When
13 Notre Dame Architecture students arrived in Tecate, Mexico, in March
2002, they wondered what they were doing with their spring break.
“Everything was so shabby and primitive,” fourth-year Katie
Courtney says. “We passed houses made from leaning boards---basically
trash is what they were made out of.”
A week later, they had no doubts that they had chosen the perfect place
to spend their vacation. The students built small homes for families
in Mexico and learned lessons no seminar or studio ever could teach.
There were hardships as students slept in tents in the rocky region,
bathed with wet wipes, and mixed concrete stucco by hand. The houses
they constructed reflected the material life of Tecate’s residents,
simple and inexpensive. The students used no power tools and the houses
were all two- room, wood-frame structures. But the rewards from their
“volunteer vacation” far outweighed any difficulties.
“I kept thanking myself for deciding to come on this trip,”
student Stephanie Zurich says. “There were long, long days, but
I know it was the most worthwhile work that I have ever done.”
This is the second year Notre Dame architecture students have worked
with Amor Ministries, a not-for-profit
San Diego-based organization that matches Mexican families in need of
a home with groups interested in volunteering their time and talent.
Notre Dame’s 13 students were broken into several groups and acted
as “foremen” – supervising others who also came to
Tecate to build homes. Supervising the work, in itself, taught the students
valuable lessons.
Notre Dame’s Katie Casanta had a great encounter. Casanta worked
with Karah, a high school senior from Discovery Hill Evangelical Free
Church in northern California, who was responsible for assigning the
various duties their group performed. “Karah knew the people she
could push to give everything they had,” Casanta says. “She
would pick out the perfect job for the volunteer. Karah, two years younger
than me, inspired me to be a better leader.”
The Notre Dame students also worked with the future occupants of the
homes. Primitive by U.S. standards, the 11 x 22-foot structures---made
from chicken wire, tar paper, stucco, and cement---were “customized”
by families.
“It’s
nice the owners are able to choose where they want the doors and windows
and how they want the house to be arranged,” Zurich says. “They
had their own dreams about their new home. Home is one of the most special,
sacred places in the world. To know that the walls that we were putting
up could contain years of cherished memories for one family was wonderful.
I was reminded that there is so much more to life than studio projects
and countless meetings.”
Involvement in the every facet of the construction process also provided
insight for the students into a different set of realities than they
normally encounter.
“I sat down with a guy who has been doing construction for years,”
says second-year Notre Dame student Christopher Lagos. “We discussed
the architecture major and how architects lack hands-on experience.
That’s
the primary reason architects don’t understand their designs.
In turn, it upsets construction workers who have to deal with designs
that don’t make sense.”
“I realized I survived a week without running water. I was dirtier
than I had ever been before,” Casanta says. “My hands were
cut and callused, my body ached. But I hadn’t noticed any of those
things all week. I hadn’t thought once about the stress of school
nor returned to the worries of what I looked and smelled like. I wasn’t
the focus of my life for one week---someone else was.”
Then there were the people they met along the way: the children, parents
and grandparents for whom they were building the homes.
Casanta talked fondly of Manuela, a woman in her 50s who “was
not worried or stressed about anything” despite her husband battling
throat cancer and still working long hours. “All Manuela could
do was smile and pray for the blessing that she was receiving,”
Casanta says. “Her face glowed as she watched us work together
to build the structure 
that
she called home after four days… Watching the Families that were
recipients of Amor’s charity, I saw a sense of gratitude that
I’ve rarely ever seen before.”
Zurich befriended a 9-year-old boy named Raul. While she applied stucco
to tar paper, Raul followed her around with a trowel and pan so that
there would always be materials by her ready to use. “A highlight
was talking to the children in the neighborhood,” Zurich says.
“My little amigo, Raul, watched us all day. He could not pull
himself away from the action of the site.” It struck Zurich that
Raul, a bright boy who caught on quickly to the work they were doing,
never had the opportunity to attend school.
While it discouraged the students to learn about the lack of resources
and opportunities the people in Tecate faced, they also saw their blessings.
“Of course these people would enjoy having more, but we should
accept the fact that people are happy with less and they do not constantly
need more and more to 
be
happy,” Zurich says. “It was so beautiful to see how happy
the family ways. The mother was pregnant so I’m sure the new house
improved their lives tremendously.”
After a dirty and arduous stay, Casanta says “the week surpassed
all of my expectations.”
