It’s getting so close to time!  You guys have no idea how excited I am for our build next week.

This past week I built a single with three other interns and a couple of Mexican pastors.  Josh Crabbs came out to help one day also but it was still a ton of work (Josh has lead RHBC on many builds in the past).  The back side of the foundation form had to be raised 2 feet!  We were building for 26 year old Otelia and her family of four.  This single took 3 ½ days but it was almost perfectly constructed.  The craziest part of the week was explaining tasks to the pastors in Spanish.  It was quite a learning experience.  I am so thankful for their patience and grace.

Pastor Gideon came out on Wednesday and Thursday.  It’s always awesome to get to spend some time with him.  He was ecstatic when I explained that my home church was going to stay at his church in two weeks.  He got even happier when I told him of the gifts we had to help with his Sunday morning breakfasts.  I’m pretty sure my kid’s going to have Gideon in his name somewhere. 

Last night three other interns and I took a trip out to the SHOC, a compound that Casas owns on the outskirts of Juarez, for Miguel’s daughter’s Quinceaños (party for a girl that turns 15).  In the states we call this a Quinceañera but in Mexico the birthday girl is called the Quinceañera and the party is called a Quinceaños.  For those of you that don’t know, these things are like weddings - live band, MC, all you can eat barbacoa, and around 10 cakes.  This party was crazy.  The best was seeing Miguel in the role of proud father.  He kind of assumes the role of crazy uncle around the Casas family.  It was an awesome cultural experience and I’m so honored to have gotten an invite.

This week I am leading a church from Illinois on a single in Juarez.  They seem pretty awesome from what I’ve heard on the phone and I’m looking forward to a good week.  I hope it flies because I can’t wait to see my family from RHBC. 

Love Y’all,

David

Build Pics

Gideon and a young Guatemalan man named Gio that Gideon is housing currently.  They were pretty good with stucco trowels!

Otelia's finished house

Otelia and Gideon nailing on the plaque.

Gorditas and a Coke from Gorditas Junior.  I love this place!

Quinceaños Pictures

Mucho Pasteles!

Miguel before the ceremony.  A very happy man.

Cinthia. What a dress!

The prayer.

Ok so I have to get Merricarmen to explain this but the changing of  Cinthia's shoes to high heels seemed to be the climax of the ceremony.  

Miguel and his whole family.

Los internos and Cinthia

Pinto Beans, chopped up weenie (hot dogs), and other stuff you don't want to know about haha.

Tacos de barbacoa

Pre-dessert dessert

Miguel again.  I love this guy.

So during the reception the Quinceañera walks around and people pin money to her dress.  I wasn't expecting this.

Head start on next week's pictures

My site for this week is right under this mountain.  Mexican pastors go up once a year and repaint the rocks.  It reads "City of Juarez, the Bible is the truth, Read it"

I know I know the gaps between blogs just keep getting longer and longer haha. I’m going to start back three weeks ago:

The Week of June 24^th: 6 of the 7 interns were in Acuna, leading teams.  My team was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The Monday that we poured the slab set an Acuna record with a high temperature of 118.  I took 3 people to the hospital that day, two from heat exhaustion and one from heat stroke.  The heat stroke occurred right in the middle of the most crucial point of the foundation process.  I’d never seen a heat stoke before but it scared me to death.  Despite a few more trips to the hospital  we completed the house, a double, on Thursday.  After the dedication I went to Jess’s site, a single, to help speed things up.  Her site was ridiculous; you’ll understand when you see the pictures.  Anyway I put in a few windows and did the wiring and we finished all but the final touches that night.  Since my team had left, I spent the night with David Quinones.  He’s the Casas rep that is Mexican and lives in Acuna.  He had been helping at Jess’s sight as well.  His wife made us some incredible chicken tacos when we got back to his house at 11 p.m.  She is an incredible cook.  The next morning David took me to a local breakfast kitchen where I was given a nice full plate of menudo, the Mexican version of chitlins.  I choked it down.  From there we went to Jess’s dedication and then headed back home to The Pass. 

The week of July 1^st:  We interns built a single in Juarez this week.  We built for an elderly couple both of whom had some disabilities.  Our site was super tight.  When the house was finished there were cement walls within 2 feet of each of the 4 walls of the house.  This build was my 10^th house of the summer.  We watched El Paso’s fireworks from a high vantage point in Juarez.  I turned 21 in the first church Rolling Hills ever stayed in, El Salvador Devino, translated Devine Savior. 

The week of July 8^th:  I’ve been in the office this week doing all sorts of stuff.  One day I’m patching leaks in the office roof, the next day I’m taking passports to team members in Juarez who forgot them.  Pretty much just doing odd jobs and keeping the radio on in case teams in Juarez need us.  My nights are free so that means a lot of mountain biking and rock climbing. 

I am really looking forward to the Rolling Hills build at the end of the month.  I’ve heard that y’all are collecting items for the family and Gideon.  Believe me, these things will be greatly appreciated.

I hope all is well and can’t wait to see you guys

Love,

David 

The double I led in Acuna.  This was the Wisconsin team.

The family and pastor in front of the Acuna double.

This pastor has been the sponsor of all the builds I have led in  Acuna.  We  have become great friends.  He makes incredible descada for every dedication.

This was Jess's crazy tight sight.  If you look you can see the 6 inch gap between the house and concrete walls on both sides!!  We had to get very innovative with our stuccoing techniques haha.

Myself, Andrew, and Jess prepare for the pump truck on our intern single.  This was also a tight sight but nothing compared to Jess's previous one.

This is how you fix bowed roof plates in Mexico haha. 

This is the crazy storm we were trying to beat when finishing our roof.  When things got ugly we pulled everybody up there.  The whole roof only took about 25 min to tar paper and shingle.

Jess and I trouble shoot electrical. 

There were a ton of kids around all week.  It's always fun when we get to interact with the community.

This is the family we built the intern single for.

An awesome traditional Mexican meal from Josues.  Un hamburguesa y un gordita con papas fritas.   This place isn't far from the church we are staying at in a few weeks so we could definitely work in a trip here if you guys would like.

This is from the beginning of the summer but I just had to share it, too funny.  Thats Dave Kruh, our 6'6 intern haha.

This is Pastor Gideon.  Every Sunday morning he takes an ancient school bus and picks up the kids of  Juanita Luna and brings them back to his church from breakfast.  

Mountain biking El Paso's Franklin Mountains

Rock climbing at Hueco Tanks just out side of El Paso.