Saturday, March 31, 2012

More from Tecate...

Me inside a traditional Kumiai house built at the museum!

Thursday, after the Kumiai museum we had lunch at a great little restaurant called La Mision then toured the Tecate Brewery and had a beer in their Jardin de Cerveza (Beer Garden)!
Friday morning we went to Las Piedras (the rocks) part of La Fundacion de La Puerta. Las Piedras focuses on preserving the natural habitat in Tecate and the mountains as well as the native peoples in the area. They teach local school children about conservation, recycling and gardening!
 We went for a walk through the moutainside and a local Pai Pai woman told us about some of the plants and their uses along the way! The view was amazing!

 Next we went to La Cocina que Canta (the kitchen that sings) for a tour of their gardens and an all organic, gluten free, vegetarian lunch!
 
The head chef, Denise, of La Cocina que Canta and the head gardener showed us around their beautiful organic gardens! Two acres of gardens are tended by the head gardener and six other men. The two acre garden feeds the Rancho La Puerto, a wonderful wholistic spa and La Cocina que Canta the cooking school.

While touring their garden we got to taste fresh fruit right from the ground! It was delicious!

After touring the garden and tasting the veggies raw, we went into La Cocina que Canta and had a wonderful vegetarian lunch, and I don't really like veggies, but it was delicious! And so simple!

Computer is being slow... More to come soon!
Thanks for Reading!
-Rena


Friday, March 30, 2012

Rancho Ojai- Tecate

Hello all!
  So this week we have a group from San Diego State University staying in Tecate at El Rancho Ojai! It is beautiful here. Group B was in Tecate last week, Alex stayed here with them, I am here this week with group A (when each group isn't here they are staying in Mexicali with a different organization) here is some of what we have been doing this week (since Wednesday)!

This is me sitting out front of the Kumiai museum. The Kumiai are a native people that lived in the Tecate region and in Arizona. 
This is a Kumiai woman telling us about their creation story and her people. She is one of only five people left that speak the Kumiai language. 

My computer is being slow I will have to tell you about the rest of my week a little later!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Model Three Roof Friday March 23rd

Model 3 house ready to pour the roof. This is an Oaxaca style house, if you look close you can see the blocks are smaller than the Tijuana houses, and they have mortar between the blocks, whereas the Tijuana style houses do not. The roof has rebar criss-crossed over the entire thing, at each joint the rebar is tied with wire for stability.

Central Washington and Seattle U. groups all ready to pour the roof!

Roof almost finished! Only took a few hours (or so)! Big job!

You can see the full buckets being passed up to the roof, and the empties being thrown down!

Thanks for reading!
Rena

Sunday's two floors with Corazon in Tecate

Hello!
   Saturday, Monday and  today have been a bit lazy for me, I've been here at the posada while part of the staff is in Tecate with a group from San Diego. Did a bit of computer work yesterday and have started my job search, for when I leave here and need to find something to do!

   Sunday I went to Tecate with Roberto and Rigo to help the group pour some floors with another organization, Corazon, that builds wood houses in both Tecate and Tijuana.

Here are some photos from Sunday:
The border wall in the mountains on the way back form Tecate.

Getting ready to start the pour for the first Corazon floor on Sunday, you can see there is no foundation below the floor, just dirt. Their floor process seems very similar to Esperanza's roof process. Instead of the rebar we used metal fencing like Esperanza used to, though theirs has rebar in an "X" through the middle and around the edges for support. Corazon houses are a lot less expensive to build, and thus they can reach more families, the houses also are not as sturdy or long lasting. Corazon seems like a very great organization though, doing similar things to Esperanza with community building and classes. They also have a scholarship program to help children with their schooling!

The first Corazon floor almost finished, we poured a second one after lunch exactly the same about a minute walk up the hill from this house. They are using the board to level out the floor and make sure the cement is evenly distributed across the floor.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Washington Groups!

This week we have three groups from the state of Washington; Central Washington, Seattle University, and Western Washington University! 63 people total in the Posada and it's great!!

We just got done playing some soccer with all three groups, the staff, and some friends! Did a round robin sort of game when the other team scores your team is out and another one switches in!

One group is working at Guadalupe Lopez's house working on getting the roof ready to pour (hopefully Friday)! I've been working at Teresea & Armando (and Lucia)'s house digging a large hole to get ride of all the trash in the ground so the house is built on solid ground! We also have more of the foundation built up!
Here are some pictures of the work I've been doing this week!
 Last night I went to La Ninas, an all girl's orphanage here in Tijuana that is run by nuns, with the Central Washington Group.

Tonight I went to the border with the Central Washington group before the soccer game. All along the fence (along the beach and near town) there are quotes, reactions and art about the border. Farther down there are hundreds of crosses for those who have died trying to cross the border.

 Here you can see how deep the hole we were digging trash out of was, the group is also pointing to a microwave we found in the pile! We also found: a toy dog, two baby bouncy seats, part of a matress, a lot of shoes, and toys. Last weeks group (Wooster!!) found a typewriter and a satelite dish!

Check back soon for another update!
-Rena

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Finishing up a few projects

For those of you have that have been here in the last few weeks we have finished up, or at least made a lot of progress on many of your projects!

Rosa's Roof is pictured a few posts below.

Guadalupe's walls are finished, poured and the house is awaiting it's roof!
Getting ready to pour the walls

Good view of the finished walls

Vicki's roof all finished!
Vicki's finished roof!


Today we dug a footer in one location wtih the Wooster group (where the Muskingham group made blocks). The Providence group built the top of the walls for Guadalupe's house in the morning then the Providence group at 8 people from the Wooster group poured the top of the walls after lunch!

Thanks for reading!
Rena

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Block making fun!

Hello all!
   So today in the morning we did a lot of the same things we did yesterday.

 People put "stilts" or supports below the wooden roof, where the cement will be poured.
The stilts will be removed once the cement on the roof is dry.

Susan sawed pieces to go under the 2x4's (supports) to give them a little extra height.

((Picture coming... Slow Internet! That picture /\ took about 15 minutes to load!))

Some of us worked on the roof, chipping away at the existing roof to make a lip so the finished two part roof is seamless and strong.


After lunch we went to another house in La Morita to make blocks! This is something the families (and their neighbors) usually do, with the help of Roberto and sometimes other Esperanza staff, however, with three weeks of groups, we are going to need more blocks, so the small group this week is perfect for block making! I was really glad to see something new, it's great to see the work that goes into the making of the blocks, they are generally just all ready when we get here!
The mixer is orange, and the block maker is green.

After mixing the cement, it's shoveled into the block maker.

The block maker presses down and compacts the cement/sand/water mixture into a block.

Then the blocks are carried away!
And laid out to dry for a day.
After they've dried they are stacked up. They also need to be watered frequently so they don't dry to fast. If they dry out too fast they will be weak and break easily.

We played a Muskingham vs. Esperanza soccer (futbol) game, there is some discrepancy over who won... but it was a blast! I am terrible at soccer, and at one point tried to pick up a ball with my hands that was rolling towards me, while standing right in front of the goal... but it was fun!

   Peace & Love
         Rena

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Muskingham Group

Hello!
  I'm back in TJ and loving it! It's a little chilly hear today, rained a little, but after we were done working. With small groups the jobs are a little more diverse and "technical" today some people took nails out of boards and straightened them so they could be reused (fun, I know). Some of us chiseled away at an existing second story where another section will be added onto, so that when we pour the roof they will have a seamless and strong second story. They also built a small over-hang and prepared the roof for pouring.

   Last night we had the taco stand which was DELICIOUS! I missed the fresh guac when I was home, craved it all week! The food here is so yummy and inexpensive! Today they group bought three medium brown paper bags full of fresh bread and pastries (for 11) for $5.30! That's amazing!! Amazing fresh food is so cheap here, food is my favorite thing about traveling so that's ggggreat!!

   Pictures tomorrow...

          Night night....
              Peace & Love
             Rena