This post was submitted by Ivy Tech instructor and ASB leader Donn H.

This is Wednesday our 5th day on Alternate Spring Break and our less physically active day after two days of working hard to pour a concrete floor for a family of a mother and two little children. The work was very difficult but very rewarding. The house we were putting the floor in was down a path right off of the road, fairly close to the center of town but it could have been a hundred miles away. We walked about a hundred yards down the road from Juana’s house (Juana Watson, our sponsor/contact person on this trip) where we have stayed since arriving Saturday night, down a path, across a creek and up a steep embankment. The house we are working on has one room, is made of a frame with cut boards and no dry wall or interior walling, and looks to be fairly new, but before our two days of work it had only a dirt floor. When we arrived Monday morning the tiny house had been emptied of all furniture which was positioned outside around the perimeter of the house and covered with sheets and quilts.

The two children of little family are 5 and 7 years old or so, the youngest a little girl. Her brother told me his name was Geraldo and then I accidentally knocked him into the creek as I was crossing the rocks to fetch tools. I slipped as I was going down the embankment; I stepped onto the first rock to cross the creek, slipped and fell right on top of the little guy. I hit my elbow on a rock but Geraldo went over his head into the water and of course was completely soaked. I helped him up out of the water and said I was sorry about a hundred times. His mom got him into some dry, clean clothes but he wasn’t too happy to see me when I came around for the rest of the day.

To get all of the gear and materials to the house where we could mix concrete we had to carry 100 pound bags of cement down a path, down an embankment, across a creek and up a steep embankment on the other side. Everyone helped, making a sort of bucket chain. Then we carried 5 gallon buckets of sand and rocks that were piled outside the house. I spent part of the morning in the bucket chain moving concrete bags, sand and rocks up to the house until I was too exhausted to continue so I abandoned my place in the line and went back to the road where the piles of rock and sand were waiting to be loaded into buckets and helped Kevin fill the buckets.

We did half of the floor on Monday and finished it on Tuesday. It was a very triumphant moment late Tuesday afternoon when Chimo (the worker Juana hired to do the actual laying of the concrete floor) stood up and raised his hands in victory as he completed the floor for Augustina Hernandez and her children.

The food has been excellent, as authentic Mexican food as can be had. Juana is an icon of the town; she has brought a great deal of help to Calnali. The town is different from what I thought it would be like. I had in mind a very small place with mud roads. The town we are visiting is a medium sized place with a square and several Internet cafes, plenty of stores and a lot of activity. The first day after we arrived was market day and the square and for several blocks on the radiating roads were filled with booths with folks selling everything from butchered cows, cicerones (fried pig skin, or as we call them, Pork rinds), plastic kitchen ware, CD’s, and lots of beans, peppers, herbs and edible cactus. It was a mass of human activity and difficult to take in every bit.

Today we visited an elementary school in the morning. The kids were great and as friendly as they could be. I watched a class during their PE period and then with Mark Howard, Jamie, and Ejas followed them back to their classroom and observed their school work. The teacher was friendly but generally ignored us and the kids gathered around us to ask questions all of which were in Spanish so it was frustrating not to be able to communicate with them. One slight bit of understanding was reached when I realized the kids were asking me how old I was, and when I told them 51, they were amazed. One little girl asked me if I had any little girls at my house and I explained as best as I was able to that I had 2 sons, one 23 and one almost 16. That made them smile to know I was a father. We were there for the beginning of lunch and then returned to Juana’s house for our lunch. After lunch we visited a very poor woman’s one (very small room) house where we may work on Friday to build another concrete floor.

In all, visiting this village in the non-tourist part of Mexico has been an eye opening and humbling experience. People live happily here with so much less than Americans get by with. They smile and do as best as they can and it makes me feel guilty to have ever complained about anything. I know it is as cliché’ as it can be, but visiting here truly puts things in perspective. I am very proud of the way the Ivy Tech ”Family” has worked so cheerfully and so hard to be of some little assistance compared to the need of the entire community, but we have been such a great help to one special family. The students are enthusiastic, and they have been truly affected by this eye opening experience. I know that each student (and faculty/staff member) who has taken part in this week long alternate spring break will come home a better, wiser and more humble person. More later…