SHARE
Now it is Jill’s turn to share her Tijuana experience…
Hey Blog-uana! Jill here! At first I was hesitant to go back to TJ at all because my last experience a couple years ago was pretty rough, but after a lot of consideration and prayer I went anyway. And boy am I glad I did because this didn’t even come close in comparison to the last one!
The family my team was building the house for was a family of four: parents Francisco and Victoria, and their children Jose (10) and Joshua (3). They were such a wonderful family, and I consider myself really lucky to have met them. They worked with us every single one of our work days and weren’t just helping us out either, they were important members of the Orange Team. Francisco taught us tons of tricks throughout the week (including better ways to mix cement and lay roofing, as well as how to open a bottle of Coke-a-Cola with a carpenter’s pencil!) and Victoria was key to our painting team. I even got some help painting from little Joshua on the last day!
For me, the connection with the family had a big impact on my experience, and it was all brought to a climax at the end of the week when we had our key ceremony and Victoria pulled out a letter she had written for us. The majority of our group could speak little to no Spanish, but in the moments listening to her read it didn’t matter that we couldn’t understand her words. We could all understand the emotion behind her words, and there wasn’t a dry eye in our circle. On our drive back to the orphanage, some of our Spanish speakers translated the letter for everyone else and I can only imagine what the scene of our circle would have looked like if we could have all understood her then. It was so sweet. She thanked us for coming all the way from Seattle to help them even thought there are families that are in more need than them, and she wanted to send us and our families blessings because it is not easy to be so far away for a whole week. She also called everyone on our team by name. This seems sort of silly to comment on, but she could speak almost no English and had just picked up on our names by working with us all week and hearing us refer to each other. I think that says a lot about her observant personality.
My team really made a difference in my experience too. Last time my team really struggled to get along and there was a lot of animosity all week. This time, however, many of us went in thinking we wouldn’t work well and were pleasantly surprised when we actually all got along great! By the ride home we had plenty of inside jokes about one kid sleeping all the time, what it means to put a car into overdrive, and more orange related puns than I can count!
Through the week leading up to the trip, the trip itself, and the week prior I have also learned a lot about memory and take-aways. I have learned that the things you take away are the most emotional parts, and other things just don’t stick as well. I have already forgotten how the 90-degree heat on concrete mixing day was almost unbearable, and how stressful “competitive-showering” is (where 40+ girls have to share one hose to shower with all week). But I haven’t come anywhere close to forgetting my group’s relationships among ourselves or with our family, and I don’t believe those memories are going anywhere for a long time.
It really was a great week, and I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the chapter of my life that is SPC’s youth group while also preparing myself with a renewed spirit to start the next chapter of my journey.