This trip included Young Life members from East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Santa Cruz, Portola Valley and Atherton/Menlo Park. Approx. 85 young adults and 12 leaders loaded up for a 5 day trip to Tijuana, Mexico to build four houses for deserving families.

A local contractor, Sergio Gomez, coordinated our accomodations, building materials and had the pads poured for the 4 houses. In addition to being a contractor, Sergio is an ordained minister and runs Baja Vision. Baja Vision has several shelters for abused and orphaned children. Sergio doesn't just wait for kids to show up, he goes out and finds kids in need of help. Sergio carefully screens the families applying for the homes we built.

The Instituto Biblico Latino Americano allowed us to INVADE their compound and make our temporary home. Many thanks!

Here's the East Palo Alto group sizing up their project. Leader - Juan, is in the foreground. Notice the existing dwellings. For a toilet many homes have a pit dug right outside the door...some just use a plastic bag or bucket for a toilet. Electricity is commonly "acquired" by throwing a bare copper wire over a power line. This one line which is spliced together from shorter pieces of wire may feed more than one house. The only running water is that which is poured out of a bottle.