I knew this, and yet I only yesterday asked what kind of showers are taken by the people for whom we build tiny homes? And where do they throw their used toilet tissue?
In our focus on laying foundations and building walls for those rising castles, it was easy for me not to consider such basic details. Maybe someday these people will be able to take a luxurious two-minute shower.
In the illustration immediately below we have the blueprint for one of those magnificent new homes. An entire family will have approximately 450 square feet to spread out in--that's more than half the space of my cramped condo! There will be two spacious bedrooms (recamara), a kitchen (cocina) and another room we would probably call the living room (estancia).
These final scenes capture a bit of the spirit of the two dozen volunteers who flew to Tijuana to help raise castles for two families. There's not a lot of text this time -- the photos tell a good share of the story all by themselves.
(By the way, sorry about the inconsistent type faces in this dispatch. Blogger can be a bit difficult at times and I'm on deadline.)
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Floor plan for the house rising at the mobile home site. |
Highlights of our headquarters
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Drinking water |
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In the kitchen: Wash, rinse, bleach, dry, use again |
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The men's steel drum had only one note |
At the demolition site:
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Rip, tear. |
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The shirt on the lady with the hammer says "faith," "hope," and "love." |
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Persuasion |
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The persuader |
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The persuadesse |
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Uber-persuasion |
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Surgery unit |
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Leadership   |
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The landAt the construction site: |
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Wire for tying rebar |
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Straightening rebar |
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Eduardo Zavala Reyes, Esperanza volunteer coordinator, translates eulogies for an athlete, dying young* memoralized in the new home's foundation. |
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Checking out free samples at Costco while shopping for grub. |
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A late night run to the taqueria |
Outcomes
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This is how a finished home looked last year from the outside. . . |
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. . . and this is how it looked this year. You are viewing the end of a new wall that was added, because the castle is gaining a new wing. The lady of the house is caring for three disabled siblings, and the government assisted in the expansion. |
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What!? You were expecting a caption? Does this photo need a caption? |
Well, that's a bit of what home building is about in Tijuana. Esperanza, the organization that coordinates these building projects, held a 25th anniversary celebration fiesta on May 7 at the Posada where the volunteers stayed. Photo below.
If any of you readers gets a hankerin to do the same thing, the folks at St. John Vianney Parish in Kirkland will be sending another team to Tijuana about this time next year, and they would gladly welcome more volunteers. And if you want to know more about Esperanza, the organization the volunteers support, here's their Web site: esperanzaint.org.
Love,
Robert, and
Wilson
Afterword:
The following is in honor of Chris Dubé, a hero to volunteers from St. John Vianney Parish in Kirkland, WA:
*To an Athlete Dying Young
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
Today, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.
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