We Need Assistance in Building a 
Home For a Christian Family in Mezcala 

The builder, Senor Joel, along with his 24-year-old son, Raul, are hired by the week, working six days per week, eight hours per day, Monday through Friday and four hours on Saturday. Being professional builders, they receive a higher pay scale of 31 pesos per hour each ($2.42 U.S.). They work 44 hours per week at a set salary of $1350 pesos each ($105.43 U.S.). These men are grateful for the work, are strong laborers, proficient with their hand tools, and work fast and efficiently. I seldom see anyone leaning on a shovel, and then only to catch their breath in the thin air at this altitude. During the entire eight weeks I've been working with them, I have not seen anyone sit down during a work day except to eat a quick lunch. No siestas are taken here. 

 Senor Joel's oldest son oversees the digging of the trench to 
accommodate the first wall support foundation for the new addition.

Luis, standing in the first excavation dug for the foundation of a wall for his family's new home. 

Here you see Luis, with his children, Danielle and Giovanni, as they watch Senor Joel connect a water line for their house to the village water supply. We need the water at this point in construction to mix cement for building the foundations, walls, floors and ceilings.

Above is Senor Joel laying the foundation beneath where the bathroom walls will be located. 

Due to the extreme weight of the concrete, stone, and brick interior and exterior walls, plus the additional weight of the Boveda style cement and brick ceiling and roof, a very strong foundation must be built. The traditional Mexican foundation includes excavating down to good solidly compacted earth, then digging down another 30 inches and laying a 24-inch-wide wall of rock and cement in the hole to support all walls. It's very labor intensive work and uses much cement, but as Senor Joel says... "Luis and Letti will not lose any sleep over worrying that the ceiling will fall in on their children." 

Unfortunately, during the tremors we get here, ceilings have fallen in on others that built on poor soil with no foundations. Please pray with me that our God would send His angels to encamp around this family in order that no physical or spiritual harm should ever come to them. Amen.

Back in the USA, worrying that a concrete roof or wall could fall on us was not a hazard we even considered, while here it's at the forefront of most people's minds when building. 

Above Senor Joel chips a rock to form just the right shape to fill in a space in the foundation wall. I respect this man's attitude toward his work. He works steadily and efficiently, takes one lunch break per day and would take no other breaks unless I insisted. Since he takes the safety of his customers seriously, he also will not compromise on the quality of his work. 

If God ever chooses to bless me with the finances to build a home for my family here in Mexico, Senor Joel will certainly be my contractor. May God bless Senor Joel's work and also help me to bring him to know the true salvation that God offers us through Jesus and Jesus alone.

Above is a photo I took of the ceiling in 
Luis' old house. It's a threadbare mixture 
of wooden beams, palm fronds and bamboo, and is a breeding ground for spiders and scorpions. Spraying the scorpions with pesticide does not kill them quickly, but as they slowly die over a period of days causes them to fall on the family living below, both during the day and at night as they sleep. Letti and two of the children have been stung by scorpions in this house.

This is a sample image of the Boveda style ceiling that we'll be installing in Luis' new house. Boveda is a centuries old arched brick and cement process that is attractive in appearance, and easy to keep clean of spiders and scorpions. This style ceiling also offers more protection from collapse in this earthquake prone section of the Ring of Fire that we live in.

3000 free bricks donated to the project. Above, I'm exhausted, but I'm laughing because I'd just realized that after two days of loading, hauling them over the mountains in the rickety trailer, and unloading and stacking the bricks, we were only one third of the way through. Thank you Lord for the free bricks! 

Above is Al Steane pretending to be working with a shovel among some of the sand, gravel, and dirt used in the construction. Since Al doesn't work with the cement, the shovel is just a humorous prop. The brick dust covering my friend's clothing is for real, due to his having helped me haul bricks for two days in a row. 

 Donated pieces of slate. We'll use these to build a walkway and Luis' Piñata storefront.