By Heidi Klise, Staff Sriter
The donkey-shaped piñata burst open and Esmerelda’s eyes grew wide with accomplishment. Her brother and sister rushed to gather candy, eventually realizing that they should get a bag instead of attempting to put any more in their shirts.
Standing on their newly-cemented floor, parents Zanaida Guadalupe and Luis Hernandez watched three of their seven children (one was inside, and the others at school) enjoy just one of the many perks that come from being an “Esperanza family.”
One major perk is the new room standing behind them that gained its walls just this week. They hope it will be a new clean house in which their 14-year-old son Jorge will win his battle with cancer.
My eyes welled up with happiness as Zanaida Guadalupe began to fill a second bag with candy, “for Jorge,” she said.
But I’m getting ahead of myself
Over spring break I had the opportunity to return to one of my favorite places: Tijuana, Mexico. I went with a group of 12 students from The College of Wooster and six adults from Trinity UCC church in Wooster.
The week-long trip was through Esperanza International, a Habitat for Humanity-type of organization that relies on groups of volunteers to help build homes for deserving families in several communities in and around Tijuana.
It warms my heart to talk about Esperanza because it is an organization that has been important to me since I first went three years ago.
It is one of those “you had to be there” experiences that is difficult to describe, but I will do my best.
After nearly eight hours of travel from Cleveland to San Diego, we were finally crossing the border into Mexico.
Following a curious look from the Mexican border patrol, John Muskopf, our experienced leader and driver, said “missionarios” and we were safely through into the colorful, bustling city of Tijuana.
Immediately turning onto the well-known road that would take us to our destination, the changes were obvious. More paved roads, less trash on the hills, a parking lot of garbage trucks and road lane designations were just some of the clues that convinced us of what we had hoped: Tijuana is improving.
As we pulled into the Posada (Esperanza’s “Inn” for us) in the quaint town of La Gloria, our wonderful long-term volunteer and aid for the week, Kimberli Johnson, came out to greet us. Johnson, along with others are there to guide us at the work sites, translate and make our stay at La Posada as comfortable as possible.
Our first two days were spent enjoying the tourism that Tijuana has to offer, including food far better than anything you could possibly order at El Campesino. One vendor even gave us a large discount on blankets because he was familiar with Esperanza and knew that we were there to volunteer our time and energy; he appreciated our help.
Then came the start of the work week. Greeting us in the Posada was the warm face of Eduardo Zavala, the volunteer coordinator and heart and soul of Esperanza.
Zavala started with an explanation of the organization to the new volunteers and told us why it is important to him.
He told us that Mexico is his country and he loves it. He does not want to go to the U.S. for work, but many of his countrymen have to in order to support their families.
Zavala’s goal is to improve the lives of Mexicans so that they don’t have to leave the country to find happiness.
The next five days we worked in three different communities pouring cement floors, walls, stacking blocks for walls, preparing a roof for cement and tearing down a plywood house to build a cement block Esperanza home.
The amazing thing about Esperanza is that we work side-by-side with the recipients of the home. It is a wondrous and rare experience to make an emotional connection with a person over the course of just two or three days.
With Esperanza there are no borders. We are all human beings who can give each other priceless gifts.
We may have given a family a home, but they opened our eyes to see that what truly matters is taking care of one another, appreciating our families and experiencing the joy that can be found in a pile of candy that fell from a piñata.
Our prayers go out to Hernandez and his family and we hope that he will be able to enjoy a new and clean home.
This year was my third time with Esperanza, and the second time that we took a group from the College.
Last year, Rena Starr ’11 and I started this trip with the help of Phil Starr and John Muskopf from Trinity United Church of Christ.
I have to repeatedly thank Liz Streigl ’12 for organizing most of the trip this year.
To find out more about Esperanza, visit esperanzaint.org and the blog from this trip can be found at woosterintijuana2011.blogspot.com.
There will be a trip again next year, so if you’re interested in coming, e-mail me at HKlise12@wooster.edu.