Tuesday morning

Ola to everyone who is reading this post.  I am Kevan Franklin, Pastor Of Trinity United Church of Christ in Wooster.  We really appreciate the fact that we are able to bring you with us on the Esperanza trip virtually.  I hope that you are also able to view the pictures that some of our members have posted on Facebook.  This is the tenth year that Trinity has partnered with the College of Wooster on this trip to Mexico. 

Each day several members of our trip will add to this blog.  It is always great to bring people down here for the first time as they are able to see things that we don't wonder about anymore.  During our reflections last night several students mentioned how much trash is laying around.  Those of us who have been down here before know that things have improved dramatically.  In fact, most of the time we spend talking about "the way things used to be".  Each year we come back, we see dramatic progress on the infra-structure here in Tijuana.  Electricity, plumbing, trash removal, highway paving and better maintained vehicles. 

On our first day of work yesterday, we worked on a lot that is in the earliest stages of development.  Most of the time was spent digging trenches for the footer.  Toward the end of the day,  it began to rain so we ended the day early.  The family serves the lunch and are proud and happy to host us.  They served a pork verde meal which was one of the nicer meals we have had for lunch.  We actually sat at plastic tables and had chairs to sit on!  We usually turn buckets over and eat sitting  in the balance. 

We enjoyed several dogs on the site.  One in particular that wanted to lick everyone's face.  We worked on a site at the bottom of a mountain which was covered with thick green grass and flowers.  A goat herder came through with about fifteen goats.  A mother and her little girl were herding the sheep and they started dancing to the music from our work site.  One of the first things that these work teams do is to unload a large pa speaker so that we have music to find a g rhythm with the shovels, picks and bucket lines.  This was a favorite moment for the COW students.  Our worksites draw a lot of people in the community out to watch to see what we are doing.  The work of Esperanza is more than building a house.  We are building a world community.

Thanks you for following our Trip.  Please check in daily and comment or add questions if you have some.  We want you to be part of our world community building!!

Rev. Dr. Kevan S. Franklin
Trinity UCC
Esperanza Mission trip