Last month, I had the opportunity to go to Tijuana, Mexico, with my church to build homes. 

I initially found out about the La Morita Mexico Youth Mission through my neighbor, Zachary Montalvo, who is currently a Cal High senior. After learning more about the program, I really wanted to get involved in the mission. 

Twice a month for seven months, I met with my church group and we prepared for the week-long trip by working on fundraisers.    

Our church built three homes in four days. The youth were split up into different family groups and there would be two groups working on the same house. Every day our groups would rotate. On the last day, each group would finish the house they started on.

When we finished building at the end of the fourth day, a priest came, and blessed each house, then he handed the keys to the families. 

I’m not a religious person but being able to see the smiles on the families faces was a meaningful experience. 

For a moment I felt like nothing in the world mattered. The stress of the week was lifted off my shoulders. 

 It was the kids that made me smile the most because they had no idea that they were poor. I saw a little kid playing with a milk carton attached to a string and having the time of his life. 

The girls didn’t have Barbies; they had yarn to make bracelets. I saw starving kids and starving animals. I saw broken homes and broken hearts. 

We gave hope and a sense of security for families who had one dirty mattress for five people. I never thought it was possible to build three homes in four days and the families never thought that it was possible to have a home. 

“I’m 14 and this is my first home,” a boy said to me in broken English. 

I smiled and looked down, hoping he didn’t see my eyes. 

All I could do was give him a hug and say, “Even though it took 14 years, you have one now.” 

I don’t think he understood me,  because his English wasn’t great, but I knew he was thinking the same thing. Even though we didn’t speak the same language, it was our actions that mattered the most.    

I met so many people who seemed to be from a different world, but we were only minutes away from San Diego. I became closer to my neighbor Zachary, who I have known my whole life. 

I also made three friends who are homeschooled but live near me. I met all sorts of different people each with a different story and background.

The one thing that shocked me the most was how much this trip impacted me. I didn’t just change the lives of three families. They changed mine. I won’t take things for granted anymore. These families weren’t suffering. They were happy. 

The main goal that I wanted to achieve was to keep the families together and give them a home in Tijuana so they wouldn’t have to cross the border and possibly be separated. 

Instead of building a wall, we built three homes and kept three happy families together.