Charity Anywhere Foundation

Expedition
Tijuana, Mexico

Tijuana, Mexico Project

Yes, it has taken me all week to recover and spend some time on writing about our expedition to Tijuana. We had 15 go with us. 5 adults and 10 great teenagers. We had some wonderful people let us stay over night going and coming. Thanks much to the Gines and Blakes.

On our way through California we had to stop a man and woman dispute on the freeway and put out a fire that was under an overheated motorhome. We thought that the Californians needed as much help as the Mexicans did.

On Sunday we went to church in TJ and then we went to an orphanage and attended their Sunday School. We made a new contact with Luis Arrando. He is a local college student in Med school that wants to help us. Later in the week I visited with him and he lives with his mother downtown TJ. It was a beautiful home. He offered to put us up in his home. I told him that it would spoil our volunteers if we let them stay there.

We also went to Tecate and visited the orphanage there. We ran up to El Hongo and visited the drug rehab center. It is going and they have made some wonderful improvements.

We started work on Monday . We wanted to finish the cement floor for Christina. It was hard work and we poured part of the floor on Monday. It was going real slow. However, on Tuesday we learned from our mistakes and finished the whole floor by 2. Part of the crew on Tuesday went across the border and help Carmina do her van thing. She goes across the border every Tuesday with a van load of donations. We took the pickup to help her haul more across. The border guard let us through and we were on our way. Once the pickup was empty some of us started on building a house for a mother with 8 that had been abandoned by her drugy husband. Some one had given her the land right across the street from where we lived. It was so handy and we moved right along. We leveled the ground and set forms for a 16x16. We poured on Wednesday and had all the walls ready to go . By Friday we had the walls standing and trusses up.

We hope she will be able to get others to help her make it liveable. On Friday while we were at the border markets the family got a couple of doors and put them up on the building. I was so tickled to see them take pride in their new home already.

On Wednesday we went to Rosarito Beach in the afternoon. We had fun in the ocean. On Thursday we went to Tecate to swim at our favorite swimming pool.

We got a lot of work done and left with a warm feeling from the friendships we made this trip. Patty and Carlos have 4 great kids and we all fell in love with them. Tears were flowing as we left. They were so grateful for what we had done. We built an 8x8 addition onto her kitchen. She was so proud of the extra room.

Our group became very close and they helped and taught each other like I had not seen before. We had no contention among us and we all felt like we were on a special mission.

Every time I come home I have a deeper appreciation for my great wife, family, house, freedom, and our great nation. I have learned that if I don't get into a third world country every 6 months I start to lose perspective as to the important things in life.

We thank you all for your interest.

Gordon

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