Valley teens build hope in Mexico

Pictured in the midst of building a home for a needy family in Mexico are, left to right in the back, Shauna Dittmer, Stewart Sonneland, Ryan Skinner, Josh Smart and Mike Stevens; front row from the left, Aby Bellon, Jess Gelet and a neighborhood visitor; very front, Holly Sonneland.

A group of Wood River Valley students used their spring break to make a difference in the lives of neighbors to the south.

Twenty-four Community School and Wood River middle and high school students and eight adults headed to La Miranda, Mexico, 15 miles southeast of Tiajuana to help out families in the small town hard-hit by heavy rains and floods of El Niño. The torrential rains washed away flimsy homes made of small wooden flats, leaving the families in desperate need of housing.

Hailey resident Stewart Sonneland organized the trip through Young Life, an interdenominational Christian ministry for high school students. The ministry operates independently from a church, and is an international organization with 700 groups in the United States. The ministry organizes positive activities for students in the valley.

The goal was to build three homes in less than a week.

Sonneland worked with a group in Mexico called Amor, which specializes in building housing for the needy. Amor provided the building materials, and escorted the Young Life group across the border from San Diego.

The group flew from Boise to San Diego then drove to La Miranda through six inches of rain water on a dirt road.

The first night in Mexico, the group got stuck in a downpour, and spent the night in a cinder block church, 12 feet by 40 feet in size. The students were treated to a church service and a warm welcome from the community.

"We about doubled the population in the church," said Sonneland.

While some of the students spoke Spanish, most relied on hand gestures and smiles to communicate. Communication was not the only difficulty for the Blaine County kids.

"Once you’re off the main road, everything is dirt," said Sonneland. "There was this white electrical cord on the road, and that was the electricity for the neighborhood. The builders used the traditional hammer and nail to construct simple two room homes."

Some students were shocked by the primitive living conditions.

"There’s really nothing there; it was absolute chaos," said Community School sophomore Jess Gelet. "Kids were running around with no shoes and no food. We gave them our peanuts from the plane, and their smiles were incredible."

During the week, the group camped in a quarry overlooking a lake, and spent their nights around a campfire, singing, talking, and listening to a Christian message given by Sonneland.

Not every night was peaceful. Tuesday the wind blew so hard Sonneland parked the vans in a row to block the wind.

"At one point, I thought if one more tent blows over, are we gonna make it?" he said. "By morning, the vans were filled with sleeping kids."

Despite some rough nights, the group left camp by 8:30 a.m. each morning.

The students, who began building on Monday, finished three homes by Thursday night. They accomplished this feat by dividing into two groups and working at different sites.

Starting with the foundation and working up to the roof, all the construction was done by hand. No power tools were on the site for the safety of inexperienced builders and because power supplies were limited.

The work was a neighborhood event, with families and children visiting the site each day from morning until dusk.

"One of the coolest parts of the trip was the kids," said WRHS senior Haden Tanner. "They were the sweetest little kids. They’d just wear the same clothes every day and be out wandering. I don’t think they even went to school."

"It changed my whole life," said Wood River High School freshman Lauren Keppler. "I’ve never seen that way of living, and realized how lucky I am to have a house."

After the homes were finished, the volunteers and each family came together inside the house, held hands in a circle, and prayed for the new home.

"It was really emotional, people were so happy," said Gelet. "It was a week out of our lives, and what we did, by God’s grace, had a profound impact."

"It really changed these families’ lives," said Sonneland. "We built homes with roofs that didn’t leak and floors that don’t get muddy. The project benefited the families, but the volunteers as well."

He said building two homes and finishing a third was a challenge, but there was a high level of motivation for the kids.

"We told them we’d take them to the showers." he said. "That was a big highlight. I never knew a shower could feel so good."

Others don’t remember the showers so fondly.

"Nothing like pouring buckets of Tiajuana water over your head," said Gelet.

The students returned to the valley with a sense of satisfaction, and memories of long work days, soccer games with the children, a mother dissolved to tears viewing her new home, windy nights at their campsite, and el baños that made them appreciate the porcelain bathrooms at home.

They returned to the Wood River Valley with a new perspective on life.