Reciprocity from the Received
About the Author
Ben spends most of his time working with underprivileged kids in Tijuana, Mexico, encouraging them to continue their education. He's an unofficial member of Iglesia Bautista Monte Horeb, which runs the elementary school, Centro Pedagógico Didaque.
It’s great to see gratitude in the form of payback.
Our church in Tijuana received a huge boost from help by Canadian Mennonites. Only six men came down from the prairies, but the boys knew how to swing a hammer. Work they did in spite of language confusion as commands and jokes were thrown out in English, German, Spanish, and Spanglish.
At the end of almost two weeks an amazing amount of projects were accomplished. The guys
- built a new bathroom
- put in concrete floors (previously dirt or very poor concrete) in a handful of classrooms
- put down a nice anti-slip tile and deluxed the trim with rubber baseboard
- re-roofed
- expanded a classroom
- patched-up bird entry points in another classroom
- constructed a large landscape-block retaining wall
- bulldozed a couple of previously unusable terrains
- took down an already falling down fence
- laid down gravel and soil-cement in the parking lot
- and built the world’s most beautiful dumpster
Who else could do so much work other than blue-collar, dirty finger-nailed, Albertan immigrants?
Throughout their time, other than for breakfast, the six were amply supplied with rich Mexican food to fuel their work. Had our Mennonite friends eaten in restaurants for each lunch and dinner, their trip cost would have increased by $1000, easily. However, on their own accord, the members of Iglesia Bautista Monte Horeb, provided them with high-quality, tasty tacos, tostadas, tamarindo, tortas, and tamales.
A week after they’d left, Joel Garcia and I took a stroll around the church property checking out the new additions and improvements. Joel swallowed and said, “Hijole Ben, they did so much, and we didn’t do anything.” “What are you talking about?!”, I quickly responded. After I worked out the above math, it became clear to him, and clearer to me, that we did step up. The Monte Horeb church members pitched in more financially than anyone of us would have been able to come up with in pure cash.
It’s not good when folks in the 3rd World receive goods from the 1st World without one drop of sweat in return. Payback is what churns the butter.
May 13th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
That is amazing! Certainly nice when people help out! I totally understand when you say that money doesn’t really help … I can’t wait to come down and visit you! :D And I would love to help when I do! I sure do miss you! Hope things are going well down there!