Thursday, August 02, 2001

Pasta great little house in Juarez, Mexico. It has two rooms and electricity but no plumbing. At less than 300 square feet, it is tiny. For the 13 UNCW students, faculty and staff who built it during four days in May, the house represents a huge accomplishment.

“This project really proved the concept of teamwork. The 13 of us diligently worked toward a goal and felt the success of our efforts at the end of the week,” said Adrien Lopez, Global SERVE member and president of the Student Government Association at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Global SERVE is a UNCW student organization designed to promote intercultural awareness through service. UNCW staff members assist students with these service-learning trips; however, this year’s trip was scheduled between the end of final exams and graduation, resulting in fewer student volunteers. With only six students committed to the project, Becky Long, community services coordinator at the Leadership Center, advertised for volunteers from among other university faculty and staff. The call produced a diverse array of participants – sociology professor Susan Bullers, career counselor Mary Carlson, campus minister Nancy Cooper, copier program assistant Ann Greene, graphic designer Cathi Phillips and music professor Barry Salwen.

Reasons for going to Juarez varied – Cathi Phillips wanted to challenge herself; Ann Greene was convinced she could build a house; Mary Carlson viewed it as an opportunity for personal growth.

Juarez is in the shadow of Texas, just across the Rio Grande River. The El Paso/Juarez area is home to an estimated two million people making it the largest “city” in the world on an international border, said Long. “More than 900 new people a month come to Juarez, and the population is expected to double in the next decade.”

This influx is from southern Mexico; families are searching for jobs at nearby factories, Long said. In a country where the average wage is $3 a day, people “lack the resources to build a home and often end up living in make-shift shelters built from shipping pallets, cardboard containers and other discarded materials to provide some refuge from the elements,” said Long.

Global SERVE participants worked with Casas por Cristo, a nonprofit agency in El Paso that has built more than 1,000 homes in Juarez, to complete the service project.

The UNCW contingent worked up to 12 hours a day in 95-degree heat to build a house for Javier Rios, Juana Maria Macias and the child the couple is expecting.

“We mixed and poured concrete; we nailed walls, put up blackboard and stretched chicken wire. We tarred and shingled the roof and ran the wiring and applied stucco. We installed insulation and sheetrock,” wrote Carlson, who chronicled the group’s efforts in a personal journal. “We worked in the blazing sun for 10 to 12 hours a day, often with hot wind whipping through our hair and blowing thick dust and dirt into our faces.”

At night, the group stayed in a Juarez church. They shared reflections of their day over evening meals. “We learned a lot about one another,” said Phillips.

“The students were very insightful. We were a group of individuals who came together. There were no thoughts of age or gender. We were equals.”

Other participants echoed these sentiments. “Lessons learned were different for each person,” said Salwen. “We all worked together, creating an intense group camaraderie. We learned the mechanics of building a house, and for one student, the living conditions in Juarez were an eye-opening experience.”

Though the group knew what to expect, the rampant poverty was virtually inescapable. From low wages and few jobs to scarcity of water and electricity, the group witnessed an “enormity of people living in homes with no roofs, where children walk among stray dogs in dirt streets,” noted Carlson in her journal. However, she wrote that they also saw “people with smiles and music and laughter that reflected a human spirit of such strength that circumstances cannot break their happiness.”

On their final night, after finishing work on the house, the future occupants prepared a meal for the group. “This family had virtually nothing, but wanted to express their appreciation,” said Phillips.

So, the small house built by UNCW’s Global SERVE is now a haven for a factory worker and his wife and future child.

There’s a great little home in Juarez, Mexico.e text here.