Hello! I returned from Mexico late Saturday night. My friend Amelia picked me up from the Grand Rapids airport at 11:55 PM. On the way home, we had a fun midnight IHOP run. I missed pancakes while down there!
This past trip truly was a blessing. A group of 10 other people from my church came to Juarez. During the week a couple of the men from the group helped me set up another garden at a different orphanage. A jackhammer was supposed to be delivered at our work site. However, when we arrived at the site, a sledge hammer and pick ax were at the site instead of a jackhammer. Thus, we were in for a very labor intensive project. The foundation of the garden consisted of granite so we needed to break up all of the rock and level the ground.
Once we finally leveled the ground we needed to build a four-foot wall. However, we worked up on a hill so this meant we needed to carry all of the cement, water and other materials from the bottom of the hill in buckets to build the wall. Once the wall was complete, it was time for the garden to be filled with sand and soil. The boys from the orphanage filled up their pillow cases with soil and sand and then carried them up the hill and placed it in the garden plot. After about two and a half hours of going up and down the hill, the plot was ready to receive plants.
We came back the next day and the children helped plant their first plants for their garden. Their faces lit up as they dug through the soil and watered the plants. Watching them help with the garden was my favorite part of the trip.
I have been able to help start these gardens because of my internship with HEI (Hope Entrepreneurship Initiative). I really enjoyed this past week of watching the garden come to life. I still need to continue raising funds for the program Hope Grows. Hope College has been very supportive with helping me build networks and learn how to start my own program. I am very excited to continue to work on this program the rest of the summer and even further down the road. God has been blessing Hope Grows immensely.
Hope you all have a good week.
*CoLLeeN*
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The garden before the soil.
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Joel bringing soil up to the garden