Tip: If you want to see dramatic extremes of wealth and poverty within a very short distance, drop by Coronado on your way to the airport from Tijuana (this is also a very real kindness to your fellow airline passengers if you happen not to have showered in the past few days). 

Finished house, crew, and family. 

The sleep champion stirreth. 

Now, it's all over but the pictures. 

He and his son worked with us all weekend. 

The very last nail hung a San Damiano crucifix. Victor got the honor of hanging it. Victor lives in a nearly identical house a mile or so away. Since it was built for him in June, he has come to volunteer on every subsequent weekend build.  

Total hams, all of them! 

Since wiring apparently takes longer than trim or caulk, some of us got to play with the kids for an hour or so. 

The champion sleeping award has to go to this child who dozed away while a half dozen hammers were nailing trim up a few feet away. 

...we headed back to finish sealing the roof and add trim and wiring. 

After Mass on Sunday... 

Also, a couple of our group bought what may have been Cuban cigars. 

Though we slept on cots and didn't have a place to shower or flush toilets, we actually ate really well all weekend and walked up the street for ice cream every night. It was basically "catered camping." 

It wasn't exactly finished, but it was a lot nicer than some of their neighbors' houses and they weren't leaving it unguarded overnight.

The family we were building for moved their few things into the house that evening. 

and with the cleanup. 

We got a little help with the walls. 

By lunchtime we were putting on the roof. 

12ftX24ft frame structure on a cement slab that had been poured the previous week. 

We arrive at the build site first thing Saturday morning. 

Columbus Day Weekend a group from Steubenville and a few more experienced hands from LA got together to build a house for a poor family in Tijuana. This is the compound at the orphanage where we stayed. 

Then on Sunday, I went to the annual Labor Day bash at the Crowe's house in Youngstown, OH. This might look to some like a larger bonfire than we really needed, but remember: it was a tree that killed Sunny Bono. 

A few of the Senator's supporters were not pleased even though little miss Martin tried to show her how to smile. 

Even the little ones had their say. 

This is us lining up to go through the metal detectors (we're the ones on the right).