Crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S.; yes they check for your passports to let you through. Very straightforward, but the traffic took 2 hours!
We crossed the border last night to meet up with one of our med school classmates as she graciously drove us around San Diego to get dinner at the famous In-N-Out joint. We were so tired though, and since we had a early morning flight to catch, the reunion was unfortunately short-lived.
Back in San Diego: My first In-n-Out experience!
taken about a few minutes ago. Jasmine on the left, Cula on the right
On our way back home!
- At time of posting in 10,000 ft. above sea level, it was -3 °C -
Humidity: n/a | Wind Speed: 54km/hr | Cloud Cover: lots of clouds
As the roof came together, I couldn’t help myself to run up there and ask if anyone wanted a new profile picture for their facebooks. After all, it’s not very often we get to sit on top of a roof on a newly constructed clinic.
Andrei
Patty & Nilam
Nilam
Liam
Guess who
Ankur
As we pack up to go, I capture some last minute shots of the site, mostly of the children families brought as they thanked us:
The remnants of our efforts:
The Ying and Yang
And the surrounding landscapes around our site:
After 3 nights and 4 days of construction, most of us whom never done this sort of thing before, we’ll look back one day and ask ourselves: “Did we really?”
Yeah, we did:
It's up!
- At time of posting in Tijuana, Mexico, it was 11 °C -
Humidity: 54% | Wind Speed: 14km/hr | Cloud Cover: Cloudy
So this is our last day and it feels like things are starting to wrap up nicely:
Pepsi better pay me royalties for this
Although most of the work is done, there’s still a lot left. Luckily we raised enough money to pay some volunteers to stay behind and finish the whole thing by early January.
And one of our construction buddies, Tommy, spent last night by himself working on this really kick ass sign at the site:
Represent.
"Home of Health"
- At time of posting in Tijuana, Mexico, it was 13 °C -
Humidity: 77% | Wind Speed: 37km/hr | Cloud Cover: clear
Today we were hit by pretty bad rain so we took only a skeleton crew to work at the clinic site, where we worked on insulation and shielding the roof with tarp.
The construction pace on the clinic nevertheless decelerated and some of us were sent off to other sites to finish a few other construction projects instead. So a few of us treaded over a few hills to get to a house we were also building; a new home for impoverished family who were living in nothing more than a dilapidated shack…
On the left is the house we're building for the family. On the right is the shack they had been living in.
And we spent the day putting up insulation and drywall in 2 family rooms and an attic bedroom. Despite being undertooled and understaffed, we were fed by the family we were building the house for (and also rewarded with stunning sunsets over Tijuana).
After about 8 hours of work, we returned to the clinic to see our progress despite the rain:
This also marks our last night in Tijuana and tomorrow is our last day of construction. Let’s see how much we can finish before we have to leave!
- At time of posting in Tijuana, Mexico, it was 13 °C -
Humidity: 77% | Wind Speed: n/a | Cloud Cover: Rainy
