By Mr. Michael LiVigni, Headmaster

The trip from the San Diego airport to the small town of La Gloria, (a suburb of Tijuana in Baja California, Mexico) is only 26 miles long, but the distance between the two cities economically and culturally could not be further away. That distance is readily seen when you are crossing the border with ten high school seniors. Invariably the chatter and excitement in the van as you cross over into Mexico fades away to silence as the boys take in the poverty that suddenly engulfs them. That silence, thankfully, does not last very long but instead is quickly replaced by a barrage of questions, the most prevalent being “why?” This is the question that thirteen students from Xavier and twenty-three students from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, MO were invited to explore on the first joint service trip between the schools from July 13-19. The students, accompanied by three faculty members and two alumni from Xavier and five faculty and staff members from Rockhurst, in addition to the principal and headmaster from both schools, were asked pointedly by their teachers “why does this kind of poverty exist?”

While students and faculty from Xavier have been travelling to work with Esperanza International in Tijuana Mexico for well over a decade, including a group of over fifty students and faculty the week prior to the joint trip with Rockhurst, this is only the second time that students from Rockhurst have made that same journey. Students and adults from the two groups became fast friends, in large part due to the common “Ignatian” language both schools share. As the principal of Rockhurst High School, Mr. Gregory Harkness, pointed out to the group, “our schools are quick to engage each other on the playing fields so it is about time we engaged each other in our common Ignatian mission.”

Over the course of the week, several work teams were formed and went out into the Tijuana community to help build concrete homes. Esperanza works similarly to Habitat for Humanity here in the United States. Families are chosen by their ability to save money to pay for the land and a portion of the building costs for their home while Esperanza provides the labor and technical expertise to build the house. Future homeowners are required to participate in educational programming and community building exercises with the hope of not just building one house for one family, but a viable community for many families.

Over the course of the week the Xavier and Rockhurst groups worked tirelessly to assist Esperanza families build their new homes. Foundations were dug, concrete mixed for roofs and foundations, cinder blocks made for walls and countless hours spent tying rebar. By the end of the week, three houses had foundations poured and one home was finished with a four hour marathon “roof pour.” All of this labor was done by hand, with the most important tool of the week being plastic buckets.

In addition to the work at the construction sites, students were taken on two small trips: one to the border to discuss the massive physical and psychological wall that separates Mexico and the United States and the other to a local girls-orphanage, Casa Hogar Santa Teresita del Niño Jesùs, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While the reflections at the border dwelt on economics and immigration the time at the orphanage was much different. The children sang a selection of songs in their native language to greet our group and then as a special surprise sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” in English. The two hours of laughter and play, including a full-out juggling performance by Rockhurst teacher Mr. Greg Owsley was a site to behold. The girls were fascinated with our iPhones, taking great glee in photographing themselves. I showed one girl an app on my iPhone that created photographs that looked like cartoons. She had a blast photographing several of the nuns, turning them into las caricaturas. That particular fun didn't last too long when one of the nuns noticed her taking a photo of mother superior, and then asked me to take the camera away!

While the physical labor that the volunteers provided was very important, even more important were the conversations with the families at each work site. This coupled with reflection and prayer each night, and the conversations within the group about the nature and causes of third world poverty had a transformative effect on students from both groups. Each day Esperanza families provided the work crew at their site with lunch. This simple meal, aside from being incredibly delicious, was in many ways where the real heart of this service trip. As students ate and shared a meal with local children and families bonds were forged, and invariably an impromptu game of soccer would break out. Encouraged to practice speaking Spanish, the exchanges between students and those in the local community shifted seamlessly from heartwarming to hilarious. The outcome of these exchanges could not be clearer, even if the language wasn't; individual people have more in common with each other than differences.