In the span of 24 years, a group from Los Gatos that rallies helpful high schoolers to assist impoverished families in the northern Mexican province of Baja California Norte has built more than 50 houses and installed upwards of 100 micro solar power systems.
Retired eye doctor Pete Taylor, 68, who’s been helping with the trips for years, says the relationships they’ve built over the years with the local community—such as with Antonio Dueñas, pastor at Iglesias de Cristo, in Punta Colonet—has turned their outreach efforts into a well-oiled machine.
“These kids in Mexico have learned a lot of helpful skills—and then employ those things in the community and don’t rely on us. It’s just great,” Taylor said, during a December interview in Los Gatos. “The kids from here get to meet the kids from there. And then they just kind of launch things on their own. Wonderful stuff to have them do that.”
The Silicon Valley side of things is organized through the Los Gatos United Methodist Church.
“I got involved with this because my son—when he was a freshman in high school—he got invited to go down,” Taylor said, of the first home-building foray he chaperoned, 18 years ago. “They needed parent supervision.”
He says it was such a positive experience, he hasn’t looked back.
“We always go to the same area,” he said. “It’s probably two hours south of Ensenada.”
He recalls how their fledgling program progressed right alongside the development of that region of Mexico.
“But back in those days it was really, really rough, and conditions were poor,” he said. “What we’ve seen over the last 15 years is a nice change in the area. And we’ve innovated. Because we came up with Lighting for Literacy.”
He’s talking about how, around 2012, they began setting up solar systems for poor residents there in Mexico, an initiative that’s been supported enthusiastically by Los Gatos Morning Rotary.
“A number of us that had been doing this for many years realized there was a problem with how off-grid houses were lit,” he said, adding a house they built in 2008 burned down a couple years later. “We wanted to find a way to provide them with lighting that was safer.”
Another thing they’ve updated: Now, the home recipient must actually own the land on which the structure is being built. They learned that one the hard way.
“In the early days, back in the 2000-6 time frame, it wasn’t always that the people that we were building the house for owned it,” he said, adding that created issues, since the family they were trying to help could be forced off the land—and then the home could be rented out to someone else.
The Los Gatos United Methodist Church team works with their contacts in Mexico to decide who should get the next homes and solar systems.
“Every month we have an interaction with the folks from Mexico,” Taylor said. “We go down there and we see the same faces.”
Taylor typically focuses on the plumbing and electrical systems. Often, the family will improve upon the home afterwards—such as in the case of one family that had just arrived in Baja from Oaxaca.
“This family took the house that we built for them; they subsequently added on to it with a structure of equal size. They then enclosed their lot in fencing and began to create pens for chickens, for turkeys, for crops that they were going to consume,” he said, explaining how the Los Gatos assistance can turn into lasting relationships. “I went down to their place, and they had slaughtered one of their turkeys—and made a turkey meal with homemade tortillas and homemade molle.”
They’d even upgraded their solar system over time, he added.
The group plans to return to Punta Colonet this spring over Easter (April 4-11).
“We’re expecting male and female participants from Los Gatos United Methodist Church as well as from the wider community,” he said, adding this may include teachers from Fisher Middle School, as well as members of Los Gatos Rotary and Los Gatos Morning Rotary.
To donate contact Erik Eastland at Co**********@***il.com.
