7/31/2019 A Weekend in Tecate

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-weekend-in-tecate 1/2

A weekend in Tecate, Mexico with El Corazon and San Juan Rotary Club

By Ziad Mazboudi, PE, F.ASCE, Past President

On May 19, I woke up at 3:00 a.m., to meet the San Juan Capistrano Rotary Club members to head to El

Cajon, where other Rotarians from Southern California were meeting us. This is the second year I

participate in this annual event to build 3 homes in one day in partnership with Corazon. I was

representing ASCE OC as I did last year. Unfortunately, I did not have any other ASCE OC volunteer,

however the master builder, John Meagher, PE who was in charge of the volunteers at the house I was

working on, is one of our members. Anyway, we met in San Juan Capistrano at 4:30 a.m. and headed to

El Cajon where more than one hundred volunteers were gathering to go into Tecate to build three

homes. The groups met the Corazon representatives who welcomed everyone and provided a briefing

on what to expect for the day, safety talk and divided the groups into three based on the project that

they will be working on. There were three color ribbons provided to be attached to the cars so that

each group follows its color in the caravan into Mexico. The caravan headed into Mexico and arrived

into Tecate without any incident. Upon arrival, each house had a Master builder responsible to oversee

that the volunteers are safe and that the project is completed on time and to provide guidance

throughout the day. As I had already participated in a similar project the previous year, and I knew my

way around lumber and the use of saws, I asked the Master builder to assign me to lead the lumber

cutting station. He was glad to hear of my previous experience and provided me with the house’s cut

sheet. I asked for five volunteers to assist me and started to review the cut sheet. I quickly realized that

the lumber was not placed in a practical location and needed to be moved. By that time, the rest of the

volunteers were still standing around waiting for direction, so it was a great opportunity to use as many

of them as possible to quickly move the lumber. I directed them to move them to a location near where

I set up the cutting station, and asked them to place them in an organized manner by size. This would

make our cutting and accessing the needed material much easier. I started my project by going oversafety issues and provided my team with hearing protection and eye protection. As soon as safety

issues were settled, we went over the cut sheets and informed the Master builder with my plan of 

action which was to provide him with the cut lumber based on the installation priority. In addition, we

agreed that no one will take any of our lumber or cut any lumber without going through the team, as in

the previous year, I noticed that there was some chaos as far as volunteers taking lumber without

informing the cutting team.

To organize the lumber cutting team, I was the only one cutting lumber with the circular saw. My team

had two volunteers bringing us the needed lumber. So, for example, we would ask for ten 2x4, that

needed to be cut as 94”. Two volunteers would bring the lumber, the other two measured and checked

the measurements, and the fifth volunteer helped me move the cut lumber to the production stack and

marked them for identification. The identification would match the cut sheet, such as wall 1, or

mezzanine, etc..The cutting team worked well together, we were very organized and analyzed the cut

sheets well to avoid any waste of lumber. Since we started immediately, it helped us be ahead of 

production, so as soon as the assemblers were ready to put together the first wall, all of their cut pieces

were ready and assembled together. This made it so easy for them to assemble the pieces. Our quality

7/31/2019 A Weekend in Tecate

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-weekend-in-tecate 2/2

control, measure and double checking the measurement helped provide very precise cut lumber, which

provided us with praise from the Master builder and the other volunteers.

As the day went by, the site was like a bee hive, there were younger members with paint rollers painting

the plywood and any other lumber that required painting. The house was starting to come together and

by the time we were ready for lunch, the walls were up, and the roof members were attached. By thetime lunch was ready, it was very warm, and we were ready for a break. The host family had prepared

lunch for us, chicken tacos, rice and beans. We rested for about an hour and enjoyed the meal, then the

Master builder provided a talk on what it took to get a house. The family that receives the house must

provide a certain amount of volunteer work and perform many tasks over a number of years and submit

an application that is reviewed for approval. The afternoon went very smooth, and we finished cutting

the rest of the lumber couple of hours after lunch. The house was completed around 4:30 p.m. The

house was about 20x20, with a mezzanine for the kids, and a small room downstairs for the parents, in

this case it was for the mom. The husband had passed away couple of years ago, and the wife was living

with her family with her three young kids. The house is made of studs and plywood, no insulation or

drywall. The house has no electricity, running water or sewer. The toilet was a hole in the ground witha cut piece of plywood in an outhouse. At first, I thought this is not wonderful, the house would be hot

in summer and cold in winter, no utilities. But, when I saw the look on the wife’s face and the kids to

have a house when they have nothing, and share a 600 s.f. house with twelve other family members, I

realized the importance of having a place to call home. I am assuming that one the project is finished,

the new owner will slowly add to it improvements such as insultation or other items to make it their

own. At the end of the day, we provided the key to the new house to the family and there were a lot of 

tears as this was a very emotional moment. There was a lot of joy in the air.

So, why Tecate and why partner with Corazon or the Rotary Club. Anything one can do to improve

someone else’s life is a positive action. Engineers without Borders and ASCE partner on projects all overthe world to volunteer on projects that improve people’s lives. It is a wonderful feeling to provide

community service in one’s community or other needed communities. As civil engineers, we have a lot

of talents and expertise that come in handy to assist other people. We should give back when possible

and help make the world a better place. My annual trip to Tecate has been great and very fulfilling and I

look forward to next year’s trip. If anyone is interested in joining me next year in May, so our ASCE OC

team is larger, please contact me and we could start forming our team. E-mail me at

Ziadmazboudi.asce@gmail.com