Student/Alumni Service Trip

That the Past may Serve and Learn with the Future

Earlier this summer eight William and Mary alumni embarked on a housing building service trip to Mexico with nine current William and Mary students.  At the beginning of our adventure we shared a love for the Tribe and by the end we shared friendship united around service.

We arrived in Reynosa, Mexico just after dusk and settled into our quarters.  We resided at a complex in the heart of the colonia and we quickly become friends with our neighbors.  On Sunday morning we were greeted by dozens with handshakes and hugs.  Alumni who had visited before reminisced with community members.  They laughed easily and told stories about family and friends.  William and Mary students quickly joined in, not missing a beat, making new friendships of their own.  Within hours of arriving we were talking about building bridges across borders, we were learning about the lives of Mexicans and about the joys and concerns of life on the border.

We built a house for a young family, cinder block rows going up so quickly with nearly 30 people on the work site.  After only a day we had raised the walls of the house.  The house will be occupied by a young family and they could not be more pleased with the progress.   As we constructed the house we built friendships sharing stories of similarity – about family, education, hopes and dreams.

There were inevitable moments of heightened frustration as we considered the components of a system that seems broken.  Our nightly conversations focused on questions of infrastructure and need.  Ginger Ambler, ’88, PhD, ’06 (Interim Vice President for Student Affairs) reflected on our culture of scarcity and compared it with the community of abundance to which we were visitors.  While we have so many material items and by our standards the Mexican community had little, their hearts were full.  Faith, love, support, community and friendship are abundant in the colonias of Reynosa, Mexico.

All too soon after we arrived (just as the landscape was no longer surprising) it was time for us to say goodbye – for the time being.  We’ve been 8 times before and we will return in March 2009.  For now we have a lot of work to do.  We need to tell the stories of those we met while we reflect on the experience.  Then we need to find ways to support our friends in measurable ways – with funds for building supplies and educational scholarships, but also to bring to bear the challenges faced.  We all have questions that have no simple solutions, but time, research and effort will help fill in the missing pieces of the story.  The real work is just beginning.