HABITAT FOR HUMANITY – MEXICO

February, 2019

This Habitat for Humanity Mexico project site was in a small village called El Monteón which is located in the state of Nayarit, about 60km north of Puerto Vallarta. El Monteón has a population of about 1,800 who are involved in fishing, farming (corn & pineapples) and brick making. Because it is several kilometers from the ocean it has not attracted the tourists like the nearby towns of Guayabitos, La Penita and Los Ayala.

The Habitat Global Village Team that I was with was made up of fourteen Canadians mostly from the Edmonton area. This was not the first Habitat Global Village Build for most of the team and a number of us had been on previous builds together.

The house we worked on was for the Cisneros Mendez family who have been living in a borrowed house in El Monteón. The family is made up of Leonel Cisneros who is a musician, mason and farmer labourer (pineapples), his wife Lulian Mendez who is a housewife & hairdresser and their two daughters, Naidelyn and Leslie.

When we arrived at the work site on our first day the foundation of the house had been completed and the first row of concrete blocks was in place. We spent the week building the walls and preparing the floors. Habitat and the family will continue to work on the house until it is completed. Building Progress

While working on the houses we stayed in Rincón de Guayabitos which is a tourist town a few kilometers north of El Monteón so it was easy to get to the work site each day and it meant we had a nice beach and good restaurants to enjoy when not working.

As with all Habitat builds the family is expected to contribute both monetary and physical help toward building their home. In Mexico the family must also provide the land. The Cisneros Mendez family was actively involved in the building work and at the same time having to keep involved with their regular livelihood and schooling. Fortunately Leonel Cisneros was a qualified mason so he was able to act in that capacity for the build with his brother and other family members also helping out.

One morning we went to a large weekly market in La Penita which is a commercial town immediately north of Guayabitos and then we visited a small pineapple plantation that was owned by Lulian Mendez’s father and where Leonel Cisneros works when needed. See Punta Raza

On the Saturday following the build the team took a trip north of Guayabitos to visit the archaeological petroglyphs site of Altavista known as “La Pila Del Rey” and then we visited a Habitat house in a small village called El Copomo which was built in 2017 by our team leader Orest and a team from Canada.

After the build I stayed on in Guayabitos for an additional two weeks for a little bit of sunshine and relaxation. I visited the house a couple of times to see the building progress. Post-build photos

To see some additional photos of Guayabitos and area that are not directly part of the Habitat Build check out my Mexico 2019 photos.

For more information on Habitat for Humanity click on the following links:

Habitat Canada

Habitat Global Village

Habitat Mexico