What is it really like to live and work in Puerto?
Read about some of our past participants' most memorable experiences.

Program Roots

Dr. Robin Klay, Professor of Economics, developed the "Hope Blooms" program in partnership with Hope graduate Zach Barricklow (’05), who is now serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama.

Barricklow fell in love with Puerto Escondido in the Fall of 2003 when he spent a semester volunteering with the local Habitat for Humanity office. Barricklow was the chapter's very first international volunteer. Upon returning to Hope, he teamed up with Professor Klay and fellow student Meghan Carrier ('05) to bring Hope students back to the area to work with Habitat as an Alternative Spring Break service trip. While leading two successful trips in 2004 and 2005, Klay and Barricklow saw great potential for Hope students to contribute to the development of the Puerto area while benefiting from an incomparable cross-cultural experience.

In May of 2005, with funding from The CrossRoads Project, the two returned to Puerto to solidify partnerships with local civil and mission organizations and to set up internship positions in a variety of fields. The following Spring, Klay launched the pilot program with thirteen interns and three fellow leaders.

2006 Pilot Trip

'06 Trip Summary | '06 Participants

“It was a great adventure... (The students) grew in many ways
as a result of the all the opportunities and challenges –
spiritually, vocationally, personally, and professionally.”
- Professor Robin Klay, reflecting on the 2006 pilot trip.

In May of 2006, Professor Klay took a pioneer group of thirteen Hope students to Puerto for eight weeks to launch the "Hope Blooms" program.

The group flew from Chicago to Mexico City to Puerto Escondido on May 9th, 2006, and checked into a small ocean-front hotel across the street from Playa Zicatela, a world-famous surfing destination. They spent the first week together building a home for Habitat for Humanity before meeting their host families at a Welcome Dinner the following Sunday afternoon.

From there, they each headed out to their individual host families and internships, reuniting over the next seven weeks for Sunday evening academic seminars, as well as trips to the beach, a canoe tour of a local lagoon and a memorable four-day visit to Oaxaca City.

Pilot program internships fell under the categories of engineering, teaching, accounting/business, marketing, and communication. Seven of the thirteen interns were hosted by Habitat for Humanity and also lived with Habitat families. Other partner organizations included a vocational training institute for young women, a Christian radio program, a youth soccer ministry, and local schools.

All of the pilot program partner organizations and host families asked to be included again the following year. Their enjoyment of the program was apparent during the Farewell Dinner, held at the end of the group’s seventh week in Mexico. During the dinner, Habitat for Humanity awarded certificates to all of their interns and offered enthusiastic thanks to everyone for coming to Mexico to share in their life and work. Other hosts also gave touching speeches, while students said goodbye to their host families.

The group returned to Playa Zicatela to spend their final week together before heading home on June 30^th. A crowd of their host parents and siblings flooded the local airport to see them off.

As pioneers of an unprecedented program, the pioneer participants met with more than their fair of challenges throughout the trip, but leaders and students alike maintained high hopes for the future of “Hope Blooms in Puerto Escondido.”

Pioneer Roster

LEADERS
The pilot program was led by Dr. Robin Klay, Professor of Economics, and Hope graduate Ana Santibanez (’05), a Mexico City native and resident. Additional program development and leadership help came from two volunteer coordinators: Hope alum Meghan Carrier (’05), who was also a co-leader of the previous Spring Break service trips to Puerto; and Elizabeth Barricklow, the sister of program founder Zach.

INTERNS
The thirteen pioneer interns hailed from a wide variety of majors and minors, including Spanish, Management, Accounting, Communication, Engineering, Elementary Education (Science Composite), Economics, and Art.

SENIORS:
Tyler Buell (Management)
Ross Nave (Business Management)
Kye Samuelson (Communication & Spanish)
Elizabeth Shuter (Spanish)
Rachel Streelman (Management & Psychology)
Leanne Wisner (Spanish)

JUNIORS:
Brian Emling (Management)
Katie Kiel (Elementary Education, Science Composite)
Matt Moorehead (Communication)
Tyler Osburn (Spanish)
Kate Pageau (Spanish & Communication)

SOPHMORE:
Elise Nelson (Spanish & Economics)

FRESHMAN:
Rachel Bakken (Engineering)

 

2007 ROSTER

The 2007 program students also came from a variety of academic backgrounds.

SENIORS:
Megan Rapelje (Psychology and Spanish)

JUNIORS:
Laura Cadena (Social Work and Spanish)
Lynde Seaver (Communications and Spanish)
Aaron Green (Social Work and Spanish)
Travis Ransom (Spanish and International Studies)

SOPHMORES:
Mackenzie Snyder (Spanish, Management, and International Studies)
Taylor Hughes (Communication and Spanish)
Sara Webster (English Communications Composite and Spanish)

FRESHMAN:
Andrea Conklin (Spanish)

I Remember...

Relections from 2006

That Day At The Beach
"I remember one weekend the Bajos de Chila host families took us to a beach called Agua Dulce which means "sweet water." 17 of us piled into one pickup truck to make the bumpy ride to the beach. Only we couldn't drive directly to the beach. We had to park the pickup and wade through murky, waist deep water in order to reach the actual beach. So with our backpacks on top of our heads and flip flops in hand we made it across, some a little more warily than others, i.e. me. It was worth the traumatic entrance to see a beach untouched by progress. No restaurants, no buildings at all, and no bathrooms. The palm trees were our shade and the bushes the bathroom. Throughout the lovely, baking Sunday afternoon we spent time just being with our host families, "conviviendo" as they say. We swam in clear waves and ate tuna tostadas and fresh cut coconuts for lunch. While the experience was basically paradise, it was the insight gained into the Mexican culture, the time spent with the families, and the experience that made it all worth while."
      - Elizabeth Shuter ('06), 2006 Habitat for Humanity accounting/business intern.

Swimming With A Sea Turtle
"One Saturday a large group of us went out looking for tortugas. At 7 miles off the coast of Puerto and at 430 ft deep, the 1st mate jumped off the moving boat and grabbed a huge turtle. As soon as he hit, he yelled, 'Jump in, Jump in' and four of us jumped in to swim with the turtle. We were swimming with a turtle in water too deep for me to imagine and doing it as though it were only a swimming pool. It was nuts and incredible."
     - Brian Emling ('07), 2006 intern for El Refugio
       youth soccer ministry.

Everyday Life In A Mexican Village
"Every experience that I had in Chila was eye-opening for me. I attended a rodeo, a “horse race” and an indescribable fireworks display all in the first two nights living there. I waded through a chest high lagoon to get to a beautiful beach and play with youngsters. I was in a taco joint when all of the lights in town went out in a storm. I heard the ocean waves crashing the shore during the middle of the night. I played basketball and soccer with the locals every week. I made lifelong friends."
      - Tyler Osburn ('07), 2006 Habitat for Humanity
        marketing intern.

Surfing With The Pro's
"Ross (Nave), Kye (Samuelson), and I got to surf a secret break in Mexico the day before a World Surfing Competition and we got to surf with three of the world's best surfers. After they left all three of us scored some of the best waves of the trip and we drove home 2 1/2 hours in the bed of a truck. It rained on the way there, and it was blistering hot on the way back but it was perfect."
     - Brian Emling ('07), 2006 intern for El Refugio youth soccer ministry.

Learning What Life Is Like For Mexican Families
"My family’s usual meals consisted of refried beans and tortillas, which is the cheapest meal you can make in Mexico. They live in a Habitat house, which is the cheapest way to live in Mexico. They get around by bicycle and colectivos that cost close to nothing for transportation. However, they love each other and love life for what it is and for what they have. They spend their “free time” sitting on their porches talking with family and friends. That isn’t because they have nothing else better to do, or because they talk about the latest gossip – it is because they value relationships... The village taught me what it's like to have nothing; it also taught me what it's like to have everything."
      - Rachel Streelman ('06)

Meeting My Seven Host Siblings
"The first night with my family we met all seven kids and then sat at the dinner table with all of them while they asked Kye (Samuelson) and me to tell them stories. They all sat in their seats for over an hour listening and laughing to everything we could think of from our childhood. And while one of us was talking the other one was watching the youngest girl Lillie chow on a Mango pit."
      - Brian Emling ('07), 2006 El Refugio intern.

Life Reflections Made From The Hammock
"One (life-shaping) incident (duing my time in Mexico) was a conversation that I had with my host mother the week before we left to return to the Bungalows. In the conversation, which was nothing extraordinary, we just sat outside in the hammocks towards evening and chatted about our families, my work in Puerto, and my love life. It was during this conversation, however, that I realized just how many different people there were in the world and how we all share similar bonds.  We came from two completely different cultures: she couldn’t understand how I had a girlfriend but was not married with a kid at age 21, and it was hard for me to fully grasp the extent of the male dominance in the culture. But we both had a family we loved. We both had a home where we would always feel welcome. And we both had been a part of each other’s lives that neither of us would soon forget. The whole evening made me aware of the fact that I want to have more experiences like that with different people in different cultures."
      - Tyler Osburn ('07), 2006 Habitat for Humanity marketing intern.

Fun lists from 2007

"You know you're in Mexico when..."

• You have to cancel class because of the rain, and none of the kids are allowed to go outside.
• A chicken lays egg in your bed, you sleep on it all night, and it doesn't break.
• Your friend's host brother rides in on his bike from 20 minutes out of town to bring you hand-written note saying your friend won't be coming to class today because he's sick.
• You spend the afternoon chasing chickens out of your bedroom.
• You bargain with a lizard so you can go to sleep at night.
• You only have one outlet in your room and you have to choose between plugging in your laptop and plugging in the fan...and you would rather plug in the fan...meanwhile you have 4 light switches and one small, flurescent light bulb over your head.
• You don't even blink when the power flashes on and off as you type up a journal entry at night.
• Only in Mexico do women use the late-night taxi service to sell cheese.
• In Mexico, every vehicle is an off-road vehicle.

"Cozoaltepec is so ghetto that..."
(Cozoaltepec - a small Mexican village where three Hope students interned)

• The stereo system of the only taqueria in town is 3 blocks away from the actual taqueria, so they blast the same song till 1 a.m. just to hear it in the front.
• That people talk to you through the screen window in your room to wake you up.
• That they have classrooms in a chicken-coop with a padlock on the door.
• That they play catch with tennis balls and the tops of 2-liter bottles in gym class.
• That the fence around the school is still there, but has no function because the kids climb through and buy ice pops on their bathroom breaks.
• That the kids drink mango juice out of plastic sandwich bags.
• That the parrots drink coffee at the table with you while you eat breakfast.
• Cozoaltepec is so ghetto that even their chickens be jumpin'!