House Complete: More Photos from Tijuana 2025

Down the hill they were jackhammering into the side of the hill/mountain to create the space for building a new church. They are another couple who will utilize the house we built. Currently they are living in a minivan.

Looking uphill from the new church site. That’s their minivan. And a baño they had delivered there. It is apparently easy to get one delivered. Jason called one in for us on the first day and it was on site in ninety minutes.

Last year I was driving Cecilia, the stalled-out Hyundai. This year I’m driving The Sound of Silence, a black minivan that’s in decent shape but in which very little music has been played. Frank escaped the fire that destroyed his Altadena, CA home early this year. But Big Blue, the big Ford he took on this trip many times, did not make it. This year he has a newer blue Ford, Baby Blue.

This is the inside of the house before we stuccoed the outside and cut the tar paper off the windows. Homeowners Heidi and Jose Luiz asked that we not cut the chicken wire off of the windows, seeing it as an added layer of security.

I can only hope that this skinny dog gets to roam now that we are done building the house. He did have water. And he got lots of almonds and peanut butter sandwich chunks.

Jose Luiz was born with spina bifida and is on crutches. He was at work the first three days but he was at home today and seemed like a really carefree and happy guy. He was doing imitations of American TV characters. He spent time in a hospital in Los Angeles being treated for his condition. They told us before the trip that they do not have kids. They did not think they could get pregnant but they discovered recently that Heidi is in fact pregnant.

Smoky, humid morning at camp, Thursday June 24, 2025, Valle Redondo, MX. looking south, southwest.

Our Amor rep Davíd at the foot of the table. Bill M, lower left. Both of Bill’s parents once worked for A.G. Edwards, briefly. Not long after they arrived at Edwards, the St. Louis-based company, for which my father also worked, was acquired by Wachovia Securities, eventually resulting the spectacular destruction of one of St. Louis’s best companies.

That’s all for now. I have writing from prior legs of this trip, the Tucson airport, San Diego (another dog story), and Tijuana. I don’t know when I will type it up.

Tijuana is booming. No one can stop the forces at work in this city. The neighborhood we worked in, El Refugio, is one of the starkest, strangest, and most alluring places in which I will spend any of the days in whatever remains of this life.