When I left the city of Mexicali on Friday, I had no idea that by Sunday, everything we had done to help these people would be insignificant compared to what they were facing now. On Sunday afternoon Mexicali felt a 7.2 earthquake rock the city, just 10 miles away from where a group of MA students as well as other local students had been doing outreach programs all week long, and had only left the previous day.

Almost 70 students left for the Mexican border on the first day of spring break, and no one had any idea of the impending disaster.  After we arrived, we split off into five groups and left for different villages to do construction work and play with the kids there.

Throughout the week we bonded with the people who lived in Mexicali and made ties in the community.  Although I only went to one village, it was clear that a lot of the buildings were not well constructed, and what permanent structures that did exist were made entire of brick- hardly earthquake-proof. Of course, at the time, none of this occurred to us; we went on with our work, oblivious to the hardships that the people of Mexicali would be enduring in just days.

Although the earthquake occurred just miles from these small villages, the fate of the places we visited was truly a miracle. There were no deaths in any of the villages we visited, although every town suffered building damage due to non-earthquake proof conditions.

Although these people are fortunate to be alive, it is impossible to say they are in good condition. There is no running water, wide spread power outages have been reported throughout the area, and plumbing has been affected in many towns.

To help these kids and families in Mexicali, donate to Azuza Pacific University from their website at www.apu.edu.