What is Mano Amiga?
Mano Amiga is a 20-year-old 501c3 non-profit company organizing and facilitating mission trips for youth organizations from churches and schools. Mano Amiga works to help people in need. Homes get roofs, schools get built, lives get changed. Workers return from the trips with a new outlook on life.
Mano Amiga does “hands-on” mission work. Volunteers sweat, get dirty and come back tired! There are opportunities to help if you can’t be a “hands-on” construction volunteer—cooking, medical, teaching, and activity organization help is also needed.
Current missions are in Mexico states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo. We also have projects in Guatemala and Tanzania.
Mano Amiga handles all the details.
• Airline and travel arrangements and insurance
• Learning materials
• Accomodations and meals/food service
• Projects
• Cultural tours
Yucatán PROJECTS
Small villages in Yucatán are full with vulnerable homes. Many families do not have the money needed to build a solid house with a roof.
The economies of these small villages are based on the villagers catching, trapping, shooting, or growing their daily food. Even modestly paying jobs are difficult to attain. Therefore, it can take up to eight years for a family to build a concrete-block house—buying one block at a time as they can afford them.
When it comes to building a concrete roof, it is similar to barn-raising. Much help is needed in a short time to get the beams on the roof, raise and set the blocks on the beams, temporarily support the roof with wooden poles and then mix, lift, spread and trowel the wet concrete to cover the entire surface of the roof. Once the roof work is started, it has to be completed.
Mano Amiga provides all materials, tools, and labor. In a single day, a family receives a gift that will last for generations.
The experience in Yucatán is intense. Each day is packed with a variety of meaningful activities from the heavy construction work, to fellowship and fun in the kitchen, to thoughtful reflections, to common laughter when two people without a common language try to communicate, to quiet contemplation of creation.
This construction work uses only hand tools and muscles. We stay in a well-established church camp about 100 yards from the Gulf of Mexico and sleep in hammocks. Travel is by coach bus, across the Yucatán peninsula from Cancún to our temporary home in Chuburná—a small village northwest of Mérida. During a single mission trip, we typically construct four to ten roofs. We also have opportunities to meet and visit Mayan families.
mano amiga - how to build a roof v3
BUILDING A ROOF
PHOTOS
SAMPLE ITINERARY
Day 1 Departure / Travel Day
6 a.m. Flight leaves for Cancun
10 a.m. Flight arrives; travel to Chuburna.
6 p.m. Dinner at camp
8 p.m. Devotions and small group time
11:30 p.m.Gently swing in your hammock and fall asleep
Days 2 & 3 Work Days
7 a.m. Breakfast and get ready for worksite
8 a.m. Load buses, start at the worksites
Noon Lunch
3 p.m. Finish at the worksites
3:30 p.m.Free time/sponsorship letter writing
Day 4 Bible School and Merida
9 a.m. Breakfast Bible School w/children in Chuburna
Noon Lunch during Bible School
3 p.m. Group to Merida for festivities
6 p.m. Buses back to camp
Days 5 & 6 Work Days
(Same as Days 2 & 3!)
Day 7 Travel and Cultural History Day
7 a.m.Breakfast
7:30-8 a.m.Clean camp and pack up
11:30 a.m. Lunch
12:30 p.m.Leave camp; travel to Ek-Baalam (Mayan ruins)
5 p.m. Arrive at hotel in “Old Cancun;” dinner
Day 8 Travel Day
10:30 a.m.Flight home leaves
3:30 p.m.Arrive at airport
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is different about a Mano Amiga mission trip?
Mano Amiga means Friendly Hands. Much of Mano Amiga work is "hands-on" mission work. Participants in a Mano Amiga mission trip work hard, sweat and get tired! This is not mission tourism. Real work gets done. Lives get changed. And participants come back with a new outlook on life.
Who can go on a Mano Amiga trip?
At present, Mano Amiga can accept applications for volunteer mission work in the Chuburná area of Yucatán, México, from church, school and community groups. The group size can range from 25 to 75 people. The construction work is difficult, but other jobs need doing on any project. These jobs might be kitchen assistants, medical personnel, translators, musicians and spiritual leaders. We cannot accept applications for individuals, couples, families or unorganized small groups in Chuburná.
What leadership must a group provide?
Each group should have a leader/spokesperson. This might be the person with whom all communications and financial arrangement are made or might be the person "in charge" during the trip. We also suggest identifying a medical person, a musician and a spiritual leader for your group.
What is provided by Mano Amiga?
Air transportation coordination, coach bus transportation, insurance, project materials, lodging accommodations, meals, learning materials and cultural site tours are all included in a Mano Amiga mission trip! Best of all, we will tailor the trip to your group.
What are the accommodations?
Accommodations in Chuburná are pretty basic. No hot water, just cold/cool showers unless it has been a very sunny day. You sleep in hammocks. No individual/small group rooms...all hammocks are hung dormitory style. No electrical outlets for hairdryers, shavers, radios etc. No stores to purchase things you forgot. Still, the setting is beautiful and breathtaking only a hundred feet from the ocean shore.
What is the food like?
The Mano Amiga staff and volunteers from your group prepare and serve all of the meals. We can accommodate any dietary need. We have a menu that has received great reviews from participants from all across the country. We have three simple goals in the Mano Amiga kitchen No one gets sick, everyone has enough and you enjoy every meal.
Who is helped?
Every small village in the Yucatán is full of vulnerable homes. Even modestly paying jobs are hard to come by. So it can take 7 or 8 years for a family to build a concrete-block house, one block at a time as they can afford to purchase the blocks.
But when it comes to the concrete roof, it's kind of like a barn-raising in rural America; a lot of help is needed for a short time to get the beams on the roof, raise and set the blocks on the beams, temporarily support the roof with wooden poles and then mix, lift, spread and trowel the wet concrete to cover the entire surface of the roof. Once the roof work is started it has to be completed. Then there's the cost of the materials for the roof.
This is where Mano Amiga groups enter the picture. The materials, the tools and the labor for a concrete roof are provided for the families in need. And in a single day, a family receives a gift that will last for generations.
How much does it cost for a group to participate in a Mano Amiga trip?
While this varies by group and group preference, we estimate that a typical group of 25 people will spend about $2000 per person on airfare, ground transportation, meals, building materials, cultural site tours and accommodations. We suggest that individuals seek sponsorships to minimize the personal out-of-pocket expense. In the case of church groups, this is also a way of engaging your congregation. Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater, MN has used this concept for years with great success. 75% of the Mission Mexico expenses at Trinity come from sponsors. We can show you how to do this, too!
Can I write my own religious curriculum?
Yes, and we encourage this. If you feel stuck or would like to see examples of what others have done, we can certainly help you!
Is it safe?
In over 20 years of running trips to Mexico, Mano Amiga has not had a single serious incident. We take precautions relating to personal safety, food safety, etc.
CONTACT US
e-mail: Todd King, tking_manoamiga.net –or– Dan Davis, ddavis_manoamiga.net
e-mail: Todd King, toddking6_msn.com –or– Dan Davis, ddavis4010_comcast.net
All Rights Rerserved > Mano Amiga > Copyright 2011
