Mexico - Build Cisterns in Xpujil
May 22 - 27, 2023
Led by Todd Luke, Outreach Consultant
Building cisterns in Mexico gives families who suffer from poor health due to a lack of clean water, access to an abundant supply of rainwater that improves their health. Ch’ol Presbyterian laymen organize families to work together to build cisterns that collect rainfall, and American groups work with our Mexican partners to help.
Xpujil, in the southern part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula close to Belize and Guatemala, is about a six-hour drive from Cancun International Airport. Your host, Todd Luke, will meet you at the airport with a rented vehicle, and drive you to and from Xpujil. He will be your driver, translator, and cultural liaison during your entire stay in Mexico.
For three days, from 8:00 am-5:00 pm, we will build three or four cisterns. Led by our Ch’ol Presbyterian partners, our main task is to help mix cement. We shovel 70 pounds of sand and gravel into five-gallon buckets, which are carried and emptied into a cement mixer. We perform this activity in 45-minute spurts throughout the day. During downtime, we can interact with the cistern recipient families and our local coworkers. We eat lunch at the work site.
Groups stay in Xpujil at our four-room Guest House. Each room has two twin beds, two hammocks, ceiling fan, floor fan, and bathroom with a shower. Hot water is available.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are prepared by our Xpujil partners, who have more than 20 years of experience feeding American work teams. Bottled water is always available. Daytime temperatures normally reach the high 80s (upper 90s April–August). Overnight temps may drop into the low 60s in winter, and low 70s in summer.
Passports are required and any participants under the age of 18 must have a signed affidavit from both parents permitting travel to Mexico. Make sure your tetanus immunization is up to date.
Trip costs per person are $1,500 ($700 covers all in-Mexico expenses except for Friday dinner and Saturday meals, plus $800 for cistern building materials). You will book and pay for your own flights to/from Cancun, which are currently priced at about $700 per person. We suggest bringing $20-$50 to purchase your own snacks or incidentals. To request your place on the team, send your non-refundable deposit of $150, trip application, waiver, and a copy of the information page of your passport to The Outreach Foundation, 381 Riverside Drive, Suite 465, Franklin, TN 37064. For more information contact Carol Dublin at carol@theoutreachfoundation.org or call (615) 778-8881.