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No Comments [ Add Comment ]For Thanksgiving, teacher will be building homes in Mexico
By Rachel J. TrotterKAYSVILLE -- Karl Behling isn't spending time thinking about how much turkey he'll be eating this Thanksgiving; he's thinking about how much drywall he'll be hanging in a poor Mexican neighborhood.
The fourth-grade teacher left Friday for Tijuana with about 39 other people from his neighborhood to work for Tijuana residents who are down on their luck.
Behling heard about the trip from a friend in his ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and decided the opportunity was too good to pass up. He enlisted his 20-year-old son to go with him and made the commitment to make the 10-day trip over the holiday.
"I've always admired people who do things like Habitat for Humanity, so when this opportunity came up, I thought, 'It sounds great,' " Behling said.
The group is going through the nonprofit organization Charity Anywhere. Gordon Carter, the organization's president, resides in Bountiful, and his group goes to Tijuana at least four times a year, in addition to visiting many other countries throughout the world to regularly give service. Dental and medical expeditions are also done through the group, along with construction expeditions.
The organization is providing building supplies and paying some travel expenses, including insurance coverage, but each adult going on the trip paid $400 to attend and those younger than 18 paid about $125.
Behling likes the idea of working through Charity Anywhere because it is so easy to get involved and serve.
Behling and the others will stay in an old Catholic church building that was going to be used as a hospital but was never completed.
"It's basically a wide-open space," Behling said.
Clearly excited about the trip and the opportunity to serve, he said he has seen photos of potential projects and knows he and the others will be busy from sunup to sundown.
They'll be driving to Tijuana and back, which takes a couple of days each way. But for the rest of the time Behling plans to work and won't even think much about the turkey and family time he will be missing.
He had no plans for any Thanksgiving feast. "Maybe we'll eat an extra taco that night," he joked.
He admitted his wife is a little stressed because she's hosting Thanksgiving for the extended family this year at their home. Behling is the father of four children and has four grandchildren. He not only spent time preparing to leave for Tijuana but helped his wife get things together for the holiday meal. He said he doesn't mind a bit.
Behling's son, Michael, is accompanying him to Tijuana. A student at Weber State University, Michael views the trip as a valuable life experience. He has been involved in several neighborhood service projects, but nothing on this grand a scale.
Karl Behling has always had a knack for building and even built the home in which he lives. Michael appreciates his father's skills, saying, "My dad is good at building houses and other stuff. He has done it my whole life, so he'll be able to tell me what to do."
And Michael doesn't feel so bad about missing Thanksgiving, either.
"Thanksgiving is fun to be with the family for one night, but we will be giving a lot of people houses," he said.
Karl Behling is happy to be able to put his home-building experience to work. He will be working with houses that have burned down, in many cases because of poor wiring due to the lack of building codes. The group packed plenty of electrical wire to install in the homes.
One of the projects Behling was most looking forward to was installing a bathroom in a home, shared by several families, that doesn't have indoor plumbing. The group will also do some work for a school, putting in a playground where the kids, up to now, have played in fine, sandy dirt.
"I look forward to doing some good for some folks. The people there are really good, but just extremely poor and living in humble circumstances."
Fellow fourth-grade teacher Connie Bennett is very impressed with Behling's willingness to serve and sacrifice his holiday. "It's just an incredible and neat thing, and so good for his students to see," Bennett said.
For more information on Charity Anywhere, visit the Web site, www.charityanywhere.org .
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