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Felipe Rendon walked past several dilapidated homes with boards poking from their unfinished second floors.
In Acuña, Mexico, a town that sits along the Rio Grande across from Del Rio, construction often happens over a long period of time, as money becomes available.
That may be why two newspapers and a television station were in the town to cover the celebration honoring the Texas A&M University graduate and several students who built a library at an elementary school there in 12 days.
"A 20-by-20 room is not finished in two weeks there," said Rendon, the president of the Texas A&M chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a nonprofit group that builds facilities and creates partnerships with developing communities worldwide to improve their lives. "To be able to give something to the community, it was very rewarding to see their gratitude."
The group of about 25 students worked on every aspect of the project to create a library for the school, Escuela Independencia, from planning through construction, which happened in January over winter break.
The students met community members to understand their needs. They surveyed the land to measure elevation change. And, finally, between a classroom and dirt street, they built the library, where the school will house and grow its modest book collection.
"The most challenging part was definitely coming up with the detailed design, given the fact that we're just students and only a few of us had basic construction experience," said Rendon, a chemical engineering major.
The group paid all the costs -- about $13,000 -- through donations.
Group members are now planning to build bathrooms in Costa Rica. The facilities in the town of San Isidro, about two hours west of San Jose, the country's capital, will help a local school and community.
Rendon surveyed the area. Currently, there is one toilet and shower for a school of about 60 students. Rendon said he saw cracks in the porcelain toilet, a metal roof coated in rust and wires hanging from the roof connecting to a droopy sink.
"This will be sort of the first project in the community," Rendon said. "We hope to be involved in the community for the long term. We want to empower them to maintain what we implement over a long period of time."
