{"id":264,"date":"2012-02-01T17:49:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T17:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theflatironblog.com\/?p=264"},"modified":"2016-07-28T20:34:28","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T20:34:28","slug":"service-trip-returns-dividends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/news\/service-trip-returns-dividends\/","title":{"rendered":"Service Trip Returns Dividends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Assistant<\/a>

Assistant risk control manager Brandon Joy, left, tours one of Mexico City\u2019s slums with other Transformaci\u00f3n Urbana volunteers.<\/p><\/div>\n

A mission trip last October brought Flatiron Construction’s\u00a0assistant risk\u00a0control manager Brandon Joy\u00a0face-to-face with the realities of\u00a0poverty and life in one of the world\u2019s largest urban slums.<\/p>\n

Brandon\u2019s church in Colorado organized a group of five\u00a0volunteers\u2014three of them engineers\u2014who traveled to Mexico\u00a0City to reinforce a retaining wall at a retreat center owned by the\u00a0charitable organization Transformaci\u00f3n Urbana Internacional<\/a>.\u00a0Transformaci\u00f3n Urbana uses community outreach and organizing\u00a0to combat injustice, poverty and spiritual emptiness in the slums of\u00a0Mexico City. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme<\/a>\u00a0estimates that more than a billion people live in urban slums\u00a0worldwide, and that number is expected to double by the year\u00a02030.<\/p>\n

During his trip, Brandon got to experience Mexico City\u2019s \u201cinformal\u00a0settlements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico City is the nicest city I\u2019ve ever been to, but as you leave\u00a0the downtown area, you go from a super nice city to urban slums\u00a0immediately,\u201d said Brandon. \u201cThe streets are mostly unpaved, the\u00a0cinder block houses are surrounded by high concrete walls and\u00a0many of the roofs are made out of corrugated cardboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transformaci\u00f3n Urbana purchased a house outside the city to\u00a0provide a safe, quiet space for spiritual and community leaders to\u00a0gather.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe slums are a very condensed, stressful environment,\u201d Brandon\u00a0said. \u201cThe retreat center is a place where pastors and other\u00a0representatives can get away from everything, learn about\u00a0leadership and make plans for improving their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retreat center is located on an elevated lot, supported by a\u00a0poorly built, 10-foot-tall rock and mortar retaining wall. Brandon\u2019s\u00a0team was tasked with strengthening the wall to keep it from\u00a0tipping over and taking the retreat center along with it.\u00a0The volunteers used a hammer drill to make holes in the 18-inch-thick wall and installed pieces of rebar attached to threads with\u00a0a plate on the end through the holes. They then drove the rebar\u00a0through the soil into the lot to create the tiebacks. After that, they\u00a0dug to the end of the tiebacks and\u00a0attached some additional rebar that\u00a0would eventually be part of a concrete\u00a0anchor. After the team left, a separate\u00a0mission team poured the concrete to\u00a0anchor the wall to the soil behind it.<\/p>\n

Brandon said that the most rewarding\u00a0part of his trip was witnessing the hope,\u00a0thankfulness and perseverance that\u00a0local residents showed in the face of\u00a0such difficult conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you step outside your comfort\u00a0zone and spend your time and\u00a0resources on behalf of others, you see\u00a0that a little bit of courage goes a long\u00a0way,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see the joy that little\u00a0things can bring to other people, and\u00a0the experience returns back to you in\u00a0a way that is so much greater than you\u00a0could ever have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mission trip last October brought Flatiron Construction’s\u00a0assistant risk\u00a0control manager Brandon Joy\u00a0face-to-face with the realities of\u00a0poverty and life in one of the world\u2019s largest urban slums. Brandon\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[179,181,183,266,269,424,436],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-community","tag-flatiron","tag-flatiron-construction","tag-flatiron-corporation","tag-mexico-city","tag-mission-trip","tag-transformacion-urbana-internacional","tag-united-nations-human-settlements-programme"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flatironcorp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}