Augusta Friendsmith and Marcela Badillo led Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Teton Area’s first trip to Tlaxcala this spring to launch what the partners hope will be a five-year series.
After more than a decade guiding similar projects across the world, though, Friendsmith is also looking to pass the torch to somebody new.
“I can’t wait to let it go and see how it grows,” Friendsmith said. “I know it’s gonna grow and change in a way that I can even anticipate.”
Fifteen volunteers, including Friendsmith’s Boston-area parents, flew south for a week laying foundations for four homes and cultural exchange in Jackson’s sister city.
Badillo was the sole Latino traveler, and acted as somewhat of a guide. The 40-year-old grew up in Tlaxcala and moved to Jackson as a teenager.
“Showing where I come from, showing my culture, was kind of awesome,” Badillo said.
The state of Tlaxcala sits just east of Mexico City near the Gulf of Mexico and accounts for a significant portion of Jackson’s immigrant population.
Town Councilor Alyson Spery and others have helped formalize the connection, including with a sister city designation in 2021. But the link to Habitat came by chance.
After a COVID hiatus, the Teton County team put out a request to build anywhere in Mexico, hoping to replicate the success of a 2019 trip Friendsmith and her then-fiancé led to Oaxaca in 2019.
The site they were hoping for in Chiapas, on the border of Guatemala was closed for security reasons.
So, Friendsmith said, they asked “well, what sites do you have available?”
“And of all of humongous Mexico, the only place that they’re building is Tlaxcala,” she said. “It was like the stars aligned.”
Badillo had missed her typical Christmas trip home while launching Jireh’s Tasty Cravings, a taqueria in Grand Teton Plaza. But she was able to see them on the spring excursion, while also introducing the inaugural Teton crew.
“I wish more Latino people can join us next year. That’s our main goal,” Badillo said. “A lot of people would like to join us, but because of their status, it’s kind of impossible. So they are so grateful to us for what we’ve been doing, and they want us to keep doing it.”
Organizer Augusta Friendsmith is hoping for more work next year. “They’re hard days. You’re exhausted, but you’re so happy with it,” she said. (Courtesy)
Their one complaint from the premiere trip? Not enough work. On fast builds, the Habitat team can pour concrete foundations and stand up a roof in five days.
“They’re hard days,” Friendsmith said. “You’re exhausted, but you’re so happy with it.”
Next year, she’s hoping the Mexican partners can double their workload.
Yet for the locals there, connection seemed to be just as important as construction.
“There’s nothing like Mexican hospitality,” Friendsmith said.
Meals came five times a day, with additional treats dropped off by people who wanted to pitch in. The volunteers stayed in a historic hotel and learned how to make vibrant alfombras: temporary rugs of sawdust colored with natural dyes. Friendsmith said she’s experimented with the technique since returning.
Her first international Habitat trip was to Bolivia in 2013. A social media post sent Friendsmith running to the local Habitat office, where she told them about her stint living in Cochabamba, a city in the center of the South American country. She snagged the last ticket.
“At that point my mind wasn’t like ‘I’m going back,’” Friendsmith said. “It was just such a blast from the past. I called my mom crying, I remember, and she laughed and was like, ‘You have to go.’”
Friendsmith was instantly hooked by the work and the connection to the local family that would live in the finished house. Since then, she hasn’t missed a build in 13 years.
Badilla has volunteered on two other international trips but said she isn’t quite ready to take over as the sole leader.
“I need to learn more,” said Badilla, who has also volunteered with Jackson’s Hole Food Rescue and the Children’s Learning Center. “I always say I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person.”
