Wednesday Report

Content by Joanne and Tim

Up early again for our second day on the build site. Breakfast was eggs, beans, porridge and warm buns. Another beautiful day in paradise as the two vans take off. Tall Colin has left us today to go and meet another group arriving soon, and Long Colin was switched from Team Timoteo to Team Juan to help cart the truckload of supplies from the drop site to the build site. A brief inter-site visit to ensure first-aid kit coverage and we were off.

Team Timoteo

Consulting with Timoteo and his son over placement of the doors

When Team Timoteo arrived, Timoteo was already hard at work. The trenches we dug yesterday to 30 cm now needed to be 64 cm, so we all dug in with hoes and  pickaxes and shovels to get the job done. The next task - which was a massive one - was to take away all the dirt that we had piled in the 'garden' area. Since it was now higher than the foundation level, water would drain back into the house as opposed to down the hill. For a family that lost their house to water previously, this was not a good position to be in. All in all, over 250 wheelbarrows full of dirt were taken from the build site, down a hill, over a plank, across the street, and over a hedge. In the afternoon Timoteo's son and one grandson (ages 12 and 13) came to help - which was a gret boon to our tiring muscles.

How to tie Re-Bar like a Pro.

Another task we did included tying re-bar. Although the re-bar comes preformed in a triangular shape, all of the soldered areas had to be reinforces with wire. Timoteo gave us some training and we were soon experts (at least in our minds). Once all of the individual lengths of re-bar were reinforced, they were placed in the trenches, and lashed together.

Master Photographer Anna

After lunch the kids arrived, and we had great fun with them again. Dan wanted a group photo once all the re-bar was in place, and Anna (age 11) complete with baby strapped to her side, took the picture for us.

Apparently she is a budding photographer, having been the only one to catch a picture of a fast-moving chicken in their house next door.

Team Juan

As we departed for the work site on this day, we fully expected to spend the entire day moving sand, stone, bags of cement and cement blocks on the narrow 150 meter long dirt path winding through the corn fields running from the road to our work site, a real life "field of dreams".  However, as we arrived at 9 AM, we learned that the 20 and 40 kilo cement bags had already been moved by Julian and 3 others at 5 PM the previous evening and that the cement blocks had not yet been delivered. We immediately got to work moving the sand and stone ... the team worked very efficiently together with some of us filling and others pushing old, rusty, heavy and unbalanced tin wheelbarrows roughly midway down the path before handing them off to 2 others who took them the rest of the way and then back to the hander offers. Juan's young son Pablo and another child were with us all morning and every so often they lucked out and hitched wheelbarrow rides from one of us, laughing out loud, making race car sounds and bending forward as though riding a horse.

Our mason, whose name is also Juan, had arrived at 7 AM that morning and had made significant progress in laying the re-bar down in the one foot deep trenches that we had dug out the previous day. By the time we finished lunch he was ready for us to assist in filling the trenches with concrete. He requested that we mix the concrete in a proportion of 10 sand, 5 stone and 5 cement ... I was sure that he was referring to 10, 5 and 5 shovels and that we would be continuously mixing, but Colin explained that he was in fact referring to wheelbarrows. I had never seen such a large "volcano" of concrete being mixed by hand before and was stunned.  But once we got it all mixed and passed it through in buckets to fill the trenches, we were asked to prepare a new volcano, this time using a ratio of 15, 7.5 and 7.5!

We were so determined to get this stage of the work completed before leaving the work site that we asked our bus driver if he would wait for 10 minutes or so while we finished and he kindly obliged.This was a great day. The team work was awesome and everyone seemed so satisfied with what was accomplished.

After arrival back at the hotel, the shops were still open, so we went around town for a small amount of retail therapy. We found the real grocery store at the end of town, and noted that perparations werre underway for market day tomorrow. Starts at 7:00 - don't be late!!

Megan and the Second Build Day

Content by Megan

I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel and listening to Justin Beiber. The girl at the front desk has his song "Baby" cranked and is folding fresh laundry. I am very happy to be just out of a hot shower and enjoying a cool beverage. I am lucky in this life.

It was a busy day on the build site. It started at 8:30am. I was lucky enough to try Gautemalan porridge. It was sweet and a perfect breakfast.

We pulled up to the site and Timoteo was already hard at work. Our trenches from yesterday needed to be 64 cm and the dirt piles by the side of the house needed to be moved to the river, so our first job today was to start shoveling. I took a hold of a shovel and my muscles screamed. I did not want to shovel anymore. I grabbed the wheel barrow and began to carry load, after load down by the river and dump. By lunch time I was up to 64 loads of dirt. My arms are throbbing and my back aches.

The sun dips behind the clouds and then comes back out with a vengeance. No matter how much sun screen I apply, it sweats off. The heat drys out everyone. The sun dips again behind the clouds. Thank God!

School finishes and the family of 6 beside us come running up the road. I sit down and feel the force of the girls as they run into my arms. They hug me tightly and say "Ola, Maggie!!!" Georgina kisses my cheek. Her older sister Anna hugs me again and they run into the house. I love these girls!

As the afternoon grows I am up to 100 loads in the wheel barrow and the girls jump in after so I can push them up the hill.

I have been informed about how our family received a house from Habitat. Hurricane Agaitha came threw in the Spring and took our his two story house down. there is NOTHING left but a small pile of rubble. He also lost his 1 year old baby and 12 year old son in the storm. He has survived with the rest of his family by pure strength. They are truly homeless, but very happy. I find it humbling that someone can go though so much and still laugh.

We taught him some English words today, like shovel, saw, hoe and lunch. He waves his hand at one point and says "Maggie, hoe! Maggie, hoe!" The entire team looks at each other and laughs aloud.

I have learned so much about this culture. Everyone here has upper respiratory infection, because they cook inside with a wood stove, and no vent to the outside. They don't flush toilet paper. It goes in a bin beside the toilet, due to how old the city's plumbing is. I find this horrifying. You can see everything in the garbage. The children are only in school for half of the day, and the rest of the day is spent with family. You cannot drink the water from any tap. The woman have a local "bathing area" which is in the middle of the city and everyone uses it. The dogs are nothing like the dogs in Canada. They are feral, breed like rabbits and almost all look the same. As though a German Sheppard had puppies with a pitbull.

The day is winding down and my team all relaxes together, talking about the day. Dinner will be soon. Served hot and fresh. I am warm in the hotel and very clean. I think about my day and the people I have met. I am very lucky in this life