Our preparation began the night before. Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, and some of his crew explained how it would work and what we would be doing, how we would eat and get to the site, and how we could best use this time.
Monda morning came early; 6am, up for breakie and a few moments to ourselves or each other and into a bus for a 25 min ride to the building site.
We drove on paved roads except for the last 1/2 mile which was a very rough dirt/dust road into the site. Passing very simple dwellings, seemingly impoverished spaces.
Eventually we emerged in an opening with six large tents set up as one. Here there were many chairs and we were guided to gather there.
As we waited a few of the better known leaders sang songs and engaged us in thoughtful prayer and devotions. This is a Christian based “ministry”, so the impression of this is carried by the way many people come forward with great sincerity and devotion in the work we are doing here. It is seen by the leaders, not just as charitable works, but a service to God. The song was inspiring and lively, including one solo by Jacob, a very good humored African American man in his early 60’s.
We finally began our work there at about 8:45 to 9am. A late start, but sufficient for a good first day.
We met our brick layers, our house had two, who were initially visually irritated with an ignorance many of us had in what to do to help. We eventually found our places where we could be of best use and began going at it.
The first view of the site, 16 houses, already begun…
Christoph Barry, Steve Barry’s son, and Jorge (Hor-hey), working on the back wall of House 5, our house.
Doug Miller, our awesome Team Leader, at 72 the pace setter… this guy is an amazing worker and bank of knowledge.
Steve Barry the pastor from my Mom’s church who originally invited Millard Fuller to speak and inspired us to take this trip & Doug chatting.
Wendy Miller, Doug’s daughter, I call her Mama sita du casa, the little motehr of the house cause she is always cleaning up and looking after us. She is a tough one, works hard and plays hard… very fun!
Bob Rice, the organizer of our band of nine from Vermont and my mom Sue at the end of the first day.
We met our brick layers, our house had two, who were initially visually irritated with an ignorance many of us had in what to do to help. We eventually found our places where we could be of best use and began going at it.
We took a break for lunch at 12pm, served up in the tents, then continued on afterwards until 4-4:30pm when we had dinner in the tents again.
The caterers getting ready to serve us.
All in all, the day was a great one. We worked through our kinks in finding the work we needed to do and getting the work done. I felt like a week had passed, both from the amount of work we accomplished and the challenges in working in a foriegn language with that language barrier.
We returned to the hotel by 6:30 and Christoff and I went for a body surf in the ocean then a swim in the pool to wash off the salt. SWEET!
A few beers and a margarita and off to bed! What a great first day!
