So it's Tuesday morning, a normal weekday in normal Richmond. I got here later than desired b/c of traffic on the interstate, but saw not one dead cow on the side of the road. No one was passing on the shoulders as well as the lanes. No motorcyclists, bicycles, and small children were weaving between moving cars.
I got to Reveille and had, yes, staff meeting (I often spell it "staph" for reasons you can figure out for yourself). VBS is going on. Life is so normal here. The plants are Virginia green, not El Salvador green. The people speak English, and I haven't asked "Como?" since Sunday.
Laundry is done; my lawn is mowed; I've flushed my paper and brushed my teeth with tap water. It's kind of scary how normal it is, scary because we left this trip feeling like it changed our perspectives a bit. Scary because we want that feeling to linger. We don't want to forget little Emilio's big grin as he yelled "Hola" when he got home from school, or the look on his face when he admired how far the work on the house had come. We don't want to forget the masons' laughter at Chris' ridiculous "finished a row" dance, or at mason Edwin's "pobre Alex, pobre Alex" whenever Kirby and Grace kicked their flirting up a notch, causing "pobre Alex" to grin and blush simultaneously. We don't want to forget how easy it is to take potable water, hot showers, traffic signs(that are obeyed), or a roof over our heads for granted. We don't want to forget the sweet lady at the hotel who brought us coffee every morning, though I don't know her name. Or the guards with their big smiles and big guns. Or the scowling-but-accommodating hotel manager who always let me get on his computer even when it wasn't the best time. Or the little laundry lady who scrubbed our clothes white. Or Javier and Victor, leaning across the windows into the pool room as the group competed. We became very much a part of other peoples' world; and they became part of ours.
On our last day of work last Friday, Ruben asked me "Will you be sad when you have to leave?" He wanted to know if we'd miss them, if we'd think about them, if we'd still feel connected to them once we had hot showers and easy internet access and cell phones that we could use. "We will miss you all," I assured him. I told him about our "where have you seen God today?" talks, how the masons and he and Emilio were ever-present in our thoughts and discussions, the impact they and their kindness and hospitality and hard work made on us. The personal connection we feel with them. He seemed grateful, and maybe a bit surprised.
So now I'm here at my desk, with all the passport copies shredded and receipts handed in. And yes, I do miss them. I miss knocking on those metal doors at the hotel and seeing your sleepy faces as I woke you up; I miss our nightly pool matches and hearing where God moved for you during the day, and what funny things Martha said and did, or about a conversation you had with the mason or the homeowner or of course Alex.
So we're back. The task now is not to lose that perspective. Not to distract ourselves from the love. Not to forget that we serve the same God here as Armando and Edwin and we are linked to them through Christ.
So we're back, but the trip isn't over. What's next is what we do with it--the changes we make in our attitudes, in our choices, in our lifestyles. The ways in which we move forward to make a difference in the world around us here like we made a difference on those cinder block walls there. Actually the trip is really nowhere near over. Maybe it's just begun...
Dwayne
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Friday Night
Most of the kids (sorry, the teens) have taken a turn at blogging, and the rest are the less communicative of the group, so tonight you´re stuck reading an adult post. I hope to be as entertaining as the kids, but I can´t promise because this computer is strange, and the keyboard is a Spanish keyboard, so it´s easy to hit the wrong keys without realizing it until much later.
Anyway, this has been a most amazing trip. You have every reason be extremely proud of your children. They have worked hard and represented your families, Reveille, the USA, etc. very well. We have gotten an amazing amount of work done on both houses, and it has been HOT. A few have had some stomach issues, but everyone is healthy and feeling great now. Everyone went to work everyday, though a few had to take it easy while there. The others picked up for the ones who weren´t feeling too great. We have worked with some wonderful masons, none of whom spoke any English, but they were so appreciative of our help that thre were no communication problems. Fortunately several in our group came speaking some Spanish, and all of those now speak more Spanish. The few who knew no Spanish have all picked up a few necessary phrases. There´s also been quite a bit of "Spanglish" spoken this week. Don´t be surprised if you hear some of that the first few days after we get home. We find ourselves speaking that to each other frequently.
Today was our last day of work, and we stopped work at noon. Then we came back to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes (yes, even the one room with 3 girls can get showered and changed in 30 min.) before heading to the Habitat office here in Usulutan for an appreciation ceremony. Each of us was given a certificate, a small gift, and a t-shirt. Our masons and homeowners were there, and they actually presented all of those things to us. Then some Habitat ladies fixed us some traditional El Salvadoran food for lunch. The boys have all come to love pupusas and want to open a pupusa stand in Richmond. They even got to make some of their own this afternoon. That was also a time to say our final farewells to them, which was sad for all of us. My group (Nathaniel, Chris, Caroline, Gracie C., Jonathan, and I) have really bonded with our masons. The masons are constantly amused at the energy of our group and the many antics, so they have had many laughs all week. They made a point of learning our names and being sure to call us by name. Our homeowner has been wonderful to us. He has brought us fresh oranges (we think right off the tree) twice and watermelon a few times. He also gave Jonathan the highlight of his week by letting him take a few spins on his motorcycle. (Leigh, we understand you are not a big fan of motorcycles, but Jonathan was very cautious and never said anything about wanting one of his own again.) Our homeowner seems thrilled with his house, though he has expressed that in far more subtle ways than the cute 5-year-old at the other house who frequently tells that group, "My house makes me so happy." (Now that´s a sure way to melt your heart.) When we arrived at the house Mon. morning, there were 2 rows of blocks above the foundation. When we left today, the entire outside was up to the roof line, and only 2 of the inside walls (which are maybe 6 blocks long) needed 1 row on one and 2 rows on the other. The roof will be put on Mon., and they will paint the house and lay the tile floor Tues. & Wed. To see that much progress in a week (in the extreme heat no less) is amazing, and our whole team is really excited to have accomplished that much. We have also had the pleasure of being a few kilometers up the mountain from the other group, with lots of shade and big fields around us, so it´s been a beautiful setting. We have also seen (and HEARD) lots of animals. It may take us a few days to get back into the Richmond environment. Our group also had the advantage of no sickness and no family emergencies for our masons. Also, our masons were somewhat more progressive and did not hesitate to allow Caroline, Gracie, and me to get up on the scaffolding, so we were able to share our work equally among the 6 of us. (This is another example of how our masons were amazed and amused by the energy of our group. Tom Cantone & Mary Evans, please ask Chris to show you his dance that he performed every time we finished a row. It got a laugh every time.) Our family plans to move in on Aug. 9. I think we will all be saying a silent prayer of thanks that day as we think of them.
The other group also accomplished an amazing amount of work, but they were at the bottom of the mountain in the village of Santa Elena, with very little shade at their site. They also had the stomach malady going through their group, and the mother of one of their masons died Wed. night, so he has not been there for these last 2 days. Still they were putting the roof line up as we left at noon today, so they are not far behind us. I am not sure when that family plans to move in, but if "Little Emilio" (the cute 5-yr-old) had his way, he´d move in tomorrow, even with no roof.
We have experienced a lot of the local culture and been shown incredible hospitality. All of us commented at dinner tonight that this week has flown by. It seems like we just started work yesterday, and today we are done. All of us are sad to leave. There are a few things we will be glad to return to at home: warm showers with consistent water pressure, being able to flush toilet paper (it´s thrown away here), and less eratic driving habits (the driving here can only be described in a face to face conversation; suffice it to say we have seen no accidents, and we are all in 1 piece, but we have no idea why). However, this has been such an amazing trip that we would all gladly sacrifice all of those things to stay longer.
Anyway, this has been a most amazing trip. You have every reason be extremely proud of your children. They have worked hard and represented your families, Reveille, the USA, etc. very well. We have gotten an amazing amount of work done on both houses, and it has been HOT. A few have had some stomach issues, but everyone is healthy and feeling great now. Everyone went to work everyday, though a few had to take it easy while there. The others picked up for the ones who weren´t feeling too great. We have worked with some wonderful masons, none of whom spoke any English, but they were so appreciative of our help that thre were no communication problems. Fortunately several in our group came speaking some Spanish, and all of those now speak more Spanish. The few who knew no Spanish have all picked up a few necessary phrases. There´s also been quite a bit of "Spanglish" spoken this week. Don´t be surprised if you hear some of that the first few days after we get home. We find ourselves speaking that to each other frequently.
Today was our last day of work, and we stopped work at noon. Then we came back to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes (yes, even the one room with 3 girls can get showered and changed in 30 min.) before heading to the Habitat office here in Usulutan for an appreciation ceremony. Each of us was given a certificate, a small gift, and a t-shirt. Our masons and homeowners were there, and they actually presented all of those things to us. Then some Habitat ladies fixed us some traditional El Salvadoran food for lunch. The boys have all come to love pupusas and want to open a pupusa stand in Richmond. They even got to make some of their own this afternoon. That was also a time to say our final farewells to them, which was sad for all of us. My group (Nathaniel, Chris, Caroline, Gracie C., Jonathan, and I) have really bonded with our masons. The masons are constantly amused at the energy of our group and the many antics, so they have had many laughs all week. They made a point of learning our names and being sure to call us by name. Our homeowner has been wonderful to us. He has brought us fresh oranges (we think right off the tree) twice and watermelon a few times. He also gave Jonathan the highlight of his week by letting him take a few spins on his motorcycle. (Leigh, we understand you are not a big fan of motorcycles, but Jonathan was very cautious and never said anything about wanting one of his own again.) Our homeowner seems thrilled with his house, though he has expressed that in far more subtle ways than the cute 5-year-old at the other house who frequently tells that group, "My house makes me so happy." (Now that´s a sure way to melt your heart.) When we arrived at the house Mon. morning, there were 2 rows of blocks above the foundation. When we left today, the entire outside was up to the roof line, and only 2 of the inside walls (which are maybe 6 blocks long) needed 1 row on one and 2 rows on the other. The roof will be put on Mon., and they will paint the house and lay the tile floor Tues. & Wed. To see that much progress in a week (in the extreme heat no less) is amazing, and our whole team is really excited to have accomplished that much. We have also had the pleasure of being a few kilometers up the mountain from the other group, with lots of shade and big fields around us, so it´s been a beautiful setting. We have also seen (and HEARD) lots of animals. It may take us a few days to get back into the Richmond environment. Our group also had the advantage of no sickness and no family emergencies for our masons. Also, our masons were somewhat more progressive and did not hesitate to allow Caroline, Gracie, and me to get up on the scaffolding, so we were able to share our work equally among the 6 of us. (This is another example of how our masons were amazed and amused by the energy of our group. Tom Cantone & Mary Evans, please ask Chris to show you his dance that he performed every time we finished a row. It got a laugh every time.) Our family plans to move in on Aug. 9. I think we will all be saying a silent prayer of thanks that day as we think of them.
The other group also accomplished an amazing amount of work, but they were at the bottom of the mountain in the village of Santa Elena, with very little shade at their site. They also had the stomach malady going through their group, and the mother of one of their masons died Wed. night, so he has not been there for these last 2 days. Still they were putting the roof line up as we left at noon today, so they are not far behind us. I am not sure when that family plans to move in, but if "Little Emilio" (the cute 5-yr-old) had his way, he´d move in tomorrow, even with no roof.
We have experienced a lot of the local culture and been shown incredible hospitality. All of us commented at dinner tonight that this week has flown by. It seems like we just started work yesterday, and today we are done. All of us are sad to leave. There are a few things we will be glad to return to at home: warm showers with consistent water pressure, being able to flush toilet paper (it´s thrown away here), and less eratic driving habits (the driving here can only be described in a face to face conversation; suffice it to say we have seen no accidents, and we are all in 1 piece, but we have no idea why). However, this has been such an amazing trip that we would all gladly sacrifice all of those things to stay longer.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Team *Fart Noise* Chronicles
This is Chris Cantone coming at you from the heart of Usulutan, El Salvador! Today was an absolutely fantastic day. Our masons, Juan and Armando have started building the cement part of our roof, which means our group will finish all of the walls of our house tomorrow! This also marks the day when the nagging of Marty Party Hodges finally paid off; the homeowners FINALLY brought us juice in the afternoons. Also, as I am writing this post, the YAMS Pool tournament is underway. After reading that last sentence, I can guarantee that Tom Cantone just pumped his fist and jumped for joy. No seriously, ask him. For the layman, YAMS stands for Youth Amateur Methodist Sportathon. Essentially it´s the Tour de France, the World Cup, the World Series, or the Super Bowl for Richmond area Methodist athletes. However, the YAMS organizers have encountered a slight snag. There isn´t a single yam in all of El Salvador. But no worries, the tournament will go on! This has been an absolutely amazing and inspiring trip so far; the wonders of God continue to pop up all around. Well, I´m off to wage war on the pool table with my partner in crime, DJ Catnip (aka Nathaniel Bruny). Adios, y hasta luego!
El Salvador Adventures
This trip has been so amazing. It exceeded my expecations. El Salvador has the most incredible sights, and an extremely interesting culture. Being fully emersed in a foreign country can really change a person. I took french in school, so the only spanish word i new coming into this was "hola". From the first day (Saturday) to now (Thursday) it is almost as if i had read and understood the Spanish dictionary. The language came to me very easily and quickly. I will admit i did learn almost everything i know from a 5 year old boy named Emilio. It still counts! He is such a sweet little muffin. Emilio Ramvasquez is the home owners son, not to be confused with "big Emilio", someone who works with habitat. Emilio R talks way slower than the rest of his family and the other maisons and he is much more patient so he is definitely a better teacher for me. We have this game we play called slaps where he will try to slap my hand before i pull it away. He is known for saying "Que es eso?" which translates to "What is that?" to get me to look away. It never gets old and I, being such a stereotypical gringo, fall for it every single time! Or atleast that is what he believes. Also, at the worksite there is this beautiful creature named Alex. He enjoys being called Alejandro though because he likes Lady Gaga. He is the American equivalent of an intern for the maisons. He basically just does their dirty work and gets bossed around all day. Their culture does not really flirt the same way we do in the United States. They think if you flirt with someone, you are interested in pursuing a relationship. So, Kirby and I set a few things straight and the flirting war began. We blow kisses and exchange googly eyes with Alex everyday of the week from 7 30 am to about 4 pm. What a good way to spend the day! It sure makes working a lot more fun...what a perfect example of a perfectly tanned, camoflauge pant and croc sandal wearing Salvadorian individual. We exchanged adresses for pen pal purposes. Salvadorians seem to listen to a lot of music in English. We started to wonder if they knew what the lyrics meant when they played the uncensored version of that popular Ceo Lo Green (sp?) song...I´ll let you figure that one out for yourself. There must have been some stomach bug floating around. First it hit Caroline, then Daniel, Danielle, and finally ended with me. Luckily, it was just 24 hours of vomiting and feeling as if you are going to die. I thank God that everyone is healthy now. Everybody in the group gets along so well. We are all very lucky to be sharing this once in a lifetime experience with the church family we have grown up with and love more each and every day. Grace Thompson
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
"Basically Fluent" in Spanish
So today, Grace has decided that she is "basically fluent" which really means that she and Kirby work together to make up Spanish words adding "A" or "O" or any other ending that sounds vaguely like Spanish (ex. work = worko). (Grace asked me to mention this because she had originally volunteered to blog, but when it came time to blog she was "in the zone" during a game of pool, so here it goes, a blog post from Danielle)
Today we only had to work a half day because we took the rest of the day to go to Alegría. Here we were able to actually go inside the crater of a volcano filled with a sulfuric lake. Even though many of us wanted to go into the lake, once we arrived, we quickly realized how awful that idea was. None of really realized how awful a sulfuric lake would actually smell. Even the most daring of us, Daniel, decided that it was a bad idea to go for a stanky swim. However, once we all got over the stinch we were able to see how amazing it was. It was waaaaaaayyyy larger than any of us imagined. Looking around, we were all stunned at how gigantic this volcano was. I know that I at least, had never imagined it would be this large, and I also hadn't realized that I would actually be inside of the volcano forming a beach. I had thought I would see a tiny lake at the tippy top of the volcano that I would be held safe from drowing in by a rope or some other restraining device. After we marvelled at the lake and Dwaye chatted up a family with 2 kids from Maryland, we left the lake part of Alegría and travelled to the town just a few kilometers away, slightly farther down the mountain. Here we were able to buy suveneirs, basically as many as we wanted because the prices were amazing. On our way back from the depths of the volcano to Hotel Campo Real, Carla Goldberg made her return and everyone was thoroughly entertained by her for most of the return ride. For dinner, we were all wonderfully surprised to find that we were having cheeseburgers!!!!
Oh yea, so back to the beginning part of the day. We started our day at the worksite (in case no one else had posted this, I am in the group with Kirby, Grace, Daniel, Lee, CJ, and Dwayne) by trecking over to the home owner's mother's house to get the materials for the scafolding that we needed to put up in order to continue our work on the house. After taking a short break from the "short walk" back to the house that seemed extremely too long to be carrying all these heavy materials, we took a quick break. We then were told that cinder block, more specifically, bloques, were needed inside the house, so Kirby, CJ and myself began that task, while the guys returned to the homeowner's house to get even more heavy supplies. Yes, everyone was busy, no I am not forgetting about Grace. She was busy "helping" Alex/Alexjandro putting up the scafolding, which basically meant she was flirting as much as she could with her "basically fluent" Spanish. So anyways, the guys returned and then helped to move a ton of bloques and solera (another type of cinder block) inside the house. After that, we all took another break, not only because we were already sweating profusely but also becasue we had caught up to the masons and had no other work to do (I'm not sure what others have said about our work, but we are doing the mexcla-ing and chispa-ing after the masons have placed the blocks. We are filling in the cracks between the blocks with the mexclas and filling in the center of the block that have rebar through them.) Once we actually had some work to do, everyone went back to work, but we discovered that we were actually short one bucket, so one person, me, was unable to work. This was the first day all week that we hadn't had one or more person sitting down because they felt ill. Although it seemed like a problem to me at the time, I now realize this is wonderful because it is the first day of our entire trip that someone at our site has not been sick. Once Kirby offered to let me work even though she clearly wasn't tired (thinks Kirby!) I was able to get back to work. Also, the scafolding had been put up, but Dwayne had warned me that due to cultural differences, they didn't the women up on the scafolding because it was too dangerous for us. Because we weak, frail women were unable to work on the dangerous scafolding, CJ and I worked out a system of stacking bloques inside the house so that we could see the top of the blocks to fill in with chispa. One of us would stand on the ground holding the bucket of chispa while the other stood on top of the bloques and filled them with chispa. At about 11:30 the home owner left to get his son Emilio, the most adorble and smartest 5 year old I have ever seen, from school. As we ate lunch, Emilio entertained us with his new toy from school, and Grace and Kirby used their "basically fluent" spanish to communicate with Emilio. Once we were finished with lunch we cleaned our tools and prepared to leave the worksite so that we could return to the hotel to shower before heading to Alegría. While we were waiting for the van to come get us, we actually talked with our masons (which is quite amazing considering they aren't a very chatty group, to either us or among themselves.) When the van finally arrived, we all piled in and shared our stories of our short day with the other team members on our ride to the hotel.
So I think that is all for today, and sorry for the jumble of thoughts and disorganization of my writing. Well, adios from El Salvador!!
Danielle Lewis
Today we only had to work a half day because we took the rest of the day to go to Alegría. Here we were able to actually go inside the crater of a volcano filled with a sulfuric lake. Even though many of us wanted to go into the lake, once we arrived, we quickly realized how awful that idea was. None of really realized how awful a sulfuric lake would actually smell. Even the most daring of us, Daniel, decided that it was a bad idea to go for a stanky swim. However, once we all got over the stinch we were able to see how amazing it was. It was waaaaaaayyyy larger than any of us imagined. Looking around, we were all stunned at how gigantic this volcano was. I know that I at least, had never imagined it would be this large, and I also hadn't realized that I would actually be inside of the volcano forming a beach. I had thought I would see a tiny lake at the tippy top of the volcano that I would be held safe from drowing in by a rope or some other restraining device. After we marvelled at the lake and Dwaye chatted up a family with 2 kids from Maryland, we left the lake part of Alegría and travelled to the town just a few kilometers away, slightly farther down the mountain. Here we were able to buy suveneirs, basically as many as we wanted because the prices were amazing. On our way back from the depths of the volcano to Hotel Campo Real, Carla Goldberg made her return and everyone was thoroughly entertained by her for most of the return ride. For dinner, we were all wonderfully surprised to find that we were having cheeseburgers!!!!
Oh yea, so back to the beginning part of the day. We started our day at the worksite (in case no one else had posted this, I am in the group with Kirby, Grace, Daniel, Lee, CJ, and Dwayne) by trecking over to the home owner's mother's house to get the materials for the scafolding that we needed to put up in order to continue our work on the house. After taking a short break from the "short walk" back to the house that seemed extremely too long to be carrying all these heavy materials, we took a quick break. We then were told that cinder block, more specifically, bloques, were needed inside the house, so Kirby, CJ and myself began that task, while the guys returned to the homeowner's house to get even more heavy supplies. Yes, everyone was busy, no I am not forgetting about Grace. She was busy "helping" Alex/Alexjandro putting up the scafolding, which basically meant she was flirting as much as she could with her "basically fluent" Spanish. So anyways, the guys returned and then helped to move a ton of bloques and solera (another type of cinder block) inside the house. After that, we all took another break, not only because we were already sweating profusely but also becasue we had caught up to the masons and had no other work to do (I'm not sure what others have said about our work, but we are doing the mexcla-ing and chispa-ing after the masons have placed the blocks. We are filling in the cracks between the blocks with the mexclas and filling in the center of the block that have rebar through them.) Once we actually had some work to do, everyone went back to work, but we discovered that we were actually short one bucket, so one person, me, was unable to work. This was the first day all week that we hadn't had one or more person sitting down because they felt ill. Although it seemed like a problem to me at the time, I now realize this is wonderful because it is the first day of our entire trip that someone at our site has not been sick. Once Kirby offered to let me work even though she clearly wasn't tired (thinks Kirby!) I was able to get back to work. Also, the scafolding had been put up, but Dwayne had warned me that due to cultural differences, they didn't the women up on the scafolding because it was too dangerous for us. Because we weak, frail women were unable to work on the dangerous scafolding, CJ and I worked out a system of stacking bloques inside the house so that we could see the top of the blocks to fill in with chispa. One of us would stand on the ground holding the bucket of chispa while the other stood on top of the bloques and filled them with chispa. At about 11:30 the home owner left to get his son Emilio, the most adorble and smartest 5 year old I have ever seen, from school. As we ate lunch, Emilio entertained us with his new toy from school, and Grace and Kirby used their "basically fluent" spanish to communicate with Emilio. Once we were finished with lunch we cleaned our tools and prepared to leave the worksite so that we could return to the hotel to shower before heading to Alegría. While we were waiting for the van to come get us, we actually talked with our masons (which is quite amazing considering they aren't a very chatty group, to either us or among themselves.) When the van finally arrived, we all piled in and shared our stories of our short day with the other team members on our ride to the hotel.
So I think that is all for today, and sorry for the jumble of thoughts and disorganization of my writing. Well, adios from El Salvador!!
Danielle Lewis
Halfway Point!
Hey everyone!
Today was our third day at work and so far everything has been a blast! I have encountered many things over the past couple day that I would never be able to in the States. I am sure you have all heard about our previous days and about the impacts they have made on us, such as visiting Santiago de Maria and the way of life that the people here live every day. We have also had a lot of fun, even while working. Since we are split up into two groups, we all have differnt stories by the end of the day. Today some of the stories from my work site included riding our home owners motorcycle! Jonathan was so excited when he finally got the couarge to ask to ride the man´s bike and he said yes. So first Jonathan took a few spins and then asked if anyone else wanted to ride and no one stepped up. I then got enough guts to be the first and we went for a ride down the dirt rode that our house is next to. It then turned into everyone wanting a turn and Jonathan was nice enough to give them, even to Martha!
Since it is halfway through the week, we only worked half a day and instead went to Alegria which is a volcano with a sulfur lake at the top. While we were driving up to the top we had an AMAZING view that cannot be justified by the pictures we took. It took us a good while to get to the top and on the way Martha got car sick, but acted like a champ (way to go Marty-Party!). Once we reached the top, we were able to walk around and hang out for a bit. Seeing something like this is indescribable and I was so content just sitting and looking at everything that was made by the hands of God. On the way back from the volcano, we stoped to do a little shopping in the town of Alagria. The town was small but had a square in the middle with kids playing and enjoying what they had. before we left to return to the hotel we asked two little boys to take a group picture for us. At first they were a bit hesitant but finally said yes. We then gave them each a dollar and just seeing their faces light up made me realize how much we take for granted.
It has been such a great week so far and I hope people are having as much fun as I am. I cannot wait to see the progress from the start of the week to the end on the house we have been working on. I have been so blessed to be given the opportunity to come on this trip, experience what i have, and strrengthen my faith with people i consider family. I hope everyone at home is doing well and someone if not I will keep you posted for the rest of week.
Love always,
Gracie
Today was our third day at work and so far everything has been a blast! I have encountered many things over the past couple day that I would never be able to in the States. I am sure you have all heard about our previous days and about the impacts they have made on us, such as visiting Santiago de Maria and the way of life that the people here live every day. We have also had a lot of fun, even while working. Since we are split up into two groups, we all have differnt stories by the end of the day. Today some of the stories from my work site included riding our home owners motorcycle! Jonathan was so excited when he finally got the couarge to ask to ride the man´s bike and he said yes. So first Jonathan took a few spins and then asked if anyone else wanted to ride and no one stepped up. I then got enough guts to be the first and we went for a ride down the dirt rode that our house is next to. It then turned into everyone wanting a turn and Jonathan was nice enough to give them, even to Martha!
Since it is halfway through the week, we only worked half a day and instead went to Alegria which is a volcano with a sulfur lake at the top. While we were driving up to the top we had an AMAZING view that cannot be justified by the pictures we took. It took us a good while to get to the top and on the way Martha got car sick, but acted like a champ (way to go Marty-Party!). Once we reached the top, we were able to walk around and hang out for a bit. Seeing something like this is indescribable and I was so content just sitting and looking at everything that was made by the hands of God. On the way back from the volcano, we stoped to do a little shopping in the town of Alagria. The town was small but had a square in the middle with kids playing and enjoying what they had. before we left to return to the hotel we asked two little boys to take a group picture for us. At first they were a bit hesitant but finally said yes. We then gave them each a dollar and just seeing their faces light up made me realize how much we take for granted.
It has been such a great week so far and I hope people are having as much fun as I am. I cannot wait to see the progress from the start of the week to the end on the house we have been working on. I have been so blessed to be given the opportunity to come on this trip, experience what i have, and strrengthen my faith with people i consider family. I hope everyone at home is doing well and someone if not I will keep you posted for the rest of week.
Love always,
Gracie
Hola Reveille Familia!
Days 1 and 2 on our work sites have been so interesting! Everyday we learn more and more about the country and culture that we are immersing ourselves in. I am working on a house with Daniel, Lee, Danielle, Grace, CJ, and Dwayne. The other team is Nathaniel, Chris, Caroline, Brabrand, Gracie, and Martha. On our site, the masons are helpful but they keep to themselves. Grace and I made friends with a younger mason who is 19 named Alex, who Grace affectionately calls Alejandro. It is very hot, ridiculously hot, everyday and we are all feeling it! Caroline was sick the first night, followed by Daniel, Danielle, and then Grace. Everyone has made a recovery, but we hope that is the last of the sickness! The walls on the houses are coming along as we work with what we call cement, but the masons call "chispa." Grace and I have a joke with Alex that it is called queso, or cheese puff/cheetos. We are not quite sure if he understands but he laughs and we are bringing him cheetos tomorrow as a joke. We are also all obsessed with the little boy, Emilio, who is the son of the homeowner who will be moving into our home. He is the smartest 5 year old I have ever met! He comes to the worksite around about 11 everyday after he has school. He tells us stories and jokes which we are able to understand better because he speaks spanish slower than the adults. The boys have resurrected the tournament idea from Eastern Shore with a pool tournament since there is a pool table at our hotel. As you can imagine, they are very into it.. It is for a good cause though because Dwayne has said that the only way he will let them bet is if the loser donates 20 dollars to the Santiago de Maria project. We are all having a blast and cannot wait to continue work!
Buenos Noches! Kirby :)
Days 1 and 2 on our work sites have been so interesting! Everyday we learn more and more about the country and culture that we are immersing ourselves in. I am working on a house with Daniel, Lee, Danielle, Grace, CJ, and Dwayne. The other team is Nathaniel, Chris, Caroline, Brabrand, Gracie, and Martha. On our site, the masons are helpful but they keep to themselves. Grace and I made friends with a younger mason who is 19 named Alex, who Grace affectionately calls Alejandro. It is very hot, ridiculously hot, everyday and we are all feeling it! Caroline was sick the first night, followed by Daniel, Danielle, and then Grace. Everyone has made a recovery, but we hope that is the last of the sickness! The walls on the houses are coming along as we work with what we call cement, but the masons call "chispa." Grace and I have a joke with Alex that it is called queso, or cheese puff/cheetos. We are not quite sure if he understands but he laughs and we are bringing him cheetos tomorrow as a joke. We are also all obsessed with the little boy, Emilio, who is the son of the homeowner who will be moving into our home. He is the smartest 5 year old I have ever met! He comes to the worksite around about 11 everyday after he has school. He tells us stories and jokes which we are able to understand better because he speaks spanish slower than the adults. The boys have resurrected the tournament idea from Eastern Shore with a pool tournament since there is a pool table at our hotel. As you can imagine, they are very into it.. It is for a good cause though because Dwayne has said that the only way he will let them bet is if the loser donates 20 dollars to the Santiago de Maria project. We are all having a blast and cannot wait to continue work!
Buenos Noches! Kirby :)
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