Trip 1 Day 1

Well, Kelly Bickle was supposed to do this first post but wouldn't you know it, it happens to be her twentyfirst birthday. In other words, tonight's dinner transformed into a kareoke jamboree and Kelly is currently not available for comment. Of course, everyone else really wanted to come back to the house after dinner, but they felt obligated to keep Kelly company as she paints the town. So I have landed blog duty tonight.

As for today, all would agree that it was great. Since there are 8 of us and we are building two houses this week, we were really hoping that we could have two builds right next to each other as we have had in the past. Didn't work out that way this year, so we divided into two crews of four and went to different sites. Both of our crews are working for families in the village of San Marie de Jesus, however, we are on opposite sides of town. From what the other group reported earlier tonight, I can tell you that they have already fallen in love with their family, especially the two children who are 2 years old and 5 years old. From what they described, they spent more time playing with the kids than anything else (explains why they returned to the house 2 hours after us).

Our crew had a similar experience. We are a building a house for a family of 6. The father, Guiermo works as a farm hand for others, and work is slow. He was not needed for farm work today so he spent the day working with us. We learned that when he does work, he makes about $4.00 per day. We never met the wife/mother. She is doing her part to support the family by working as a chef assistant in Antigua. There are four daughters. Two we did not meet because they (teenagers) also support the family by working as farm hands (of course, they make much less than the men in this culture). We did meet 12 year old Anna and 10 year old Blanca. They were shy at first, but as the day went on and we needed their help, they warmed up and were even really exited to contribute.

The work was basic: square off the dimentions, dig a trench, lay the foundation with cement. Sounds easy enough, but it took us until 4:00 PM to complete. The best part was working with the family. Guiermo and the kids worked with us almost the whole time, and even the neighboring kids helped out (assuming they are also relatives). One little girl in particular, Jasmine, was a riot. At one point she was yelling at the workers, "Ariba muchachos, ariba!"

Overall, a very good day. Our discusion this evening asked us to name all the things we noticed (with our eyes and with our ears). No running water, no electricity, dirt floors, $4.00 per day, 2 beds for 6 people, Nathan's encounter with easily offended volunteers from Denmark, and children helping in the work and loving it were just a few of the observations today. What more might strike us tomorrow? Find out in the next blog!

Peace,

Fred