Tuesday, February 19

Construction, while varying slightly each day, was not something that bears recounting in great detail each day. Basically, throughout the week, we continued to put up walls, fill in the floor and yard, and eventually dug up some of that yard to lay sewage pipes. We did some landscaping (aka removal of banana trees that were in the way of the sewage trenches), and various other small jobs around the worksite. Pictures are really all that are needed to tell that part of the story--recounting those details would just be repetitive and, frankly, not that interesting to read.

Instead, I'll take this word space to tell other stories about our experience and the week. And while I tell these stories, I'll sprinkle more pictures of us digging in the dirt and putting up concrete walls!

The family for whom we were building the house is made up of a father (Cesar), mother (Veronica), son (Cesarito, aged 5), and Veronica's pregnant younger sister (Naomi). They are a wonderful group of people--open, welcoming, and kind and generous to all of us.

Veronica's mother taught her how to make a living by crossing the border into Guatemala, buying clothes there, then crossing back to sell them at market in San Salvador. By living carefully within a budget, Veronica was able to set aside money each month to pay for a small plot of land in the hopes that one day she would be able to build a house on it.

And last December, while she was making one of her last payments, someone told Veronica about Habitat for Humanity. Because in El Salvador the program is that you have to own your land before being accepted as a homeowner, Habitat was a dream come true for this family. Instead of being a long-term, far off dream, owning their own home is an immediate reality.

They were right there with us throughout the week. The place where they are currently living is about 2 blocks up the road, and it was the place where we had a bathroom and where we ate lunch. While Veronica was usually back at her house, taking care of things there, Cesar was working alongside us, mixing concrete, digging ditches and lugging dirt, and sharing his wonderful sense of humor (especially when there was a language mix-up along the way!).

On Thursday, Veronica shared some family pictures with us at lunch. She showed us some family members we hadn't been able to meet, and some delightful pictures of Cesarito when he was younger. We knew we were really in the family, however, when the pictures of Cesar at a fun Father's Day event in drag were brought out!

After that, before we headed back to work for the afternoon, Cesar took us on a short walking tour of the neighborhood. The tour started at his church, a Mormon church. Cesar's father is the leader of the church, and Cesar is the head of the men's group. The church was built by the US Mormon church, and it has about 150 members. When they reach 200, the US church will build them another, larger building on the same grounds, since their current building is too small to house that number of people.