Change in plans

The title of this blog is "First Trinity Builds Houses in El Salvador." And that was certainly the plan for this February, starting Saturday (2/17).

However, just a few weeks ago, plans changed. The US State Department changed the format and wording of its travel advisories, and reclassified several countries. El Salvador was one of the countries affected, and it wound up in the "Reconsider Travel" category. Nothing changed on the ground, it was simply a change in categories.

According to Habitat for Humanity policies, they cannot send teams to countries in this category. So El Salvador was a no-go. Luckily Nicaragua, which is a premiere destination for Thrivent Builds this year, had a slot open for our team!

Over the course of the next few days, the team agreed to switch destinations, and we found a way to change our travel plans. A huge thanks to Habitat, who not only helped us financially with the switch, but our wonderful coordinator Anna (who was working with other teams in the same situation!) was in constant contact and was a huge source of support.

So now we get to explore new territory. Nicaragua has a slightly different building program. They build the families extremely small houses (24 sq. meters), which serve as "starter" units for the family. It is a secure place to live while they save money for any additions they need, and they can add on as needed.

We will do our best to update as the week goes on--stay tuned!