Building A Casa

Today was our third and final day building a casa pequeña (small house) for a family in need. Faith, Megan Wood, Rebecca, Jamie and I formed one team and the remainder of our classmates formed two other teams. Along with the help from our  absolutely wonderful and patient team leader, Jorge, we were able to build a solid house with a cement floor for one family to live in. Jorge told us that he had never had a team consisting only of women, we were pretty excited to prove our abilities.

The past three days have been extremely demanding and long, we had to dig a trench, mix what seemed like endless amounts of cement and concrete, build a frame, hang dry wall and so much more. Our hands are blistered and our bodies are aching but we had the best time. Between Faith's tireless humor and the wonderful feeling of giving back we smiled and laughed our way through the physically demanding labor.
The family we built for consisted of a grand total of nine or ten people. The parents and their children. Although we did not meet all of the children since some were older and not living with the parents. The children we did meet were; Silvia, 13, Cecilia, 11, Juana, 5, and Cruz, 9. Silvia and Cecilia were there every step of the way and helped with everything we did. The father was also a huge help in the process.

Before it was time for us to go today, Jorge conducted a simple ceremony for presenting the new home to the family. We said a prayer and the family thanked us and we thanked them for all of their help. As the father thanked us and began to cry it was difficult for me to not feel emotional. The pride of the hard work we had done and the impact it has made and will make on this family was significant. We are planning on surprising the family with various school supplies and maybe some non-parishable food this coming Monday. Pictures to come!