BUILDING!

This week has been long and exhausting but very rewarding. Monday was my last day at Casa Jackson and I was sad to say goodbye to all of the babies. About half of them were finally getting  over their illness and we were able to spend the day playing with them.  A few other kids were hospitalized over the weekend due to respiratory infections, and as worried as I am for them, I am also thankful that these kids have that resource available to them since , any other kids do not.
Tuesday through Thursday we built houses. We split into groups of four or five and each group build one house.  Day one we built the foundation, day two the walls and roof went up, and the last day (today) we painted the entire house bright blue, put up the gutters, and put our finishing touches on the house.

The entire three days that we were building, the two oldest girls, Sylvia (13 years old, seen left) and Cecelia (11 years old, seen in window), worked side by side with our crew and were such an inspiration to me. Every time I got tired of mixing concrete or digging a ditch I would look over and find one of these girls next to me working just as hard (barefoot and without gloves mind you) to build their future house. They also enjoyed drawing pictures in the wet cement when we had a few minutes of down time between each reloading of the buckets. 

The third and final day was by far the most rewarding when the entire family came out to see their new home.  We all gathered inside the house and they expressed their gratitude for our hard work.  The children made each of us a card with stickers and a handwritten letter inside. This family is just so beautiful standing in front of their new blue home.