Cinco + Tres + Dos

We had such a great first day at the build site today! We started the morning by meeting in the community center in Getsemani, the community where we built last year. We reunited with Tania, who is the Getsemani project manager. Habitat is currently working on two houses in the community. Today we worked with Santos, who is the mason (foreman) of the house. He is assisted by Roberto and David. We were also reunited with Douglas and Oswaldo, two very active youth in the community. They are now working with Habitat by helping with translation with the volunteer teams. Axil is the homeowner that we are working with. She currently lives up the road in the community with her mother. She has a son who is five, Anthony, and her husband is currently away in the military. 

Because of the heavy rain last night, the worksite was a little damp this morning, to say the least. We started the day with some creative water bailing. The rain had pooled in the trenches where we were going to pour the footers later in the day. We were handed the bottom of a water bottle and, flat on our bellies, reached down to scoop out what felt like a tablespoon of water at a time. However, many hands do make light work, and that task didn’t take too long. It did dirty us up quite bit, so by 9am it looked like we had accomplished a lot!

The morning was also occupied by some rebar tying. Now this may sound simple, but when you realize that you’re twisting and cutting is what is going to hold the house up, the pressure is on. After much patience by the masons, many of us had grasped that task. 

Right before lunch we started mixing the cement for the footers. This required the measurement of 5 wheelbarrows (caratilla) of sand, 3 wheelbarrows of gravel, and 2 bags of cement. This is mixed from one pile into two, then back to one pile. It’s then scooped out in the middle, water is added, and with precision not let the walls cave in, it’s mixed and mixed and mixed until it makes this beautiful, sloppy mudpie mix. We then started the bucket brigade, with buckets full of the mix passed along until it could be poured into the proper place. We made one big batch of this, broke for lunch, and this was our activity for the rest of the afternoon, with many, many more batches. Just when we thought we were about done, Santos gave instruction for one more half batch, which we finished right before the skies opened in rain. 

We were so blessed to have a great first day, with healthy strong bodies, plenty of water to drink, and only minor aches to grumble happily about at the end of the day. Looking forward to the adventures tomorrow will bring!