Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Que semana más loca!

What a week! We just wrapped up a week-long adventure with a volunteer group of 15 some-odd folks who came down from various parts of the southeastern US. Descriptions can't really do this week justice. We were dirty, soaked in sweat, hot as Hades and happy as we could imagine with how the week went. The volunteers (thank you all so much!) worked like troopers all week, mixing concrete, laying block, painting roof members and making friends. It was a beautiful sight to see the 10 local members of the construction crew working hand in hand with the 15 volunteers and everyone seemed to be having a great time of it. We went back to the worksite yesterday it just wasn't the same without the gringos.

Seeing the houses become a reality is an amazing experience for us. They're really coming up now (see the pictures) but two of the houses have roof members welded on, four more are in some state of block being laid and that leaves two more foundations to dig and pour.

Having the opportunity to work out there last week really took the two of us back to the days of Habitat work trips at NC State and it was a great feeling. The sense of exhausted completeness at the end of the day is a really wonderful sensation. And getting to learn all the new skills (in spanish, yikes!) is a lot of fun too!

At any rate, words can only say so much, so here's a few pictures to put you guys on the worksite with us!
The crew and one of the houses








Siesta, and well deserved at that








Viktor (his spanish name), our resident masonry expert









Aaaaand... Leslie O being a rock star.

2 comments:

Nick said...

Phenomenal! Miah, I know where you got that gray habitat shirt in the last picture :).

You guys ready to spend more time at the worksite?

Jane Cheek said...

Wow! Any more volunteers coming down? The houses look fantastic!