The Work Begins

Today was our first day of building. We have two families and two homes to build. They are 500 square feet cinder block construction. They are a square with four rooms equally divided. In the back, the deluxe models have a bathroom and a kitchen.

Our work included: cutting rebar, sifting sand to separate out the rocks, moving cinder blocks, mixing mortar, chiseling cinder blocks into U shapes (without busting them!), putting mortar between the cinder blocks that the professional masons had placed into position on the walls and twisting rebar. We finished two rows today. It was tiring, repetitive work - most of our backs and shoulders are quite sore. But, it was great to feel useful and to actually build a house. The families are so appreciative.

The families and builders do not speak English. We (thirteen Canadian volunteers) speak very little Spanish. Communicating is tough, so we mostly point, smile and do whatever they show us. It seems to be working just fine and everyone is still smiling.

The chefs at our hotel are very concerned about feeding us Canadian food - we had spaghetti and meat sauce for supper. We´re trying to encourage them to feed us more traditional food. We had ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Although they were sitting outside all day - we are definitely taking some food risks!

The commraderie amongst the volunteers is awesome. After supper we´ve been sharing some wine and playing cards and chit chatting. Although tonight will be another early night - we´re all exhausted.

The line up for this computer is growing, it´s time to sign off.

All the best.