The long awaited entry... Sorry! - Mar 4, 2009

Hello all!

I cannot believe I am back in the States already. I had the most amazing time of my life in El Salvador, working with the locals and my amazing group. I am truly grateful that I had this opportunity and highly recommend it to each and every one of you! Particularly, if you can go on a trip led by my sister-- She did an amazing job organizing all of the details and proof was in the pudding-- the trip was absolutely flawless!

For those of you that may not know, we worked with a Salvadorian family that started working with Habitat for Humanity (HFH)- El Salvador over 2 years ago. Because of their remote location in the mountains, there have not been any available volunteers to help with the construction of their home so they have been patiently waiting for help. Carlos, the husband, worked with us every day on site with the construction of the walls, and his wife, Rosa Lydia, provided us with lunch and snacks. They were both very kind and welcoming and truly grateful for our help. The house was constructed on family land and has beautiful views of the country. Every day local children came to the site and watched us work. They were so much fun! They practiced Spanish with me and watched us work and even helped carry dirt and tiles up the hill! The sole picture attached is a group photo after we played kickball with them one night after work. It was SO MUCH FUN!

The work site was located in a town called La Palma. It is a wonderful community that is known for its arts and crafts, and is filled with murals throughout the streets, painted by Juan Carlos, a local artist. We were fortunate enough to meet him at the end of the week and a lot of us bought small paintings.

Our big task for the week was to lay flooring which consisted of compacting dirt so that tile could eventually be laid on it... to say the least, it was very hard work. After two days of flooring, we helped the masons lay block for the walls. We built the walls up about 3/4 of the final height and the house is planned to be completed by mid-March. I tried to capture the daily progress of the house in the photos-- hopefully you can see it in the pictures that I will post soon. Thank you for your patience! I am sorry that I was not able to post things during the week, but I checked my email once very briefly and did not have time to upload the photos...

I hope to post more photos tonight or tomorrow, as soon as I can upload them!

Becky