| En Espaņol | Back to main trip page Back to previous page |
Habitat for Humanity Build
Page 2
If you are wondering how we could stand an hour drive each way, every day, to and from the Habitat site to our lodgings, let us
tell you that the scenery in El Salvador is beautiful! Such a small country (slightly smaller than Massachussetts), but with
such natural beauty! Every morning we passed the impressive Volcan de San Miguel on our right, and every afternoon we passed
it on the left. Here it stands with an alluvial cloud at the top, according to Jonathan.
We also saw some interesting sights. Pickup trucks were more often than not jampacked and piled way up high with stuff. Stacy
took the picture of the one at left, loaded with pigs, but we saw others similarly loaded with cows (2 per pickup truck), piled
way up high with platanos, plastic wares, upholstering foam, etc. Salvadoreans are very hard working people!
Well, the next few days went by quickly. By the end of the week we were getting used to the heat and the humidity, and it
helped that the last two days were overcast and we were working on a site that had more shade (Guadalupe's).
On Wednesday morning Maria Palumbo (the girl in charge of foreign volunteer groups) came to check out how we were doing. She and
her driver, xxx, then drove us to Santa Elena, a small town about 10 miles east of Usulutan, so that we could see some finished
Habitat homes. Santa Elena was a cute little town, but it had been greatly damaged by the eartquake (it seemed to us that at
least 1 of every 2 houses had suffered partial or total damage). Still, the many Habitat houses built there before the earthquake
were still intact. We even requested the little girl pictured below if we could see her house inside. Regretfully we didn't
think of taking inside pictures, but the house is very nice and clean and comfortable. Not very big, just two small bedrooms on
the right and a long all purpose room on the left. But the mom practically gushed with thanks for Habitat. The other picture
next to it shows two houses next to each other. We also met in Santa Elena a young British couple, Meghan and Steven, who are
travelling their way down from Mexico to Chile and had stopped at the Habitat build and helped for about three weeks. After
that we went with Maria and xxx to eat a delicious typical lunch and then back to work.
The last day that we were at the site, after lunch we visited with Hipolito Baltazar Rodriguez, the mayor of Usulutan and the
husband of a very good friend of Lulu's. He was very pleasant and courteous and asked a lot of questions about Habitat, a program
that he was not familiar with.
We gladly explained and encouraged him to visit Santa Elena the week of July 30 - August 5 where Habitat was going to be
sponsoring a Blitz (or Evento as called in El Salvador) where in 1 week 15 homes would be started and finished, with the help of
over 200 volunteers, about half of them foreign volunteers, and the rest from San Salvador plus the homeowner families. We wished
we could have been involved in that but we left El Salvador July 30, the first day of the Blitz. We also wish we could have seen
the houses we were working on finished and the dedication ceremony, but we did leave Maria a disposable camara and asked her to
take pictures when the house keys are being given to the homeowners, and mail us the camera. We will post pictures on this website.
By the time we left, we had seen 3 houses rise from the ground to halfway up the windows. But it was time for us to go. It was hard saying goodbye to the families that last day. We hugged a lot and exchanged addresses and phone numbers. We hope to stay in touch.
Well, guess that is pretty much it. Our experience was great. The kids worked hard and made new friends. We were glad to share our time and resources with people who have almost nothing. It also makes us appreciate more what we have. Maria was very helpful and nice and if anybody wants to go help with a Habitat build in El Salvador, we'll gladly share her email address with you. She sent us a very nice thank you card a few days after we got home. And on the next page is a complete pictorial history of our experience with the Habitat build (pretty much in chronological order). Enjoy!
| Main Page | Photo Album | Kid's Stuff | Nifty Links | Web Rings | Guestbook Sign . Read |
Many Thanks |
If you have any comments or questions, contact us at:
louise@loeschfamily.net
