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Stacy's View on Things
Page 2
Monday we depart San Salvador for Usulutan - and the construction of our Habitat house. We now borrow Raul's car - with no air conditioning and the left rear window does not roll down. The kids learn pretty quickly and the fighting begins over who gets the window seat. We find the Habitat site with some difficulty and begin our bricklaying career.
Everybody on the worksite treats the new people cheerfully - and it is
interesting to see this type of construction. No power tools involved at
all - except we are told a cement mixer is used to help pour the footing
(which is done before we get there). We will spend the week working on
five different houses - all five of which will be completed in about 6-8
weeks. The families of the houses all work on each other's house - and all
five are within walking distance. And it is HOT. Very HOT. We don't last
too long - but I am proud of the work my family and I accomplish. The
most fun (I think) was forming a line to move bricks from one place to
another - I thought of that and it worked well. Jonathan doesn't take long
before taking charge of the cement mixing operation!
Finally simply giving out around 3:00 in that heat - we leave Usulutan for Tia Sonia's beach house. We get a little lost on the way (and we are very tired) but when we finally arrive it is idyllic. The Pacific Ocean on her front yard with hammocks on the front deck - and finally quiet! We jump in the ocean - the waves are just right for body surfing - and we have a meal of freshly grilled fish and fall asleep almost instantly.
The next day it is back to Usulutan again - it is about 45 miles from the
beach house to Usulutan. Again on Tuesday it is very hot and we agree we
simply cannot work an entire day in this heat. And we agree we will skip
one day and just hang out by the beach (Thursday). It is good to see the
rows of bricks start to get higher - but then it is a shame we will not get
to see the families we are getting to know as we work on their house
actually move into their new house. Most of the families we are working on
have had their houses destroyed by the earthquake.
Wednesday - more of the same. The drive to Usulutan and working on a different house this time. Maria - the Habitat contact Lulu dealt with before coming here - contacts us and meets us for lunch. She takes us to a small village outside of Usulutan (St. Elena) and shows us some completed Habitat houses of the same type we are now working on. We actually meet one of the homeowners (and her daughter) and the place looks great. The are very grateful for the house (even though they will have to pay for it). I will never look at a simple brick house again without thinking of how much work a bricklayer does to build even a small house.
A comment on the roads in El Salvador. I was last here about twelve years ago and remember them as simply awful anywhere outside of San Salvador (and not too good in San Salvador). Now there are much better. We would not be able to do what we are now doing on the roads as they were twelve years ago. A 45 mile drive then would be about two hours. Now it just takes one.
Thursday we take the day off and just hang out by the beach. I read an
entire Agatha Christie book and jump in the waves a bit. I also make good
use of the hammocks. The kids went crabbing and we even found a dead shark that
had washed onto the beach.
Friday is our last day on the Habitat site. We have made several friends here and exchange some addresses. It is a little sad to say good-bye. While there on Friday we stop in at the mayor's office - Lulu's best friend is the mayor's wife. We get the VIP treatment and the mayor is very nice. He explains some of El Salvador politics to us. He is from the "opposition" party and so when funds from the government were made available for earthquake relief - he feels his city was shortchanged. Sort of as if George Bush decided to screw California because he figures he will lose that election next time anyway. But I think in the States if something like that happened the Federal courts would get involved. I am not sure though. Anyway the mayor knows nothing about Habitat and was curious about it.
Saturday is a day of goofing off again. And I meet the family of Pipo from
Honduras. They are very nice - Pipo and his wife and three daughters (21,
16, and 13). The daughters all go to a bilingual school so I can talk to
them in English.
We play a game of soccer on the beach (the 16 year old is
very good) and also teach them "Pit" - my favorite party game. The Latin
blood makes the game even more interesting....when a winner finally screams
out, they rest of the players refuse to stop and keep on trading (to see
who comes in second). We have a lot of fun. They tell us about the
Honduran soccer team and the big game this Monday night. We promise to
watch. They invite us to come to Honduras but it is too far. Maybe
another time.
Sunday is the day for Pipo and his family to head home - and also for us.
But we do it on El Salvador time....munching on fresh shrimp from the fish
market and having quite a few beers. A beer here costs somewhere between
$0.50 and $1.00 so you can really buy a round for everybody without being a
big spender. And then of course they oblige with a round of their own.
Since Louise doesn't drink beer, she is the designated driver as we really do
end up having quite a few. Pipo and his wife are both so much fun to be
with it is sad to say good-bye.
Some more pictures of that wonderful mini-family-reunion weekend:
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If you have any comments or questions, contact us at:
louise@loeschfamily.net
