Friday,  November 23, 2012



Friday was a day of very mixed emotions.  There were tears of joy and happiness.  The families that we built for are so appreciative! With the help of a translator they repeatedly thanked us for all we have done.  They told us this gift of a home has been their dream for a very long time. They always wish  God's blessings upon us. It touches us all deep in our hearts and we stare in wonder at the beauty of these families who have nothing, yet are so thankful. We wish we could do more.  As we walk away our hearts are pulled.  We truly have left a mark and we have improved the lives of many families, but they have left a bigger mark on us. They have found a place in each of our hearts, they have changed us and as we go back to Canada we will always wonder what will happen to the families, the mothers, fathers, the beautiful children.

Friday we worked until 1:00.  We managed to get all the way up to the roof. There are so many steps involved, as we are learning. The last bricks are all cut on an angle so the water will run off to the road.  We once again built forms, made more cement and then attached to rebar to the top.  More and more cement was made and the floors were poured. It was amazing teamwork!

There is no better feeling after a week of hard work!!

All this and we only worked until 1:00!  Lunch was a celebration.  The experience with the families is very important to Habitat so on the final day of the build there is always some kind of celebration.  A decorating committee of Rita, Rosie, Camille, Jen, Renee and Grace gave this area a festive feeling with a Canadian theme. Katia, Salim and David arranged for all of the families to come to the central location and join us for lunch, games and presentations. As the pictures will show it was a wonderful party for all ages!

Following the piñata and presentations we made our farewell tour of all three locations.  It's hard to believe the week went so fast! We had the opportunity to visit each site and see the progress of that team. We said our final goodbyes to the family and then boarded the bus again. It was so hard to say goodbye. There were lots of hugs, tears and children running right up to the bus to send us off! Really tough!!

Site 1

Site 2

Site 3

These words and photos do still do not manage to capture the depth of this experience.  It was a very successful build! Many people have come together to make this build run smoothly.  The Habitat team of Salim, Katia and David were always available to us.  They divided themselves up so that they were on each of the sites and available to us for translation and assistance. They are also ambassadors for their country so they interwove many cultural events. They have done a very good job of making us fall in love with their country!

Another key player in the success of our build was Nelson, our reliable bus driver. He shuttled us back and forth to the site and excursions. He greeted us first thing in the morning, clean and fresh and picked us up at the end of the day filthy and loud. The music blared and we laughed and sang! We bid farewell to Nelson today because he will be greeting the next Habitat team tomorrow.

Last but not least,  the site leaders, Chris, Tony and Paul managed to provide us with a nice mixture of physical work and interaction with the families. They´ve learned over the years the interaction with the families is as important, if not more important, as the building. We are building relationships.

Overall, this was yet another successful Habitat Build that has impacted and helped that lives of countless individuals withint he wonderful city of Estelí