Monday

Monday morning we tried to get up early, because we needed to have all of our stuff ready before breakfast at 8. The hotel manager noticed yesterday that some of us had not eaten much breakfast, so he had the cook make ham and eggs for us. I thought that was very thoughtful.
We ate, and at 9am a bus with Manos de Vida (Hands of Life) pulled up in front of the hotel. Manos de Vida is the church and organization we are working through while down here.

It was nice we got the bus, because last year they all had to pile into a SUV, and it was very cozy. The bus had much more room, and we did not need to sit on each others laps. Score!
We rode about a half an hour to the outskirts of Oaxaca, to a community. Every building was made of tin and wood, and all the roads were deeply rutted. We bumped around until we located the first house we would be repairing, and we all piled out. Half of us stayed there, while the other half went to a second house we would be repairing.

We were shown what to do, and we started in. Our project was to tear down one wall of the house, and expand it about 6 feet. I was working with Taylor, Kelli, Joel, and Brandon. We also had Mixie, a student staying with the Pastors of Manos de Vida. She actually lived in Albany for a short period when she was young, and then her parents moved to Portland. What a small world!

We worked hard, ripping down tin (they call them laminates), and pulling nails out of boards. We then needed to dig holes for the support poles to go into. This is hard work, because you use a sharp iron rod to break up the dirt, then you scoop it out by hand. When the frame was in place, we started nailing the tin on. It was very loud! They use metal bottle caps as washers, so the nails do not go into the tin and make to big of a hole. The kids wanted to help, so we let them pound the nails into the bottle caps. They kept asking, we are good workers? Si, Si muy biueno! The kids were 4 and 6. The little boy, Carlitos, was the cutest little guy. He scurried around trying to help, handing us nails, or picking up rusty ones to put in a small can. When we left, I gave him my wooden cross necklace. We also gave the family a food box, and a bible with an apron.

The other group went to another sight about 5 blocks away (they actually did not have blocks, so that is an estimate). They were with the pastors of one church (Gloria) and the family made up of grandparents, the parents and two boys, Christian and David, 3 and 7 years old. Christian was really shy, but very cute, and David warmed up after a while and
started talking to the group. He played futbol with Andrew, and they had a great time, though they could not understand each other.

The group tore down a dilapidated wall, made of bricks, wood and tin. The bricks had small spaces in them, and there were a ton of bugs. Cockroaches, spiders, and pill bugs all came scurrying out from the wall when it was being torn down. The chickens quickly gobbled up the bugs that came from the bricks. They were also warned against black widows, and they actually saw some.

The room that was being renovated was the kitchen/living room, and when it will be finished in a few months, it will have a cement floor (piso), a new roof and new walls. The team from Monday was just replacing the walls. The dirt floor was covered in rusty nails, broken pieces of metal and other dibree, and the children were walking around barefoot.

They were really appreciative of the new walls, and we also gave them a food box, a bible and an apron that was made by someone from NACC. Manos de Vida requires the families to pay for a small percentage of the project (10% or less), so the people can feel some sense of ownership and pride in what they are getting, instead of getting simply a hand out. The coordinator calls it giving them a hand up, instead of a handout.

Even in their poverty, they were reaching out to us. Joy was having her birthday the next day, and they purchased a cake for her. These are people who do not have enough resources to properly feed their children, and yet they still want to give back to us.

We got back late, and we were very tired. It was a good day though, and we all looked forward to Tuesday.

I will probably only be blogging every other day because we have been getting back very late. Also, I have been trying and trying to upload pictures, but it just will not work. I am going to stop trying, and when we get home, I will add pictures to the narration. I will also create a huge web photo album, and provide the link. I hope this is OK with everybody!! Keep checking back after we have returned, and you will be able to see some awesome pictures.