Christ has no body on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which

Christ's compassion for the world is to look out;

Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;

and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

- Saint Teresa of Avila

Habitat in Sante Fe, Argentina

This year's Global Village build will take place in Sante Fe, Argentina - a mere 6 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. When the Salado River overflowed its banks into the City of Sante Fe in April 2003, more than 30,000 families were affected. According to estimates by UN experts, the impact on the province's gross national product was as damaging as that of the earthquakes in El Salvador. Prior to the flood, the city already had one of the highest poverty indexes and housing deficits in the country. A quarter of the city's inhabitants already lived in substandard housing settlements surrounded by garbage dumps and contaminated waters. Theft and violence, along with the contamination, are the biggest threats to decent living in Sante Fe.






Habitat Build

Habitat Build
"If I had a hammer......"

Saturday, July 31, 2010







Well, the entire team arrived safely and ontime in Krakow. Unfortunately, my navigation skills are just as challenged here as they are in the States - and my two travel mates were in the same boat. We managed to turn what should have been a 10 minute walk from the train station to the hotel into a 60 minute tour of the "inner city" of Krakow. At our furthest point, I studied the map and had and had to announce "ladies, we are off radar!" We finally found our way and joined the group at the hotel.


We had a guided tour of Krakow this afternoon which was wonderful. Our tour guide was a history major and gave us so much information. I am not sure my pictures will do it justice. We did learn that Krakow was the only big city that was not destroyed by bombs in WWII - unlike Warsaw which was 85% destroyed.


Speaking of laughs, the team didn't take long at all to get to know one another. Dinner was great and we shared many many laughs. The team varies in age from 21 to 70. Two of the young college guys have been over here for 35 days. They were showing us pictures from the Berlin Wall. I said "Yeah, I remember the coverage on TV when the wall came down." They said "Yeah, I think I was one month old." OUCH!!!!
A smaller group of us then set out to find a spot for a night cap. We found a cute little basement pub and settled in. Thankfully I stuck with the local beer since you can't really go wrong there. One of our group learned the hard way that there was a huge communication gap between us and the waitress when she attempted to order a dirty martini. When she asked for more olive juice, a sprite showed up. I am still not sure how "sprite" and "olive juice" translate as the same thing, but that's what we got. Needless to say, the martini did not get consumed.


Tomorrow we are off to the Salt Mines which are supposed to be amazing. We will then head to Gliwice and have dinner with the family that is getting the house we are building. I am looking forward to that as well.


Well, we are getting up early tomorrow so I will sign off.


More to follow.....
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)