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......"

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Saturday - last day of building

Let's see how these pictures show up on the blog. The first picture should be of Josh, Laura, Riley, Larry, me and Cory. You guys rock! Larry, so glad you decided to come on this trip at the last minute.

The next picture (I think) is of the boys giving me a "sexy pose" for the camera followed by a "muscle shot". I am sure the boys will be getting calls from Men's Fitness should they come across this blog, ha ha.













Here are Karen W (Toolie), Laura, Josh and Karen M working on leveling the foundation of the patio so we can then set rocks on top, then sand, then bricks. You could say this is a group of level headed individuals. :)

Carmen hauls a load of rocks that I swear weigh more than she does. The gal can do some heavy labor!!! I guess they build 'em stronger in New Zealand.

Karen and her pic axe - don't ever get between them!

Laura above with her certificate for having more "photo faces" then anyone.......no wait, it was a certificate of appreciation from Habitat. :)


Here a couple of the Habitat home owners - getting a couple of the units we were building - talked to us about what our participation meant to them.

Sheri REALLY enjoyed the wine at dinner Saturday night!!! ha ha. Thanks for being a sport for the picture. Sheri, it was like manna from Heaven that night :) Patrick, did I actually catch you smiling in a picture??? :)
Last day, bittersweet to say the least. It has been a great week of building, and an even better week of friendship and comeraderie. We went right back to leveling the foundation for the back patios. Today was a bit more challenging as it had rained a lot yesterday and last night. WOW sand and dirt can get heavy when wet. A crew of us worked outside digging, hauling rocks, sand and mixing concrete. I have to add that when we were digging, we often encountered huge rocks, bricks and tree roots. The soil also wasn't just dirt, it was clay - HARD clay. I would like to personally thank the individual who invented the pic axe!! I can also say that I have seen both Karen and Cory swing one of those things and I would never want to get on their bad side! I think I know what I can get each for birthday presents! I was going to say that I would love to have either on my softball team, but then Cory and I took turns throwing the rocks we dug out at a target we drew on an old door. I won't say her aim was bad, it must have just been a REALLY strong cross wind! ha ha. Karen you were busy working so I am not sure of your aim, but my money's on you.


Meanwhile Sherrie was working had shoveling rocks into the wheel barrels for Carmen and Larry to bring back to the patios. After the right amount of rocks were laid down, we had to cover the rocks with sand - more shoveling and schlepping. All I want to know is WHY did we wait until the last half of the LAST day to realize we could open up a short cut in the fence so we didn't have to haul the wheel barrels of sand, rocks, 120 lb cement blocks UP HILL for 5 days?????!!!!!! Riley, thank you for coming up with the new route....even if it was a few days late. We'll forgive you because of your sleep deprivation.

The upstairs crew continued to plaster their hearts out. This is so much more involved then I ever imagined. Cinder blocks are not the easiest material to prep and plaster over!

That night we went to dinner with our local host, Adam, and his wife Rhonda - who is from Dallas. They have been together 27 years. The stories they have are amazing. Rhonda shared stories about what it was like under Marshall Law - try to buy meat, etc that was rationed. Sometimes I think I take the liberties we have in the US for granted. It was such a treat to hear from these folks who have experieced so much in their lifetimes.

The gang was pretty well spent so we ended up back in one of the hotel rooms with about 6 of us just sitting around talking, telling stories and watching what could be one of the funniest video clips I have seen - thank you Josh and Riley for sharing!! Did I mention there was a lot of laughter on this trip??? Tomorrow we're off to Krakow for some R&R in the afternoon and final team dinner.
















More to follow.....
















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