Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Day 3 - Common Hope


“They’re shoveling snow in Minnesota and we are shoveling dirt in Guatemala!”

Today was another amazing day! Team 1 spent the morning working on the house Common Hope is building for an affiliated family. The family of four (two boys ages 13 and 10) currently reside in a 32x50 foot open space with a dirt floor and outdoor kitchen enclosed by roofing steel. Our team’s mission was to create an addition to the home with a concrete slab. Working alongside our master mason Abel, and construction guru Mario, the team mixed concrete for a new floor in the home. Guatemalan’s do not have the luxury of having a concrete mixer so the team mixed the sand, concrete, rock and water by hand. It was a labor of love but we could all see how much it will benefit the family. Working in a small space our team of six laughed as we learned to work together without running into each other or accidentally knocking our co-workers in the face with a shovel (or wheelbarrow). By the end, we were efficiently working beautifully together with the common goal of creating a new space for this family. This team was made of six women who were the strongest, most determined women I have ever met!

After our afternoon lunch and siesta we re-grouped and the team split up to continue working on panels for the new walls in the Common Hope house, loaded school supplies and sanded furniture from the nursery that needs to be re-varnished. From there, we loaded the completed panels on to two trucks along with ladders and all the other equipment needed to construct the house tomorrow on the site.
We ended the day with a lovely team dinner at Welten where we shared more laughter, stories and continued to get to know each other.

-  Sandy & Katie

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