Day 5 - House build & cooking class

Today the Allina Guatemala Experience group worked on making a wonderful new home for a family in Antigua. The first group started by putting together the walls for the home of Antonio and his family. Antonio is a 10 year-old boy affiliated with Common Hope. The family was living in a 10 x 10 meter home with cornstalk walls. Lisa, an Allina Health employee, worked hard with Antonio putting the rest of the panels together so we could finish putting up the walls for the new home.

While the home was being built, the rest of the group went on social work visits. Transporting via chicken bus each pair went with a different social worker to visit families. The first family Paula visited with Laurie and Suzanne, both Allina Health nurses, was a family of seven with two newly-affiliated students aged 9 and 12 all living in a small concrete building with broken concrete floors alongside chickens and ducks. The mother was cooking tortillas on an open wooden stove. She was so happy to talk to the social worker that she burned her treasured tortillas while discussing the hard work she does for her family. The second family was a single mother with six children. Her son was the youngest and had three other affiliated siblings. He is graduating next year as a chef. He was very proud of the recipes he created while in school and discussed his excitement for graduation.

At the end of the evening, our team finished the home. We put up the last of the cement walls, installed the doors and then finished the tin sheet roof. We ended the wonderful experience with a family blessing at the house with Antonio’s father, grandmother and extended family (Antonio was at school). Sean-Michael the one who lead the blessing, stated, “Que esta casa sea el comienzo de un futuro brilliante y que su familia logre su sueños. Que Dios los bendiga ahora y en el futuro. Gracias a ustedes por su trabajo y su dedicación.” (Let this home be the beginning of a new future and hope that your family make all your dreams come true. May God bless today and in the future, thank you for all the hard work and dedication you do.)

Cooking school at La Tortilla was a phenomenal way to end an impactful day. Laughing and bonding with new found friends. For dinner we made Pepian Pollo with a side of “salted” beet salad. It was hard work and with a few burnt tortillas and rellenitos we had a wonderful dinner. It was a good way to end the hard long day.

 

- Suzanne, Gus, & Jenny