I just want to take a little time to thank all the people that made this trip possible for me. The Habitat family of El Salavador for the unending help they have given us, the family that we build the house for, my wonderful wife for all of her time in making me look so good, to the Thrivent build worldwide team that are so supportive in all the hard work that has to be done to make this happen,a very special thanks to empty tomb for there wonderful financial support for all of us, Also to our wonderful people at Good Shepherd who supported us in wall ways your financial support which is greatly appreciated , also for the wonderful prayers that all of you have said for us. My only disappointment in all of this is that I cannot take all of you with me so you could can experience this great thing that the good Lord has done to me. THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Jim Hack
I just want to let all of the people who contributed financially, especially the members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Empty Tomb and Thrivent Financial; and all the people supported us through their prayers and the family members who donated their wives, husbands and daughters to the build this week, the gratitude of the Habitat staff, the masons, and family who will be receiving the new home. They know we have many choices on how to use our time and resources and they really appreciate that we took the time to share and support building a new home in El Salvador and be a part of their lives this week. I just wanted you to know your generosity and sacrifices made to support this Habitat/Thrivent build were considered a blessing from God from the people of El Salvador. Habitat has a special place in the hearts of all the people in El Salvador. People we meet in the airports and hotels all thank us for supporting the Habitat mission of not only building new homes, but taking time to be a part of the life of the people in El Salvador.
Jon Gunderson
We have just completed a wonderful week of very strenuous, exhausting work but for a lovely family who is truly appreciative of our efforts. Benigno Beza, his wife, and fifteen children will definitely appreciate our efforts and especially the guidance we received from our excellent masons, Jamie and Roy. We now want to thank you, our supporters from the U.S. who helped make our efforts possible. To the members of Good Shepherd and the support of Empty Tomb, thank you for your prayers and financial help. We were strengthened for our tasks and assisted by the tools we were able to purchase in Santa Ana. To empty tomb, thank you for your financial support. We shared Christ's love for our fellow Christians in El Salvador through our work and play. Benigno's grandchildren could tell you all about our songs and wheel barrow races. What a wonderful way to share Jesus' love with our brothers and sisters in God's family.
Gail and Don Block
Van and I convey our heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to participate in our first Habitat Build experience in El Salvador. The people of this beautiful country are generous and friendly. The staff of Habitat here was so kind to treat us as their special guests. We appreciate the prayers and support of so many people back home, especially including the Good Shepherd family, Thrivent, and Empty Tomb. This has been a truly unique experience in our lives and we will come home with a better understanding of the "community of believers" around the globe, but we will now have firsthand knowledge of the community of the Cristo Rey Lutheran Church in Santa Ana.
Kathy and Van Bowersox
This is my first Habitat Build experience. I am very grateful to have had the chance to participate in the program in El Salvador. Thanks to Good Shepard and Empty Tomb for your support and for helping to make this trip possible. This was a wonderful experience, I am glad I had the opportunity to meet and work with many wonderful people in El Salvador.
Mary Machaj
Thank you so much to Good Shepherd, Empty Tomb and everybody else who supported our trip to El Salvador. The trip is such a great experience and it is hard to put into words exactly how much the trip means to all of us. I also want to thank the masons, Jaime and Roy, and the Beza family (who will recieve the house), your patience and gratitude meant a lot to me. The Habitat staff were so friendly and made the trip very special. Our interpreter Delilah also was very important to us and added so much to the group.
Kathryn Gunderson
First of all, thanks to Jon for writing this blog. How fun it has been to see his posts even in El Salvador. I cant wait to refer back to it in the months to come when I become more and more homesick for El Salvador. Thank you to all the readers, Good Shephard, and Empty Tomb for praying for us and supporting us. What a wonderful trip and experience to see God working in us, and through us for the people in Santa Anna. God is so good.
Pam Scott
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Friday: Cry Day
It is hard to explain the emotions and spiritual renewal on how two cultures with with such different histories and experiences can come together for a week to help build a house in El Salvador. The feeling of the group was that this week was truely God's hands working in our lives.
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| Picture of Kathy, Delilah and Pam painting one of the bedrooms of the home |
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| Picture one of the walls in the main room of the home half painted |
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| Picture of Mary, Kathy, Kathryn and Pam painting the main room of the home |
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| Picture of Benigno working on getting out the tree stump in front of the house |
Jsss
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| Picture of Don using the reciprecating saw to cut out a notch in the stump. Then we used an ax to break away a piece of wood from the stump |
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| Van, Jon and Jim trying to figure out the next step in getting the stump out |
Thhh
For dinner on Firday night the Habitat staff prepared a banquet for us at their offices in Santa Ana to personally show their gratitude for our work that week, support of the Habitat project and the time we shared with them. Afer dinner their was a mariachi band and dancing.
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| Picture of the lunch table with the family, masons and habitat staff |
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| Picture of Don and Christian sitting together after lunch |
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| Brenda, Kathryn, Naomi and Stephanie saying goodbye |
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| Picture of Gail and Delilah saying goodbye |
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| Picture of us waiting to be served dinner by the Habitat staff |
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| Picture of the Mariachi band |
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| Pciture of one of the Habitat staff joining in playing with the mariachi band |
Video of Don dancing at the banquet
Friday, November 22, 2013
Thursday: The Kids Pitch In
There have been kids from the family and the neighborhood around us all week. First the boys and then the girls came out. They wanted to be a part of building the house and playing with these people from America. By Thursday they were even organizing their own work crews while we were on break. Kathryn told them that she could play only after we got our work done, so I guess they wanted to play so they though they had to finish the house. Don brought a soccer ball to play soccer during the breaks. Also wheel barrow racing was popular, see the following video of one race.
In terms of building the house we were working on digging trenches and leveling the trenches for a sidewalk around the house and outdoor kitchen that will be on a back porch. When we got there on Thursday morning they had aready put the roof on and welder was finishing up welding the roof to the rebar that was in the walls. The house is really taking shape and we can clearly see the progress from Monday.
In terms of building the house we were working on digging trenches and leveling the trenches for a sidewalk around the house and outdoor kitchen that will be on a back porch. When we got there on Thursday morning they had aready put the roof on and welder was finishing up welding the roof to the rebar that was in the walls. The house is really taking shape and we can clearly see the progress from Monday.
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| Picture of digging out the trenches for the sidewalk and back porch that will be used as a kitchen |
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| Picture of the local kids digging out the porch while we were on break. The masons said we were the first group the kids hung out with and helped with building the house. |
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| Picture of Kathyn, Gail and Pam with the kids helping build the house, the boys favorite thing was pushing the wheel barrows, on kid brought his own from his house, which was a big help since we needed to move alot of dirt. |
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| Picture of the back the house while we were on break. This picutre shows the roof and the side trenches which will be like a smakk sidewalk all away around the house, probably to help drain water away from the house during the rainy season. The slope of the side walks will move water to the fron of the house and the road. |
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| Picture of the inside of the house with the roof on. This room would be the main room or I guess what we would call the living room. |
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| Picture of Kathryn, Gail and Delilah "tamping" down the sand in the trenches to prepare for the concrete side walk. |
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| Picture of the road looking north by the house to give you a sense of the surrounding area and the mountains in this part of El Salvador. |
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| Picture of the road looking to the east. The Habitat hosue is the second house on the left. The people standing outside the house are mixing concrete in the middle of the road. |
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| Picture of the road looking south, this is the road we took to get to the job site every day. We drove about 5 miles an hour due to the ruts and pot holes. |
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| This picture is a view to the west. There is a corn fiels and in the background more mountains. Don kept challenging kathryn to run to the top and back, since she was a cross country runner. |
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| Picture of a chicken in the road. They and many other animals roamed the roads. But this one reminded me of my naighbor Betty hughes who is a artist and one of her favorite topics is painting chickens. |
Video of the wheel barrow race down the road
Thursday: The Orphanage
Kathryn is taking Spanish in high school. Her Spanish teacher and her Spanish club wanted to do something special for kids in El Salvador. So they put together some gift bags on the hope they would bring some joy to some children in El Salvador. The typical gift bag contains a stuffed toy, some candy, a book, some crayons/pens, tooth paste and a tooth brush. Initially she thought they could be given out to children at the Cristo Rey church and maybe to children in the neighborhood around our worksite. But the suitcase carrying the 63 gift bags was delayed and didn't actually get to our hotel until Tuesday. So we missed the opportunity to distribute them at Cristo Rey church and Habitat does not allow gifts to be given because of the problems and detention it causes the communities when other houses don't have Habitat groups help, and therfore do not get gifts. So she talked to the Habitat people about some other options and the Habitat people arranged to have us bring them to a local orphanage on Thursday afternoon. I think we were all a little anxious about what the orphange would be like and how we would feel. It was a very nice, large and clean building and all the staff were very welcoming. There were, get this, exactly 63 girls at this orphanage (that was weird, since that was the number of bags we had). The girls seemed to love the extra attention, even though the books were in english and many were below their reading level. Some of the youngest just wanted to be held. We sang a song to them in Spanish that were were learning this weeka and they sang us one of their songs too. At our evening devotions I think everyone agreed the orphange was the highlight of the week.
My comment that night at devotions was that to me 1/2 of parenting is just being there for your kids. Obviously not every kid or every parent has that opportunity to be there, as can be seen in the various stories of how the children arrived at the orphange. But I thank God I have had that I opportunity and I hope I have that opportunity the rest of my life .
My comment that night at devotions was that to me 1/2 of parenting is just being there for your kids. Obviously not every kid or every parent has that opportunity to be there, as can be seen in the various stories of how the children arrived at the orphange. But I thank God I have had that I opportunity and I hope I have that opportunity the rest of my life .
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| Picture of a girl who broke her leg playing basketball waiting to get a gift bag |
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| Kathryn and Pam playing with two of the children |
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| Pam called me over and said one of the girls was pointing at me so I came over and just picked her up. She just loved touching my face. |
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| Mary holding one of the girls, the girls just liked having the attention |
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| Picture of the girls waiting patiently in line for the gift bags |
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| Picture of Kathryn talking to some of the girls |
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| Picture of one of the open spaces in the orphanage |
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| Another picture of a small gardeninsdie the orphange. |
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| Picture of Kathy and Delilah of Habitat, and Gail, Kathryn and Pam discussing how to distribute the gift bags. |
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday: Digging trenches and tamping the floors
On Wednesday we had a special treat for the owner. It was Benigno's brithday this week and so we stopped on our way to the job site to get a birthday cake. Later we found out that the group last week also bought him a cake, since it was his birthday last week too. The owner must know a lot about birthday's since he has 15 children. We have not met his wife yet, but you have got to shake her hand for having 15 children.
We also bought some cookies to share with the kids and Roy one of the masons. Roy's nickname is "Cookie Monster" so we thought he would like some cookies. The rest of the day was digging and moving dirt to prepare for the tile that will go around the whole house. We also got to help tamp down the sand inside the house to prepare for the tile that will be the floor.
We also bought some cookies to share with the kids and Roy one of the masons. Roy's nickname is "Cookie Monster" so we thought he would like some cookies. The rest of the day was digging and moving dirt to prepare for the tile that will go around the whole house. We also got to help tamp down the sand inside the house to prepare for the tile that will be the floor.
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| Picture of the owner (Benigno) holding the birthday cake. The cake was very good and all the kids in the neighborhood got a piece |
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| Pictutre of Jim Hack bringing some cake to the girls watching from the house on the other side of the road |
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| Picture of Christian, Jon and Kathryn. Christian is one of the kids in the heighborhood and is wanting to constantly play tag and soccer with Kathryn. |
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| Picrture of the whole work crew including the masons (kneeling on left), the owner and his son (middle) and Delilah (far right) our Habitat interpreter. |
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| Picture of Kathryn and the neighborhood boys digging and moving dirt. The boys were our main wheel barrow drivers on Wednesday. One even brought his own wheel barrow to be part of the crew. We had alot of dirt to move so they were big help. |
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| Picture of the boys sitting in the wheel barrows during a rest break. |
Tuesday: Preping for painting and preparing the floors
On Tuesday we got up for our morning breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast starts at 6:30am is pretty good. You can have a fresh omlette or eggs made to order. They also have pancakes, beans, plantains and lots of fresh fruit. So it is a good way to get some nutrition before working. We leave for the worksite at 7:30am and get there about 8:00am. Tuesday was mostly using paint brushes to put a thin primer of cement on the walls. We are not sure, but we think it keeps the cinder block from absorbing too much of the paint that will go on the walls next. We also worked on the floors inside the house, which means moving in about 2-3 inches of sand and pounding it down with "tampers". The tampers are basically a stick with a concrete block at the end of it to give it weight. You raise the tamper and pound it into the sand. They ocassionally spray it with water. Water seems much more readily available this year. There is water next door and there are no meters for measuring its use, at least that we could see. Last year's worksite the water spigots locked up, so water must be much more expensive at higher elevations, maybe need to pump it. The goal of tamping is try to get it so compact that when you push in a piece of rebar it will only go in about an inch. This is pretty hard to do. Eventually they will put some type of tile on top of the compacted sand.
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| Picture of us painting the walls with the concrete primer |
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| Picture of Jon cleaning debris from the floor before putting sand down |
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| Van, Roy, Kathryn, Kathy, Gail and Mary priming the walls witht he concrete primer |
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| Picture of Van mixing the concrete primer witht he owner of the house |
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| Picture of people putting primer on the main room of the house |
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| Picture of Kathryn drawing pictures with two of the kids from the neighborhood |
Video of Kathryn playing tag with some of the kids in the neighborhood. School is not in session right now and we are the main attraction this week in their neighborhood
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Monday: The first day of work on the house
Monday we got up for a 6:30am breakfast and left for the house at 7:30am. It is about a 20-25 minute drive to the house. There are many security gaurds with M-16 rifles along the roads or shot guns standing outside stores. Part of the route takes us past a prison and the guards wear masks so you cannot see their face. The house is about 1/2 complete. It was started 2 weeks ago and Habitat groups have been helping he masons for each of those 2 weeks, so we are the 3rd habitat group to work on the house. Which is unusual for that many groups to work on the same house, but my guess since this is a family from the Cristo Rey church, many groups have requested to work on these houses. Our first job is to sand the concrete, which we do alot the first day. But we also help mix and move concrete for finishing the walls and sifting gravel for making a plaster that will eventually go on the walls. Our habitat person is Delilah, she is studying to be a chef and this is her first week working for Habitat. She speaks very good English and is primarily our translator, but she also works along side us.
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| Picture of Mary, Delilah, Jon and Don mixing cement in the road next to the house |
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| Picture of Mary, Van, Jon, Kathryn, Pam, Jim and Delilah in front of the house before we got started working |
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| Pciture of Christian the grandson of the owner |
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| Picture of Don and Benigno, the person the house is for, mixing concrete |
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| Picture of Betty (recieved a house in 2010) and Kathryn sanding walls to prepare for painting |
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| Picture of the house from the eastside. Pam, Kathryn and Mary are sanding the walls. |
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| Picture of Van, Mary, Pam, Kathryn, Delilah and Don during a break from making concrete |
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| Picture of three cows meandering down the road in front of the house. On the left hand side you can see a pile of sand used to make concrete. |
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| Picture of Kathryn using wire to connect the rebar that runs throug the cinder block walls. The rebar helps strengthen the house against damage in earth quakes. The cinder blocks are also filled with concrete to give them more strength. |
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| You guessed it another picture of Don, Mary and Kathryn making concrete. |
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| Pictutre of Kathryn putting concrete to fill the cinder blocks |
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| Picture of my Cousin Mary who lives in Madison next to the Electrician who was wearing a Wisconsin Badger cap. Small world isn't it. |
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| Picture of Jim Hack getting to use his machete to fix the handle of a hammer. |
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| Delilah our Habitat interpreter carrying cinder blcok to finish the walls |
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| Our lunch and break area is under a big tree. We really like the shade since the house is usually getting direct sun light, very hot. We drink lots of water. |
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