Category: Habitat for Humanity
-
Final day
Today we completed our week of work just after noon, with a break for lunch and a farewell ceremony with the Acosta family. For our final hours we filled the interior foundation of the house with the dirt we had previously excavated from the foundation trenches and the latrine pits. Three of us completed the…
-
Day 4: Digging and filling
When we arrived at 7:45 this morning, the masons had just laid the rebar cages into the brick molds (see the upright bricks in the photo below). At that early hour the temperature was around 27C with lots of shade. So a decent working temperature compared to what we’ve experienced this week. We immediately set…
-
Day 3: Latrine digging!
We started our day with a visit to the local Habitat for Humanity office where we were briefed on the process for determining how houses were allocated to families. The Paraguay program builds approximately 100 houses a year and provides housing upgrades for an additional 400 families a year. This with a small office and…
-
Day 2: Filling the foundations
We have a small team of just 7 volunteers including our team leader, making this the smallest of all the teams I’ve been on. That said, 6 of these volunteers have been on a total of nearly 60 Habitat builds, making this the most experienced team I’ve been on. One of our volunteers is brand…
-
Meeting the Acosta family
Nilsa is a single mom who works as a cashier in a grocery store. She and her 12 year old son, Lucio, have been living with her mom in a very small house. Recently Nilsa was selected by Habitat for Humanity Paraguay to receive a house that will be built adjacent to her mom’s. This…
-
A word about the people who made it happen
When I tell people that I volunteer on Habitat for Humanity builds, the next question I usually get is whether work gives me time off or do I use vacation time. When I tell them it’s the latter, I usually hear how wonderful a person I must be or how extraordinary it is for taking…
-
Final thoughts on the build
Apologies for the long delay in providing news. I’ve been in the back country of Yukon and NWT where cell service is non-existent. And for some reason, my first world urban brain can’t comprehend why a campsite 150km from the nearest town doesn’t have wifi!!! Also, a few of you have mentioned that there’s a…
-
It’s all about foundation
Today we completed the third day of the build – all foundation work. Foundation construction is not glamourous. It’s slow and tedious, requiring copious amounts of gravel, wooden forms, placement of “poly” (plastic sheeting) and rebar and the checking and rechecking of measurements and levelness. The space you see in the photo is for four…
-
Intro to Champagne and Aishihik First Nations
Today was the first official day of activites for our Habitat for Humanity team since gathering in Whitehorse yesterday. Today was our “orientation” which took us out of the city to Champagne and Aishihik territory to the west. Our first stop was about 20 minutes from the city so that our local host could show…
-
Hump day
Today is Wednesday and the two days of heavy work so far was just to get us ready for what would be in store for us today. Now that the re-bar has been installed, the plan for today is to complete the foundation by filling in the trenches to grade with concrete. We get to…
sedativegunk 