Building a House!

We built a whole house on Friday! Here is the story..

We met up at Hogar de Cristo's Warehouse of house parts - wood, walls, floors, nails

Drove on a long bumpy road out of the city to a piece of open land. Tight space for the drive..

We had to move all of this wood about 100 meters (my muscles are still a little sore)

We were met with scorpions, frogs, dragonfly's, and lots of spiders!

8 holes were dug in the thick clay and we stuck the big wood beams deep. The girls could only help pat the mud back into place - and that was tough. We were sweaty.

Next came the floor! We had to monkey our way up onto the beams making for some scratched legs. Used a hammer and nails to place the wood planks.

Took a PB & J lunch break. The walls were already put together at the warehouse so we just had to lift them up above our heads and nail them to the floor. It started to rain and that felt amazing being out in the heat!

The roof was after that and we could really only stand and watch our two hired workers.

Beth and I got distracted with the neighbor - he was really fun to play with :)

We all pitched money in to help the family pay for their new home. Our volunteer labor for building helped them save on paying workers to come and build the home. Their father worked with us for a majority of the day and was grateful for the help. The simple one room home lasts several years for these families! Kitchen on one side, bed on the other. Most families have between 3-6 kids. Some take pride in their humble homes and decorate with plants or other small items - others do not. We see a lot of hammocks hanging from the bottom.

I drank 4 water bottles that morning. Didn't need to go to the bathroom once. I was sweating a lot.

It was hard work but also very fun to see a whole home get put together for the family!