Day 4! At the end of the day, I sat in amazement. I was looking at a house that was 95% finished and on Monday all that was in its place was a piece of parched earth with six square holes in the ground, waiting to be filled with concrete pillars to hold up a … Continue reading
Day 3! Today we were really rocking and rolling! Not just on the houses, but on the worksite when our host coordinator Pak and our translator Thy and construction supervisor Chai busted out the karaoke machine and sang American country western music! Some of the ladies on our team are now known as the “Pak-ettes“! … Continue reading
Day 2! This week we are working alongside two families in the Tbeng Kert village, which has 375 households and 1,661 people. The houses are about 360 square feet and sit up on stilts, a typical Cambodian style which protects the family and their belongings during the rainy season flooding. Today our work progressed … Continue reading
Welcome to Cambodia! Everyone on the team has arrived and we didn’t waste any time getting acquainted with this beautiful county and the charms of Siem Reap. Our welcome dinner was at Madam Butterfly, one of the oldest restaurants in town and one of the few set in a traditional Khmer wooden house with beautiful … Continue reading
In 1524 Spanish conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba named Granada after the city of home country. One of the oldest, if not the oldest, colonial cities in Latin America, Granada once rivaled León for the title of Capital. For more than 300 years the city was repeatedly attacked by pirates, burned and rebuilt several times. … Continue reading
Choices. How many are we fortunate enough to make every day? And how can we maximize someone else’s ability to afford a life that allows for more choice? Someone like our lovely homeowner Tania. Tania is a 32-year-old single mom with two children ages 11 and seven. She only went to school through grade nine, … Continue reading
Nestled among the mountainous hillsides of the central highlands near the Honduran border, Estelí feels like an honest blue-collar city, a sports town with devoted fans, a place where locals worship and shop the huge Saturday produce market, where students learn and where expats can buy sunscreen and lattes alike. Dotted with language schools, tobacco … Continue reading
Located on the Pan-American Highway about 90 miles north of capital city Managua, Estelí is Nicaragua’s third largest city, and one of four cities in Nicaragua where Habitat focuses it’s mission. Surrounded by forested mountains, Estelí has a pleasant climate most of the year, and we were grateful for it. A slight breeze and cooler … Continue reading
Habitat for Humanity began working in Nicaragua in 1984. Since then, Habitat Nicaragua has served more than 5,000 families. Astonishingly about 75% of Nicaragua’s population is under age 40. This presents some challenges for the country, but also ground level opportunities to have a positive impact on future generations. With the help of a local NGO … Continue reading
Over the course of nearly 24 hours everyone on the team, all 16 volunteers, arrived in Managua – safe and sound, even if some were short on sleep. On Sunday morning, after a thoughtful, and very thorough hour long orientation by Habitat Nicaragua staff, it was time for the three hour drive to Estelí (pronounced … Continue reading
