Construction Day 5

A day filled with joy and sadness.  Sadness that our journey was coming to an end. Joy in celebration of the opportunity to build together with friends and a beautiful Guatemalan family. Joy that a family will have their first home with a door that locks, a window and a concrete floor.

We gave the family a photo album that  chronicled the home build and included many photos of the family at work and play. Mom  especially loved the photos of her needlework, the kids bathing and Dad reading to the kids. She was very excited to share the album with her mother, sister and husband.








We also gave the family two large boxes of food. The boxes are filled at From Houses to Homes at a cost of $30 a box. The boxes contained dry goods like pasta, beans, rice etc. Each box should provide food for the family for one month. 














Today the home was painted inside and out and a roof, window and door were installed.

The children helped to paint the home. We also painted each other of course.

Joe and Oscar (the program directors)  came out for a closing ceremony with the family and all of the workers. 

Joe explained to the family that the money to build the home was provided by Woods Charter School Foundation and asked several things of the family;

1. To care for their home and keep it clean and well maintained. 

2. To continue to support the children with their education . 

3.To give back to others

 

A plaque was placed on the outside of the home. Their home is #514. Changing the face of poverty one home at a time. From Houses to Homes Guatemala has  completed 514 homes, a health clinic and almost 2 schools.

The family gave each of our team members a drawing that included individual notes of gratitude. Our new friend Tere translated each note and read them aloud.  Tere Ligorría G. is the Director of
USAID|Alianzas.  She spend the day with us on Friday.  The notes expressed gratitude for all that we had done for them during the week. The family said that  we would all be in their thoughts and prayers and that they would never forget us.  We gave them the key to their new home and wished them great happiness, health and prosperity. We explained that we too had received so much from the opportunity to spend the week with their family. We asked that all they give in return is to keep the children in school. The ceremony was emotional for all of us and many tears were shed.

There are so many things we have to be grateful for that we sometimes take for granted. This week reminds us of the simple and important things in life. Relationships, family, sharing our skills and resources with others, taking the time to slow down and listen and see all that we miss as we rush around in our lives.  We didn’t just build a home this week , we built relationships with each other, with the family and with the amazing workers at From Houses to Homes Guatemala. 

Many thanks to:
-From Houses to Home Guatemala for this incredible opportunity and for your commitment to improving the quality of life for so many families in Guatemala
-Woods Charter School and Woods Charter School Foundation for supporting this project.
-Amanda Ketner (teacher extraordinaire) for giving up your spring break to participate in this project. We hope that this is the beginning of a sustained relationship between Woods Charter School students and faculty and From Houses to Homes Guatemala
-The Students from Woods Charter School who demonstrated leadership, team work and great compassion through the project development, fundraising and project execution.