Crack On!

Here is a link to a shared album on Shutterfly with some of my Chile Pics.
Shutterfly View Shared Pictures

SHUTTERFLY Photo Albmum #2 - This is the overkill album for those who could not get enough from #1
Shutterfly View Shared Pictures

Warning: It's a long one:

Hola Amigos,Well, I'm back at home and my laundry's in the drier. I am a little distressed that I cannot get my computerto recognize the memory card in my camera. If anyonehas ideas of how these pictures and movies can besaved... feel free to let me know.

And now to sum up.(This turned out to be a long one so go get somecoffee before you start reading)I guess I last talked with you before I ate the horse.

It was Thursday morning on the site and it wasanother rainy Temuco day. Given that you don't want the wood for the walls to get wet and our assembly floor was in the field with the cows behind thehouses, there wasn't enough work for all of us. I was in the group that opted to go into town, change money, run errands etc. Una, Tracy, Carmen, Dennis and I ran around and then went to a place call Num Num for lunch and ordered hamburgers. We were so obsessed with making sure they didn't put gobs of mayonnaise, none of us thought to ask if the hamburger was made from a cow. It didn'treally look or taste like the hamburgers we know here... all in all it's a topic better not thought of.

Thursday night, the team went out to dinner in Temuco. Always exciting compared to the dorm style food ofthe Hogar. All in all, however, the food has been fabulous and the meals that Anita whips up for 20 people on the worksite in Barbie's kitchen are amazing. After dinner (around 11:30) we went to Oba, a clubwhere we were supposed to meet Lorena, the Habitat Coordinator and Paula, the civil engineer, #1 jefa ofthe worksite. Thursdays are karaoke nights. Here's the thing, they only let 8 groups sing because it's a big old contest. John, Dennis, Bryan andGerard sang "New York, New York". Sadly the only working microphone was in the hands of Dennis, the mumbling Australian. While they were in time witheach other, they were not with the music. We applaud them for going first. Terri and I got up to sing "Dancing Queen" complete with moves and everything... we scored an 8. A few more groups from the Habitat gang sang and after some audience voting (where we were confused and clappedfor our people when the idea was you were clapping for people you wanted to leave) there was a Chilean Idol sing off. One woman sang the national anthem... notfair. A winner was declared and we danced to 80's music from the US until the place closed at 4:00am. The next trick was getting home. How many people can you fit into a Hyundai? Eight. That's how many. Paula drove us home and waited while we climbed over the gate. This was very helpful as the police came byand she had to talk to them. Thank goodness Jessicawas on a project and awake to let us in. I hear the photos will be up on www.oba.cl as of Tuesday...though I didn't see them today. Maybe they were only up until Tuesday?

After 2 hours of sleep on Friday, we went for our final day of work. It was still raining and we paraded around in yellow rainsuits, sitting in houses that had walls and roofs, but no doors, trying to stay dry. There was a house dedication in the afternoon. Thank goodness Una and I prepared a speech, which we had Carmen translate into Spanish ahead of time so we could each translate each other. There were many speakers, a ranting priest and then all the families got Bibles. Finally, off to the ribbon cutting. Una and I (and the president of Habitat Chile - who knew?) held the scissors together while Lorena ran onthe other side to take a photo. The additions we were building seemed so small, but when you walk through from the inside, you see it adds another third to the house. We were both okay until we got to the window at the end and Norma, one of the homeowners and mother of my little amigo Sebastian, was outside waiting forus, crying and telling us she'll never forget us,we'll always be in her heart. Here we go... now Una and I are crying... we walk back out so other peoplecan walk into the addition. Other family members are taking their Bibles around to get all of us who workedwith them to write our names inside. It becomes avery humbling snivel-fest. Little Javier, as opposed to big Javier of the tattoos, asks me to take his picture with the polaroid camera. I do and he comes back moments later to giveme his shin guard with his name written on it and his picture stuck on the front. It's a momento from himto me. Precious pookie.

Back to the Hogar for showers and the family celebration... in short, much food, much dancing and much more crying. Omar, one of the maestros and the one whose catchprase "perfesto, correcto, exacto" became the theme for our trip got everyone going. He said God made him fat, ugly and charming and that'sthe way it is. He wanted to be sure that we only kept the good memories from this trip and buried the bad, then he told us to go back to our families and tell them that he has asked God to bless us all. Then he started singing in the most beautiful, resonant voice. Lordy. Javier of the tattoos started crying so much he had to go into the kitchen, which made Una cry so much she had to go upstairs. It's amazing what kind of connections you can make and how powerful these trips can be when they're only two weeks. After dinner, the team converged in the space where we meet to do our morning reflections. It was very cool. Some people wanted to talk, some people just wantedto be near everyone else on the team. It had been avery overwhelming day. Una and I realized... if we hadn't decided to do a Habitat trip, or hadn't picked Chile or hadn'tconvinced 14 other people to come with us, those families would still be waiting for the additions totheir houses. When people come together to work for acommon good, they really can accomplish great things.

Saturday morning, we had the last reflection, led bythe jefas. We did an excercise where people brought items that symbolized the trip for them and put them in a circle. You had to pick up an item and talk about it... the trick is, you couldn't pick up your own. Una and I threw in random things like a headlamp and a converter and still, everyone was able to pick an item and use that as a talking point to say what they got out of this trip. Yes, there was morecrying. It's all good stuff.

We had the team celebration lunch, which included bentnail awards (I am "Jefa La Compactadora") and singing a song I wrote to the tune of "Copacabana", called"Hogar Bautista". John was the inspiration when he sang the first line.

Back up to Santiago in the evening and much of the group was on their way. The rest of us met for dinner. Sunday, we couldn't find any protest so Una, Alison,Amy and I hung out in Santiago. (We did shake our fistat the American Embassy as we drove by in a cab) We sent more people on their way Sunday night and by dinner time it was just Una, Alison and I - Las ChicasSuperpodersas - that would be the Power Puff Girls.

Monday we took a bus into Valparaiso and got lunch at a cafe recommended by Lydia (it was fabu, thanks!) We took acesnsores up hills and down hills and walked around. And here we are.

Is it hard to be a jefa? Yes. Is it wonderful to introduce other people to the magic of a Habitat trip? Yes. Would I do it again? Let me know what you'redoing in Spring of 2006 and start your research onKyrgyzstan.

Chau chau,Kristian

Here is a link to a page of photos from Temuco, Chile, (totally unrelated to my trip, but nice pics)
Temuco, Chile� -� Travel Photos by Galen R Frysinger, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

In Temuco on our first day visting the mercado, Kristian learned to eat this weed\cane\rutabega veg thing called nalca or something, from a street vendor. We discovered later it is the same plant as the giant man-eater I have growing in my yard! 

These are the houses we worked on, from the front. Each is a 'duplex' with one common wall in the middle. We added an addition on the back, using most of their backyard, to almost double the size. 

Not uncommon to see horse and cart loaded up with supplies amongst the cars on the roads. 

Elsie, here is 'crazy hair', on the left - Franesca, after drinking a large amount of coke and then running around the rock piles holding the glass in her hands...Safety first! 

Una with some of the kids 

Erecting one of the first walls. We've come a long way. 

Tracy, Carmen and Terri do the 'Tamp on!' dance 

The Brigade goes to las thermas, hot springs, on our weekend getaway.

Family members relaxing 

Some of the family members we worked with including Javier, Veronica, Paola, Luz Venia, Norma, el diablito, Jose, Camillo, and Karla 

Onsite with Paula and Omar 

got back a few hours ago and I am very tired. I will get some photos posted soon. The final days were very productive, ending with a dedication ceremony on Friday and that night the families came to our place to cook us a wonderful meal at a Farewell dinner. More on that later...

So the maestro is the expert, the craftsman. We have three on this job, paid by the local Habitat affiliate to complete the project. Paula, the local Habitat project manager and civil engineer, a cute young fashionable Chilean lady, is the one that comes around and tells the maestros what to do. They then build the wall templates, mark the concrete form lines, etc. and in turn instruct us. Us, the untrained and not always eager team of gringos who may not have ever seen a plumba or wincha so close. Omar, Gillermo and Hamilton are our maestros. Omar is a larger fellow, missing a front tooth and not missing a gold tooth, with a wide grin, especially when he uses his favorite english phrases: Excuse me, please, please, Relax, and My brother (my browder!!). When instructing, he likes to get your attention, point to his eye (watch me), mumble a few things in chilean construction worker spanish, perform some crazy craftsman like task with wood, nails, saws, etc., and then walk away. Eventually he returns to make sure you have not screwed the task up entirely. If you please him, you get: PERFESTO!CORRECTO!EXACTO! Like hamsters in a maze desperate for our next food pellet, we await these words with an eagerness children typically reserve for holiday presents (and he is about the same shape as Santa). We have also learned he is the easier one to please. Is that foundation smooth enough? ma o meyo (mas or menos). Truss shaped ok? Foundation ditch straight and deep enough? ma or meyo..We love omar. Guys would call him Amigo, NO he would say, not amigo, MY BROTHER!. Then there is Gillermo (gee-air-mo, or as Mikael, the little Canadian says, Gill-airmo). Gillermo is harder to understand and not quite so easy to please. He also has fewer front teeth...some connection maybe? He will not do the ´watch me´sign, instead he rattles off in Gillermoese..his own mumbled version of spanish, and expect that if he says the same 3 sentences that you did not understand the first time, over and over again, you will suddenly catch on. I still can´t figure out the difference between his 'alla´and áqa´(can´t spell it either) but it is like saying over there or over here, similary, when 6 guys are holding a 500 pound firewall in the air, and we are attempting to line it up so that the tiny rebaresque rods protruding from the foundation can be threaded through the holes in the base of the wall, trying to understand if my end needs to move this way or that way, up or down, is pretty damn important. What can't be explained in words or grunts is typically solved with a sledge hammer. It's all good.

Thursday...day of alternating productivity. This morning we all showed up at the site in our rain gear. About 10 am the jefas decided 10 of the 16 of us should go back, go into town, run around, have coffee, go to the Mercado, the internet cafe, have a beer, nice lunch...etc. NOT ME, but ok, have fun buddies! I am not bitter, no. I have a PFS. Back at the site, I joined Leah on the final Truss production team, taking the pieces layed out to construct the trusses, A shaped wood things to hold the roof up. We did pretty well, but I must admit we worked like MUNI employees: when we wanted and as quickly. After our 20 minute Nescafe break, we cranked out a few piles of trusses and had lunch. Then in the afternoon the rest of the crew came back because the rain let up, and we erected yet another of the largest walls. They have been working us in crews to build the walls, there are 2 large and 2 small and an interior wall. The MAESTRO (paid, talented local craftsmen who instruct you mostly with grunts and hand gestures... more on them later) creates the first wall as a template, one of each type, then our crews take over and try to create 6 more replicas. Are they exact? ma or meo...that is the Chilean maestro version of mas or menos, (more or less). Anyway the last few days I worked with a team of guys to erect walls for several of the houses. You really see progress then as the walls form the house. Today we put up the firewall on one and I had to take over from maestro Gillermo to do the plumb line as we nailed the braces in to make sure the wall was straight. If Paola´s house leans a bit left she can thank me.

And before I forget...PLEASE PUT DOWN THE AEROSOL CAN...I have discovered that Chile is right below the ozone hole... it floats above us like a magnifying glass between the sun and my fair skin...now I am a crispy critter with a beard. Every day I wear my Lawrence of Arabia mosquito and sun hat to protect my head, ears and neck. The good thing is that I have not burned them to a crisp, the bad thing is that I look like a complete idiot, and most of the people on the team spend at least 15% of their non coffee break time going around taking pictures.

Ciao peeps

Message from Kristian:
Hola Amigos,

"Yo soy compactadora muy bien." That´s what I said on
the Chilean news. Yes, the Chilean news. A news crew
- okay 2 people - came out to the site today to
interview some of us and the families. Of the
brigade, I´m the only one they put on tv... I took a
video of it with my camera so we shall see. I´ve
actually been taking a lot of videos in the hopes that
Danny will cobble them all together... hear that
Danny...

Lordy, it´s hard to be a jefa. We have to watch out
for people who are getting sick. We had a blow up
over the election... apparently we let a republican
get into the group (JP: but he is great). I had a representative from a
splinter coalition come talk to me about the coalition
wanting to break off during the R&R. On top of it
all... Una and I stay up until the wee hours trying to
figure out the team accounting... our only weakness as
co-jefas...give us a calculator and a stack of
receipts and we´re up until 1.30 adding and readding.

Our R&R was fabulous. We were at this wonderful B/B
in Villarrica where we could sit on the patio
overlooking the mountains and the gardens, drinking
coffee and playing cards. We trekked around lakes, a
smoking volcano and flopped in hot springs. One day
we visited a site where Volcan Villarrica erupted in
1971 and killed a village full of people in a wedding
party. It was creepy, and yet we still took pictures
of each other running across the lava away from the
volcano.

The work is going well. We´re working on 7 houses and
today got the floors poured for all of them. That
means no more shovelling rocks, no more wheelbarrowing
concrete and no more tamping. Although, I have
discovered tamping is a special skill of mine - yo soy
compactadora muy bien. Tamp on, sister. Tracy,
Terri and I are creating a group, Terri and the
Tampons... and why not?

Team dynamics are an interesting thing. Una and I
have a jefa conference almost every night behind
closed doors. Have I mentioned jefa means boss? When
things go wrong, I sometimes, in possible violation of
the jefa convention, consult with Alison, our Fearless
Backup Leader. To all yáll who manage or have managed
people, my hats off to you. Lordy. For the most part
though, it´s going well. It´s a good group and aside
from some people being neurotic and bossy or a bit too
long winded, we´re cool. Thankfully, we´ve got a few
people of little words to balance us out.

Okay, I think that´s it for now. I´ve done some
laundry... very exciting... and it´s possible that
there is another game of hearts going on upstairs and
I would hate to miss out.

Adios amigos,
Kristian

Please keep in mind that the computer I am using has a ,foreign, keyboard - the dashes and shifts and apostrophe keys are NOT in the RIGHT places! And the computer is one of 2 here, our hours are limited to after hours, and there are 16 trying to use them. Thus my punctuation may not be perfect!

Here is a typical day: wake up around 6:45 and make coffee. I was warned that they only drink nescafe instant down here, so I brought a pound of Martha´s coffee, filters, and a little plastic drip thing. I make my 2 cups and leave the device for the next comrade - we agreed that since I brought the apparatus I could have the clean filter of the day.... then it turns into a free for all sludge fest for the late wakers. We did find ground coffee in the store, but no filters. As a precaution I had begun to wean myself down to one big cup each morning, fearing that I would be paralyzed with a caffeine deprivation migraine! Then we sit in the common room, like a common room of a college dorm, while people get up and ready, and we do stretches to get our aching bodies moving again. At 8 am we eat downstairs and leave at 8:45 on a micro (bus) for a 25 minute drive out of town to the site. We pass by various housing styles, some very nice, some are rows of small wood and cinder block houses. Some have rusted corrugated tin roofs with crap outside a failing weathered fence. All kinds. At the site we get crackin with cement mixing to pour foundations, hauling sand, rock and gravel, as well as moving wood for the crews making wall frames and roof trusses. Today we poured the last foundation, and erected the first set of walls. After so much work on foundations and prep it was amazing to see walls form a room. Sometimes the ladies of the families come out with sopapillas and pebre - this awesome salsa like concoction that I cannot leave Chile without...I love it! We work til 1 when we all cram into this one house that has been taken over as our base, where Anita feeds us these amazing meals. She was hired to cater our lunches by Habitat, and sometimes she cooks onsite and sometimes brings it in. One day it was fried salmon, one was a chicken leg body thing with amazing rice, or cosuella (spelling be damed) a typical potato meat broth stewy thing, very tasty. Each meal has a salad and desert. I expected to be on the Habitat diet and lose 10 pounds, but I think I am actually gaining weight. The only meal I didn´t dig too much was a stewy thing but the meat hunk had a unique flavor and the meat surrounded a triangular bone of unknown origin and I could pick it up and see through the middle...sorry but...creepy. Overall much more than expected and tasty.

At the Hogar the food is pretty good and similar in variety. One of the older girls is our server. They are very nice here and Jaime, the manager, has gone out of his way for us.

Since we went to the Villarica bed and breakfast this weekend, then Monday night went to pizza and vino, we have been enjoying some variety. The man who runs the local store where we go in packs after work, covered in cement and dirt, to drink beers in 16 oz cans out front near the sewer pipe, he misses us when we don´t show up and we warn him when we know we have other plans. Here a week and already a local hangout, though we are not used to standing outside a corner store with big cans of beer wearing day laborer clothing, eyes peeled for the military styled police on dirt bikes to cruise by- our code phrase is "GREEN LADY DOWN!" referring to our green beer cans of Cristal.

Howdy folks, it is Tuesday night at the Hogar Bautista. Today we got so much done onsite. I spent most of the day making cement, what a god forsaken task that is. I know why we see Caltrans dudes standing around leaning on their shovels ...because the work is so damn hard. They are sore, people! Give em a break! Seriously, my body is accustomed to a sit and type kinda life, not heaving heavy buckets. To make cement batches we take two pails of large rock, the kind that is a real pain to shovel, one bucket of cement and then 3 pails of heavy grey sand. Imagine the scene: a small rental size cement mixer, with me at the ready. Mike rojo (has red hair) if the jefe (boss) and he is in control of the mix, timing and water. When he says Go Tony and I heave two large buckets of rock into the ever-turning mouth. I then grab the bucket of cement. One false move as I approach the hungry beast and the dreaded collision of bucket and machine - a cloud of fine powder cement errupts in a cloud covering me from head to tow. This happened a few days ago and I was a ghost. I was afraid all the hair on my arms was going to set and break off. After the cement Mike adds water, and I go for the three pails of sand. With a groan like a 300 pound Hungarian Olympic dead weight lifter I hoist the bucket to waist level, then shoulder and throw it into the open mouth in one clean sweep. If lucky. Then as the dudes approach with wheelbarrows to haul it away I have to stand at the ready to keep the damn thing turning-- yes, the machine gets tired and gives up under the weight of one batch. Without human intervention it would not last the day.

hola, quick note from Pucon. Such a relaxing weekend in Villarica, staying in a wonderful b and b, saw the local Volcano, had tours of waterfalls and countryside, an afternoon in the lava heated spa water ( ok, hottub),las thermas. Very relaxing. Back to work tomorrow, hmm. On a apersonal note, a group of 16 mostly new people, for 2 weeks, in a foreign country, with hard work and simple conditions, very challenging. Overall we are holding up well.


Thanks for the comments and notes!!!

Hola Amigos, todo es bueno en Chile esta noche. After another hard day´s work, my PFS is being tested. My friend Adan hooked me up with a local woman, Fresia, who was to visit us tonight and tell us all about her recent project running a bibliobus (book mobile) for local Mapuche Indians near Temuco, but as I arrived downstairs for dinner, freshly showered and wearing my best clothes, I found out she had called and would not be coming. I was muy triste (sad) and dealing with that disappointment, and at the same time I was feeling REALLY PISSED at about 5 hombres in my group...you see, after work each day we get dropped off back here at Hogar Bautista, and since we can´t have cerveza here at the Hogar, we walk 2 blocks down to the store, grab a Cristal and hang out front. I usually have one or so and run back, take a quick shower since we are filthy from our work, and get ready for dinner at 8. The guys that remained when I left them at 7, did not show up til about 820, late for dinner. This place is hosting our group, so especial for us they have a kitchen crew working to prepare and serve our meals, so even though the guys honestly forgot that Fresia was supposed to come, it was still REALLY RUDE to show up a bit drunk and late for dinner arghhh!! not fair! I promise I will be over it soon.

We work so hard every day. Today we dug the foundation for the last of 7 houses, poured cement for the wall support thingy, and poured cement slab for at least one. Meanwhile Omar, our Maestro, was busy building frames for few walls to erect tomorrow. I spent my day a) digging foundation ditches, b) hauling earth c) hauling rocks to place in the cement d) removing nails from wood that had been used to make the frames for cement forms, so we could re-use the wood e) re-claiming nails..yes, I do not lie, we reuse nails...f) filling buckets with cement dust (and my lungs I think) as part of the cement mixer crew - it is a small mechanical mixer that produces about 2 wheelbarrows per batch. Oh yes, I forgot, I also spent time in metal shop bending little metal rods to form mini rebar things to place in the cement, to which we will fasten the wood frames - a bumpt in the union pay scale, I believe.

Also took some time to play frisbee with some of the kids and work on our English/spanish exchange.

One thing is for sure, they are ingenious with jigs and reusing materials and improvising. 2 liter pop bottles are handy measuring devices, a piece of wood marked with a pencil is your measuring device, and more.

We had music onsite today and entertained them with our sing along to the music they supplied. Who knew they would have a supply of CASSETTE TAPES in english, first off was a live album DOOBIE BROTHERS...you heard it.

OK, gotto go now...
Ciao

I will post Kristian´s note below. Computer here is VERY slow and there is a room waiting so I will be brief.

Day two - did not work as hard today. Did I mention yesterday we worked in the rain - well, today as well. Off and on rain. Today more ditch digging, hauling rocks, pouring cement. A lot of progress. The houses are amongst a large group of identical houses, each on is a ´duplex´ technically, although in size you would think ´very large garden shed´. Seriously, very small (humble). There are about 6 streets of identical houses in this development, part of a govt subsidized program, looking like WW2 temporary barracks. The owners were able to work w the govt to get proper title to their places, then they can work w habitat to help build and pay for the additions. We are getting to know the families better, and play with the kids - they are very sweet. If I can stay up late I may try to transfer a few pics later today or this week.

Ciao...

--------

Hola Amigos!

Ah, we had a Chilean coup of our own just now. The
women took over the men´s shower while they were down
the street drinking cerveza - ah ha.

So we}re two days into the work now. I have become
queen of shovelling rocks. Why? My wheelbarrow
skills have improved but they are still not as good as
other peoples. We are digging out the foundation for
7 houses. Once we{ve dug out all the dirt, it{s a
lasanga of big rocks, cement, big rocks, cement and
then people start tamping. I have taken to shouting
out Tamp On, Tamper! This is a bad habit. I also
shout when people get their pick on. We have some
very enthusiastic excavators.

Many of us now own very fashionable plastic yellow
rain suits. It{s better than getting wet, because we
only stop working when it rains really hard. We were
amusing the Chileans standing under a shelter while it
was raining singing Singing in the Rain and MacArthur
Park.. someone left a pala - shovel - in the rain...

What else. Una and I have to meet with directors of
the board and all sorts of people because we are the
first brigade and everyone is stopping by the worksite
to say hello. We are the jefas. Every night we have
a jefa conference to find out who on the team is
driving us nuts - and they are, blanche, they are.
The main jefa of the site is a woman named Paula who
is a civil engineer. She gets to boss around the
maestros. She is very friendly and we all love her.

I spent the bus ride home learning words in
Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche. My brain
gets as tired as my muscles sometimes. Okay the
carpal tunnel is kicking back in and there{s a line so
I{m going to sign off.

Also... we{re all very sad to hear about the election.
Booschwin. That{s what Gabriel, one of the
homeowners told us and it seems to be true. He will
be in Santiago on the 14th and so will we. If I{m
late coming back to work it{s because we went to
protest with the Chileans and I{m in a Chilean jail
somewhere. Send bail money.

Chau,
Kristian

Hola amigos!

Estamos aqui en Temuco! I´m having some problems with
the keyboard so forgive any typos... there is a line
so now is not the time to be formal.

We´re all here, staying in the Hogar de Bautista - the
Baptist house for girls. There are communal showers
which we have divided up into boys and girls because
taking showers with strangers of the opposite gender
is just too much. It´s very cold and all the beds
have 4 wool blankets. I feel like I´m suffocating and
start having claustrophobic fits. Other people feel
like they´re in the womb - all about perspective,
really.

Anyway. Santiago is a big urban city. On halloween
they were having mayoral elections so most everthing
was closed. We found some place to have lunch and got
microbuses to the airport. Today in Temuco, and all
over Chile it is All Saint´´s Day - so once again
everything closed.

We did go to a Mapuche museum to see some pots and
then to a Mercado to buy scarves made of alpaca fur
and some musical instruments. I now have a drum and
horn I´m considering using for a wake up call.

We met some of the families tonight in a bienvenida
and were forced to speak Spanish for a long enough
time that my head hurt. The directors from the
Habitat board and some of the family members got up to
speak, so of course Una and I had to say something.
Connie our Habitat contact was translating the
conversation to English for us so I thought she would
translate our conversation to Spanish, but no. Since
I had been throwing my Spanish around, I got to
translate for Una. Lordy. It actually went okay and
I impressed some of the non Spanish speaking members
of the team.

The team is great. We did our orientation Saturday...
one of the games is where you throw a string around
when answering the question of what your greater
purpose for coming on this trip was. you hold on to
the string so it ends up looking like a big web once
everyone has gone and then we talk about this being
symbolic of us all being connected and we cut the
string up and give some to everyone asking them that
when they get frustrated over the next two weeks that
they look at their string and remember why they are
here and why other people are here and to chill out.
EVeryone is wearing their string around, on their
wrists, using it to hold their nametags, etc. It´s
cool.

For all our trying to get to know people before the
trip, they surprise you. We´ve got quite a few chatty
Cathys so we´´re trying to make sure everyone gets a
chance to speak up. Every day provides a new
challenge for Una and I team wise and logistic wise.
So far, they´ve mostly been personal challenges... but
some of them have the potential to go team wide.

Áh well... what would it be without a challenge and a
lesson to learn, eh¿

Tomorrow we finally get to work. It is currently
pissing down rain, says Dennis, and we will work
tomorrow, rain or shine. I´m a little sad to find out
the scotch guard didn´t take to my jacket too well and
I´m not really waterproof. Gives me something else to
look for at the mercado besides spice racks and pieces
of wood that say welcome to Temuco.

Okay, this has been far too long. The computer is at
the Hogar so I imagine I´ll get to write again.
Though this keyboard is so stiff I think I´ve just
developed carpal tunnel.

As they say here...

Chau,
Kristian

They finally put us to work today. The 16 of us loaded up on the bus this morning and rode about 10 minutes to a section a bit out of town. Our project is to make an addition to 7 existing houses, built by govt subsidy, but the existing houses are one bedroom, VERY small. This is a country that is 89% Catholic ...one bedroom is not sufficient. How humbling to be in a group of priveleged others, helping these families help themselves, to improve their humble conditions. They are all working together with us, and Habitat, to construct these rooms. Today we dug ditches, hauled dirt away with a few wheel barrows and even buckets, hauled sand and rock to the small cement mixer, and hauled cement to fill the ditches for the base of the foundation along the perimeter. I then helped cut the pieces for the forms for the slab... yes Mother, they let me use a power saw! I still have 2 hands! After work we were bused back to the Hogar Bautista (Baptist House) where we threw down our gloves and hats, and walked a block to the supermercado, where we proceeded to stand out front and drink a Cerveza...es necesario! My back is sore. working on a computer is not the same thing...

It is an eye opener to see how other people live. I dot know why these people are poor, and why they cant afford to build their own houses, but they work with Habitat, they contribute, they work alongside us, and they welcome us into their homes as we work, to eat, drink, use the bathroom and rest. These houses cant be more than 400 or 500 sq st, the inside is unfinished sheetrock, the floor is simple wood (barn quality almost), with a few simple appliances. They are friendly and warm people and fun to work with. The kids were onsite today and we used our simple spanish and tried to teach them a few good phrases in English. Did I say my back is sore? my God is my back sore!!!

I will post an email from Kristian, I am sure it will be more fun to read!

Ciao, and thanks for posting comments.
John

# posted by John : 7:06 AM

Hola Amigos, I am here in Temuco at el Hogar Bautista, the Baptist school for girls. Our brigade has a wing of the upstairs w several bedrooms like a dorm, with a living room area. Today is the Day of all souls, a holiday for visiting the departed. We visited a local museum and then el Mercado, the market where we purchased various ponchos de Alpaca and musical instruments. Watch out LA LEY, our Brigade Band might take you on. Tomorrow is our first work day, and if today is any indication we will be spending the week in mud wearing Hefty bags (those nifty pants that zip to shorts , not water proof. )

Gotta go