Building Houses for People

I have to admit I really hadn't given a lot of thought to the way that a bunch of generally decent, public spirited people who chose to spend a bunch of time and money and sweat to build houses for people would be regarded. It's a bit surprising to me, when it's a trip I always wanted to take, and the sort of thing we ought to be doing, to get the occasional applause and warm handshakes and hugs, and find out little kids are watching with wonderment because you're building them a house.

The way it works on this 'build' (that's what the old hands call these trips) is that we arrive on the scene and are greeted by a Master builder, who starts out getting the pattern working that goes from boards, cut in particular lengths, hammered together into vaguely familiar shapes, that go into extraordinarily useful constructions that we lift and join and hammer and nail, and with a bunch of great heaves and small juggles from us amazingly arrange themselves into a house. Really, a house, and there will be pictures. I've been working with a bunch of really great, wildly individualistic, people of many ages Of course, I knew that was what we would be doing, but that these spastic hands would actually manage to do it still is amazing me.

For anyone who isn't familiar with Habitat for Humanity, it's an incredibly useful idea that was brought to fruition by one of the most genuinely good people ever to reach high public office, Jimmy Carter, and on October 6th the U.N. will celebrate a day honoring Habitat, and by coincidence I will be on this build at that time.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, because you can read all about Habitat and its mission on its website, but it's something I decided to get into, and don't know why I never did it before. If for no other reason it's a way to travel to Chile without being another obnoxious and odd tourista, who gawks at the scenery and makes no acquaintance whatsoever with the people who live in the country she's visiting. Conversely, that makes us visiting Habitatians a little easier for the locals to know. In a way that's good, and the group I'm with is good natured and awfully likeable. We're also our own kind of American gawky, and that should be expected too. At least, in a group of Habitable sorts, the tenor is entirely inclined toward a receptivity that my experience tells me most tourists don't show. Not all of the effect is good, of course.

We smushed our Master builder's collarbone, for starters; that should be a way of getting really familiar, you would think. Juan has a bandaged back, but wouldn't let the doctors put a cast on now. It would keep him from helping build these houses.

As you can imagine, we intrepid carpenters (actually, I didn't play a direct part in the accident) lost a grip on a big board, and it came crashing down on his back. Now he's still as friendly as he can be, but hurts. I expect our insurance paid his expenses, but this is another tale about the crazy gringoes that is sure to make everyone more convinced than ever we aren't someone to turn your back on. It hasn't made the other Masters cantankerous to us, to tell the truth, but I can imagine why we scare people. My group has several really good carpenters, and all of us are hard workers who do a conscientious job, I'm glad to say

Tomorrow we will go taste wine in country near Casablanca, Chile, and that will be a good break .... oh, excuse me, bad terminology. As far as becoming a career builder, guess that won't happen. While climbing around on a frame of a building and hammering in huge nails from weird angles and watching the boards take on strength, durability, and the character of a house is great, I think I'll be glad to see the finished product and a family housed, and write about it.

The children at the house we've been building get the nice chunks of wood we saw off the boards, and those make building blocks for them. What they make of the materials we're producing may be one of the most important aspects for them. It's the only toys I see that they have. One of the dads made them a tree fort in a little stunted tree that has purple flowers much like the passion flower we had in Virginia. Yes, there will be pictures.

It's hard to blog much, as we have one laptop that will successfully connect to the internet and sixteen people depending on it. I will have a bit more to blog about when I get back. Thanks, Diane, for keeping up with the cats and birds.