We made our way into the community in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador and stepped out of the van into the heat that literally took your breath away for a few seconds. Our translator flung open the van doors and said, "Good morning everyone. Bags go in the building for safe keeping, grab your gloves and a wheelbarrow, and follow me to the worksite". We did as we were told for the next four and a half mornings. One of our team mates even commented on our walks to the site that she sang the "Holes" theme song in her head every morning! : )
Our work site consisted of one lot that needed a foundation laid and one lot with a foundation that needed a house built. We had four and a half days to do both, and I personally doubted it would happen, but with God, it did. Because of the overall poverty of the community, all tools were man made. We had an efficient assembly line of people:
People bringing wheel barrows to the sand
People shoveling sand into wheel barrows
People delivering the sand to other people using this sand to make concrete
People pouring the concrete mix onto the lot
People using weight paint cans attached to wood poles to stomp every inch of the concrete mix into a foundation
Repeat process all day until 4 p.m. : )
I have never sweat so much in my entire life or felt as wonderfully exhausted as I did after a work day there. At night having a tiny little mattress and no air was completely unnoticed because we were so exhausted.
As far as building the house, we spent an entire day in an assembly line with small tin buckets containing concrete that we handed to workers sitting on top of the frames. They poured the concrete to make the walls of the place that some family would soon call home- a complete new chance at life!
 |
| Completed the walls in a day! |
The workers at the site are some of the most inspiring and incredible people I have ever met. They worked 10x harder than we ever could have, every single day for very little money and no lunch. You see, buying their lunch would have costed them an hour wages and an hour wages means no dinner on the table for their families that night. When they learned they weren't getting lunch, we began consolidating the huge portions we had been given so they could eat too. They deserved the lunch way more than we did.
 |
| The three head workers and three of the most inspiring men I have ever met. You can't see in this picture but the man in the middle had nothing but dress shoes to wear to work every day. The shoes were falling apart. Needless to say, we left the work site on the last day all in socks, and the workers have sweet new shoes!! |
I know full well that being an El Salvador for spring break is exactly where God wanted me to be. He revealed so many things to me while there. He also confirmed to me more than ever that life is about way more than just going to college and getting a good job and making a ton of money. Life, for me at least, means stopping on the side of the road in a foreign country to feed homeless men,women, and children. It means wanting to give up a spring break to serve alongside of some of the most joyful Salvadorians you will ever meet and helping to give them maybe a little hope. It means, yes sucking it up and embracing college, but it also means wanting to have a career that serves people and maybe doesn't make the kind of money those around me expect me to make. It means spending a week every summer in Guyana, where I want to live, fixing boo-boos, hugging and loving as many little orphans as I physically can, building homes for people to escape the drug cartel in El Salvador. It means truly taking the time God has given us and living it for Him and the people He cares alot about. It means simply learning how to love people, expecting nothing in return yet finding absolutely everything as a result.
 |
| The whole team!! |
 |
| Stopping by the school for hugs and good-byes on the way out on our last day in San Luis Talpa! |
No comments:
Post a Comment