Week's End

Today started as our other days had, with breakfast under the dining canopy, but there was a bit more anticipation among our crew.  Today we would finish our houses and turn them over to the families. 

The Cielo house (Casa Cielo) was a little further along than the Papaya house (Casa Rosada) as the walls for the blue house went up a day earlier.  The Papaya crew was a bit anxious as all the windows and the roof needed to be completed. We had stories coming from the blue house crew that the work on windows was slow and painstaking.

The papaya crew decided to start our day early and we were on site by 6:30 am with a commitment to complete our house.   Our team worked together to come up with a way to ease the effort required to complete the screens and the house was nearly complete by late morning.   As soon as we gave them the green light, Karol, Anderson, Dorian, Deiner, and Elian started moving their belongings into their new house.  It is very difficult to describe the quiet pride and excitement that was reflected in each of their faces.  The Papaya crew pitched in and we quickly had them in their new house!

Alan, Kindria and their children (Cielo House) also moved into their house on Friday morning.  Alan had already stained the front door before the celebration began.

A multitude of families and friends of the each of the families joined our crew in a celebration at the Papaya house.  Maximo and Cal lead us in prayer, we ate hot dogs, shared a blessing of the two houses and also shared communion.   We then gave toys to all the children in attendance.  The children are incredibly beautiful, and the small tokens we gave them brought a light into their eyes that is impossible to describe.

The celebration ended in the middle of the afternoon.  A portion of the papaya crew stayed back to hang the doors and complete a few last minutes tasks to allow us to bring the house to completion.

You may wonder about the Costa Rican team who organizes these builds.  Maximo and his wife Rebekah scout out the locations and find the families to help.  Rebekah was the talented cook who delivered wonderful meals to us all week.  Rebekah’s sister Tatiana was helping her this week.  We also had the pleasure of meeting and working with Maximo’s sister Virginia and great nephew, Gonzalo who came from Peru to help.  Maximo’s team was amazing.  Manuel, who led the construction crew, Bombon the electrician, and Mao (Mauricio), who was our driver as well as a tireless worker on the houses. During the week, other local residences stopped by and helped us build.

Each of use came from several thousand miles away to help this week in Costa Rica. Thanks to the generous contributions of our donors, the commitment from each of us and Maximo’s team, we were able to complete two houses.  We moved two incredibly lovely families out of small dirt floor shacks into clean, dry houses.  We were touched by these families and everyone we have met on this trip. 

The world is a little smaller today than it was a week ago.

Authored by Kevin and Marianne McGuire

 A view from outside Karol's current house

Family and Friends enjoy Karol's new house

 Cal and Manuel put finishing touches on the new roof

 Virginia and Gonzolo 

The river that needs to be crossed to get to the Blue House

The blue house (Casa Cielo) completed 

Cal and Maximo leading us in prayer at the celebration

Alan, Kindria and their daughter (Blue House owners)

Thanks from all of us to all of you!

Sweat and Tears

Today, Thursday, by popular acclaim, was named the day "we got the dirtiest we ever got."  ( thus the first part of the title -Sweat!)

Lots of us were in the midst of entering into the 'finishing touches' stage (touching up windows, inserting window screens, etc.) while the major jobs of getting the roof supports and roofing up continued.

Our good luck on the weather held until sometime in the afternoon when the rain started and both house crews were forced to take all their work inside (painting specifically).  At that point, hands started turning sky blue at the Casa Cielo and papaya pink at the Casa Rosada (pink house) from handling all the damp window finishing strips and some faces (including mine) soon followed the same color pattern.

Casa Rosada progressed on with the proud help and assistance of the boys who will live in that house down to the 2-year old , Elian,  and those of us at Casa Cielo walked away thrilled to death that we had managed to get everything done except the window installation.

And then the Tears!

All those in the brigade went out to a restaurant for dinner and prepared on the spot a few words about their favorite part of the trip.   Emotions overwhelmed quite a few of us and we were moved to tears by the strong sense of  community developed on the trip.  Some comments-

"Happiest times of my life"

"I love it!"

"Being able to get together, work together, and meet such a great group of people!"

Authored by Jane Miller

The 'Papaya' house at the start of the day.

Julie and Eian painting.

Stacy working on window trimming.

 Karol and Elian. 

Anderson, Deiner, Karol and Elian.

Deiner pounding nails into the floor.

The 'Papaya' house at the end of the day.

The Tale of Two Houses

It was the sunniest of times and the rainiest of times during our third day of building here in Costa Rica. We spent the first part of the morning finishing up the panels for what would eventually become the walls of the two houses we are building.  One house was dubbed the La Casa Cielo (The Sky House), for its blue color. The other house was donned the name La Casa Papaya (The Papaya House) for its orange color. A lot of work on La Casa Cielo was done yesterday.  Workers nailed the panels into place on the concrete foundation.  After time, the shape of the square house took to form.  With the house looking like a house, wood for the roof was cut, and metal for said roof was put into place.  Here in Costa Rica, houses aren't like the ones we have in the United States.  In the United States it is commonplace to have things that we take for granted such as indoor plumbing, air conditioning, and enough room to sleep for a large family.

Here in Costa Rica, houses are a lot less typical from what we're used to. The typical houses that we've been building do not have indoor plumbing, air condition, nor enough room to sleep a large family.  La Casa Cielo's site is a perfect example of showing us "gringos" just how good we have it.

As stated previously, on the site for the house, there is no indoor plumbing, no air conditioning, nor a room big enough to comfortably house an average American family.  The matriarch of the family, Indria is married to Allan. Allan and Indria have three children, with a fourth child on the way.  Their current house is tiny. The whole house is no bigger than a typical American closet.  The bedroom in Indria's house is a single bed, with a single queen sized mattress.  Currently, all five family members (husband, wife, and three children) share the bed every night.  Here in the states, we protest over sharing rooms with siblings; imaging sharing a queen sized bed with your whole family, every night of the week.

Indria and Allan's new house, La Casa Cielo is luxurious in comparison to their current arrangements.  Their new house will be about 400 square feet.  It has a roof, and more than two rooms, which will be nice for Indria and her baby that is due by the end of August.

The fat old sun was nice to us during the morning, but as the lunch hour waned, rain clouds moved in. The afternoon was primarily spent putting together La Casa Papaya.  The family who is moving into the house is lead by a woman named Carol.  Carol has four children living with her in the house.  They are a little more fortunate than Indria and Allan, but that is pale in comparison to what typical American tenants expect.  Carol's house has dirt floors. No carpeting, no tiles, no wood; floors constructed of the very earth itself. Carol's new house will be like Indria's; bigger, and feature more comfortable living arrangements for both her and her four boys. Most of the work tomorrow will be putting in windows and inside walls of both La Casa Cielo and La Casa Papaya.

As we relax in the middle of our week here in Costa Rica, the rain still falls steadily, and the power flickers.  We are sitting around socializing by playing cards and other games. The rain kept us away from the beach tonight. But the rain is much welcomed, being that it's been brutally hot and sunny for our previous work days. Tomorrow both Indria's and Carol's houses will have windows and our work with their houses will be very nearly complete.

We may live on the same continent as the fantastic people we've met here in Costa Rica, but it feels like we're on another planet. The wildlife, the weather, the scenery, the locals, and the situation; everything is so vastly different that it is a stark comparison to life in the United States. It has really made us realize that we are quite fortunate for many things that we take for granted back at home.  Our experience thus far in Costa Rica has really helped us open our eyes; in turn this has helped us open our hearts.  Helping the people of Costa Rica is a rewarding experience for the work groups and the locals alike.

Written by Byron McGuire

Second day - Tuesday

It is our second day in Costa Rica, and yet again it is very hot and very sunny. Although it is their rainy season, we have been blessed with dry weather and are able to get lots of work done. We started with morning devotion, today’s message was about Abraham and we were reminded that no one’s work is more important than another’s. We are all important and without each of us, the houses would not be built.

Today the teams worked hard to get 49 of the 50 panels completed. The cement board panels are assembled to be the walls of the homes which are 24 ft. by 24 ft. We also built 8 window panels and 3 doors per home. The team is getting very good at using the drills, power saws and paint rollers.

The highlight of our day today was going to the site where the first home will be built. We call it the blue house because the walls are painted a baby blue. The concrete slab was poured before we arrived so it is prepared for the walls to be constructed. We loaded Maximo’s pickup truck with several heavy panels and drove the 1 Kilometer to the site. We had to cross the creek so fortunately the water is not too high. The man whose home we are building, Alan, met us and helped to unload the truck with a big smile on his face. We met his wife who is due with their 3^rd child in August. They also have a small son and daughter shown smiling in this photo.

The group in this photo, Mike, Patty, Stacy, Sarah, Byron and Anton are standing on a log that is used by the locals to cross the river. By the end of the day, the walls for the blue house were all standing. It now needs the roof, electricity and windows.

After our long work day, we all headed to the Playa Garza beach for some relaxation and swimming in the Pacific Ocean. The waves are high and the water warm. The sunsets here are spectacular. Everyone is in good spirits and we are working hard to help these wonderful people.

The work begins...

Christine and Cal told us that Costa Rica is a beautiful place, but nothing can describe what it is like here!!!! We had a LONG drive from San Jose to the Nosara area yesterday, but there was something more beautiful to look at  every turn! This country is so green and full of color and life!!!
Today began with a wonderful breakfast, including the best fresh fruit! Then Maximo explained that our goal was to make 50 panels for the 2 homes by 4:15 in the afternoon...We are able to make the panels right here at the place where we are staying, so we started right after breakfast. Tomorrow we will go to the place where the houses are actually being built and we will get to meet the families.
There was a bit of chaos as we first began the work of figuring out who was in each group and how to actually assembly the panels made of cement board and wood. We did have to make sure that family members were not together in the groups for the construction. After about an hour, what Maximo said would happen did....we were all in our groups and work was progressing along so well. There was even a little friendly competition between the family members. I think it really spurred us on to do well.
It was HOT, HOT, HOT as we worked today! We all worked to be sure we were hydrated and healthy. Many of us doused ourselves with cold water at lunchtime to cool off!
Not sure how many panels we actually got finished, but it was not quite the goal of 50. We will finish them  tomorrow. We did stop working at about 5 P. M. and all headed to the beach. It is the Pacific Ocean and the beach is beautiful and the waves were incredible! We had a lot of fun playing in the waves and saw a wonderful sunset!
Right now we are waiting for dinner to begin. We are all so grateful to be here in this wonderful place.

Some of us at the garden behind the restaurant where we ate dinner.

A fruit stand on the way from San Jose to Las Delicias

Working monday on panels.

The first team to complete a panel with windows.

On the beach after our first workday.

...And the sunsets on our first fantastic day in Costa Rica.

2214 miles from Chicago - and a world away;

We have arrived safely, and very tired.  Our day started at 3:00 am in Chicago's Ohare airport, and has just ended at 11:00 pm mountain time in Las Delicias in Costa Rica..

We will update tomorrow with pictures and our story.