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