Retorno a Mi Casa

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Buenos dias a todo! And I'm not talking about Dorothy's dog. Past time to get into the Habitat conversation following a soul-building sojourn in central America. There are no words (even for me) that describe the power of the experience of building homes for wonderful families in el Salvador with a magnificent team. Already planning my next build - or at least dreaming about it. I'm back at work with CBC (and mourning the cancellation of the program I worked on for so long, Country Canada - this is a travesty) and spending my spare time getting my visual memories of el Salvador and Guatemala together. I plan to share, soonest, I promise. In the meantime, stay in touch. It was a hoot!

International Stories

Even though I appear to be the only one reading this, I guess I should update. And it HAS been a very long time. Let's see. Just back from three weeks in Central America - building homes with Habitat for Humanity and bumming around Guatemala solo. Marvelous experience! Highly recommended to anyone wanting an inexpensive, warm (in every sense of the word) and authentic international experience. Spent most of my Guatemalan days in Antigua, a charming and historic city of cobblestones and churches and rich culture. This was after the Habitat build, in a small community called San Lorenzo. Seventy international volunteers and a similar number of Salvadoran volunteers built 12 small but sturdy homes in the space of a week. Hot, heavy work but extremely satisfying connecting to both the volunteer group and to the families who are now living in those homes. What a nice thought. Worked shoulder to shoulder with Uncle Gustavo and Santiago, under the watchful but generous eye of Rosa Rodriguez, the grandmother and retired teacher who will live in the home with Margot and her two lovely children Laura and Gabriella. There is much need for housing in el Salvador. It was nice to make a small difference.
On the home front, Patrick is off in Thailand - worrying me at the moment because he phoned this morning. I missed the call. And I don't know what occurred that required the unusual contact of a phone call. I will keep my imagination in check.