I know, I know! Eldama Ravine AGAIN? Well, yes. 🙂
I was scheduled to build in Kenya in March of 2013, but unfortunately that trip was cancelled due to uncertainty around the upcoming Presidential elections. You may recall that in 2008, there were riots following the December 2007 elections, which led to a humanitarian crisis. Habitat for Humanity made the difficult decision to cancel our scheduled trip based on an analysis of safety. Thankfully, those concerns turned out to be for naught as the elections were relatively peaceful. Nevertheless, it left me without a trip!
Around this same time, the folks at Habitat for Humanity Kenya were reevaluating their program and were planning to put hosting of international volunteer programs on hold in order to focus their efforts in other ways. When I learned that it might be some time before teams would be returning to Kenya, I quickly found one of the remaining teams and joined what turned out to be the last team of the year!
This time we worked in a different area of town relative to my first two trips, so the experience was new for us all. We met Dinah John, an elderly woman who cared for her orphaned grandchildren when there were not attending boarding school. Over the course of a week, we laughed, cried, danced and sang with our new community. Simon and Stanley, with the help of occasional translation and usual jokes from Eric, taught us to mix mortar, lay bricks and plumb corners of the house. We chatted and played with the kids and ate delicious meals (ugali! chapati! mandazi!) prepared by the women of the community.
What a team. What a country!
Yes, that’s right! On the way home from my first Global Village build, I immediately wanted to do it again. 🙂 I wanted to return to Kenya in order to form deeper relationships with the people there. As luck would have it, I ended up in the very same community!
Returning to Eldama Ravine was amazing. When I walked into the hotel, the friends I made just a few months ago shared huge smiles and warm hugs, welcoming me “back home”. We chatted about what had changed and what had stayed the same. We ate the same food, drank the same boxed wine, played pool to the sounds of Toto just like before… Yet this was definitely a new experience. A new group of volunteers who would become friends, a new family, and plenty of new insights.
This was also a special build because it was my first Thanksgiving volunteer trip! Although I missed being home, my new friends made this an experience to remember, and one to be shared on these pages soon. 🙂
Details of my time at the Tashi Chime Gatsal Nunnery coming soon!
In December 2015, I worked with One Small House and a team of amazing volunteers in Tijuana helping three families into new homes they desperately needed. Below, you’ll meet the families we were able to help.
Meet The Families
The first family we built for is the Guzman family. At the time of the trip, this family comprised Jose Antionio Juarez Guzman, who is 79 years old, his 89 year old wife, Maria Treinidad Medina and their son Jose Manuel Valezuela Medina, who is 53 years old. The wife and son in this family are completely blind, and the father has extremely poor vision (blind in one eye and hardly sees out of the other). As a result, the family is unable to work and survives off of the kindness of neighbors. Sadly, they had been living in a decrepit home that hardly protected them from the weather. Our goal was to provide them with a safe, warm home this winter.
In addition, we were also building a home for one of their neighbors, who help the Guzman family – in fact two families who are currently living under the same “roof.” Although it is their home, their current house is in terrible condition. Living here are Alejandro Feliciano Diaz (39 years old), his wife, Yolando Guzman (40 years old), their son, Jesus Alejandro (2 years old), along with Benjamin Leyva Romero (27 years old), his wife Griselda Maldonado (26 years old) and their two children, Jesus Maria Leyva (4 years old) and Cristopher Nicolas Leyva (3 years old). Benjamin and Alejandro are cousins and this large family will benefit greatly from your support his December.
Thanks to everyone who joined this build! We had a very successful trip and nearly completed a house for Gloria and Freddie in just 5 days of work. They should move in within two weeks (once the roof, doors and windows are installed and the floor has had time to cure). Their excitement was obvious and their smiles wonderful! Here’s a collection of photos from this trip.
You can also check out more detailed stories of this build in the following blog posts:
Bienvenido a Casa! and Update: Gloria’s Family is Home!
For more information about Habitat for Humanity’s work in Nicaragua through the Global Village program, please visit the Habitat for Humanity Nicaragua homepage. Additional information about the housing need in Nicaragua is also included below. Thanks in advance for your support!
Housing need in Nicaragua
Eighty percent of the Nicaraguan population subsists on less than US$2 per day, and 43 percent on less than US$1 a day. In a country of more than five million habitants, there are many situations that affect the housing situation. Inadequate housing (both qualitative and quantitative), insufficient public investment in the housing sector, natural disasters, social and economic instability, migration from rural to urban areas and the formation of new nuclear families are all factors that take a toll on the availability of adequate housing in Nicaragua. It is estimated that each year the housing deficit in the country rises by some 30,000 homes.
Due to the low priority of housing on both political and non-profit agendas, investment in the housing sector has not been sufficient to tackle the problem.
Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua
Habitat for Humanity began working in Nicaragua in 1984. Habitat for Humanity Nicaragua supports the social production of habitat in such a way that strengthens community leadership and resources, and supports families in achieving solutions to their housing needs. The organization works through four main initiatives to serve low-income families, with special emphasis given to women-headed households, families with three or more dependents, families with members who have special needs and families with a monthly income of less than US$350.
