Dream Big: Walter’s Blueprint for His Housing Hope

Walter and his family live at “22 de Enero”, an informal settlement in the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires. He connected with Habitat through its Habitat Tent event, during which volunteer architects, lawyers and other professionals give free assistance to low income families that are in need of adequate housing but lack the technical knowledge to carry out their housing solution.

At the Habitat Tent of November 27^th, Walter mentioned his housing dream for the first time and asked for assistance to improve his house. The team of architects discussed his case and concluded that Walter’s situation would benefit from a more in-depth consultation, so they returned to Walter’s house two weeks later. When they arrived, they ran into Walter’s wife, who said “I told Walter, ‘Your volunteers will never come back.’…But here you are!”

Volunteer architects discussing the technical details with Walter and his family

Walter was very excited to get started, quickly setting the table and offering the guests “mate” as he, his wife and son began to describe the house they want to build. He said he would build this house in 10 years, the house of his dreams. He acknowledged that this was not a short-term goal, but rather one that would require lots of time and patience. He knows what his hard work will result in – a finished house within which his family could grow and succeed – but he was unsure how exactly to get there. He needed the volunteers to help him turn his dream into a reality.

The architects started drawing the features Walter described. Among other details, he mentioned the likely expansion of his family and his resulting desire to have a small light in the corridor that would stay lit after nightfall so that the children would feel comfortable using the bathroom during the middle of the night. Walter’s dream gradually started to have measures, dimensions, materials, stages. From this process, his dream coalesced into a blueprint, and the how that Walter was looking for emerged. The architects outlined the tasks he will have to perform and how to do them. They also gave him an estimate of the materials he will need to buy for each stage, for example, number of bricks and cement bags for the walls of a new bedroom. The architects and Walter then walked around his plot of land, marking the placement of different parts of the future house and indicating how deep the foundations should be dug.

The blueprint of the dream house

Half an hour later, Walter surprised the volunteers by inviting them to the inauguration of the house of his dreams and asked Diego (one of the volunteer architects) to become the godfather of the house. Diego accepted.

Diego and the other two volunteers will visit Walter on a regular basis in order to continue supervising Walter’s progress and sharing the experience. Walter is looking forward to those visits and is hoping to one day receive volunteer brigades to help him build his dream.

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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Very Joyous New Year!

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Saying Goodbye is Hard – A Note from Field Assistant Victoria

To all the global village groups from July to December 2010

Dear all,

My time as a volunteer for Habitat Argentina has come to an end. I wanted to thank you all for having been part of my life during the fantastic 6 months in which I had the chance to serve, and for the opportunity to learn an impressive amount that will no doubt help me for the rest of my life! I feel I have grown a lot from July to now, and this would have not been possible without you. Getting to know you, hearing your stories and your motivation for coming to Argentina have not only had a long term impact on the communities we work in, but also on me. So, thank you and keep doing what you are doing – the world needs it!

Wish you all the best and hopefully our paths will cross again sometime in the future!

Take care,

Victoria

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Adios and Gracias a Todos from Field Assistant Katie

To all the volunteers I had the pleasure of meeting as a Global Village Field Assistant with Habitat for Humanity Argentina:

Unfortunately my time volunteering with Habitat has come to an end. It has been quite the journey, one that I am so grateful to have been on. I just wanted to write a quick note to the groups of Polly Knudsen, Peter Sexton, St. Lukes, Suzanne Fougere, and Pat Magnusen and Dale Dupuis to express my gratitude to you all for having come to Argentina to participate in our projects. I have learned so much throughout this experience, and I will leave Argentina feeling optimistic because of my consistent contact with people like you, who not only hope for a better world, but take action to create one.  When you are only here for one week, it is hard to see the fruits of your work. However, I have been fortunate enough to go back to Recreo, Santa Fe, as well as La Matanza, to visit the families who you worked with, and hear them ask me time and time again about the foreign volunteers who helped them better their homes.

I think my “field assistant” abilities improved a lot as I gained more experience, so to my earlier groups I apologize for not being able to answer all of your questions or facilitate the experience as much as maybe I could now. To my first two groups (Polly Knudsen and Peter Sexton), THANK YOU for being so understanding and flexible, and most of all, thanks for having what the Argentine’s call “buena onda”, which means having a good attitude, or good energy. I went in October to Santa Fe and I have new photos to share with you from Walter and Soledad’s home that are on their way.

To St. Lukes: Well I wasn’t expecting that a group from the Lutheran Church would be so much fun!  Do you miss moving tierra??? Probably not haha! You were my first closed group, and you really welcomed me into your team. You also got me a free dinner at Desnivel when I recently went back with a GV group! So thanks Renee for dancing with the waiter to “Pa-panamericano”!!!

To Suzanne Fougere’s group: Canada represent!! Thanks for sharing so much with not only Victoria and I, but also with the different communities that we worked with in Recreo. You really helped make my last visit to Santa Fe a memorable experience. You will not be forgotten in the Mocovi community.

To Pat and Dale’s group: This was my last brigade and my last visit to the 22 de enero community so it was quite a special week for me. I think you really accomplished a lot despite the extreme heat, and you did it with such good disposition. Thank you for making my last week in the field so enjoyable and for allowing me to close this experience on such a high note.

I have learned so much over the course of these 6 months and now I feel much more directed with respect to the next steps in my life. You have all inspired me and taught me about life and myself in different ways. I hope you will continue to inspire, create hope, and do what you can to change what you feel needs change, and not allow the depth of the issues that exist to keep us from acting.

I wish you all health, love and happiness and I hope our paths will cross again someday!

Katie

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

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Much More Than Houses – Construction and Community in Santa Fe with Our Neighbors Waaay Up North

The end of October brought another open Global Village brigade, this one made up of members from all over Canada. They spent two weeks working with Habitat families from communities in Recreo, Santa Fe, accompanied by our two field assistants (including one who happens to be a fellow “canadiense”!). In addition to being one of the longer brigades we have hosted, this was also the first international brigade for our new local office coordinator, Cecilia, and she was a fantastic improvement to the team!

Finally finished! The team with Vero and her son

On the construction end, the brigade got to work finishing some projects-in-progress. If you remember from earlier posts, Vero currently has a loan from Habitat to build a Core House in Barrio Mocoví, and she has now hosted three different Global Village brigades since September. The advancements on the house that she has been able to make with the help of the volunteers have been remarkable! Working with Vero, her husband and their construction foreman, the team was able to finished the septic tank well that was first started by the students from the Lincoln School of Buenos Aires. With the most labor-intensive aspect of the septic system taken care of and the bathroom cement floor in place, volunteers then were able to dig ditches for the pipes of the plumbing system. The volunteers also went to the houses of other families in the community to paint the frames of the doors and windows, creating a “cultura de mantenimiento,” as recognition for that they are ahead or up to date with their payments.  The loan payments go into a rotating fund that provides loans for new families, so these families are furthering the cycle of community empowerment.

Bringing the world closer together through a little bit a paint

Community development and interaction took center stage for a number of different projects over the two weeks. With the participation of the Mocoví football league’s coach, the group filled holes in the ground in order to level the playing field and planted trees around the park. They also painted garbage cans with beautiful images such as the Canadian and Argentine flags, the Habitat logo, and bilingual “USE ME” messages. The coach was definitely excited to get his players back on the field with it now so even, clean and safe. Also within Barrio Mocoví, some of the volunteers had the opportunity to go to the local school to learn more about the music and indigenous culture of the region.

Give me a beat!

The brigade also happened to be in town for the 13th anniversary of the local health center. In honor of this, there was a big celebration attended by all of the center’s personnel (doctors, psychologists, nurses), families from the community, the mayor of Recreo and of course, the Global Village group! To get the center ready, the volunteers helped sand down and repaint the flaking walls of the center’s two buildings. And with the help of some of the nurses and women of Recreo, they made 30 pizzas for the party. For the 100 or so attendees, it was a welcome day of music, dancing, games and workshops for the children.

Who's hungry? Luckily pizza means the same thing in English and Spanish!

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Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors: We Are All “Igual, Igual” in La Matanza

The month of September brought sunshine and more Global Villages to HFHA, including a group from St. Luke’s, a Lutheran church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The congregation has had a connection to Argentina for some time now, through previous brigades with HFHA and through the growing relationship between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and La Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Unida de Argentina y Uruguay (IELU). Thanks to these bonds, this particular brigade was able to participate in both construction work and spiritual development.

Piles of “tierra”: seemingly endless. Spending time with the kids: truly priceless.

From the first day of orientation, it was clear the importance of faith in the members’ journey to Argentina. In attendance throughout the week were Pedro, delegate of IELU, and David, who with his wife has been serving as ELCA Global Mission Regional Representatives for South America for the past five years. Pedro and David were vital in facilitating the interaction between St. Luke’s and the various churches the group visited within Argentina during their stay. The volunteers had the opportunity to attend local services, schools and community centers, and despite the challenge of the language barrier, the group gained a great deal from the sermons and the interaction with the congregants.

In addition, three members of the brigade, along with David and Veronica, a seminary student, set off for a few days on a medical mission to San Gregorio, Santa Fe province. There, along with local doctors, church members and social workers, they assisted the local Lutheran mission congregation in evaluating the current public health infrastructure, assessing risks and identifying the needs of the community by conducting home visits with families and meetings with hospital staff.

While this process was taking place in Santa Fe, the rest of the group threw themselves into their tasks in La Matanza. Working in the settlement Un Techo para Todos (A Roof for All) within the community of 22 de Enero, the brigade spent the week rotating among families and various construction tasks. With an unlimited source of enthusiasm, they split up daily into different groups, tagging each with a creative team name.

Working on the ramp at Fabiana’s house to provide easier accessibility for her daughter’s wheelchair

No dirt pile was left unturned, and the amount accomplished was truly impressive. They assisted families both with and without HFHA loans (the latter identified by volunteers within the settlement) in laying dirt to ready the ground for cement floors at multiple housing sites, pouring concrete (mixed by hand!) into columns to create the skeleton of a new house, raising a front yard to avoid future flooding and building a ramp for the special-needs child of one of the families.

In just a few days, they were also able to dig a hole of 7 feet for the septic tank of a new Seed House. It was extremely difficult work digging and lifting out the dirt and clay mixture, but by the end, the volunteers needed a ladder just to climb out. Additionally, they had the innovative idea to use the excavated dirt to fill the holes on the unpaved road in front of the work site. A neighbor saw this and started doing the same with extra dirt from his own construction materials. It was great to see such a good idea spread throughout the community!

Well done!

But the most significant aspect of the week was the atmosphere of warmth and open communication between the volunteers and the families. There was a great deal of sharing between the locals and the international volunteers – of mate, of music (creating new fans of the local cumbia hit “Por Panamericana”), of empanada recipes, of stories about their children. Many of the families were excited and so thankful to have “important” foreigners come into their homes. In response to these very gracious sentiments, the brigade came up with “igual, igual,” to express the simple but important notion that we are all equals – that no one is better than anyone else simply because of where they come from or how much money that have. We are all the same.

Families and volunteers enjoying the last day on site with a lovely lunch and goodbye ceremony at Nancy and Roberto’s house

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Putting the Global in Global Village: Students from North and South America and Europe plant a “seed” in Santa Fe

A group of international high school students from the Lincoln School of Buenos Aires spent a week in Recreo, Santa Fe province, working on a HFHA Seed House. The Seed House will consist of a bathroom and kitchen with the correct infrastructure for indoor plumbing, as well as one main living area.

Removing remnants of the previous structure and prepping the area for construction

This allows for the most urgent housing needs to be met while ensuring that the house can be easily adapted for future growth. The family selected for this project is Mocoví, an indigenous group in the north of Argentina. The teenagers helped tear down the existing precarious structure, dig a deep well to house a septic tank, remove a tree from the plot, dig foundations for walls and pour cement for the main living area.

Without the support of the brigade, the family of seven would have had to spend a significant amount additional time and loan money on these projects. HFHA started working in Santa Fe after a major flood caused severe damage to many homes, so the change from a dirt floor to cement floor had special significance. The family was astounded by the work ethic of all involved, and the teens were really proud to have been able to test their physical limits in working alongside the family. The teens also helped local children design and paint trash cans to fit into the colorful community-constructed plaza. The kids loved playing with the volunteers’ cameras, taking hundreds of photos at a time!

The Lincoln School students with their teachers, homeowner Vero and the tree they removed from construction site

(Note that this recap of the trip is part of the English-language Bulletin. There is a more extensive post on this Global Village from October 6th. And there have been many improvements to the Seed House since then! You can find photos of the progress in previous posts.)

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