Day Nine
Went for a walk this morning before breakfast, it's amazing that there are some really nice houses tucked in between the grotty ones. All the same they are covered with steel cages. Property theft is rife out here. Even in the town where we are staying the infrastructure is very run down. You can't take your eye off the pavement for a second or you will be down a hole.
After Breakfast of (you've got it, rice and beans) we headed out to the church and church school to help with some maintenance work. Whilst a couple of the guys and myself put up a stud wall in one of the classrooms, the others got stuck into the painting of the church walls (internal) pink, can you believe it, pink walls in a church and it's not even in Tudley. (http://www.tudeley.org/allsaintstudeley.htm) the church there has windows by Marc Chagall, I believe a kid with a felt tip pen could do a better job, but that's just my opinion.
Lunch at the church and more DIY. I was amazed that no other locals were there to help us, or us to help them. I would have thought that the Pastor would have arranged a work party but no, just us and a few of the church organisers .
After we finished up there, we went to the ghetto where most of the kids that go to that school live. It was grim. They are living in tin or wooden sheds. But I am starting to struggle with this. Yes it is a poor country, but the more I see of it, the more materialistic I am beginning to find the people. And all for the wrong reasons. They have no idea about financial matters, they take loans at 50% interest to buy items they do not need. They live in terrible conditions but they all have TV, mobile phones, stereo systems and even Xbox's or similar. Some have cars that are wrecks but fitted with alloy wheels and loud exhausts.
I'm struggling with it because I can't reconcile it in my mind, do these people want help or just handouts so they can buy more "stuff". I don't necessarily mean the family we are building for as they have nothing at the moment anyway and at least the guy is working nights at the Coca Cola factory and then working on his house with us during the day. But the woman who prepares our lunch and coffee etc, she has a Habitat house which does not have a lot in it, but it does have the TV, stereo etc.
It probably sounds as though I think they shouldn't have anything at all, that's not what I mean and I don't feel that I am explaining it very well. (please note that this is one of my early trips and just getting a feel for this type of community. You will note a change in my attitude as we progress)
Day Ten
Sunday, day of rest. After breakfast we headed for the beach at Jaco in two mini buses. It took a couple of hours including a stop for a coke and a look at the crocodiles in the river. When we arrived it was about 12:45. Moma D and I headed for the beach bar closely followed by the rest of the team.
I had the enchilada el polo, a refreshing change from the food at the digs. Whilst others went for a walk on the beach I stayed at the bar and had a couple of bottles of beer. They soon returned and joined me. After we watched the sun set it was time to head home stopping at a roadside bar for dinner. This was late for the Americans 19:45.
I find the food in CR very bland. The Tex Mex enchilada was the best meal so far. The salads at the work site are good but I wish she would make more guacamole.
So here we are back at base and everyone has disappeared off to bed, well it is 20:45 and breakfast is at 07:00.
Had a chat with Terry about my thoughts and troubles reconciling the value of the trip in my mind. I found out he felt the same way about Portugal. It was interesting hearing his reasons and discussing our thoughts. Unfortunately it did not help with my struggles as far as Costa Rica is concerned , I shall just have to work on that.
Day Eleven
As soon as we got to site, two of us started shovelling sand into barrows whilst another took them down the hill. Soon a tractor with a trailer arrived. Between the two of us and the young guy who's house we are helping to build, we loaded about 6 ton of sand into the trailer. My shoulders are aching a bit now. The sun was blazing down and we were working without shade.
Once full, the tractor took the load down the hill but was unable to tip it because the angle of the hill was greater than his tipping angle. We had to unload part of the load and then help push the trailer up at the front whilst the driver used the ram. It worked at last and the load was delivered.
The others in the team were laying blocks and mixing mortar. I made up some wooden jigs to help fill the gaps with mortar. (I learnt that on the Portugal trip) . So the day went on until lunch time, hot and sweaty. We broke for lunch and once again the heavens opened. I doubt there will be any mortar left in the joints by the time we get back down there tomorrow.
Marisa is the woman who prepares our lunch, she made, on special request from myself, Guacamole, Sainsbury eat your heart out, this stuff is the best. I shall try to get the recipe.
Day Twelve
Started late for some reason. The weather was hot. Well there's a surprise. We got two rows of blocks up and concreted in the base blocks. It was hard going but we were on a time line as the rains don't give up here. Rained off at 14:00.
Got back to the digs and found I had a signal, 987 e-mails later I lost the signal so I will still have to go to the Internet café.
Day Thirteen
We arrived at site a bit early today as it is the last full working day on site. Everyone was eager to get stuck in. Ken had a bet on with another team member that they would get to 5 rows high. I think a large steak was on the table. (That's beef not cash). Well after a very hot start we made it to 5 high in one section and 4 in the rest (external only) inner walls were at 2 high.
Again we were rained off at lunchtime. This was a disaster as it was our last day. Fortunately we took the group picture just before the rain started. Tools cleaned and away for the last time, we headed back up the hill to the bus and home.
In the evening we all met in the dinning area of the digs along with the young couple who will eventually move into the house, (they are the couple in the centre of the picture above) some Habitat personnel, Merrisa who prepared our lunch and a few more invited guests. After the speeches and presentations, thank you's and goodbye's, karaoke was the order of the night. That was until 21:00 hrs as you now know Costa Rica shuts at 9.
This was my first visit to a Central American country. My third Habitat Global Village trip as a team member. I will post my second trip next as I forgot about Sri Lanka. I believe as I took on more projects and visited more and varied countries, my whole perception of what we were doing, and why, changed. These trips had such a profound effect on me that it changed my life (for the better, I believe). It made me more empathetic towards the problems in our world. More tolerant of others. It made me examine myself and my life, so much so that I changed parts of it. After 5 trips as a team member I decided to become a team leader and went to Chicago to take part in the TL training program. That was in 2008. It is now 2012 and I have completed 14 trips to date with another due in a couple of months (December) and two already booked for 2013.
My next posting will be Sri Lanka June 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment