Huite, Zacapa, Guatemala Take

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - Jeff Smith

For those of you who have volunteered with Habitat before you know intimately how I am feeling physically today—sore back, sore quads, sore forearms, sore shoulders (it might be easier to list the parts that are not sore). Regardless, the idea of staying behind and resting never crossed my mind. We have work to do and our homeowners were waiting.
As we arrived on site, we saw that progress had been made over night on the houses we were building (the masons stayed until 6pm and arrived at 7am….definitely making us feel guilty). Today was more of the same as yesterday—shoveling dirt, moving block, mixing concrete, and sweating, A LOT!

The past two days over the lunch hour we participated in Habitat International’s Build and Learns (which are similar to Twin Cities Habitat’s own Build. Think. Act. Program). Today’s discussion focused on land tenure (see earlier post for a more thorough definition of what this is) a very timely topic given the site we are working on.

The project we are working on is a 72 house development (27 of them have been completed and families will soon be moving in). Many of the families currently live on the side of the mountain located above the valley where we are building (see pictures on our flick account below). The houses are slowly deteriorating and each year several houses are lost to landslides (and many of the people in these houses do not have title to their land—even though the land has been passed down from relatives over the years). Habitat Guatemala purchased the plot of land we are working on and will sell the homes as well as transfer title to the families at the closing.

Sadie (the homeowner whose house we are building) currently lives with her son Fernando (the seven-year old king of the neighborhood) and her soft spoken nine-year old daughter Susan Maria in a room within her mother’s house that she also shares with her mother and another cousin. Sadie was kind enough to give us a tour of her house, which also doubles as a store, (You will see pictures of this house on the flickr account page below) and after spending just a few minutes inside, I was excited for Sadie to soon have her own space to raise her kids. Knowing her son Fernando, the new house will provide him with the needed space to run around and be a kid.

Inside Sadie’s mother’s home, it was hard to imagine what it must be like to sleep in there when it is raining (Sadie said that when it rains there are several holes where rain would pour in, forcing Fernando to move his bed into the center of the room). You could also tell that the walls need repair and that insects could come and go as they please.

As we left her mother’s home, Sadie told us that she hoped to turn one of the rooms in her new home into a shop and sell goods (soda, groceries, bread, etc.) to the people in her neighborhood (which is very common here—Guatemalans are very entrepreneurial and resourceful). This new store will generate the income needed to make her monthly mortgage payments (her new home will not only be where her family will live, but it will also serve as her place of employment).

Although we just met this family yesterday, it was difficult to say goodbye today (we are returning to Guatemala City tomorrow for meetings with housing officials). Though it is possible that I will not see this family again, I am comforted to know that through this Habitat home Sadie and her family are starting a new chapter in their life. One filled with excitement, hope, and the peace of mind that this simple 500 square foot house is theirs and Sadie soon will have the title to prove it.

View our pictures on Flickr at http://bit.ly/8qRili