Public health project implementation day two complete (well day one for me). I spent all yesterday hydrating and I went to bed by 10. When my alarm went off this morning at 7, I was so thankful that I had made it through the night. I was excited to get my hands dirty again and feel like I was doing something. I was a little hesitant to eat at breakfast, but I grabbed my Cipro with me for the road just in case.
We are working with a community called El Naranjo (Orange tree) and after speaking with one of the owners of the houses has around 300 people in it. The projects we are working on are creating sanitation stations which include a bathroom, shower room, and a place to wash and store water, in addition to cementing the floors of the houses. Cement floors are super important because most of the houses have dirt floors and these are impossible to keep clean. Dirt floors increase the incidence of acquiring parasites and other diseases. Kids who play inside the house will have all their toys in the dirt and then put their hands and toys in their mouths. Cement floors will allow for cleanlier conditions inside the house. With the sanitation station, we have to build a septic tank to allow for proper waste, so that water for drinking, eating, and showering doesn't get contaminated.
Our group of 44 are working on three seperate houses. So that means three houses to be cemented, three sanitation stations to build, and three septic tanks to build. When we got there today, I was amazed at how much had gotten done yesterday. Two of the houses were smaller and consisted of groups of about 10 and then there is a much larger house that has a group of around 40. I joined the larger group that was working on cementing all the floors of the larger house. Mixing cement was probably the hardest part. We had to measure out 12 buckets of sand and 3 buckets of rocks. Then we had to use shovels to mix them together. Once they were mixed we formed a "volcano" and then a "crater." Once the crater was properly formed we dumped in buckets of water and added the dry dirt into the middle of the crater. We moved the piles to the left and back to the right, and we also reformed many different craters to ensure everything was properly mixed. Then, we had to shovel all the concrete into buckets to bring into the house. We repeated this I think about 5 or so times throughout the day.
We almost finished all of our projects today and tomorrow we will return to put the roofs on the sanitation stations and create concrete patios for all of the houses.
Working alongside everyone was fun. I talked for awhile with the mother who lived in the larger house. She has three kids and five siblings. All of the siblings were around today helping out and if I understood correctly I believe they are also close by and receiving some of these projects that we are building. She talked about how her sister has anemia but she was able to get the necessary medicines and vitamins from a global brigades medical clinic. Some of the kids in the family have anemia too. One of the boys has severe anemia and he has to get blood transfusions every single month. She said that he still plays with all of his cousins though and you wouldn't even know that he was sick.
I could talk about Global Brigades forever, but I am truly so thankful for this experience. I have the opportunity to learn from so many different people and share parts of my life with them as well. Even something small, for example, there was a two month old puppy named Estrella (star) in one of the houses and I was actually dying when I saw it because it was so cute. I sat down to play with it (who cares if it has fleas, it's adorable!) and all the women were laughing and watching me. They asked me if I liked dogs and I responded with "Claro que si!" Which they thought was pretty funny. They asked if I had a dog and I proceeded to show them pictures of Lebron, which they all loved. Even something that small is an experience that brings you closer to another person.
I'm excited to return tomorrow and spend more time with the families and completely wrap up all of the projects. Until then!
We are working with a community called El Naranjo (Orange tree) and after speaking with one of the owners of the houses has around 300 people in it. The projects we are working on are creating sanitation stations which include a bathroom, shower room, and a place to wash and store water, in addition to cementing the floors of the houses. Cement floors are super important because most of the houses have dirt floors and these are impossible to keep clean. Dirt floors increase the incidence of acquiring parasites and other diseases. Kids who play inside the house will have all their toys in the dirt and then put their hands and toys in their mouths. Cement floors will allow for cleanlier conditions inside the house. With the sanitation station, we have to build a septic tank to allow for proper waste, so that water for drinking, eating, and showering doesn't get contaminated.
Our group of 44 are working on three seperate houses. So that means three houses to be cemented, three sanitation stations to build, and three septic tanks to build. When we got there today, I was amazed at how much had gotten done yesterday. Two of the houses were smaller and consisted of groups of about 10 and then there is a much larger house that has a group of around 40. I joined the larger group that was working on cementing all the floors of the larger house. Mixing cement was probably the hardest part. We had to measure out 12 buckets of sand and 3 buckets of rocks. Then we had to use shovels to mix them together. Once they were mixed we formed a "volcano" and then a "crater." Once the crater was properly formed we dumped in buckets of water and added the dry dirt into the middle of the crater. We moved the piles to the left and back to the right, and we also reformed many different craters to ensure everything was properly mixed. Then, we had to shovel all the concrete into buckets to bring into the house. We repeated this I think about 5 or so times throughout the day.
We almost finished all of our projects today and tomorrow we will return to put the roofs on the sanitation stations and create concrete patios for all of the houses.
Working alongside everyone was fun. I talked for awhile with the mother who lived in the larger house. She has three kids and five siblings. All of the siblings were around today helping out and if I understood correctly I believe they are also close by and receiving some of these projects that we are building. She talked about how her sister has anemia but she was able to get the necessary medicines and vitamins from a global brigades medical clinic. Some of the kids in the family have anemia too. One of the boys has severe anemia and he has to get blood transfusions every single month. She said that he still plays with all of his cousins though and you wouldn't even know that he was sick.
I could talk about Global Brigades forever, but I am truly so thankful for this experience. I have the opportunity to learn from so many different people and share parts of my life with them as well. Even something small, for example, there was a two month old puppy named Estrella (star) in one of the houses and I was actually dying when I saw it because it was so cute. I sat down to play with it (who cares if it has fleas, it's adorable!) and all the women were laughing and watching me. They asked me if I liked dogs and I responded with "Claro que si!" Which they thought was pretty funny. They asked if I had a dog and I proceeded to show them pictures of Lebron, which they all loved. Even something that small is an experience that brings you closer to another person.
I'm excited to return tomorrow and spend more time with the families and completely wrap up all of the projects. Until then!