Construction Begins - Monday, July 28

Today, we split into two groups to work at two different sites.  The two groups are:

Habitat Leaders:  Arely and Josue, substituting for Francis just today.
Jim
Greg
Jason
Joe
Maggie
Nicole
Walker
Sara

Habitat Leader: Carla
Dean
Nicki
Bob
Shaun
Jenelle
Marilyn
Jake
Ruth

The activities of Carla's group are described here.  We'll swap tasks on Thursday so we can visit each other's work sites.

 Carla, a native El Salvadoran, has a Master's degree from Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota in teaching English as a second language.
She will guide our construction efforts today.

We get to the work site and Jenelle ponders the tree stump we need to remove.

Ernesto, an assistant mason, will help us.

Abraham, the head mason will direct our work.

Marilyn reviews her Spanish with a young boy in the neighborhood.

Jake works on moving a wall off the lot line.

This is where we eat lunch, which is driven in daily by a representative of a local business.  This is the outdoor area of the home of a relative of the future homeowner.

With Shaun Keene looking on after hours of personal digging and chopping, the stump finally is broken loose.  This is an old mango tree that had died, and was located where the foundation of the house will be.  We worked all day removing this, and the local masons, our immediate work supervisors, were very happy about it.  After completing this task, one has a lot of respect for an old mango tree that probably saw a very long life of being a very tough tree.

Preparing to drag away the loosened stump.

The stump is going to have to be pulled out with several people and a rope.

Ernesto gives Shaun the credit for conquering the mangrove stump.