Building Relationships

¿Hola cada uno, cómo es usted?

So I thought that I would give you an update on what we have been up to the past three days. If you read my previous blog you would know that we went to help a family build a house through the organization El Jordan. Well Marco liked us so much that he asked Ken if we could help him out the next day with another project. We were told we would be helping build a gate, and so the next morning off we went. 

Seeing as we were only building a gate, we dressed in shorts and t-shirts, didn't wear bug spray or sunscreen and thought nothing of it. Bad mistake, apparently building a gate means getting a property outside the city ready for a barbed wire fence. That being said I will now explain the day.

So we got up and were picked up by Marco at 8 AM, at which point we headed out of the city. Pretty soon we were far off the beaten path and due to the recent rains the roads were definitely not the greatest, but we made it so that was fine. We arrive at a property that is owned by El Jordan and met the couple that looked after it for them, Anna and Santiago. Then after we had picked up a few supplies, a chainsaw, a weed whacker, a couple machetes and black string, we headed out.  

We drove for a couple more minutes and reached another property which El Jordan had just purchased. The land that they had purchased was only part of a property owned by someone else and so a new barbed wire fence was in order. That being said at the time we had no idea what was going on so we just carried the equipment and followed along. 

We walked through the jungle until we reached a path at which point we were told to wait and Marco and Santiago went off ahead. And so we did, standing in the middle of the jungle waiting getting eaten by more bugs than I care to remember, for 15 to 30 minutes. But we made the best of it, we sang some songs and things like that. When the returned they said it was time to go somewhere else so we followed them again, hit another point where they said to wait again and left. Again we waited and again we got bitten by bugs while we sang, it was a good time. Then they came back and we moved on to point three. Point three was a field, at which point they explained to us what was actually happening. Apparently El Jordan has just bought this piece of land and needs to put a fence up, but for a large portion of it the jungle needs to be cleared. 

When you think of buying property in Canada, the land you get is precise and already measured off, not so in Bolivia. How we knew where to clear the trees was by standing in the field beside a tree and visually making a line from a fencepost, to the tree, to a dead tree that you could see up the hill side in the jungle. So Santiago and Marco started clearing trees with their machete as Tim and I directed them from the field. I must tell you it was tiring work ;).

Now although we did not do much for the morning as for physical labour, in the afternoon we got our chance, we were given a turn at clearing trees which was really tiring but a lot of fun. I know that we did not do it nearly as fast as they did, but I also know they were glad to be able to take a break.  

At the end of the day we were quite happy with the work we had done even if we did not get to do as much as expected, and things did not go as we had planned. We were full of mosquito bites, we had sun burn, and our legs were fully scratched up from all the thorns, but we left at the end of the day satisfied and happy. Although it was not one of those situations where we had to do tons or got to witness to someone, I know our efforts were appreciated, we had a really good time, and Marco thought we did great so he asked us back for the next day.

So today and yesterday we went to work with Marco again. This time we were working again with the family building the house, although we did not spend that much time there. The majority of our day was spent driving around picking up supplies. First we picked up the roofing for the house because all the walls had been finished, impressive since it only took two days. We then went and picked up a bunch of random supplies at the market such as door handles and locks and things like that.

After all the running around in the city we went out for lunch and had some beef, which also came with bacon, a nice change from the chicken we have nearly every meal. In the afternoon we went back to the families house and spent some time there. We were able to play with the kids which was really fun and they were super excited. After a couple minutes Christian, the oldest boy brought us out a white coloured drink which we think was corn milk. We drank and bit but did not like it very much so we set out to sneakily pour out the rest while pretending to drink it. This ended up being easier than we thought because right then we went for a walk with the kids. This mean we could fall behind once in a while and pour a bit out, the kids didn't notice and we were able to not offend anyone by not drinking it, hurray! After the walk Marco told us we had to do some more work so we ran around for the rest of the afternoon picking things up and then we went home.

The next day we went back to the house building and did all the work for the floor while the others finished the roof. We were told the ground needed to be level, so we took acement block with a piece of rebar sticking out of the top and went to work flattening the dirt inside the house. After this we went to work placing bricks in a specific pattern for the floor. It took a while but eventually we finished and then we mixed together a cement and sand mixture for the mortar. One of the other guys took it and did the rest of the work on the floor. So for the rest of the day we were able to play with the kids which was super fun. By the end of the day the house was completely finished, impressive since it took a totally of 5 days to complete.

All in all the past few days have been very rewarding with lots of work but also a lot of fun. I can tell already that this trip will be full of great stories, so keep posted to hear some more. Also sorry about the length of this blog and I’ll make sure to keep the rest of my blogs shorter in length. But if you’ve made it this far thanks for reading! 

Gracias Y Dios Bendice