Thoughts from the St. Paul Staff

ECUADOR

"Hello," from all our friends in Ecuador.

After a week in Quito visiting with all six of our Illinois South partners and a week in the Amazon rain forest learning about the work of the YACHANA Foundation, I joined a team of fourteen to fly to Catamayo for a week of Habitat house building. The team included six St. Paul members—Jane Bonaldi, Jan Friedrich, Steve Schmidt, Lee-Alison Wilson, Scott Wilson and myself.

We joined the Habitat engineer; the site "maestro" and his helper; Pompillio, the home buyer, and his family; Pastor Segundo, his wife—Julia—; and other volunteers from the Christian Center of Catamayo to form a marvelous, diversified work team. It is amazing how such a motley, intercultural crew can become an efficient working machine in no time when it is more about giving a family a decent place to live than simply building a brick house.

The week started with filling, leveling and compacting the sub-floor areas for the living-dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms and bath. By Tuesday evening we had also dug trenches, laid water and sewer lines, and conduit for the electricity. Once they were re-covered and compacted, we were ready, on Wednesday, to mix, move, and pour 36 square meters of concrete (approximately 380 square feet or nearly 200 wheelbarrows full of the grey, heavy and sloppy stuff) for the floors. Then began the fun part--laying and tuck pointing the exterior brick walls. Thursday saw the whole team pouring the flooring for house number 2—the future home of Gladys Zinizaray and her daughter, Melissa (13).

Back on site for Friday—everyone worked at a feverish pace. We only had six more working hours. Cement dust was flying! Mortar was splashing! One thousand bricks arrived by truck! Bricks were soaking! Plumb bobs were bobbing! Trowels were finishing mortar lines! Paint brushes were slopping orange protective pain on the roof panels! At 4:30 PM the exterior walls were done, the front half of the roof was painted with two coats and in place. The day and week came to an official close.

At the dedication each family was presented a Bible, many words of appreciation were shared and a lot of satisfaction was felt as we glimpsed a work well done.

Want to know more? Want to be a part of it? Catch any member of the team and get the full story. Then mark your calendar to be a part of the February or July 2011 team.

Peace, Pastor Kuether