Habitat para la Humanidad - La Ceiba, Honduras

I had one of the neatest experiences of my service this June when I worked with volunteer David Wrathall on a Habitat for Humanity project in La Ceiba. This Habitat affiliate is one of the largest and most successful in Central America, with more than 100 new houses built each year in the Department of Atlántida, on the north coast of Honduras. They receive most of their funding from the Habitat World Village program, in which groups of volunteers come to build houses, and bring donations in the form of cash and building materials. This June, La Ceiba Habitat hosted their largest group of volunteers yet, so I was asked by my project manager to assist David on the project. The work consisted of facilitating in the logistics -- housing, feeding, and transporting the volunteers around the region, teaching basic construction methods, and translating on the construction site.

There were groups from Texas and Canada working on 4 houses in 4 different communities. I worked specifically with one of the groups from Texas on the home of husband and wife, Cruz y Rosa, in the community of Bonitillo. They were currently living in a one room house, a 3-sided wooden structure enclosed on the 4th side only by a plastic tarp. When we met Cruz and Rosa, they had both quit their jobs to work on the house but still had some income from their children who lived with them. We spent a week working on the house, and during this time, the volunteers developed a nice relationship with the family and the neighborhood kids who were constantly playing around the house, observing the work of the “gringos.” I had the opportunity to talk with Cruz during the days we were working together, and shared with the volunteers all of his thoughts and feelings as he watched his home being constructed. He told me how he had dreamed of this house, and that for years, he had imagined what it would be like to sleep in a real house one day. But now that he was seeing it built, he still couldn’t believe it was really happening. At the end of the week, we took a group photo of the volunteers with Cruz, and promised that we would send him a copy. He had asked to have a photo of all the volunteers who had helped build his house as a constant reminder of how God had blessed him and his family. On that last day, as we were leaving, I told Cruz and Rosa that I would come back in a few months to check up on them, see the finished house, and bring the photo to hang on their wall. Cruz shook my hand and then quickly had to excuse himself. As he turned to go into the house, I saw the tears as he started to cry. It was the first time I had seen a Honduran man cry, and I knew then how important this work was to the people that Habitat La Ceiba serves. It’s just one example of a family who has been touched by the work of volunteers.

These were some of the beautiful children who surrounded us during the workdays...with their laughter and games.

When we weren’t working on the house, we were enjoying the natural beauty of the region – hiking and white water rafting in Pico Bonito, swimming in waterfalls, and visiting the tiny islands of the Cayos Cochinos! It was a beautiful week between the hours we sweated on the house and the relaxation we enjoyed after a long days work. Here you can see the beautiful caribbean water and the fresh lunch we enjoyed...pescado frito, casamiento, y tajaditas ricas!