Public Health Brigades

7/1/09
Today we had most of the day away from our normal business brigade work, but it was not a day off by any means. Most of MU GBB headed to a remote mountain community where some of the Global Water Brigades have been working. Our group’s task was to make concrete floors for three families. So we divided into three teams (Joy, Brenda, & Erin; Roberto, Hayley, & Rosario; and Kate, Jorge, & Sarah) and conquered. Joy, Brenda, and Erin worked along side the homeowner, his brother, and our driver Rafa on a floor for the man and his wife who were twenty years old, living in a new home the man had just built a few months previously, and were expecting their first child in two months. Meanwhile, Rosario, Roberto, and Hayley laid the last section of concrete flooring for a family up the mountain while the father oversaw their work. A bit farther up hill, Jorge, Kate, and Sarah worked with Armando (the homeowner) to pour the concrete flooring for his young family while his daughter ran around with the local children trying to help out as much they could and watching all of us “Gringos” and “Gringas” work on their homes and take pictures of the beauty that surrounded us (both in human and landscape form). Back at Nuevo Paraiso, Sandra colored with the orphans and helped around the orphanage wherever she was needed most. We, of course, are finishing off the day with a lengthy meeting to prepare for tomorrow, but we hope to finish and wrap up so that we can have a more relaxing end to our week on Friday.