On Tuesday and Wednesday, we continued working on the woman’s house in Santiago. The house had been emptied and the old roof completely removed on Monday. Tuesday was dedicated to reroofing the house. New rafters were cut and installed. We had 2 Haitian carpenters, an experienced one and an apprentice that spent all the time on the roof. We were in charge of cutting rafters and trimming the metal sheets used to make the roof. Just like projects at home, we had to make a few trips to the local hardware store. On Monday we needed a saw and hammer, on Tuesday we needed a tin snip. Wednesday, we actually needed another tin snip, so I made three trips to the store in 3 days. They laughed when they saw me coming a third time today. Our interpreter was laughing as well. But they also greeted me warmly, in Spanish of course, but they are so friendly and welcoming. A lesson we all need to experience as a stranger in a different land. One funny occurrence, while walking through the streets of Santiago, I ran into Jim, one of our interpreters from 2019. He remembered us and gave me a warm greeting.
Tuesday night was of course the 4th of July. The evening started with a parade of small vehicles decorated with streamers and balloons and driven by staff and interns. It was complete with candy to throw to the children of staff. We then had a fabulous meal with BBQ brisket that had been cooked for 18 hours by a Michelin chef that has relocated here. After dinner there was a talent show highlighting the talents of the interns and some team members. The night concluded with a wonderful fireworks display. The unabashed patriotism with prayers including thanks for a country with our many freedoms bought through the sacrifices of so many was very moving. One of the MIssion of Hope staff sang a stunning rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
On Wednesday, the roof was finished and we moved onto coating the concrete block walls of the house interior with a stucco like concrete coating. That required mixing concrete on the ground, one of my favorite mission activities. There is something so satisfying about mixing heavy concrete with a shovel and an inexact formula utilizing judgement and experience to come up with an acceptable final product. The Haitian laborers were doing a great job coating the walls. During all three days so far this week we also had team members picking up garbage in the neighborhood and cleaning up a nearby basketball court area where we will be having sports camp for kids on Thursday afternoon. For us type A personalities that like to get things done, Mission work can sometimes be frustrating because there can be periods of standing around waiting for things to happen. It took me many trips to accept this reality. One thing I reminded myself today is that this woman and her family are getting a much-improved home and if we hadn’t come, it likely wouldn’t have happened. We will move all her furniture back into her house tomorrow morning. We also had the constant companionship of neighborhood kids today, a common occurrence during our mission trips.
Dave Berg
