Saturday 1 February 2014

Giving the Family Their Home

The last day and we finally get to sleep in until 7:30am. Which is a good thing because last night after I finished my blog, I was headed back to my room when a sudden down pour caught me in the main building unable to get to my area. Luckily, there at the bar, was the gang from London that had gotten their glasses at Lenscrafters, Steve, Karrie, Tracy and Nick so I hung out with them until the wee hours of the morning when the monsoon finally cleared.
This morning we woke to rolling clouds with gentle rain and breaks of sun but were looking forward to one of the best parts of this whole journey. We headed back to the work site in Villa Samaritano where the family that was going to be moving into the house was waiting to meet us.






We had also brought them gifts of sheets and household items for their new home
 

The house isn't quiet finished but we have everything paid for so there is a team coming next week to finish and the family will move in by the end of the month. The father works hard in construction and the mother has been very sick. With keeping the 3 kids in school and paying rent on a horrible little shack, money has been very tight. This home will provide the security so that they don't have to worry about have a safe warm place to live. It was a pleasure to bless them and their new home and they were so grateful and excited. After we went to their current rental home in Monte Yylano.
This is what you get for 1000 peso a month,
Mud yard that floods when the river, just a few feet behind, over flows with just the slightest rain
Scrap metal strapped together with fabric used to divide the rooms.
dirt floor, no power or plumbing and worse, the landlord is trying to get them to move out so keeps dumping garbage in their place to chase them out. We were glad to give them a place to go and I'm sure the next month can't pass by quick enough for them. As we were touring this home and blessing the new one, I couldn't help but give thanks for all the generous donations from everyone back home. We may have come and poured the cement and hammered the nails but everyone who generously donated the money gave this family this home. THANK YOU ALL! THIS IS GOOD! We drove back to the hotel and gathered for our last hours before flying home.
I'm finally getting a 5 hour vacation of sun and pool and beach! Well, between the sudden down pours of torrential rain that chase us under cover until the sun warms us again.
Does it seem silly to head under cover if you are standing in the pool? Aren't you wet anyway?
I'm not complaining. It's good to have a few hours together just to be friends and not a work crew, to relax and enjoy each other.
It was still pouring rain when we loaded up for the shuttle to the airport. We were leaving behind Pat, Arnie and Betty as there was another team of their family arriving to continue the building in the village. Our first shuttle had been a regular coach bus but this time we were put on to a small bus with a donkey cart pulling behind for the luggage. Fantastic in the pouring rain! Not only that, there was an accident on the highway that backed up traffic for about an additional 30mins. It was terrible but not uncommon to see a motorcycle implanted into the front grill of an SUV.
We arrived with lots of time as our flight had been delayed 1hr. Shopping at the duty free was an education as we had done some shopping for local coffee and vanilla at a local supermarket. We had paid 27peso for 500ml= $1 of vanilla that was $12 at the duty free, coffee, we paid 175 peso=$4.5 which was now $10. I'm glad we shopped local.
Also, Karen and Brandy got randomly selected for a luggage search so had to go down to security for questioning. I turned to Richard and asked if it was wrong to bride the guards with $20 to do a strip search? They were fine but Karen did tried to pull one on us coming back first and alone to say that Brandy was getting stripped. Richard turned back to me and said " I guess the $20 worked!" They were just kidding everything was fine....we were packing a lot of vanilla! :)
As we waited, we got bored so we decided to have some fun and make signs to greet the incoming team who would pass us on their arrival.
_ It's still snowing   _ Calling for rain all week _ Dominican bucket Brigade_ Be nicer to Arnie and Betty than we were.
It was fun to have them laughing as they arrived tired from their late flight.
On the flight, I was seated across the aisle from a young family with 2 children. The attendant came with a seat belt harness for the child that was in the father's lap and asked "You know how to to use?" To which the father replied " I tighten it around his neck until he falls asleep?" I chuckled but the attendant didn't find it as funny. When she left, I leaned over and said, Nice one! The father smiled back "Notice that she handed it to my wife!" I guess you need to have a sense of humour flying with children at that time of night.
Arriving into Toronto at 2am, by the time we got our luggage and through customs it was 5am before we crawled into bed at Geoff and Karen's home in Waterloo.
I was sleeping close to the ferrets so decided to open the cage. Seamus heard me immediately and came to investigate. I thought he would just want to have a run but instead he scampered over to me for a cuddle then curled up beside me to sleep. He doesn't do that at home. It was nice to know I was missed and still dearly loved.

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