#9 Finishing Together

Our last day of work was completely differernt. We went to a Habitat house that our group had not worked on. It was ready for the roof to be completed. The roof is made of wood planks with a concrete top.

When we got to the new site we met many of the habitat families and the masons we had been working with. To our relief a cement mixer was on the site to mix the concrete. However the labor to fill the mixer, empty the mixer and carry the concrete to the roof was all ours (including our habitat families and habitat local workers). It took a solid 3 hours of work to complete the roof cement pour. A huge cheer was raised by all.

We then went back to Santiago de Anaya. The padre at the local church gave us a tour. The church was built in 1546. After our tour we went to a village celebration of our habitat work. All the families and workers were there. A special meal had been prepared and we all ate together. After the meal we had a presentation of Habitat Certificates to each of us, a hang up sign for each diocese (North Carolina and Southwestern Virginia) and plaques for each diocese made out of local tile. Each of the habitat families had a representative thank us for our work. Our leaders, Bishop Gary of NC and Nan Carmack gave responses. Then we were serenaded in song and sent on our way back to Actopan.

The bus ride was full of tears as we bade farewell to our new extended families.

This evening Bishop Gary and Richard held a Eucharist in the Hotel. For offerings we gave an item that meant something special to us from this week. Many emotional speeches were given by the team members on what the week meant to them. A final dinner at the hotel completed a wonderful last day in the state of Hidalgo.

#8 - Going Underground

Thursday started off much brighter and a bit warmer. All the work teams were pouring concrete or getting ready for roofing. This was our last day working with our families. Tomorrow the whole build group will work together to do a roof at a different site then we have been working at. Habitat uses a poured concrete roof that requires lots of labor and thus the complete 20 workers we have this week.

We worked till 2:30PM then we visited the local Santiago de Anaya Museum. The museum director took us on a very informative tour in which we learned about the region's archeology and history. The local cactus supported indigenous Indians for centuries before the Spanish arrived. After the museum tour we boarded our bus for the caves of Xoxafi (shoshafi). Several brave people in our group put on hardhats and went deep into the caves. The rest enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and liquid refreshments after a much shorter cave tour.

On our way to work today we stopped at a hardware store to purchase some items to help in the build. A long handled shovel, wood saw, extension cord and a toilet seat made for interesting purchases. Here we are with the families we are building the houses for:

#7 - Cool Weather

The weather turned windy cloudy and cool (50 deg F) today. At least it was cool this morning. Lots of jackets were brought out by the workers. The sun finally showed at about noon and the rest of the day was pleasant and mild.



Work continued on making and pouring cement at the four work sites.

We were supposed to finish work early to check out some local crafts people and to visit the Huge Actopan open market. As we started to pick up our fellows workers two of the sites had big cement pours going on. They called on the other volunteers to help out and delayed our journey. Great teamwork made a tough job light.



We also had a team member, Joan Freeland, to help prepare lunch for her work group. Joan did a great job and will be ready for catering Mexican food at St. Elizabeths.


Nan Carmack and Lou Goldman played soccer with the kids near their project and only wiped out two of the kids. No serious injuries were sustained. All groups stayed warm by working hard this morning.


After picking up the groups we stopped and shopped with local crafts people before heading back to Actopan. In Actopan there were literally thousands of vendors selling everything from socks to fruit to meats to electrical supplies in a open air market. A satifying meal of creme of cilantro soup, rolled chicken and sliced potatoes in cream sauce and a lime jello with rum sauce for dessert was had in our hotel.

#6 - Working the Chain Gang

Day 2 at the build sites brought sun, wind and lots of hard work. We are finishing up the brick work at most sites and that means pouring corners and wall tops. Mix the cement, put the cement in the bucket, pass the bucket to the next person, who passes to the next person and so on down the line. Some of us were filling in floors with dirt. That used the same system. Shovel the dirt into the bucket, pass the bucket up the line, dump the bucket.

We again worked at 4 different sites and got to know the families we are building the houses for. Today directors of Habitat from the USA and Mexico visited and had lunch with us. They wanted to see how the Lenten build was going and what we thought of the program.

Back to the Quinta River Motel, some went swimming (ok soaking) in the pool. Every evening we get together after dinner to talk about our experiences that day and to review our pictures of the day. We have 6 photographers out of 10 so we have lots of pictures to view. Here are some from today:

#5 - In Actopan

We rode a tourist bus 2 hours north from Mexico City to our new home of Actopan in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. Actopan is a town of 50,000 people (small by Mexican standards). We are staying ath the Quinto Rivera motel which is comperable to the hotel we stayed in Mexico City. We do have a pool here and the rooms are very quiet.

We met our Habitat liason, Marilyn Stevens. She is a volunteer that knows the area and supports Habitat. We will building homes in Santiago de Anaya, about 25 minutes north of Actopan. Santiago de Anoya is a village of 15,000 people. This area of Mexico is mainly desert with little industry and too dry for most agriculture. The people we are helping live on $5.00 US per day. They will be paying $50.00 US per month to buy the $8,000 homes we are building for them. The mortgage money goes for buying new homes for others.

We had an introduction to the site by Marilyn and Arranja the local Habitat coordinator. After dinner we went to our rooms to prepare for our first day of work.

We left for the site around 9AM and stopped at a shop for some to buy wide brimmed hats. The desert is hot in the day (80 degrees F) and cool at night (50 degrees F). The sun is very strong and we all lathered up with SPF 50 sun block. There 20 total workers, 10 with our group from Virginia and 10 from North Carolina (Charlotte). The North Carolina group is lead by retired Bishop Gary Gloster. We divided up into 4 groups of 5 to work on 4 homes. A shortage of local masons caused one of the groups to join the other 3 today.

Work consisted of helping with laying of brick, cleaning up the brick, straightening rebar wire and working smaller wire for forms. We all met the families we are helping. They worked along side us and expressed their gratitude for our help mulitple times. Here are some construction photos:

#4 - Sunday Morning

We woke up early since we are on Central time here. After a delicious breakfast buffet the group went exploring. Some followed Richard to the central square and some went the opposite direction. We reconvened at the hotel at 10:30AM to travel to the Episcopal Church of Mexico City. The church is about 5 blocks away and is located in an abandoned catholic church build in the 17oos. The rector spoke excellent English and had Bishop Gary (from the NC group) to read the gospel and chalice during communion. It was an awesome experience. Pictures are below.

Back to the hotel to finish packing and lunch. We leave at 3PM for Actopan and our work home hotel.

#3 in Mexico City

Our United flight arrived early into Mexico City. We were doing great till Ralph and Mary Ann got separated going through Customs. Twenty minutes later we were reunited and finally headed off to our hotel by Taxi.

Ralph, Mary Ann and Richard in the Taxi
Mexico City is the largest city in the world and we probably saw most of those people on the highway today. It took an hour to get to the Hotel in downtown Mexico City. I estimate it was near 15 miles from the airport.

We are staying the Tulip Ritz hotel. It is Holiday Inn standard though a bit dated. We met the team from Charlotte, NC that is joining us building homes in Santiago. We had a joint session of introduction led by Tonya from the Mexican Habitat.

Dinner at the hotel consisted of a pasta appitizer, beef steak with mashed potatoes and cooked vegitables. We had fruit for dessert. Drinks were lemonade and beer.

After dinner Richard, Ralph and Nick took a tour around the block of the hotel. We visited a beautiful church where a Saturday night wedding was being performed. We also saw 3 McDonalds, a KFC and of course a Pizza Hut. A main square area was very crowded with an exhibition of some kind going on and an Indian group doing a native dance. The weather was perfect (70 degrees) and made for a pleasant afternoon trip. Police were everywhere and we felt very safe.

We will go to the local Episcopal Church for Sunday service then head to our work home in Actopan in the early afternoon.

#2 - On the Way

We are all in Chicago O'Hare airport safe and sound. Very uneventful flights from Roanoke and one from Washington Dulles. As you can see we are happy and healthy - Joan Freeland took the picture. We are all checking out food options since United will try to sell us lunch on the plain. Choices are Starbucks, Bagel Backery, McDonalds or even Wolfgang Puck. Ah the joys of modern travel. Next post will be from Mexico City (hopefully!)

#1- Diocese of Southwestern Virginia Mexico House Build

Hi there! I hear we have Internet Access at our hotel in Mexico so I will try to keep a blog up this week. Its Friday February 22 and I would guess all bags are packed. Ten volunteers from our Episcopal diocese are ready to join Episcopaleans from North Carolina to work on Habitat houses in Mexico.

The early word was 40 houses in 40 days, but I believe the number is a bit less then that. So who are we? Our leader is Nan Carmack from St. Paul's in Lynchburg, she is joined by Lou and Sandy Goldman from Ascension Amherst. Our member from Staunton is Tom Howell from Trinity. In Roanoke we have the Rev. Richard Fife, Joan Freeland and Charlotte Hines from St. Elizabeth's. From Covington we have Mary Ann Beirne, Ralph Jackson and yours truely. Here we are:

Where are we going? Santiago Mexico in the state of Hildalgo near the town of Actopan (where we will stay). Here is a map link: Click Here!

The Covington group is staying at the Comfort Inn Roanoke Airport tonight (the last supper will be consumed near by). We'll be on our way early Saturday so I'll update as we have time!