Day 7 | Servando Arredondo

Today was the last day and probably the most humbling for me. Apparently whenever you pour large amount of cement inside of a building, you have to wait a few days for the condensation to disappear. This morning when we arrived at the house, we saw that the family had already moved in and actually spent last night in the house. The fact that they had already moved in gave me chills. It showed how badly they had been waiting to move in. After the dedication,we went down to talk with the family for a couple minutes. They were so appreciative of their new house. The smiles seemed to never end. They were even more excited when we gave them some gifts, especially the children. They immediately began to play with the toys!!! For me this was the best day.

Day 6 | Servando Arredondo

Today was a fantastic day!! Today is the day that we finished the house that we have been working on for the past week. It felt absolutely amazing to be a part of such an amazing endeavor. The family now has an actual home to live in, not a tent. Tomorrow is the dedication for the house and our last full day in Haiti. There is not much else that I have to say about today. The finished house is all that’s really on my mind.

Day 5 | Servando Arredondo

Today was sort of rough day. I woke up the other morning with a sore throat and runny nose, and from there everything just kept getting worse. This morning when I woke up, I was not ready to work. As the day progressed, I began to feel a little better. Today was pretty awesome though! I played the most exciting game of duck-duck goose in my entire life!! The kids absolutely loved it!! There were so many smiles and so much laughter. That’s all I have for the day.

Day 3 | Servando Arredondo

Today was a long day. The ride to the job site this morning was not as exciting as yesterday’s. For at least the first few hours, I sifted sand. I had the opportunity to mix up some concrete today that was extremely tiring. I love talking to the people that is usually my favorite part the work day. I joked around with the translator today and I must have said something pretty funny because everyone laughed.

Day 2 | Servando Arrendondo

Where to begin? Breakfast was pretty good, little too early for me though. The truck ride to the church was amazing! The scenery was absolutely beautiful. We got to see quit a bit of Haiti mainly because we were in top of a giant mountain. The ride down the second mountain was kind of scary. Some people will definitely be waking up with bruised ribs in the morning. Our arrival at the church was welcomed with by open arms and wide bright smiling faces. We immediately started working. My first duty was to shovel sand from one pile into a hand sifter, that would end up in another another pile, only to be scooped into another sifter and sifted into a 55 gallon barrel. After doing that for a couple hours, I went and joined a soccer game. Today’s game was definitely more intense than yesterday’s. The guys we played with were way more into it than we were. I’m not sure who actually won the game, but all I know is that I had a great time. After the game, I went back inside too dig up some dirt through the middle a building and break up some rocks. Once I had worked on that for a little while, I began to tear off some wall that was being held on by some rebar… At some point in the day we had lunch in a little room beside the church. I never would have thought that a peanut butter and jelly would have tasted so good. After lunch we got back to work, only to be greeted by rain. The air got cool and the rain felt great! The ride back was probably the most interesting event of the day. We made it about a quarter mile and almost went over a cliff… After that we got out to walk so that the driver could readjust the truck safely. The truck continued to get stuck forcing us to get out and walk. The hike was amazing though, and I’m actually glad that we got to walk. we eventually made it back to the camp, scarfed down dinner and enjoyed the evening.

Day 1 | Servando Arredondo

Hello everyone! today was pretty awesome!! The second flight from the Bahamas was the close to being the best part. During the second flight, I was able to sit in the cockpit with the pilots for take-off and for the first half hour of the flight. The pilot were some pretty cool dudes. They were cool enough that i shared a cosmic brownie with one of them while we were flying. The arrival in Haiti was more than anything I was expecting. The airport didn’t seem too bad at first, but once we left baggage claim the place lit up. There were people EVERYWHERE. They were all ready and willing to help, but apparently they just wanted our money. The drive the compound was interesting… I couldn't believe how high we were going, it seemed like it would never end. Once we got to the compound we unpacked all of our stuff and brought to the rooms. Finally after getting the rooms set up we were able to walk around the compound for a little while. The first native I spoke with was named Footoo (I’m probably butchering the spelling but that’s how it sounded). We started to talk a little bit (his english was very broken, but then again whose is perfect…), he said something about soccer and that got my attention. For the next half hour or so he and I kicked the ball around at the park. He suggested playing a game so we did! We played a three v three game which lasted about an hour or two maybe, all I know is that by the end I knew I was out of shape. Next was dinner! That may have been some of the best shepherd’s pie I have ever eaten. The vegetables were amazing, even better once I found out that they were freshly grown by our hosts. That’s all I can think of for now so goodnight.