We Used Our Hands
Que Modest Mouse’s Gravity Rides Everything:
Flying down 1-90, we past hundreds of lights that blurred together like a landing pad. As we touched down and slowed, getting ready to exit, the white dashes in the road guided our van back to school. Reaching the parking lot, we each got out of the van, grabbed our bags and exhausted, dragged ourselves up the footpaths to our beds and fell asleep to open our eyes to the fast past college lives that we’re accustomed to.
It may have been Brian or Amir who noticed the lights, but as we drove home that Saturday night, one of them wondered why there were so many lights on and do we really need all of these lights?
San Jose Villanueva, La Libertad, El Salvador has made an impression on us. It would probably take a lot of fumbling around to get those lights turned off; it is not as easy as finding the off switch here though. Things are different in San Villanueva.
Each day our caravan would maze through the streets of San Jose Villanueva, trying to get to our final destination, the work site. As we left the convent, our attention would quickly be drawn to alert as we bumped along; each morning our eyes would be filled with the movie that the streets showed. The show started for us at 7:30 every morning, but much earlier for the actors. The streets were lined with men, women, and children all of whom seemed unsure of what the day would hold. Some were getting ready to cook their tortillas that they would later try to make a living on by selling them for 5 cents at lunch time to hungry workers. A smattering of others watched those who cooked and others stood around in circles and talked or chose not to talk. We were lucky I wasn’t driving because my curiosity to understand would have taken control of the van and I’m not sure we would have made it to the work site.
Carlos, our Salvadorian driver who spoke fluent English, would drop us off at the base of the street. This street took us to the two houses that we worked on for the week. The street, under normal circumstances, would have been a daunting feature, ominous for a group of academics. It was made of uneven rocks and tightly packed dirt, plus whatever any creature cared to deposit there. We made our way up that steep hill every morning, which happened to be even steeper on the other side, and we worked. It wasn’t daunting or ominous though, it was just the path that we had to take. Maybe it was daunting at first, but the attitude of the people when they asked us to wheelbarrow was that it was the path and that was what we had to do.
During the entire time on the work site, I saw one electric tool. It cut the cinderblocks and tiles. We wheelbarrowed the dirt up the hill, we wheelbarrowed the blocks up the hill, we even wheelbarrowed the dirt up the hill and down the other side. We lugged water to the site, we sifted through the dirt, and we mixed the cement with our hands. I don’t know what this means. I don’t know if we’re supposed to work like this here or if we’re supposed to give them electric tools or if I’m supposed to take this as some life lesson. Sharon said she was thankful for the blisters on her hands; I don’t know if I am thankful for the pain they cause, but I am glad that they left an impression on us.
I’ve always ended my service trips with some sort of thoughtful reflection whether it was speaking to people about the experience or being introspective and organizing my thoughts to feel, the exercise is my attempt to hinge the experience to my life in a practical way. I’ve found that this process is what I need to do to transition back successfully. This time I spoke with Marlaina about the three things that we we’re going to take from this trip.
1. Think big, but have focus: I’ve been searching for a job post listing that looks something like, “Save the World – No Experience Necessary.” I haven’t found it, but I’m still looking for it. I’m not positive what the Habitat mission statement is off hand, but it’s something about helping the poor and solving the homelessness problem. Those are two very lofty goals and our group didn’t do either of them. What we did was give a week’s worth of time from fifteen people into building two houses and we were successful.
2. I love people: I watched the movie “Watchmen” before going on this trip and there was a character that went by the name, “Comedian.” He was a philosophical character that was actually pretty sad. I’ve never taken a philosophy class, but what I took from him was that humanity is its own worst enemy, that humanity will cause its own demise and it doesn’t matter what we do between now and then because it’s going to happen. I’ve had thoughts about this line of reasoning before and this only made me dwell on it more. I made a point on this trip to talk to as many different people as I could. I’m one of those people who speaks un poquito amount of Spanish, but through hand gestures and examples I was able communicate more than I thought I could. I consistently put myself out there to talk with anyone who would talk to me and not once did I get turned down. Everyone that I met, I tried to have them narrate the story of the trip in that moment, like a snapshot. It was interesting how the notebook didn’t do what I wanted at all, but the idea was only half baked anyways. What it did do though was give me the an opportunity to speak to a lot more people. It brought me back to a very basic instinct, I love people.
3. It’s worth it: These families open up their lives for us to just jump in, so we can kind of “lend a hand.” It is somewhat of a voyeuristic venture for some people; those who want to see the world and understand what poverty and homelessness is really about. It makes me happy to make other people happy. This is one of the most direct ways I could think of doing that, so I definitely am guilty of doing this for myself. It really comes down to one conversation that I’ve had a couple times. I enter it always knowing what the answer will be, but I think it’s healthy to question; is Habitat for Humanity actually a good program to invest time and effort in? You travel to these remote locations and you put in a week’s worth of time to build a house and you never finish a house from its start to its finish. Flying and driving around creates a huge carbon footprint. Plus, you’re spending a lot of time and money. Each group that goes to these sites has to be taught by masons how to do each task just so. It doesn’t seem to add up. It’s definitely a noble thing to go across the world to build a house for a family who can’t afford to and doesn’t have the time to, but is it the smartest way to spend your time and money? The answer for me is, yes. If I can change the way one person views the world to something better than it was before, then yes it’s worth it for me. I will always spend a week to positively impact someone’s life for the chance that they might do the same for someone else in need.
– Drew