Moving earth

A new task for Day 11. I was assigned with the same team from yesterday (Jan, Laurent, Kate and our translator, Trevor) to tackle a large mound of earth at Alejandro’s property. Meanwhile, Nicola continued building Tito’s wall.

Alejandro, his wife, Roxana, and their three young children, Brenda, Axel and Florencia all reside in a very basic, small two room shack at the back of ‘their’ plot. Like Miguel from Day 10 the intention is to build a house to the front of the plot. However, unlike Miguel building work has not yet commenced. The family were promised assistance from the Government to help them build a home four years ago but they still wait. This appears to be the norm in the 22 De Enero neighbourhood. No one knows when and if such assistance from the Government will ever come.

The conditions that Alejandro and his family were staying in were by far the most basic I had seen during my time in the 22 De Enero neighbourhood. This was a family in more need of help than most and I was very happy to be playing a small part towards providing such help.

Our task was a landscaping one. Shifting earth to flatten the site so that it could be used for building a house on at some future date. The day was hot and humid and the work tough going. Digging, filling and emptying wheelbarrows. But it was very rewarding.

Alejandro was a stone mason by trade so it will not be a problem to him to build his house if he could afford the materials to do so. His English was good. Whilst he had dropped out of school before finishing his formal education (a common occurrence in this part of the world) he had recently returned to finish it. He went to school in the evenings from 6.30pm to 10pm. He showed me his school workbooks. He was keen to advance his education and hoped that his children would become professionals. It was heartening to see a family living in these conditions striving to better their position through education. I dearly hope that through further assistance from Habitat for Humanity they will be able to have a decent home to live and bring their family up in.

You  can help people in Alejandro’s situation  by making a donation at www.justgiving.com/argentina2009

See also: "If all the world helped like you all the world would be better"

See: Day 11 at Alejandro's property in pictures