El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity

If any of you are thinking about taking vacation time, I highly recommend volunteering for a trip with Habitat for Humanity, as it was one of the best experiences of my life! Believe me, it was no easy task, but the rewards were much better than I could've hoped for.

Upon arriving in El Salvador, I met my group - all 14 of them! I didn't know one person when I arrived, but can now say I have friends in several states, as well as Australia, South Africa and Canada. The age ranges were 18 to 55, so needless to say I had an amazing group, all across the board.

We had a couple days to settle in, get to know each other and do some 'tourist activities' before the work began.

We worked in a city called, San Martin, which is extremely poor with an immense amount of gang activity. We had to be very careful about what we wore and could never go anywhere alone. That being said, there are also some amazing people in San Martin, who I wish I could visit more regularly. When we arrived, we met the family for who we were building the home. Here they are: Stefanie, Fidel and baby Diego. They didn't speak any English, but somehow we ended up being able to communicate with one another and develop a strong bond during our week of work on their home.

These were the next door neighbors, who lived in the house next to the empty lot we were building the family home. The most adorable, genuine and loving little children I've ever met.
We began with a flat surface and measured the surface with simple tools, such as wood, string, nails and a pencil.

Then the digging begins....

The little children were some of our best helpers! Love them!
We took a quick 10 minute break, of course, the little ones just keep going. They're helping us sift out all of the rocks, to create sand, which we later used in hand-mixing cement.

My Boys!
Everyday we had a very authentic lunch. It always hit the spot. Thanks Teresa and Clara for always making our stomach's happy :)
Renee and I spent a good few hours cutting hundreds of pieces of rebar - all that had to be measured individually with our measuring tape. By the end of the day I called these the "Jaws of Death," as they were the largest and heaviest set of 'pliers' I've ever had to use.

Our lovely abode. Pick up the lid and go in the hole. Indoor plumbing is a luxury and very hard to find.

It's been a LONG day of digging trenches. Just keep digging - just keep digging!

Installing the rebar in our trenches

As you can see, we still have several more trenches to dig. Don't break the string, as that's our guide!

This was a very common sight to see. These ladies would walk back and forth, offering us several different delicacies along their way. Sadly, we could never purchase anything, afraid of it being cleaned with dirty water. I still don't know how they do this?

My little Moasis! He was my shadow and didn't leave my side from day 1. Love him to pieces and would've packed him in my luggage and brought him home if I could.

Here is part of our foundation. We had unload all of these cinder blocks, one by one, from the massive truck that made its way down the narrow dirt road.

Once again, my little man. He was very hard to leave behind.

Hand mixing cement. Not easy. We'd use wheelbarrows and dump piles of sand, which we'd sifted, along with powdered cement from a bag. We'd then haul buckets of water, dump them in the middle, and mix, mix, mix, mix, mix. It got tougher as we went along, since the cement would start to harden. This gave me an amazing appreciation for the luxuries of American construction.

We'd then put the mixed cement in small buckets, and use garden shovels, to fill each cinder block, one by one.

The foundation is finally built! And hey, you can't have a family, without the foundation.

The foundation is mostly finished at this point! Yay! Sadly, our time was up and the next group came to finish, which took about one more solid week. Hopefully I'll get pictures of the finished house that I can show.

After our time had come to an end, the family we built for, threw us a very traditional party! Here I am with Teresa and Clara, who cooked our meals for us daily.

Javier trying to smash cake in my face. He started it!

These are the two Masons who worked with us. Without them, the house would've definitely ended up on a slant :) Salvador and Martin are amazing men and again, not knowing any English, we somehow prevailed and got the job done.

Carla, Dan and I celebrating our victory!

The family took us to a beautiful lake

They even bought us fresh coconuts! This was a little slice of heaven!

We also saw some horrific destruction from Hurricane Ida. People are still living amongst the rubble.

Teresa giving baby Diego a bath in the river

After we finished building the home, we took a road trip to another city, called Juyua. We stayed at a beautiful hotel.

We got up early the next morning and hiked to this beautiful volcano

I even held a baby leopard. If only they could stay this small.

There were beautiful peacocks showing off their colors

Tucan Sam was also hanging around. There were wild animals everywhere! Amazing!

That tiny spec is me - zip lining through the San Salvador forests.

We took a stroll through the markets, where they were selling food, candy and trinkets

All of the buildings were painted beautiful, bright colors.

We ran into these adorable siblings at the market, working their booth, trying to survive.I would've loved to talk to this woman, as just by looking at her, I feel like she'd have some amazing stories.

Candy Galore

But, all in all, what I'll miss the most are the beautiful and amazing little children!

This was definitely an amazing experience! It was a great way to see a country I've never seen, participate in traditional tourist activities, and most of all, interact and get to know the amazing people of El Salvador while helping a family in need.