1992 What was I doing—in the Western highlands of Guatemala hauling concrete blocks? I wasn’t particularly dedicated to manual labor, much less mucking about in the mud. What prompted me to take this crazy trip to a terribly poor country having a civil war and a cholera outbreak? I’d never had a passport, never been out of the US.
After thirty-three years of teaching, inspired by Jimmy Carter’s work for decent housing, Peter and I joined our local Habitat for Humanity affiliate in 1984. We served on the local Habitat board for eight years, learning and doing way more than we had bargained for. By 1992 we were beat. We “retired” to take a “sabbatical.”
We also joined forces with a local nonprofit — IF. Its members were traveling to Latin America and bringing back stories that didn’t match the sanitized/manicured news we were getting.
I wouldn’t qualify for the biggest risk-taker on the planet. Maybe the smallest! But a new member of our Habitat Santa Cruz Board announced a trip to Guatemala. I was already primed by my IF colleagues. I signed up and . . . . Let us say it was a stretch! I returned home to tell my husband Peter how awful, yet. . . how intriguing. The next summer we both went!!
Fall 1993—Help! Three months after we returned from our first trip, a friend of IF from Guatemala came up to plead for help for 23 homeless families he was striving to help. They had been evicted from the farm where they had worked for years for trying to organize. They had put some money down on a patch of land, had little jobs, were squatting in shacks of plastic and corn stalks on an eroding hillside. Could IF and Habitat help? “Sure,” we said. Some of us IF people went to meet the families. Who could resist building a sturdy concrete block house for then $800?
June 1995— Whew! Several trips later and a long planning/fundraising process, our workgroup of 12 self-financed, hapless and very generous volunteers begin work with the families on their little concrete-block houses. The families took over when we left, women doing the heavy lifting during the workweek when most of the men were at work. Foto = Black plastic shack
December 1995 The Fatal Question(s)
We return for the very moving dedication of the houses when the families get their key and take ownership with tears and laughter. We have come to love that vibrant country with its dazzling weavings and beautiful vistas but also its desperately poor and loving people with their warm smiles and brave spirits. We leave to travel around a bit and stop by a Habitat project of nine houses. Someone asks what Habitat needs most. “Land” was the answer. How much does a lot cost? Three hundred dollars. “I’ll buy ten.” “I’ll match you!” Suddenly IF found itself in the land business with Habitat Guatemala!
The Next Question
How many houses did you build? Ah, well, we helped with three or four. Actually our goal wasn’t to speed-build in the five days we worked but to understand the country, the people, their poverty-stricken lives which—as first-world dwellers—we can barely imagine. And to understand how our lifestyle affects others directly and not-so-directly. On our last trip in Dec. 2007, we attended a grand celebration of Habitat Guatemala’s House 25,000. More than a few IF fingerprints can be found in the concrete of many of those houses.
Looking Back 2007
Fifteen years after that fateful first trip, we had traveled to Guatemala more than a dozen times leading energetic workgroups, going to meetings, raising funds to buy over 400 lots, helping to build houses on land IF purchased. We’ve learned to tell the story of third-world poverty, to “gently encourage” friends, family, and innocent bystanders to donate and travel with us to help. And finally we had to hang up our cement-coated work gloves and “retire.” With a sad look back we say “¡Hasta la vista y muchas gracias!!” It was wonderful—a vibrant country filled with warm, friendly people. How lucky for all of us!
But. . . it isn’t really over. Former worktrip member Dave Schoenwald, right, volunteered at Common Hope, Antigua, just after hosting his second IF fundraiser photo exhibit. John Robinson helped fund a library in Chicacao, Guatemala. The saga will continue as compassionate people carry on.
