So I would like to start off this blog thanking my mom and
dad for giving me the “construction worker” genes.. because it has come in extremely handy here in Romania! My parents frequently did construction on our home when I was growing
up, so I am very well aware of what caulk is. I know that insulation is full of
fiber glass and is extremely itchy, and I know that when you dig, it’s all in
distributing your weight properly to get the best leverage on the dirt!
(The girls dominating the muddy trench)
Every morning I wake up around 7:30 am, get some breakfast,
brush my teeth, have morning worship and prayer time, then we make our way outside for
hours and hours of construction work. And I’m not talking about painting fences or
anything sissy like that. I’m talking about cleaning dead rats out of the
storage room, digging a 3 feet deep trench for a water pipe to go into, and
insulating an entire house. Our contact Dan awaits for us every morning at 9 am
and he gives us our task for the day.
(Katherine insulating a home)
The first few days we helped clean out a garage, and
transformed a dirty garage full of dead rats and old furniture into a small
storage room for future construction workers to be able to find materials quickly
and with ease. After that, he decided to give us with a bigger challenge,
and so he asked us to dig a trench for a huge water pipe to fit in..we dug for
days, cleaning out rocks, and we even found a cow skeleton buried in the dirt!
The trench ended up being about 2 feet wide and 4 feet deep.. crazy! The next day,
the guys continued with the trench while the girls cleaned all the trash up
from the construction site and threw it into the garbage truck. We have been
having to find all the scrap pieces of wood that are lying around the site and
put it all into one big pile.. so let’s just so that we are excellent at moving
big, long things (like long pieces of wood)! Last but definitely not least.. we
walk up to Dan and he hands 5 girls these white jump suits…. we suit up and
he takes us down to a home and points to a huge pile of fluffy insulation. Yep that’s
right, we insulated a home. It was crazy because the suits were there to
protect us from any fiber glass that may decided to enter our skin and make us
itch.
(All of the girls in their marshmellow suits)
My favorite thing about working together as a team to do
construction is that we have ample time to talk and get to know one another. We
pass the time by playing games such as “What is your favorite _________?” (fill
in the blank yourself).. example.. what is your favorite holiday and why? Or another
one of my personal favorite topics is “Tell me your most_________________”
(fill in the blank again).. example.. Tell me your most embarrassing moment?..
and we go around sharing and just getting to know one another. It is so
important that when you are living in fellowship with 9 other people, all from
different backgrounds, that you get to know each other in order to gain
understanding. So that whenever they open up to you and share their innermost
feelings, you are able to walk in their shoes understand where they come from
because they have opened up and shared about their pasts! I love it…
construction/conversation mornings are some of my favorite times.
(Team Considered Lost)
Ok… so I’m sure you all are wondering.. what are we building
these houses for? Well I’m glad that you asked! Caminul Felix is a ministry
where they provide children from abusive homes or orphans a family environment
to grow up in. Each home has about 15 children living in it, and they are
raised by a set of wonderfully and loving parents. The cool part about this
whole system is that they have a family for life meaning that these people
become their family forever and the parents raise them until they start a new
life of their own. Well in the next 3 years, about 50 children will grow up and
turn 18. When that happens, a lot of them attend college or they get married
and start a family of their own. Well Caminul Felix provides a way for them to
afford living in a house of their own. They build materials to buy a house and
they have volunteers (us!) come and help build the homes. This way, the new
married couple that moves in only has the pay for the cost of the quaint little
home, because the labor is all done for free by the volunteers J And that’s
what we have the privilege of doing, building homes for people to begin their
new families in! What an honor J
