Building Houses: Part 1

So, I don't know how many of you have ever built houses... While I have worked on fixing up my own house, I have never built one from scratch. I suppose a good analogy would be baking or cooking from scratch. Flour, water, salt etc.

When we arrived Monday morning, here's what we found: dirt, water, cement mix, concrete mix, gravel, shovels, and trowels. The pictures below depict the starting point.



One of the first tasks: Move the block from it's current location by the road, to the middle of the two houses. The solution: form a human chain and pass the block from person to person. In the picture to the right, it appears as if a couple of the Nicaraguans grabbed the most difficult job - lifting the block off the ground and to the line. Actually, everyone was very good about rotating through the hardest physical tasks so I am sure others helped with this task. In the block line, I quickly discovered the value of momentum. When we were spaced correctly, you could leverage the swinging motion of the person next to you to sort of redirect the block to the next person. Here, Lisa is about to swing the block to Bill. Anna and Susan are early waiting.

Next, we had to begin the cement mixing. We had to mix two different types of cement, one type for the "pours" and a second type that was used as mortar between the block. The recipe for the first type included unsifted dirt, cement mix, gravel and water. In the photo to the right, Pawan and Anna are filling up the wheel barrow with dirt. Then someone would move the dirt, and other ingredients to a location in close proximity to the houses. The process for the second type of cement was similar, though, the dirt we used for mortar had to be sifted before being moved. This was a new idea to me, when was the last time you "sifted" dirt, I mean isn't dirt just dirt?

In the photo below, Susan loads dirt onto the sifter while Anne and Minnette move the sifter back and forth. When done, the dirt was loaded into the wheel barrow and moved to the mixing area. Paul, in the red shirt, pulls one of the wheel barrows backward. Where am I you ask? Well someone had to capture these shots in film.

Cement Mixing:

Once we got the dirt, cement mix and gravel (if required) to the mixing location, we had to take the huge pile and split into two smaller piles. Once divided, we then moved everything back into one pile The purpose here was to create an equal consistency of cement, dirt and gravel. At this point we then created a volcano crater in the middle of the pile. This allowed us to add water to the mixture without it spilling over. The perfect volcano is below. On the bottom right, Michelle and Danny begin the process of manual cement mixing.

Wikipedia defines a concrete mixer as: a device that homogeneously combines cement, aggregate such as sand or gravel and water to form concrete. A typical concrete mixer uses a revolving drum to mix the components. Here is the Bridges version of a concrete mixer: 4 -6 people surround the volcano and move in a circular motion shoveling a little bit of dirt from the bottom outside of the volcano into the middle. In the picture below, Roxane, Michelle, Vinnie, Danny, Jason and Jon take the first turn at mixing the cement. Tae and Anna are waiting to provide relief. The process of mixing cement took somewhere between 20 - 30 minutes.

Next, I'll describe the actual construction of the house. If you read on you will be all ready to start building your own house!

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The Work Begins

We arrived at the work site bright and early Monday morning. We were lucky in that the two houses we were going to build were situated next to each other. This afforded us the opportunity to work together on both of them. Often the two houses are a little distance apart and the large group is split into two.

A little bit of a side note... There are really 4 sets of people that work on building the houses.

Group One: Bridges Employees

There are two group leaders, Carla and David who led our group and a set of masons, who supervise the construction. Carla, below left, is a Nicaraguan who has been working with Bridges for two years. She is kind and gentle person but has a dry sense of humor that can crack you up at the drop of a hat. Below in the middle is David, he is from Boston originally and has been living in Nicaragua working for Bridges for about 3.5 years. He is a good athlete and is very passionate and dedicated to the work Bridges is doing. Before this he spent four years working as a counselor for at-risk children as part of Outward Bound.

On the bottom right is a picture of the Masons Francisco, William, Emilo and Carlos. There was another mason named Neil who achieved notoriety by wearing a t-shirt with the words "stop picturing me naked." He claimed he didn't know what it said but we didn't believe him. I found all of the Bridges employees to be generous, good spirited and enormously patient. Imagine having to teach a new group the same skills week after week.

Group Two: Families that receive the houses

We worked side by side with these families all week. Below, on the left, is Pio working on digging the foundation for his house. Below right is Marti and Jon beginning to prepare the first batch of cement to pour the foundation.

Group Three: Members of the Community

Bridges requires families that have received a house and families that want to receive a house to help in the construction of houses in the community. Members of the Committee are also on the scene pitching in and helping daily. Below, on the left, are some of the women in the community filling buckets of water. Antonia, the one with her hands in the blue bucket, was quite a pistol. She was driven to accomplish her task and anyone in the way better watch out! On the bottom right in the yellow shirt is Donna Gloria. She was one of the Committee members and was another strong woman; when she spoke you listened. On the first day when I was filling in the space between blocks with concrete, Donna Gloria advised me in a rather firm manner that I needed to apply a little more force. Needless to say, I quickly adjusted my technique.

Group 4: 19 Americans from the IT Leadership Group

Below is a picture of our group after we had finished day 3.

Front Row: Sarah, Leslie, Lisa

Second Row: Pawan, Danny, Tae, Anna, Katie

Standing: Paul, Vinie, Bill, Lisa, Jon, Anne, Minnette, Jason, Roxane, Marti, Michelle

Many people have asked if you had to be in the IT field to go on the trip... The answer is no! (so you have no reason you can't go) While nearly all the people on the trip this year were people in the IT field, several were not. Jason, in the picture, was enticed on the trip by Katie after helping her fund raise for her trip last year. Tae, aka "Stick", Minette's 14 year old daughter, was also along to help. 12 women and 7 men.

Finally, the purpose

I set out on this journey with the somewhat uninformed goal of joining a group of IT leaders to build houses for the poor. While our group of 19 did make substantial progress in building houses for 2 Nicaraguan families, the trip really served as a means to educate me on the history and culture of the Nicaraguan people. Bridges to Community (Bridges), a not for profit organization focused on Nicaragua, facilitated this trip.


While I don't want to repeat everything on the Bridges ( http://bridgestocommunity.org/index.php) website, I want to impart what I learned about their philosophy and approach because I think it is really quite remarkable. One of their fundamental premises is sustainment. They want to empower Nicaraguans by giving them tools and techniques that enable them to begin to impact their own destiny. What I didn't understand fully before this trip, is that there is no middle class in Nicaragua. People are poor or rich and there are very few if any opportunities for the poor to break the cycle of poverty. I am ashamed to say that this was somewhat of a foreign concept for me. While breaking the cycle of poverty is difficult anywhere, my sense is that in America there are mechanisms and infrastructure in place to provide a means for people to better themselves.

Bridges Approach:

Long before any volunteers arrive, Bridges Staff begin building relationships with members of a community. Bridges works with community leaders to create a Committee which will organize and run the community. Bridges has created a design for a modest house that will provide a safe shelter for a family. Earthquakes (i.e. Haiti) are a real concern in Nicaragua and a Bridges house is designed to withstand a very substantial quake. Members of the Committee decide which families will be recipients of a house. It is important to note that these families are not "given" a house. They are loaned money to build a house. House recipients are are required to pay a mortgage of about $10/month for 7 years. This money is paid back to the community, who can then decide what other projects to fund. In another community, the Committee decided to build a community center. They then used the community center to start a sewing cooperative which purchased sewing machines. Women can come the community center to learn how to sew and to eventually be able to make cloths, bags and other goods they can sell. It is these kinds of programs that really provide the building blocks to break the cycle of poverty.


So, meet the families in Las Enramades y Las Perlas with whom we would work over the next week.


Below is a picture of Pio and Jenny and their daughters on Sunday when we were introduced. On the right is a picture of their current house.

Below is a picture of Jose and Angela and their daughter Magdalena and son Juan.

Zip Line - What a good time

So, what is a zip line??? Wikipedia says:
A zip-line (also known as a flying fox, foefie slide, zip wire, aerial runway, aerial ropeslide, death slide or tyrolean crossing) consists of a pulley suspended on a cable mounted on an incline. It is designed to enable a user propelled by gravity to traverse from the top to the bottom of the inclined cable, usually made of stainless steel, by holding on or attaching to the freely moving pulley.

So, here's a photo of the zip line at ... You can see the cables at the top of the photo. Apparently they added a second cable recently as a precaution. (not sure if there was an incident that prompted that and I didn't ask) What was cool about this zip line is that there were actually 3 huts and you would stop at each and then move to the next part of the course.

Before we began, everyone gathered in the first hut for some basic instruction. Once that was done, a couple of the guides showed us how it was done. Then we were off one by one. There was a huge cheer as each person made their way out of the gate. Let me just tell you that I wasn't sure the hut could hold the 25 or so people that were in there at the beginning and so was very thankful the instruction wasn't too long.

If you haven't ever gone on a zip line, you're not alone. Most of the folks on our trip hadn't done it before. It really doesn't require any skill - you just need to not panic and put on the break. (which by the way is one of your hands in a glove) If you do, you'll get stuck mid way on the line and have to suffer the embarrassment of having one of the guides climb out to you and pull you down tot he second hut. Let's just say that we saw this demonstrated more then once as several in our number were concerned that they would knock over the second hut. :) Here's a picture of the view from the second hut looking back to the first one. Note that one of the guides was holding the wire a little lower trying to be sure he minimized the number of trips to rescue someone.

At the second hut, the guides allowed us to pair up with them and do tricks. Here's a fantastic picture of Susan riding upside down. On the last leg Vinny and I did something called a superman. I was laying out in front of the guide, looking like a picture of superman flying. Vinny did the same thing, except was going backward. It was very fun, I was surprised I wasn't really scared at all. Unfortunately, or on second thought, fortunately I don't have a picture of me doing that stunt.

Anyway, we'll finally get to the real point of our trip in my next blog. One of the things I really liked about the way Bridges structures these trips, is that they ease you in and out of the experience.

First observations

We left the airport sometime around 2:00pm local time (Nicaragua is on CST and so is 1 hour behind us) and headed to a restaurant to have lunch. I peered out of the window, excited to see what this country was like. I noticed graffiti on walls, houses and other public buildings. Nearly all the graffiti contained one of the following: FSLN, Sandinista or Daniel Ortega. FSLN stands for Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional or in English Sandinista National Liberation Front and is the Socialist political party in Nicaragua. Ortega is the leader of the FSLN and served as president of Nicaragua from 1985 - 1990 and again from January 2007 - present. Members of FSLN are called Sandinistas. I mention these details because it became clear to me very quickly I needed to understand Nicaragua's history if I were to understand the people. I don't know about you but I never studied anything about Nicaragua in any class I took. To the right is a picture of some graffiti. I am guessing it says something like 'long live Daniel' but maybe one of you Spanish speaking folks can clarify.

Another thing I observed was that every house or building was surrounded by barbed wire. This was true in the city, in the country, everywhere we went. The odd thing was that the smallest shack was enclosed in barbed wire just the same as a nice house. Fields in the middle of the country were also protected by barbed wire. I have no idea why.

It also seemed like everyone had a little store front and was selling something. When I say store front it's not what we would call a store - it's more of a stand. I found this to be the case in Ticquantepe as well as in Managua. You could buy anything from a coke, to pewter candle sticks to cloths.

We arrived at Asados and had the first of a series of excellent meals. Rice and beans are staples of the Nicaraguan's diet and we were to eat some combination of these in nearly every meal for the next 8 days. At lunch we were also offered a choice of juices including lemonade, fruit punch. I was thirsty and so chose lemonade and what a wise choice it was. Truth be told, you couldn't go wrong with any choice. In fact over the next week I would sample all kinds amazing juices from orange to pineapple to papaya to guava to beet and combinations therein. They were all fresh and I just couldn't get enough of them.

After lunch we loaded back on the bus and headed up to the Tiscapa Lagoon for a history lesson and ride on the zip line. More on that in my next entry.

Day 1

So, back to Saturday, January 16th at 3:00 am. Roxane and I arrived at Dulles Airport 30 minutes a head of schedule. The Copa Airlines baggage check counter was nearly empty and so we ready to go to the gate by 3:15. Surprisingly, we were not the first to arrive. After checking in we connected with Michelle and discovered that she had gone on the trip last year. I began to get excited as I listened to her talk about her experience last year. Here's the first trip picture. (Roxane is on the left and Michelle is seated on the right) As 3:30 approach more and more of our group arrived. Everything went smoothly except for the fact that Katie accidentally went to the web check in line when she hadn't checked in on the web. Apparently this was quite improper and the woman behind the counter was somewhat indignant. When Katie looked down at her seat assignment, she was not surprised to see that somehow she had been assigned a middle seat.
We all decided to walk with Katie to the gate to see if she could get a better seat. Low and behold when we got the gate, the SAME woman was there. Needless to say Katie didn't get a new seat. After we were all on board the plane I looked up and saw the SAME woman walking down the isle. My head swung around to see if the woman was going to escort Katie off the plane. Thankfully, she left Katie alone!

We arrived in Panama on schedule and made our connecting flight. [As an aside we were very fortunate that Leslie, the trip leader, got us out of the bathroom line in Panama as we barely made the last call for the flight.] As this was my first experience on Copa Airlines I wasn't sure what to expect. It really was a very pleasant trip. (Katie's encounter aside) Copa allows you to check two bags for free, (American Airlines only allows 1). Copa also feeds you on both flights. We aren't talking peanuts, either. We got a full breakfast on the first flight and a delicious sandwich on the second flight. Couple that with a free beverage (with alcohol if you want it) and who can complain?

When we arrived in Mangua (pronounced Manawa) we were met by Bridges staff members Dave, who would be one of our two group leaders, and Nikki, who is the senior Bridges staff member for Ticuantepe. We were led out to the bus that would be our primary source of transportation on our trip (when we weren't in the community). Our bags were loaded on top of the bus (see picture) and off we went.

Get Ready, Get Set, Go

Trip Preparation -

If you haven't traveled to a third world country before (like me) you might not know that the CDC recommends that you get immunized to protect against a number of diseases. The CDC has a website (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/nicaragua.aspx) which contains their recommendations. Since I just had gotten a tetanus booster, I could skip that but I had to get immunized for Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR), Hepatitis A, Typhoid and also get malaria pills. Interestingly, the MMR and Hepatitis A are two part vaccinations. You get the second MMR about a month after the first vaccination. (In fact, I am due for that this week) The second Hepatitis A vaccination needs to be administered 6 months after the first one. Additionally, my doctor was only able to get the pill version of the Typhoid vaccination. So, I had to take a pill every other day for 8 days. Did I mention that it had to be taken 1 hour before food and also needed to be refrigerated? Couple that with the malaria pill requirements (taken weekly 2 weeks before possible exposure and three weeks after) and you can see why I had to employ the use of a calendar to keep track of all my required actions. It feels like I have made more trips to my doctor in the last 6 months then the rest of my life combined.

Another aspect of preparation was telling my family and friends what I was going to do. Many expressed concern about my exposure to various diseases, only some of which vaccinations would prevent. Others were also concerned that I might get kidnapped, robbed or be threatened in some other fashion. After reading the material on the Bridges website, (http://www.bridgestocommunity.org) I became comfortable that the infrastructure in place (20 staff members located in country) the history of the organization (working in Nicaragua - exclusively- since 1992) in addition to an experienced trip leader (6 previous trips) afforded me a level of security that was acceptable.

So, where are we going? I mentioned Ticuantepe in my first blog entry. There are 15 departments and 2 self governing regions in Nicaragua. Ticuantepe is part of the Managua Department but is considered a municipality (there are 153 in the country) Ticuantepe has thirteen small communities under it and combined they make up one of the poorest populations in and around the capital city. The Ticuantepe municipality is split up into two sections: the urban zone and the rural zone. The Urban zone contains 37% of the population - just over nine thousand people - and the rural zone is made up of 63% of all inhabitants, which amounts to about twenty-five thousand people. Today Ticuantepe is the largest supplier of pineapples to the whole of Nicaragua and the local land and environment is perfect for the growth of these delicious fruits.