Planes, vans and boats!!
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2007
1
4
15
Trip End
Nov 16, 2007
Livingston, Guatemala
Sunday, November 4, 2007
People submit an application to see if they qualify for a home. There is certain criteria that they must meet.
1. They must have a child but it can be a single mother or father, or even the grandparents raising their grandkids.
2. They have to own their land to build on.
3. They must have a way to pay the mortgage. A typical house here is $3000 and they pay about $30 monthly for 10 years.
4. They have to be able to help with the building or some member of their family must be able to help.
The people that Habitat works with here make in between $150 and $400 monthly. There are also situations where someone needs some help but they make under $100 monthly and if they can afford $3 or $4 a monthly, they can get a new roof or a floor put in (most of these homes of the people who need them have dirt floors). Habitat also provides education for these people to help them with the finances and how to make monthly payments. It's an amazing program and they really do assess each and every family's situation. The average wait here is 2 months to maybe 6 months to process and begin building, so it doesn't take that long! (just many other things do here.. lol)
So after our briefing, we hit the road in 2 vans and drove north for 5 1/2 hours. The highway is awesome -- most of it new! We stopped at a Pollo Campero for lunch which is very much like a KFC but 10 times busier and with pizza! After a few hours out of the city, we started to notice how warm it was getting.. I'm in heaven! The city (capital of Guatemala) is at a much higher altitude -- hence the cooler temps)
Once we arrived at Puerto Barrios, we transferred to a boat for another 30 minute ride to our home for the next week in Livingston. We found out today though that we will be building in the Puerto Barrios area, so this boat ride will be done every day, twice a day. And for those who know me well, are probably asking if i have Gravol.... (dramameen sp?) and the answer is no... but others have some stuff if i need it.
Dinner was awesome tonite - I had Thai Curry with Shrimp. It was really good. And yes, I took some pics.
It gets dark here by 6pm, just like Costa Rica so we're all adjusting to that.
The work begins tomorrow, so we need a good night sleep anyway.
Janice
