The current Global Village Habitat Trip to El Salvador is the vision of UBC Basketball alumni Bill Humphries.  Bill came home from El Salvador as a volunteer in a Global Village program in 2008, with the idea of partnering with the UBC athletics department in providing an opportunity for ten varsity athletes and a coach to have a “Habitat Global Village Experience”.  So here we are in San Vicente, El Salvador from May 1st-15th, 2011.  The Team Members are:

Bill Humphries – Team Leader
Deb Huband – Coach and Assistant Leader
Graham Bath - Basketball
Jennika Efford – Swimming
Rayel Quiring – Volleyball
Amelia Rajala – Cross Country and Track
Diane Rizzardo – Soccer
Nicole Schuurman – Rowing
Chloee St-Amour – Basketball
Alex Vieweg – Basketball
Nathan Yu – Basketball
Lauren Whitehead – Volleyball

Monday morning we drove to the suburbs of San Lorenzo, about 20 minutes from San Vicente, and arrived at the land that we would be working on for the next two weeks.  There are five houses being built, each at different stages of production so many different jobs are needed.  The drive is straight up a mountain and the view that it offers is beautiful.

The work is tedious but boring moments are scarce.  Working shoulder to shoulder with the host families of all ages has been extraordinarily fun.  The hosts have been rocking nothing but smiles the entire time and although the language barrier is strong, fits of laughter erupt from all corners of the work site.  Over water breaks soccer balls roll out and small games of keep away develop.  After wheel-barrels are filled races begin.  During lunchtime, all on site pack house 1 with a small TV to watch the Barcelona versus Real Madrid match.  Although there is time for fun, there is work that must be done also.

The homes we are building are 450 square feet and each contain 6 rooms.  After digging 30-inch deep trenches we are able to move on begin manually mixing wheel-barrel after wheel-barrel of concrete to fill the trenches we just dug.  Cement and brick blocks along with reinforced steel, tiled floors, and a bathroom will soon develop.   There are many hours of work to be completed but the size of the job, or the heat of the sun enters our mind for only seconds at a time.

Keep your eye on T-Brids website for the next update!

From,
The UBC Thunderbird/Global Village Experience