Habitat's hard at work in Guatemala and beyond!!

I've just spent a week in Guatemala on a Habitat Global Village trip, and it made my upcoming trip to Haiti feel very real.  (That, plus it starts really soon!!)  This trip to Guatemala has been a good reminder of the great work that Habitat does, and how it is a PERMANENT solution to housing inadequacies.   The group I traveled with has been going to Guatemala once, twice, or even three times a year for the past 7 years, starting when I worked there and hosted them.  Their commitment to Habitat is incredibly inspiring, and beautiful to see.  They are truly dedicated to building relationships and contributing to growing a community.  I'm so humbled to have been able to travel with them once a year, and to have had a chance to witness this process.  With this group, we've seen families help build their own home, then visited them in subsequent years to see the houses decorated thoughtfully, flowers planted and thriving, babies born and children growing up, and people LIVING comfortably and proudly in their simple, decent home.  It's a great example of the longterm nature of Habitat's work-these homes are meant to be forever!!  

The week was also a great example of the powerful nature of a Global Village experience.  Team members spoke over and over about how moving it was to be helping to build a COMMUNITY, not just a house.  We also had a great example of how memorable it is for the partner family to have a GV team help them.  One guy came up to one of our leaders and said that his house was built 7 years ago, with the first GV team to go to that colonia.   He asked me if I knew the leader and I happened to know him because I used to work there, so I said yes.  He then got really excited and asked if I knew Steve, Lily, Chris, etc... He remembered the name of  every person who had been on his home's team!  I was like, sorry, I don't actually know them, but I'm sure they remember the experience fondly.  How could you not?

Now I'm on my way to Hispaniola to have 2 new and different Habitat experiences.  I'm leading a trip to the DR, the first open team in many years, they just put the country back in the trip catalog!  Then, on August 7, I'll say goodbye to my DR team and hello to my Haiti team, and we'll travel the next day overland to Leogane.  I'll keep posting new and exciting blog posts throughout thus experience!  Thanks for reading!