Omonivie Okhade
Updates
Day 8-9 in Pictures: Last Days in Nicaragua/Thank You
Thank you to everyone who supported me and our team's Habitat Global Village trip to Nicaragua. With your help, we were able to build a house for a family who not only needed it, but worked really hard as well to make it happen. We learned about a beautiful and struggling country, and we gave the best of ourselves to help others. Thank you for giving us that opportunity.
Thank you again to Habitat para la Humanidad Nicaragua: VIttoria, Elisa, Katia, Eugenia (representing Habitat...
Day 7: Last Day of Construction in La Gallina
3.22.2012: Our last day of construction. I woke up with a sense of wonder and disbelief that by the end of the day, we would be done with our build. I thought about the family and the fact that we soon wouldn’t see them again. I imagined how they would continue to move forward, finishing the house and going about their daily lives after we left. I knew I would miss them, miss the experience, and I would especially feel the impact after I returned to the States. For now though, it was time...
Day 6: Painting la Escuela Publica del Poder Ciudadano Salomon Ibarra Mayorga
3.22.2012: It was a good day – productive, with a variety of tasks. It was also the first day that I felt like I needed a midday nap. We were in the final stretch though, so I held it together.
Thursday’s tasks included finishing the U-blocks (you can’t escape ‘em!), assisting the masons with bricklaying, and (finally!) painting the school, la Escuela Publica del Poder Ciudadano Salomon Ibarra Mayorga. I think our team member Terrie enjoyed that most; she clowned about with the...
Day 5: Albañil = Mason (and Acrobat, Apparently)
3.21.2012: We headed to the site a little after 8:00a to continue on the house. There were many bricks to measure and U-blocks still needed to be made, but I wanted to try something different so I decided to help the masons lay the bricks. I liked it, though the scaffolding was up by then and it was a little nerve-wracking to stand and work so high up once they raised the boards – if you lost your balance, there was nothing but air to catch you on your way down. So needless to say there...
Day 4: The Brick Factory
3.20.2012: Tuesday was a mix of fun, frustration, and exhaustion, with a liberal application of sweat. The women on our team were assigned to visit and work at the brick factory that afternoon, where the adobe blocks are made to construct the Habitat houses in La Gallina. We had no idea what were in for, and by the end of the day had enormous respect for the community women who operate the factory.
First, we visited the local school, just up the hill from Ismael and Martha’s house...
Day 3: First Day of Construction in La Gallina
Early Monday morning my day began with a brief meditation on the deck of our hotel room. Our room faces the beach in Masachapa, and it’s a very peaceful place. I finished and got ready in time to see a group of baby sea turtles be released into the ocean (Hotel Vistamar has the first Artificial Incubation Turtle Egg project in Nicaragua, www.vistamarhotel.com). The group met for breakfast at 7a, and by 8a we were on...
Day 1-2 in Nicaragua
Well, we've arrived! We took the red-eye Friday night, with a 3 hour layover in Houston, plus another 1.5 delay while waiting for the missing in action co-pilot to show up. We arrived in Managua close to 1p and spent a good 45 minutes trying to figure out the time difference between here and California. Here's what we figured out: Nicaragua is 2 hours ahead of California, but because it did not participate in Daylight Savings Time when the U.S. sprang forward an hour, it is now only 1 hour...
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