Mon-Thu, Aug.6-9th: Build, Build, Build...

Hey, Susanne back at it after Chelsea got to tell you about our amazing Andes weekend. Let's start with some noteworthy quotes heard over the last few days....randomly:
-Allie today in the van on way back home: "don't you see the siren?"
-Unknown: "she has everything you need, but it's not here"
-When Amy hit her thumb with a hammer: "good thing I'm not strong"
-Maggie after calling Steve "Paco".... "if I was in Canada, he'd be called Dave or Jim or Steve...." Group response "his name IS Steve ".
-Aaron "I need to stop eating, I can't breathe" (After our meat sweats) -Allie "sorry, I was distracted by the Andes"
-Susanne "looking forward to the Wike and Bine tour this weekend"
-"Unknown" commenting about how tight the space was in the truck "he shifted between my legs"

Monday saw us back at the work sites and it is usually on the second week that a bit of panic sets in as you always feel like you're going to run out of time. We had a few good work days this week and got way ahead past digging trenches and getting floors ready and making walls. We are now into finished roofs, walls that have siding and ceilings that are being built. Drywalls are up and mudding is happening. It is a really interesting build as my experience has usually been with brock builds, and to get our hands on a lot of wood, hammering, using a skill saw (LOVE iT!!!) and basically doing some things that will come in handy at home is really kind of neat. Our evenings continue to evolve around food and wine. Work days are long. We leave at 8:20 and are often not back until 7pm or so. Traffic in the evening is quite challenging as the work days here are longer so that people are on the road at 6:30pm versus 4:30 or 5pm at home. Our team is incredibly committed and everyone volunteered to go in early today and tomorrow, so teams left at 7:30 or so and one team did not get back around 7:30pm or so. Unfortunately you can only work so long as it gets dark around 6:30pm. We continue to have nice weather during the days, chilly at night but it is really nice working weather.

Wednesday afternhoon after work we got to visit Teleton which is a Chilean organization dedicated to helping disabled children. We got a little tour and were amazed at how progressive the centre actually was. They had everything from arts rooms to pools, to robotic treadmills, bracing shops, music rooms. Once a year they have a telethon and it is basically Chilean tradition and almost an expectation to give a donation to Teleton...likely a bit like the IWK at home. Chelsea and I told you about the three work sites and three different families we are helping. The family mteam is building additional rooms for is a family of a Mom, Grandmother, 3 daughters and a son who is quite sick with a lung disease. They believe it is likely cystic fibrosis...due to the condition of the home, he has to stay in a hospital and the Mom arranged for us to be able to see him in the hospical which is a special centre for kids with malnutrition who often have other more severe illnesses like our little Vincente. It was very special to be able to meet him in person. We had to get gowned up, and we got to be in the same room and interact a bit. He will be a year old on September 21st and will be allowed to go home for the night. It has been since March that he was last home. What a special half an hour this was...really brought home the whole reason for the build and our time here. And we could not have asked for a more grateful person and Mom in Francesca who joined us for dinner at the hostel after the hospîtal visit. And since we did not have an interpreter like we usually do obn the site, we had our i-phones and blackberries out with special apps which would translate etc. I had a little dictionary with me, but it was Spanish-German (yes, Mom, from wayyyy back) and it was not much use for anyone else :)

Wednesday was Allison's birthday and after some cake at the work site, and then some cake here, we went to Karaoke at a bar and had a great night out. Happy hour all nigfht, amazing Mohitos and very cheap drinks.... Who would have known we would have so much singing talent on our teram. Needless to say, after a big night out, it was a bit rough getting up today for our longer work day. But everyone worked super hard and we got a ton done!

Very grateful for our time here. Wonderful team. So committed, so helpful and just a great group of people who have bonded quickly, made some great friendships and I am pretty sure some of the newbies will be seen on future Habitat builds.... and PS: I can't find spellcheck on here, so: sorry! :)

Fri-Sun, Aug.3-5: Extreme Horseback Riding & the Meat Sweats

Friday was a half build day as we were leaving to go on our first weekend of R&R in the Andes and Cascadas de las Animas. It's hard to put into words how incredible this place was- tucked in to the Andes an hour and a half away from bustling Santiago. We left the traffic behind and went winding up the road sandwiched between the mountains! We checked into our rustic cabins and headed right down to the restaurant for supper. Turns out meals are a bit of process in Chile. Like most Chilean meals, we started with bread and this spicy salsa, mmmmmm, and ceviche for the fish lovers. Then it was on to the lettuce and peeled tomato, onion, and avocado salad and corn. THEN came the endless platters of meat! And not just platters of one type of meat either- at home you might have chicken or steak, right? no, no, a traditional Chilean bbq consists of pretty much any kind of meat possible.... All at once! First came the sausage, then the chicken, then the steak, and then the pork tenderloin!!!! Talk about the meat sweats! And as if this wasn't enough food to satisfy even the hungriest sumo wrestler, we then had dessert! Ice cream, cake, flambé.... it was 10x the feeling you have after eating turkey dinner! The gigantic awesome meals, heavy on the meat side, continued all weekend and although we enjoyed every bite of them, we could probably not eat until we get back and be completely fine. On to the extreme horseback riding. Susanne and I had been keeping our R&R plans secret from the group until we arrived although we probably could have told since we could have never explained the incredible adventure we were about to go on! Everyone mounted up and we started up the mountain in a single file line. In the front was our head guide and quite possibly one of the coolest people we have ever met. If you ever wanted to be a cowgirl, you would have wanted to be her. She looked the part, dressed head to toe in traditional Chilean attire and riding gear, exuding confidence on her feisty horse, the whole time singing and yelling things like "yahoo" for us to echo in the mountains. The entire trek up was like flipping through a pile of postcards. The snowcapped mountains loomed ahead, behind and beside you- one of the most picturesque landscapes I've ever seen! It was easy to "get lost" in the Andes.... That is as long as you weren't behind Hannah's horse whose last meal didn't seem to agree with him! :) After riding uphill on windy paths we arrived at our lunch site where we enjoyed... Yes, you guessed it- more meat platters!!!! As well as some rice, salad, bread etc. On the side. They cooked for us over an open fire while we ate and listened to one of the men play guitar and serenade us with Chilean music- awesome experience!! They also offered us the usual pisco sours, wine, and beer which... Had we known what was in store on the way down, we would have taken more advantage of! Our crazy cool cowgirl explained that the ride down the mountain would be an "adventure" Let's just say that she was putting it nicely. As we started down the steep cliffside trail you could hear everyone talking to their horses... "good boy" "it's ok, here we go" hahaha most people were really just trying to keep themselves calm. From the very beginning we were told that the most important thing to remember was that we have to trust our horse... And trust we did!!! For an hour and a half we skidded and galloped down steep hills directly on the cliffs edge while making sharp turns on the windy path. After the harrowing adventure and people had both feet firmly on the ground we all agreed that it should be considered an extreme sport but was hands down one of the most amazing experiences ever. After all that excitement and more meat sweats, Sunday was a relaxing day filled with yoga, a short hike to a waterfall and massages. It was a weekend none of us will ever forget.

Thu, August 2nd: Pisco (Gone) Sour!

Salsa anyone??? As promised, Ivan took us out for a night out on the town in Santiago. Many glasses of wine,beer and pisco sours later, we left the hostel and headed for the bar. Unfortunately the subway system had broken down so everyone and their dog were trying to hail cabs. Since we couldn't get enough for the entire group at once, we walked along and just hopped in cabs as they sped past! Quite the adventure! We all gradually arrived at the club where we took salsa lessons. And by learning salsa, I really mean being spun around the room and stumbling over our own feet, In fairness, they really did try to teach us but frankly, we don't move the way that they do. Still, it was a memorable night full of laughs, not-so fancy footwork, and an overindulgence of cervezas and pisco sours which for some, made for tough morning! We capped the night off with a little "Telepizza" which for the record, I strongly discourage unless of course you like dough that pretty much resembles sawdust! off to the Andes for the weekend! :)

Wed, August 1st: Team "Similar Operation"

Chelsea's turn: Our apologies for slacking on the blog. Things have been busy in Santiago! As Susanne mentioned, we are split up in to different groups. My group (Jessie, Kelsey, Aaron, Billy, and Steve) is more towards the countryside on Santiago nearer to the Andes. We are building two rooms for a 5 month old baby boy named Carlitos who has severe respiratory problems. He has a very difficult time breathing, always sounding wheezy and hardly has the lung capacity to cry. However, like so many other builds, everyone is happy and enjoying life. Our typical day starts out with about an hours drive to the house (traffic here is insane!), morning tea and bread with the family, and Julian's (our site maestro)extreme Stretching/ not really! He has his famous "touch the stars" and "feel the country". Every time we ask a question his answer is "its possible" and when he wants us to do something again in a different place he likes to say "do a similar operation" haha-he has us laughing all day and needless to say he is very entertaining. We have two other skilled workers on our site as well- Christan and Pablo- both of which are hard working and fun to work with. Over the past few days, we built the floor, exterior walls, and framed the interior walls. Days are flying by and we are all discovering new muscles we never knew existed! :) If anyone is looking for framer, we've got you covered.