On Saturday, March 27, twelve Jacksonville area residents representing Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville (HabiJax) travelled to Tucurrique, Cartago, Costa Rica to work with Habitat para la Humanidad Costa Rica. We worked to build a house for a family with three children. Here is an account of our time in Costa Rica and some pictures of our experiences.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Day Three - On the Build Site

Today was our first of four days on the job site in Tuccurique.  The family that will own the home actually lives next door to the build site.  Their current home is very simple and small, with only basic construction.  The new home will have a concrete floor with prefab concrete slat walls.  

Today, we dug the holes for the thirty-six columns that will support the wall slats and the roof.  The floor will be poured after the walls are up.  We also dug most of the septic system, which comprises a hole approximately two meters by two meters by one meter deep and a trench about six meters long. 

Clearly, we are a long way from HabiJax.  There is no mechanical auger for the post hole and no cement mixer of any kind - just piles of sand and gravel and bags of cement.  We simply mixed them with water on the ground.

The weather was sunny and very hot but we kept a good pace and accomplished more than was expected for the day.  I suspect most of us will feel sore in the morning!!!  

Here are some pix from the day:

The Habitat homeowners - Grandmother, son, mother, and daughter - on left is Jorge, the construction leader, and to the right is the fundraiser for Habitat Costa Rica.

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