Build Change with Naomi

Ribbon cutting ceremony and family move-ins!

The past weeks since I've been back in Bolivia have brought an exciting end to my project here. I arrived just before New Year's Eve, which I spent dancing to cumbia and reggaeton with Bolivian friends until 8am. The next day,  (with difficulty) I got back to work on finishing up the construction in time for the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony which we held last week. Click here to see the pictures from the Ribbon Cutting and wrapping up the project.

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was simultaneously incredibly touching and a lot of fun. It was especially meaningful for me since my mom made the 24-hour trip to southern Bolivia to celebrate with us.  And some of my closest friends who had built with me came out to support the families and see the results of their labor. Frankly it was the first time I really was able to step back and appreciate how deeply we've impacted the lives of the 16 families who are now home-owners, instead of just sweating the details about each roof, door, window and wall.

The day brought unseasonably perfect weather, about 85 degrees with sun, low humidity. The homes looked great all painted red with yellow or blue trim, and decorated with ballons and ribbons. The families had organized to bring empanadas, snacks, and the local wine.  A local priest said some words blessing the day and the families. Then the head of the Habitat Tarija office spoke giving thanks for you donors and for the project.

Even after 6 months of Spanish down here, my words were hardly adequate to convey my happiness and satisfaction as I congratulated the new 100 home-owners on behalf of each of you, thanked the construction team and Habitat for their fine work, and talked about how humbling it is to be able to represent the over 250 donors from as far away as Greece and Hong Kong that made the project possible. 

The tears and words of appreciation from each of the families was incredibly gratifying, and I wished each one of you could have been with us for the experience. The families time and again spoke their words of thanks for donors helping them fulfill a lifelong dream of home ownership. There's nothing that really is more impactful than a parent thanking you on behalf of their children, who will grow up in a home as opposed to a shack or tent.

We went home by home cutting the doorway ribbons and blessing each room and family. Then we gave the families key holders and plants to decorate their new home. We even had a symbolic planting of one of the trees, and talked about the importance of caring for the land and their new neighborhood.

As you can see in the photos, the houses have turned out quite nicely. The beautiful wooden doors, and metal and glass windows are a huge step up in terms of keeping bugs and germs out of the houses. Plus the septic tanks and water connections will radically change the families' sanitation and cleanliness.

The families can't believe the amount of space inside. With 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and living room, the homes are 4 to 5 times the space they are living in now.  Many of the families moved in before the actual ribbon-cutting, which basically entailed moving a mattress and a few pots and pans into their spacious new environs.

Now it is time for me to start packing up, saying my goodbyes to my friends here, and planning my return to the US. I have 2 more weeks here, which will be spent wrapping up the details and contracts on the project, traveling a bit with Bolivia, and hanging out with my favorite folks here.

I can't say enough how much these months have meant to the families and to me personally. I have been overwhelmed by all the support from each of you. Financially, we well-surpassed the goal of $100K to end up at almost $111K. That extra money is being used to build a sustainable water system, not just for my 16 families but to benefit all the Habitat homes that will be built in the neighborhood (over 30 are scheduled, with land to build another 50 in the next 2 years).

But beyond the donations, your emails and encouragement, your prayers, and your funny anecdotes about your own quirky experiences in developing countries and doing slightly crazy projects have meant the world to me these past 6 months. To my group of friends who came down for weeks to help build, your energy and encouragement carried me at a time when I needed you most.

A number of folks have reached out to learn more about doing a similar project. I was deeply inspired and supported by my friend Dave McMurtry's work in Colombia, and hope to pass the torch! So let me know how I can be helpful.

To each of you, I am endebted to you in a million ways, and hope to keep in touch.

Saludos,

naomi

Finishing touches and Help from friends

The past few weeks we've moved into the "fina obra" or fine work/finishing touches on the homes. This has been tremendously fun, plastering the inside and outside of the homes, installing toilets and sinks, painting the homes. It's also been pretty humorous, since the more "skilled" work is where the difference between my piddly skills and those of the professional guys is most evident. The youngest guy on the crew, 12-year-old Marc Antonio, had the unenviable task of trying to teach me both the electrical installation and the exterior plastering. He definitely drew the short straw last week.

Click HERE to see the photos of painted homes, installed toilets, and other progress!

Tomorrow I head home to the US for a week for Christmas with my family, before I head back down here to finish the 16 homes. We have a solution now on both water and plumbing, after countless meetings with town officials. So it's official, on January 12th we will deliver the keys to the families and they will be able to start moving into their new homes.

I've been thinking a lot about the many friends who have been working around the world to make this project successful. In just the past 3 weeks there have been countless people making the project a success: Amy and Myra, two friends who work at eBay, managed to get a huge grant for my project. Likewise Koushik, a friend from b-school, convinced his employer to make a large donation. My parents and a group of their friends ran a large art show fundraiser, and my cousin led another fundraiser with her church. Phew! I feel like I've got the easy task down here of just building the houses; lots of people all over are managing the tough work of the fundraising.

Another friend down here recently made me a cd of all the popular cumbia and reggaeton songs that are on the radio currently, so as I work with the crews, I now sing along to the radio songs. Don't know if that is cruelty to the construction crew or not, but it definitely makes them laugh when I bust into my best Spanish rap.

Things continue to progress on the fundraising front. I've raised my goal $10,000 to build a sustainable water system. Turns out I'm having to build an entire well and tank system large enough to support the entire neighborhood, including conducting the environmental studies to make sure I don't dama ge downstream water resources . We've passed $88,ooo though, so I feel good about hitting the goal over the next month. Plus it's a lot less painful than having to go through the mayor's office!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday.

Saludos,

Naomi

Two weeks to give thanks for and a lesson in small town politics

I am coming off of 2 of the most rewarding and fun weeks I could imagine having here in Bolivia, which involved roofing 9 homes in a crazy marathon roofing week followed by having 8 friends visit from the US to help with building a home in Cochabamba. If you aren’t going to spend Thanksgiving eating turkey and pumpkin pie with your family, I have to say building walls with a needy family and drinking Bolivian wine with close friends has to be one of the best ways to give thanks.   Click HERE to see pictures from the past 3 weeks: roofing, building walls, and the Blitz Build in Cochabamba!

Roofing week (two weeks ago) was a great success despite some coldish and rainy days. I had a buddy, Brian, from New York in town for the week and Winnie, a friend from the Peace Corp, pitched in. The 2 of them provide some much-valued muscle as we roofed 2 homes a day. The families were wonderful providing some kicking good chicken and potato meals and shoveling rocks and dirt to prepare the cement mix. I had my share of marriage proposals from the ayudantes (workers) which is my bellweather for whether they think I am working hard or not!

Brian and I then headed up north to a larger city, Cochabamba, where we were joined by an awesome crew of friends last week, mostly my classmates from business school.  They were troopers, cranking out walls, mixing cement, and excavating dirt for the Siles family in Cochabamba, even in rainy days and despite the altitude of 8000 feet. The family was so impressed and amazed by how much we got accomplished in 5 days: from just having the foundations in place to building all the walls to putting in the first row of cement for the roof. I don’t know if I’ve been prouder of my friends ever.

The only downer the past couple of weeks has been my (ongoing) battle with the mayor over water installation. In order to get a meeting with him I ended up attending an inauguration for a new school and dancing with the whole town council. That was fun, but the meeting itself was a slight disaster... He’s definitely my match in stubbornness, and expects kickbacks to support installing water in my neighborhood. I’m holding out and looking for ways to get the darn water system installed without resorting to supporting a corrupt politician. I’ll keep you posted.

Saludos,

Naomi

It Takes A Village...

Things have been busy this week as we have the full team and many of the families on the property working every day. I'm reminded of the (other) Clinton quote "It takes a village" as I see the 38 full time workers and the families turning what was a dirt patch a little over 6 weeks ago into a community. In fact it takes a village to build a village, not just to raise a child!

The families are so excited now they keep dropping by the property, before work and after work. It's been really sweet for me because they continue to be surprised/impressed by the fact that I am there working on their homes every day . Plus, they are enjoying teasing me about my biceps. For a Bolivian to tease a gringo means that I've finally passed some formality barrier in their minds, to my great relief.

The past week has also been especially fun because I've enlisted the help of a buddy down here, Tim, and had a visit from a friend from San Francisco, Stephane. Great to have a little extra muscle and friends to share the excitement with. Tim's first day on the site was a cement delivery day, when we had to unload 40,000 pounds of cement powder in about 40 minutes, so he's definitely earned his stripes.

Click here and scroll down to see the most recent pics from this week!

Walls are FUN!

We're in one of the most exciting points of the project-- putting up the walls on the homes. We have 8 homes that are about half-way done on the walls, and should finish this week. The other 8 are in process!

See the new pictures by clicking here! If you look at the pics from the prior week or the inauguration day, you can see how quickly things are moving forward. The Habitat team is joking that we are progressing on American time rather than Bolivian time. So far, so good!

Saludos, naomi

Inauguration Day Speech Video

Thanks to a buddy of mine, Sarah, I have a brief clip of the speech I gave last week at our inauguration, celebrating with the families on behalf of all you donors.

Click here to watch the video (you don't need any special software, it will play directly on your computer).

For those of you who speak Spanish, no laughing at my accent! For the rest of you, here's the basic translation:

Good morning to everyone, and welcome. Some of you I haven’t met yet, as I was traveling this week and have been away from the site. But we will have a chance to get to know each other well in the upcoming weeks as we will be working together here in the land.

I’m very happy to be able to be here representing a group of donors. When I was in the U.S. last week I had a chance to speak with many of the donors. They are very happy to know that we are progressing well here and celebrating the inauguration here today. And they want me to tell you how happy they are to have the chance to demonstrate their care and friendship to you, to your families.

Welcome to the Habitat family. We are a family in Habitat, and as you begin to make payments on your home, you in turn will help benefit other families here in Bolivia. This is a big part of the work we are doing here, to grow the Habitat program and help more families here.

I want to also thank the Habitat technical team. Many of you already know that this group of houses is outside all the plans and work Habitat already had projected for the year, this period. That is to say, there is a lot more work that the technical team is doing to make this project possible. I want to thank the technical team for everything they have done and are doing to benefit all of you.

To close, welcome again, and it is a joy to get to work with you. 

Saludos from a sunburnt,

naomi

The official inauguration and my first bout of culture shock

It's been a busy couple of weeks, as we are full steam ahead on the construction here in Tarija, we just celebrated our official inaguration with all 15 families, and I had a chance to go back home to Atlanta for a whirlwind 72 hour trip.

Click here to see all the pictures from the past 2 weeks of progress!

A little over a week ago, I was working on the property in the afternoon with my architect and we missed the last bus back into Tarija, so we walked and hitchhiked for about 45 minutes back. As we walked, we passed many families heading into the "campo" or countryside after their day of work, carrying children and groceries, walking along in the dusk. When we reach town my architect went back to his family and their comfortable home. I headed to a spinning class at an upscale hotel (complete with Spanish techno versions of "I Will Survive"). As my legs were spinning, my head was also spinning thinking of how grateful I was to be heading towards civilization and a warm shower when we passed those families heading the other direction.

Then a couple of days later, I traveled 40 hours by bus, taxi, and 2 airplanes, to be back in the US for 3 days, for meetings with McKinsey and time with my parents. I have to admit, I don't get culture shock easily, but the contrast to the families I passed hitchhiking, and their lives here in Bolivia was a bit hard to absorb.

I'm back in Tarija now, and there's been a ton of progress (in my absence!) on our homes. Yesterday we celebrated the official inauguration with the families.  We blessed the land with a local minister, laying a ceremonial brick and concrete, and speeches from the families, Habitat, and myself. The families spoke about their excitement about getting a home, and expressed their thanks and appreciation to all of you for your truly amazing support.

You can see in the photos how quickly we are progressing now. We have 38 construction workers on the ground, including 8 family members who are thrilled to have the work.  We will be putting up walls on 7 of the homes this week!

I'm healthy and happy, rejuvenated after my days with my parents, and excited for the progress here. I'm looking forward also to visits from friends at the end of this month and in November.

Saludos from Tarija!

naomi

Is this what parenthood is like?

My friends with newborns tell me that the first months in parenthood are an exercise in humility-- as soon as you figure out how to do something well, you're on the the next "learning experience". This has held true for every week of my project here as well...

The fun news: we're underway and excavating 8 of our 15 homes in Tarija! This week we will begin pouring cement and building the rebar frame for the foundation for the first 8 while we clear the land for the next 7. This afternoon the delivery truck will bring us 9600 pounds of cement powder (96 bags!) and the first round of bricks.

The funny part: after feeling so good about all I learned in Villamontes, the construction process here in Tarija is quite different! The roof is different, the foundation is different, even the bricks are different.  So I am learning everything all over again. It's been humbling and humorous, and the albaniles get a kick out of my enthusiasm.

Despite my profound ignorance, we have a good team of workers, and we're making great progress here. We are on track to finish all the homes in early December. The families can hardly believe they will be in their own home for Christmas, thanks to your amazing support.

In other great news, we've crossed the $70K mark on fundraising! Thanks for all of you who have sent in funds this week, and for all the wonderful emails and support. It means a lot to me, and more importantly to the families here.  More pictures to come this afternoon.

Saludos,

naomi

Celebrating with the families in Tarija

Today was one of the most rewarding days yet, as I had the opportunity to officially sign paperwork for our land in Tarija, and rented a bus (oddly, with Japanese graffiti on the side) to take the families out to the land. I wish you could have seen their faces as they realize that they have their very own parcel of land for the first time in their families' life, and then in just 2 short months they will realize their dream of having their own home.

All the parcels of land are quite pretty, the land is near trees and a little river. But to be fair, we had each family draw straws for their parcel, then they got to decide where to position the house on their land.

It was a great honor to get to welcome them on behalf of you all, and they each took turns expressing their thanks for you donations, well wishes, and support. It is hard for them to believe people from all over the world are helping them have a home for their family. You can see the joy in their faces, despite the hard work of moving heavy rocks and tree stumps to prepare for construction.

CLICK HERE to see more pictures of our celebration with the families in Tarija.

Monday morning we will start the "replanteos", a process I know quite well now from my month in Villamontes. This is the first step to creating the foundations for the homes, and is the first part of the "sweat equity" each family has to invest in building their own home.

On Wednesday, I'll put on my 1 nice dress, and have an official negotiation with the local government about the timeline to get water and eletricity hooked up. I've yet to figure out how to be charming in Spanish, so I am hoping my Habitat team will give me pointers before then. (I'm open to any legal suggestions you guys may have as well!)

Then on Thursday it's back to Villamontes for 2 days to push forward on the 15 homes in process there!

Saludos and papaya soda toasts to you from Tarija,

naomi

It's Spring! And I Have Land!!

Those of you who I've talked to in the past weeks have followed the saga of my attempt to buy land that has clear title, and is ready for construction. In Bolivia, the idea of families actually legally owning land is pretty rare. Getting land that has clear title is extremely important long-term for the well-being of our families.

I'm thrilled to say that today, the first official day of Spring here, I finally have acquired land for our  project here in Tarija! The families are very excited to go bright and early tomorrow to see their future neighborhood, pick their lots and prepare for construction this week. I'll post more pics tomorrow.

The project in Villamontes continues to hum along with all 15 homes under construction now. I will go back on Tuesday to bug the workers about dates and deadlines, and to help put up walls.

Until then, saludos from your Naomi who is happy to NOT spend the first weekend of Spring negotiating with lawyers,

N

What do Darwin and "Hotel California" have in common?

Not a day goes by here that something doesn't make me laugh and shake my head in wonder. Here's a few of my thoughts from my personal journal. No offense intended to dogs, The Eagles, or folks from Villamontes!

In flagrant violation of Darwinian theory, catcalls seem nearly universal. With the exception of perhaps in Japan and India, catcalls seem to be a normal way for a guy to express his appreciation of a woman. Bolivia definitely stands out though in the catcall category. What a bizarre thing to cross cultural divides. Do catcalls actually yield results in any culture?

Another thing oddly common across many cultures is the obsession with “Hotel California”. Not a single week goes by here without some teenage kid wanting me to sing karaoke to Hotel California, or worse yet, try to translate the words. I try to tell them that 1) it’s darn hard to sing, 2) it’s even harder to translate “Tiffany-twisted”.  Why isn't something easier, like the "Hokey Pokey" more universal? You put your right foot in...

Speaking of karaoke, Villamontes is the Bolivian equivalent of the Wild West, complete with dirt roads, 10 gallon hats, and a propensity towards pickup trucks (minus the gun racks) and Bolivian country music. The only, and I mean only, entertainment is a karaoke bar that does a hopping business. I’ve gone a few times now with various folks, so I can safely attest that my Spanish vocabulary mostly consists of words from sappy love songs and my accent is the equivalent of a country drawl.

I don’t have the knack yet for drinking beverages from little plastic bags, which is the container of choice here. Without a straw I just end up wearing half the drink as I turn it up to pour it. Given the laughter this elicits in the little kids, I think maybe I am the new form of entertainment in Villamontes.

Last week as I walked through town, many dogs had green ribbons around their necks. I thought it may be a celebration, like a canine St Paddy’s Day. One of the shopkeepers dispelled this myth, “It’s to show who was vaccinated. They all get their rabies vaccination one day a year.” Okay, well, not all of them. Shouldn’t they actually mark those that aren’t vaccinated, maybe with an orange “danger” ribbon? I would appreciate that a lot.

The verb “resfriar” mean to catch a cold. I thought it was a bit odd, but so nice, that on Fridays everyone tells me not to catch a cold on the weekend. I thought it was a really refreshing way of showing concern. Then finally, listening closely one day, I discovered that they are warning me not to “refriar”, slang for getting into trouble/causing trouble. Now do I look like trouble??? Don’t answer that.

Day 7 on a motorcycle, and counting!

This week has been a thrill, literally, as I have spent the past 7 days going by motorcycle all over Tarija and the countryside visiting families and looking for good land for our new neighborhood.  I've learned a lot of useful things this week: avoid cow patties on a motorcycle when you're wearing sandals, always carry a rain poncho in Tarija, and three consecutive days eating roadside horse shishkabobs for lunch should be avoided at all costs.

But much more importantly, I've had an awesome, if heart-rending experience getting to interview  the 50 families that I selected from more than 320 needy families here in Tarija. They have been wonderful welcoming me into their "homes" which, with no exceptions, have consisted of 1 single room in which 3-4 beds are crowded, with a kerosene stove nearby for cooking, to house between 4-6 people.    CLICK HERE for more pictures from the family selection and recent days in Tarija.

When we contacted the 50 families, they poured into the Habitat offices. It was standing room only and  we had to set up 2 separate evenings to talk to them about the project and establish interview times. When I described the project and your generous support, the groups broke into applause, and some people cried. It is an honor to represent you here.

Tomorrow I will finish my round of interviews and make the selection of the fortunate 15 families. It is a process both sad and exhausting, but also thrilling at the same time, to think of changing the lives of these families, their children, and their well-being, thanks to the donations and support from people all over the world.

Buying land quickly in a developing country is an oxymoron. I had a beautiful plot of 5000 square meters all ready to rock and roll to find out that some of the paper work was rejected. So back to the drawing board on Wednesday. I'll keep you posted, and in the meantime will avoid all horsemeat and cow patties.

Saludos from your Motorcycle Kid,

Naomi

Project Amistad launched in Tarija, Villamontes making good progress on foundations!

A quick recap for those who haven't visited the blog in the past week: I made a decision last week to launch a new project in Tarija to help families here that are living so far below the poverty level they can't even qualify for Habitat's minimum requirements, without your generous donations (to understand why, click here).  We are continuing with the homes in Villamontes, and I will return there frequently to help supervise the progress.  Habitat is going to fund the homes in Villamontes as part of their annual goals. I am shifting the funds that you have so generously provided to start the project here in Tarija to have even more impact with a group of families who have no other options.

The past few days have been a fantastic, bittersweet blur as I took the 11 hour night bus to Villamontes Wednesday, worked with the families and albaniles in Villamontes Thursday, took the 11 hour night bus back to Tarija Thursday night, got an apartment in Tarija, and began reviewing our pool of over 300 families Friday and Sunday.

Great progress in Villamontes! When I arrived on Thursday morning, it was extremely exciting to see that we actually have water now-- despite a corrupt water company threatening to hold out a few more weeks--which means we are in the cement foundation building business, and will soon be putting up walls. I got about 3 questions into the discussion about how we actually managed to get the water, then thought there are some things it is probably better not to know.  CLICK HERE to see pictures of the foundations in process!

As I worked with the teams on the homes on Thursday, various families dropped by and called because they had heard I was leaving to work in Tarija. My landlord made a cake for my bus ride. And Beethoven, my fearless canine running companion gave me a big lick in appreciation of our time together. So when the Habitat lead for Villamontes, Adolfo, asked me if I would come back every few weeks to “supervise” on the weekends (i.e. give the albaniles and the construction team a little pressure to work to deadlines) I couldn’t really say no. The project is in Oscar, my architect’s, capable hands, but it never hurts to have a little extra support. The families, homes, and my life in Villamontes are definitely in my heart.

Yet, on Friday and today when I was working with the new project (which I have named “Amistad” for Friendship) I knew that I had made the right decision. Friday I worked late in the evening reviewing a file of over 300 families with no land, earning around $60/month or less to support a family of 5 or more, with no options for buying a home, and living well below the poverty line. As you might imagine, making the decision on which 50 of those 300 to visit, and ultimately which 15 we will build homes for, is one of the toughest things I have ever done.

CLICK HERE to see more pictures from the first day selecting families in Tarija.

Unlike in the US, there is no real system of home mortgages in Bolivia. The maximum personal credit even wealthy Bolivians can get is around $1000. And the families we are helping live in such subsistence level conditions that saving $4000 will never happen in their lifetime. So without our project and Habitat, these families would never have a home. I began the visits to the families today, and will continue this week. Today’s visits were humbling, but at the same time inspiring. We went to a village in the country to talk with some families.

Amidst the heartbreak of seeing the living conditions, there are moments of great joy… My time living in Italy imparted a love for bocce. Today had a chance to play Bolivian bocce with the old men of the village, using cow bones instead of bocce balls. It’s a lot harder with cow bones—they bounce!

I can’t spend more than 15 minutes in the village without someone trying to feed me (grilled pork and corn, with a spicy aji sauce, served in a little plastic baggy and eaten with your hands) or give me chica, a drink of fermented corn and grapes, the Bolivian equivalent of moonshine.

And the kids are equally fascinated and terrified by me, not having seen many if any foreigners, which results in them running towards me, then stopping a few feet away, and running back to their mothers’ arms.

The village elders, sensing the excitement of the village for a few families, asked me to address the group and say a few words. It was one of the few moments in my life when I was absolutely speechless, moved by the poverty and the conditions in the village. I scraped by, but am hoping to be more articulate when I return Tuesday to continue the interviews.

Saludos from Tarija,

naomi

Tough decision but inspiring new goal

Friends,

Due to your generous contributions, we have a new opportunity at hand to help families that normally even Habitat cannot help.

Here's the situation: Habitat works on a virtual cycle with a rotating fund, which means that Habitat builds houses, families pay a minimum monthly mortgage (at least $35 in Bolivia) with no interest, the funds from those payments are used to support the construction for new houses. Because of this cycle, Habitat has rules about which families they can partner with; the families must have the ability to pay their monthly mortage so Habitat can continue to grow and have impact.

Here's our opportunity: The past few days I learned that over 200 families have approached Habitat in Tarija alone in the past few months. Habitat has had to turn them away because they can't meet the minimum payments. Because of your generous donations we aren't reliant on the rotating fund to build our homes so  Habitat has agreed to let me substantially subsidize houses so we can select families that can't afford to pay even $35 a month.

So here's what I am doing: I am essentially swapping projects with Habitat. They will continue to build the homes we started in Villamontes, and will take on all the costs of the homes there as part of their annual goals, because those families can pay the $35.  I (with your support!) am starting from scratch on a project to work with families that are so far below the poverty line, even for Bolivia, that they couldn't have a home under any condition without your amazing support!

It's a little daunting, but I have never been more inspired. 

Next steps: This means I am in Turbo Mode! I am moving back to Tarija tonight, and we start visiting families and selecting them this week. The team here is so excited about getting to select families that have been dreaming of having a home, but couldn´t afford even minimum payments. The toughest step will be going from over 200 families that have expressed their need, to 50 that we will visit, to 15 that we will select.

We have just over 3 months to select families, buy land, get all the legal requirements ironed out, and build the homes. We can do it, but it is a little crazy! My natural reaction is to align on dates, milestones, and ownership with the Habitat team who will be helping me. This is what I did today, in case any of you read Spanish and are interested, you can click on the image to see the plan.

It was a tough decision; I am already attached to the families we are working with in Villamontes, and have settled into the village. But it is the right thing to do in terms of having impact down here. 

Thank you for your support and for enabling me to help families that have no other options. I look forward to taking you with me on the journey these next weeks as we visit families, buy land, and start the construction process!

Saludos de Tarija, naomi

We've hit a great milestone!

Friends,

As of last night we crossed the mark to have enough funds for 10 homes with $44,800! Thank you all for the great support. A warm thanks especially to folks like Dave McMurtry, Vanessa Colella, Gold Truong, Gregg Shelnutt, and my brother for passing along my latest email to folks they know and posting my blog info on their websites and blogs. You are truly rockstars!

I came to Tarija on Monday for a meeting here about the next phase of the project and (surprise!) got caught in a civil strike again. Seems vaguely familiar of my first week in Bolivia. I am eager to get back to Villamontes and be part of the construction this week, since we should be prepping to start putting up walls. But in the meantime I am enjoying Tarija, which has a movie theater so I got to see Ratatouille in Spanish. And I am taking advantage of the good internet connections to be in touch with so many of you who have sent emails and donations this week.

Warm thanks and more pictures of the progress soon.

Saludos from Tarija,

naomi

Week 3 in Villamontes: 10 houses underway

I officially kicked my flu and we kicked off week 3 of my time here in Villamontes with a day spent with the first group of families working on the land. One of the core beliefs of Habitat is that the families work side-by-side with volunteers and masons to help build their homes, which gives them a greater sense of community and responsibility for the house.

Not to mention it's a heck of a lot easier to shovel dirt with someone right beside you shovelling away. And my machete skills can't compare to those of any of the Bolivians (even the kids)!

So we worked together in the morning hacking away at roots, raking rubble, burning branches to clear the land. In the afternoon we rented a truck and made a serious dent in the supply of steel in southern Bolivia, as we picked up all the rebar we need for the next group of home.

This may all sound mundane but it translates into something quite exciting: this week we are in process on 10 houses! As of today, we have completed most of the digging of the foundations. The materials (rocks, bricks, sand) are all ready for the walls and cement. And we are working quickly on building all the rebar foundations. My afternoon yesterday was spent building figure 8 knots with wire to secure the rebar together. (For once I can say I hope my wires are crossed!)

Given all the activity, it has been all hands on deck, with a team of 15 people, plus the families involved. As we worked well into the dark last night, unloading materials, it was quiet on the land except for the sound of our movements and sounds of the occasional wild animal.

Walking back with the families along the dirt roads to town, I felt an incredible sense of humbleness, to be here, representing you all and what you are enabling.  Thank you.

More photos of the 10 homes in process and our recent work can be found BY CLICKING HERE!

Saludos, healthy and happy from Villamontes,

naomi

1 month in Bolivia, but Down for the Count

Today marked the one month point of my time in Bolivia, and 2 weeks on the ground full time in Villa Montes. But unfortunately my body "celebrated" by coming down with the flu. So I am writing this from my bed, drinking the Bolivian equivalent of Theraflu (which is as disgusting as it's American counterpart).  I am hoping to post this in the next day or so when I am up again.

The good news is that yesterday we had a great working day with the families to prep for the next batch of houses we are working on this week. We cleared land to deliver materials, and picked up the rebar for 3 houses. Oscar, amazingly, also signed 2 additional albañiles.

So that brings the total of homes we will have underway this week to 10!! Our first goal.

The other exciting news is that we hit the $40K donation mark!

So despite being a bit under the weather, lots to be excited about here. More soon, plus pictures from the family working day once I am back up and running.

Saludos,

n

10,000 Bricks and Thoughts on Community

Today we bought 10,000 bricks and a load of rocks (thanks to all you donors)! You have to imagine it, but that is about 3 truckloads full, and enough to support all the walls for 5 of our homes. It is a pretty awesome sight to see the trucks pull up with the bricks and to know that we are making progress here.

It's also pretty tough work! It took a team of 11 of us a few solid hours of non-stop work to unload the trucks and place the bricks strategically around the lots so they will be close to the 5 houses we are starting first.

As we were unloading the bricks, I was struck again by how closely we work in community with each other here. I have a pretty awesome community back home, supportive parents and brother, a great extended family and amazing friends.

But my reliance on others here is much more fundamental and visceral on a daily basis. As we unloaded the bricks, each person had the option to place them close to the truck (the easiest thing to do since it involves carrying them less distance) or to carry them further away (more work!). And each person could carry 2, 3, or 4, depending on how tired they were. It was pretty neat to see how much everyone worked together, carrying 4 bricks when possible, stacking them as far away as necessary to ensure we had room for all the bricks. When we would tire, inevitably someone would make a joke or say "un poco mas", just a little more to go. When we took a break, whoever held the bottle of water made sure to pass the cups to everyone else first before serving themself.

Last night, in a discussion with the families we talked about the sewage system for the neighborhood, and I observed the same sense of close community as we decided to cut through some of the families´ land to make sure we had enough room to build safe sewage for all the families. We also decided to build a shelter and have each family take turns spending the night in the shelter to protect our materials for all the homes.

Of course the flip side of living in such close community is that it can be somewhat like being under a microscope. Women here don't drink beer except at parties (men drink whatever they want, whenever they want...), so my attempt to buy a beer last night at my little store near my apartment to drink at dinner after the hard day of work was somewhat scandalous! The woman asked me 3 different ways if I wouldn't perhaps prefer a yogurt. And while I like yogurt as much as the next person, it isn't quite as satisfying after a day of moving 10,000 bricks. :)

Still in all, my sense of community endures in a positive way here. Thank you for your support  for the new community you are helping build. More pictures of the progress this week (breaking ground, building water trenches, moving around bricks and rocks) can be found by CLICKING HERE!

Warmly, from Villamontes,

Saludos!

naomi

 

Breakthroughs and Breaking Ground

I'm starting this week pretty excited and totally refreshed.  I spent the weekend in Santa Cruz, a great little town 8 hours away from Villamontes that has (among other things) 4 art museums, cafes with live music, hotels with hot water, and bookstores. What more could a girl want?

I´m excited because last week was a week of breakthroughs on the project and personally. On the project, after a lot of discussions and hunting, we signed contracts on 3 albañiles, or master contractors, which means we get to break ground this week on 4 houses, a very exciting stage of the project!

We will start digging tomorrow and start building the rebar portions of the foundations. Basically the foundations are poured cement bases with rebar columns.  We'll build foundations for 4, then while those dry we will break ground on the next batch of 6 houses.  We will have a ground breaking party this week or next with all the families, which is one of the most rewarding parts of the whole process.

On the personal front, after working side by side with the families last week on the replanteos, they are getting to know me, my goofy sense of humor, my willingness to get dirty and sweaty for long stretches of the day to help them have a home. Bolivians are known to be very warm once they open up to you,  and they've started to open up.  It's so great to bump into one of the families on the street in Villamontes and sit and have a coffee in the evening.  Two of the families have invited me for lunch at their homes in the next weekends, which should be a treat!

Other minor breakthroughs-- I convinced the dog in my house, Beethoven, to accompany me on a run. After my dog bite incident a while ago,  I was hesitant to run with so many dogs in Villamontes. I'm hoping taking a dog with me will act as some kind of buffer from getting eaten by another dog. So far so good.

I´ve also successfully managed to get hot water! This is a major upgrade in my lifestyle and so unusual in Villamontes that I may have to invite my neighbors over to shower at my place.

Finally, in Santa Cruz, I befriended the curator at the modern art museum, who has invited me back for an exposition opening in October. She is super-knowledgeable about Bolivian art and culture, so it will be fun to get to know a different side of Bolivia.

That's the news from here. New pics to come this week once we're in the ground breaking stage.

Saludos from your happy,

naomi

Replanteos and Sons of Bi***s

Living in another language is ripe with opportunity to embarrass oneself linguistically. Like the time my second day in Bolivia when I was talking to the Habitat national team for Bolivia and I highly recommended that they maintain frequent massages to stay in close contact with volunteers and donors. The group of about 15 people stared at me, surprised, until a few moments later one woman said, “Senorita Naomi, do you mean messages perhaps instead of massages?” “Um, yes, exactly.”

Yesterday the fathers of the families, Oscar (the architect), and I began the hard work of “replanteos” which entails measuring all the lots for the first 10 families, nailing stakes in the ground for the blueprints of their houses and chalking the outlines of the houses. We don’t have any sophisticated tools, like say a square, to measure right angles, so everything is done with fishing wire and using triangles from measuring tape to confirm the angles. It’s tedious and involves hours of crouching at stakes holding fishing wire tight at a specific spot in order to confirm the lines.

During the first few houses in the morning, we were covered with mosquitoes. I had around 40 bites by lunchtime, while wearing full Deet repellant. When we stopped to eat, I wasn’t surprised when the conversation turned to complain about the mosquitoes. I was however a little surprised that they kept calling them “bitches”. For a group of people whose English is limited to “hello” and “how are you” and who are generally gentle people, the choice of a cuss word to round out their English vocabulary struck me as odd. But when in Rome…

Before we got back to work, I offered up my repellant to the group. They looked at the little bottle, and I cheerfully said “It’s for the bitches!” The looked at me perplexed, so I repeated “bitches” multiple times and pointed to my bites. “Oooh,” corrected Oscar, “the bichos.” Bichos are in fact “bugs”. It seems my Bolivian group wasn’t cussing at the mosquitoes all morning as I had thought. But in my mind, trust me, they are bitches!

Despite the adventures with insects, the replanteos are going well. We have finished 7 and should  complete the remaining 3 tomorrow. Also, quite exciting, we will break ground on two of the houses tomorrow and 2 more Friday. I also made an important strategic alliance this afternoon. After 2 days of being parched in the sun, I walked the 2 miles after work to the nearest shack where they sell drinks and negotiated with the 6 year old to deliver beverages twice a day for the bargain price of 2 bolivianos (25 cents) per delivery. We were mutually thrilled with the outcome, my best win-win in Bolivia to date!

Finally, it seems my adventures in Spanish radio aren’t finished yet, 2 more interviews to come Friday morning. Another good opportunity to embarrass myself linguistically. I’ll keep you posted.

If you want to see more pictures from the replanteos, CLICK HERE!

Saludos from Villamontes, with besos and bichos,

naomi

On the ground in Villamontes, and off to a great start!

Sorry for the radio silence that past week, and thanks to those of you who reached out to make sure I was doing fine.  The lack of posts has been a combo of not finding a good internet connection, but more importantly (and excitingly) we´ve made a ton of progress in the 3 days since I arrived!

For those of you who are visiting this site for the first time, the short story is that I was “stuck” for over a week in a town 12 hours away because of roadblocks and civil strikes, so just arrived to Villamontes 3  days ago. (“Stuck” being too harsh a word since the situation turned out to be a wonderful experience…but I was anxious to get started on our houses here.) So actually being in Villamontes, where my project is, is already great news.

The week started much like many weeks I’ve had in consulting… with a Sunday night red-eye! Rolando, from the Tarija team, and I took the 11 hour bus overnight and arrived in Villamontes at 4am on Monday morning.

Working on 3 hours of sleep, we met the Villamontes team Monday morning and spent the day inspecting the materials that we have gathered so far for the houses, and discussing the project. It quickly came to light that, although we have land already, that we can’t actually build on it until the mayor’s office measures and approves the land. And that he’s been promising to do so for a while.

I realized on Monday part of the value I can bring in the next few days is in asking lots of questions that are (hopefully) pushing us forward—what’s the earliest the inspector said he could come? Can we go to his office again and talk to him? Are there families who could help us get the inspectors to come to inspect our land? The result of Adolfo´s (the Habitat lead for Villamontes) and my nagging is that finally yesterday we had inspectors walk and approve the land yesterday. Which means we are all systems go to work with the families to measure their plots and break ground!

Another task the past 3 days has been getting skilled construction leads for the houses. Each house will have 2 "ayudantes", or basic workers, and will share an "albañil" or consruction lead with  another house. Cherry-picking is the name of the game: The head of construction for Villamontes, Oscar, and I spent most of yesterday visiting houses in process to determine when they will finish and whether we can snatch the best construction leads to get the new houses built quickly. This also entailed lots of small questions—when will this part of the roof be done? How sure are you that you will be free next week? You can´t actually lock in any of the albañiles in until you know the date you will start construction, which depended on the mayor´s office (It all goes back to the mayor´s office somehow...) The great news here is we have 2 confirmed albañiles for next week, plus 3 more that we are confirming in the next days. So enough to do all 10 houses that we are targeting in the first phase.

Then we actually could hold a meeting of the families, to decide which families would get prioritized in phase 1, and which hours we would spend with them in the next days measuring their specific parcels of land. Each family has to be very involved, as we need their support to do the hard work of putting stakes in the ground for the blueprint of each room for the houses (a job that takes about 3 hours per house). There was a lot of jockeying between families for the times that are least hot, with fewest mosquitos.

Finally today was spent in part in a round of radio interviews, raising awareness for Habitat and their mission, but also letting people know we hope to build 5 more homes, and potentially 10. Already we are getting lots of calls and people coming by the office to learn more.

Phew! It´s been a busy few days on the project front. On the personal front, I´m getting settled in here to a town that feels a lot like the Wild West.  The roads are about 90% dirt, the shops are little shacks on the dirt roads, and there is 1 place that serves lunch. I rarely experience culture shock, but the remoteness here has been a little bit of a surprise.

But the people have been lovely, and it´s fun starting to become more "local" as I experience many firsts here. I "subscribed" to the one lunch place, which means I get to write my name in a notebook when I have lunch there, and will pay the $1/lunch fee monthly instead of paying my 8 bolivianos daily. I also had my first negotiation with my landlord (I have a nice small apartment here), over which day/week/month I will get hot water installed. I experienced my first (and second and third) dog bite from a dog within about 4 hours of arriving (an event I hope to not repeat!). I bought my first round of groceries from one of the stores, which was the first day in Bolivia I´ve carried more than 5 dollars to cover my daily expenses. And there have been a hundred small, great moments of excitement, joy, frustration, anticipation, as I feel increasingly responsible for the success of the 10 homes we will start building, and hopefully the chance to build even more than that.

So that´s the news from here. Pictures of my first days in Villamontes are on the right, or you can click HERE. Would love to hear from you.

Saludos from (finally!) Villamontes,

naomi

On the road again

Today brought a bunch of good news!

We will be able to finally make the trip to Villamontes on Sunday to get started on the houses there. The road blocks are starting to lift for a few hours at a time, so it should be possible for us to leave Sunday afternoon and start in Villamontes on Monday. Those who know me well know that I have a hard time relaxing if I have a goal in mind; I am happy to have news of our trip. I also found out that the houses in Villamontes will cost less than I originally estimated, anywhere from $4000-$5000 depending on the cost of materials when we can buy them.

(A side note... if you are hoping to provide a donation and are able to do so now, it would be most appreciated as it gives us some financial flexibility to acquire materials strategically and lower the house costs. You can click here!)

Despite the good news, it was also a tough morning for me emotionally. We went to deliver materials to a group of 10 houses together in a barrio that Habitat is building here in Tarija. It was really hard to see that 3 of the 10 houses are only 2 rooms, because that is all the family can afford to pay the mortgages on.  It's hard to see how excited the families are to move into 2 rooms instead of the 1 cramped shambles of a room they occupy currently.

Provided I raise the money to support it, I am planning to have the houses in Villamontes be bigger, and still have the mortgage be that of a smaller house, in essence giving the 2nd or 3rd bedroom to the family, rather than them paying the mortgage. It's just too hard to fathom a family of 5 or more in such a small space.

In other news, if you are going to be roadblocked in somewhere, you could do a lot worse than Tarija. The town is very cute, with nice streets and plazas and numerous good restaurants. It is on a trickle of a river with a nice boardwalk. So I am enjoying my time here. I will post more pics once I find a faster internet connection!

My time here is also providing me lots of opportunities to talk with Bolivians about the political situation, because Tarija is in the middle of a struggle with the government over it's petroleum reserves and natural gas. I am learning a lot about the "average" person on the street's perspective. In a word-- concerned.

More photos from today can be found in the folder on the right "Week 2: Tarija" or by clicking HERE.

Saludos,

naomi

Turning wine into water (well...almost)

Today I rose at 7 to join a team on one of the hardest days of a build— putting cement on the roof. As I learned yesterday, the process involves hours of combining gravel, cement powder, water, and dirt, then lifting bucket after bucket of the mixture to the roof, where it is “vibrated” to reduce any bubbles in the cement, then smoothed onto the roof. It’s about an 8 hour process of tough work in the hot sun. 

I am proud to say I survived; didn’t complain, didn’t break anything, and only took a break when the rest of the team did. I even succumbed to peer pressure and stuffed some of the coca leaves into my cheek, much to the laughter of the crew (there goes any potential political career). I think it’s fair to say I passed all the “tests”, except maybe one…

The tradition here for Habitat houses is that the family who is receiving the house provides food during the day for the construction crew. I have to say I will likely never once go hungry the next 5 months. I happily fell into my chicken and rice lunch after a morning of hard work.

I was thirsty and incredibly happy when someone brought me a big cup of coke. I took a gulp and my eyes grew wide—it was 90% red wine, 10% coke! This is evidently the beverage of choice during a construction day! The head of construction, seeing my reaction, laughed and took the drink off my hands.

After lunch I was trying to figure out the best way to get a non-alcoholic beverage without insulting the team or the family. I finally just had to ask the father to indicate the nearest place I could buy water. Kindly, he offered to go buy some for me. I was so relieved; something without sugar, without caffeine, without alcohol. I’d get re-hydrated, life was good.

Well, almost.

He returned toting 2 big bottles of papaya soda, pure sugar with a little papaya flavor. And I have to say, it was the best non-water hydration a gal could ask for. 

I think it’s important to embarrass yourself early and often with a group of strangers so they feel closer to you. So my non-alcoholic-beverages-in-the-middle-of-day tradition may be here to stay. But I think the coca leaves are gonna go. Some tests you only have to pass once. 

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICS FROM TARIJA!

Saludos desde Tarija from your exhausted but happy,

naomi

P.S. For those of you playing along in the “what city is Naomi in now” game (hi Mom!), I’m still on track to get to Villamontes on Wednesday. The rumor on the streets is that the blockades will lift then. I’m not keeping my fingers crossed, but I’ll keep you posted. I hope that some day soon I’ll have houses of my very own in process! In the meantime my apprenticeship continues…

A minor roadblock

Anyone who has ever spent one day in construction would probably agree that building a house is a process fraught with roadblocks... missing materials, missing contractors, etc. Knowing that, I expected roadblocks in my time here. I just didn't imagine that the first one would be literal! It seems during my flight from Cochabamba to Tarija yesterday, a group of farmers put up roadblocks around Tarija to protest against the government about the distribution of a group of emergency funds.

So I am here in Tarija still, which is actually a blessing in disguise as I am spending my days getting a hands-on apprenticeship in the construction Bolivian-style, working with the Habitat team here. Today we visited 5 houses in various stages of construction. As I stood on the roof of the first house, learning how to do cement roofing for a house we are working on tomorrow, I laughed to myself when I realized that the very first build I did with Habitat in 1992 was laying shingles on a roof. Cement it a lot harder, dirtier work! I'll post before and after shots. The head of construction is too nice to say it, but I can tell it is a mini-test to see whether I'm capable of a hard's day work, so the pictures should be amusing.

The other benefit from the roadblock is that it is giving me a little time to get back into speaking Spanish after 3 years. Which is good news, since I found out today that there's a "smallish" press conference planned in Villamontes, awaiting my arrival. Rumor has it the blockades will be lifted Wednesday and we will make the 10 hour drive to Villamontes.

But until then, saludos from Tarija,

naomi

I've arrived!

As I walked off the plane yesterday in Cochabamba after 2 days of travel from the U.S., my first thought was "I've arrived", really in more ways than one. I looked around at the mountains and blue sky surrounding the town, and prepared for my meetings with the national team for Habitat Bolivia. It was a mini-celebration for me-- of the support I've already had (thank you to the more than 30 donors that have already contributed to the project!) and the work the Habitat team has already invested in obtaining land and beginning selecting families.

Yesterday  was spent getting to know the Habitat national team. They fed me copious quantities of Bolivian food at breakfast and lunch, and talked with me about the work they were doing in Bolivia. I was in complete relaxation mode, until Tito Lima (the national director for Bolivia) asked me to make a presentation to the team about my efforts, the project, and the fundraising to date!

So, today in my halting Spanish I presented for about an hour with Q&A. There were lots of questions, which may have been a sign of interest, or just a sign that my pidgeon spanish didn't suffice as an explanation! In any event, it was very exciting for me to get to tell them about donors and supporters from as far away as India, that had already given money for the project.

Today I also went with the team to visit a home that's almost completed. It was eye-opening for me to learn more about the difference in construction down here, and to see how basic the homes are-- aboout 700 square meters with 3 bedrooms for a family of 5-6.

Tomorrow morning I fly to the South, to Tarija where I will meet the team I'll be working with on my builds in Villamontes. On Monday we'll take a 10 hour bus ride to our build site: Villamontes. We plan to start construction on Tuesday if all goes as planned!

Hope you enjoy the first set of pictures. Look forward to hearing from you.

Saludos desde Cochabamba,

naomi