Making Floors with Vida Joven: Service Project #2

On Sunday, May 18, Beth and I along with another group of teachers from school teamed up with Brady Greene of the Christian organization Vida Joven (Young Life) to do some more work in another impoverished area of the city. This time we worked in Zone 3, right next to the massive and infamous garbage dump. (Side note: we just watched a documentary about Guatemalans who live and work in this dump called Recycled Life...check it out.) Actually, this particular neighborhood was formerly the dump, but it had been cleared a while back and now there are homes/shanties here. Some have concrete floors and many do not. We were there to help build concrete floors for two families.

The day before our group arrived, the two families cleared out their possessions from their small abode and, with the assistance of some Vida Joven workers, prepared the dirt floor for concrete by leveling it. When we arrived, we split up into two teams and jumped right into the arduous work. To begin, we had to haul three wheel barrels full of sand and two of gravel from outside the neighborhood to the home in order to mix it with the concrete and water. We did this for every bag of concrete, and I believe we used five bags. All the mixing was done by shovel and was definitely hard labor! My back was killing me by the end of the day... At first we had a local man show/assist us in mixing the first bag; then we did the rest ourselves. We got better and quicker the next few times, though by the end we were slowing down quite a bit. After the concrete was mixed, we'd load up buckets (that weighed close to 100lbs. with the mix), and bring them into the home to pour on the floor and begin spreading it out by trowel.

After a couple hours we took a break and were treated to some tostadas (fried corn tortilla, guacamole, onion, and a powdery cheese like Parmesan) and bottled water by some of the local women. It was really sweet of them to make. While we ate we had a chance to chat with them and interact with the kids. Afterwards we did a little more work then headed back over to the other site to have lunch with the other group.

After lunch we returned to the home and worked another few hours to complete the floor. I'd guess it was 8' x 12' or so in size. It was seriously tough work, but it felt so good to provide something so basic yet so needed for a family. When you consider how muddy their floor must get during the rainy season, and how perpetually dirty their home is, this new floor must really give them more comfort and security.

Once again it felt great to get our hands dirty, connect with locals and see up close how the majority of people live in this country, and work to give them something to be proud of and improve their surroundings.