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Some volunteers come down one Saturday a year to build a house, but comunidad Corazón is more than one day a week. The other six days are when the real work is done. We have projects, meetings, events, training, and activities every day to ensure the success of our program.
In 2008, participants worked over 95,000 hours on more than 3,500 local projects. A typical week for a Corazón participant may look something like this for a family who has just received a house.
Day One was when the reality really struck home. Saturday had been a blur of activity with volunteers swarming around and their beautiful new house/addition seemingly growing out of the ground. They have witnessed house builds before and seen the tears and laughter and joy in the recipients before; but, now as they awoke in their clean, sturdy structure, they finally understood. Not everything had found its proper place yet and there was a lot of work yet to do so they began to settle in and get ready for the week ahead. As they went about their routine, every now and then they just stopped and stared, barely daring to believe that this was actually theirs.
Possessions were stored in their new places, meals were cooked on the new counter and the kids played in the loft. The family took a little of the leftover paint and touched up some of the areas around the windows. The neighbors, many of whom helped to pour the concrete and with the build, stopped by to congratulate them and understood their hard work as a participant would someday lead to this for them. After all, this is what the program was all about helping each other and eventually helping yourself.
As the evening darkness crept in, they had their first family dinner—Saturday night’s meal had been a rushed affair as they tried to get everything inside before dark. They were warm. They were dry. They were safe.
Day Two meant work and school. They had a day to savor their good fortune; but, now, it was back to the daily grind. The kids climbed down from the loft, reluctant to leave the warmth accumulated during the night. Their last minute homework, neglected in the weekend excitement, accompanied breakfast as the kids got ready to head out the door to school.
Once the kids were out the door, mom set about really settling in and organizing the new space. She considered how this was the very definition of a labor of love. It was time to look around the house and finish arranging their personal belongings and giving their new home a “woman’s touch”. Cooking for the family now meant having a place to greet them after school, as well as a table with enough space to sit around for dinner. For the first time, mom receives with new found confidence her friends and neighbors.
Day Three, time to keep moving forward. Mom attends the Community Center for her hand sewing workshop. She is thinking about the new curtains and kitchen cloths she can sew for her new house. Afterwards, she heads to the market to buy food and a few little things for her new house. On her way to contract water and electricity, she thinks about the joy of having electrical power without the dangers of tangling lines crossing her lot, or the need to carry buckets of water. They can now have normal electrical power and water, because their new house will be safe to receive the water and electrical installations.
Day Four is project day. Preparations are being made for the coming house/addition projects in her community. She now looks back to her own experience. She remembers all the hard work her family and neighbors did to get her lot ready. This time, it is her turn to prepare the meals for the participants. It will take them between four to six hours to pour the concrete slab. At the end of the project, she goes home and after serving dinner, enjoys the new found comfort her Corazón House gives her.
Day Five is tutoring day. It is Thursday and the children come home from school. They get ready and visit the Community Center. While the children sit with the tutors going over their homework and assignments, mother talks to her Community Representative regarding the upcoming Women’s Health Clinic Corazón has arranged through the partnerships with other non-profits in Mexico. The children ask to be enrolled in the next English classes US volunteers teach every week.
Day Six and the first week at their new home has gone with new found joy. Early in the morning the mother and father get ready to help in today’s projects. He will help offload the building materials for the upcoming construction projects. First to arrive is the lumber truck. The men and women form a human chain. After all lumber is delivered, the remaining construction materials are delivered: shingles, doors, ladders, nails, windows, tools, generator, and more. Mom has gone the Community Center to help organize the donations in the Warehouse. On Sunday, all active participants in their community will exchange their service hours for the donations that arrived the weekend before. The wish list is different this time; they now have a house to dress. After a long service day, and when everyone has gone to sleep, she gets up, walks to her window near the kitchen, looks to the moon shinning through; her dream came true with their efforts and the help of her Community in Mexico and the United States.
So that’s what happened after you left. That’s what the program is all about. This is the comunidad spirit in action and you set this all in motion with your decision of many months ago to spend a day in Mexico. Your contribution has imbued a family and a community with a spirit of hope for the future because the present just got so much better.
We hope that during these past six days, you have had a chance to relive your experience in Mexico with your friends and family. We hope that you, too, came away feeling renewed with greater hope in the future. On behalf of the entire community of Corazón, we thank you for what a difference you made.