Have you ever been on a Techo build? Well if you haven't, your missing out on an incredible experience! To cut it brief, I built a house in two days with my friends. The purpose behind the house was to help a family who was in need of shelter. This was my experience: Day 1--> As we arrived to San Juan de Miraflores I was struck by the amount of people from the roosevelt community, we were around 240 and if you included the other people we reached around 300. We all met up on the mountain where a relatively small town was. Meeting at an outside football court, we all gathered and began to listen to the explanations that were said to us by the Techo leaders. After we all quieted down, the leaders started to tell us how this process would function. Then we were united into our selected groups and shown to where we would construct our houses. As I arrived to the place where I would soon be constructing I was super confused because there already was a little wooden house. Then as I walked in I noticed that it was falling apart. So as a group we commenced the extreme house makeover. We took apart every inch of the house, including the wooden floor. It was intense because we had to undo every screw (including the hidden ones) and take out the roof ;which by the way one piece snapped in half because it was so old. At the end of taking the house apart we lifted up the floor so we could level the floor and take out the poking rocks. When the whole wooden floor was lifted up we noticed that there were creepy large spiders and carcasses of mice, not a pretty sight. After that deal of work was done and accomplished we had to get working on the floor. We grabbed the pickaxes and picks and began to take out the rocks. This was one of the hardest parts because the rocks where huge and there were so many of them! Taking out all the rocks and and the house that was falling apart was the sum up of our first day. Day 2 --> After having a good night sleep, I woke up early and was out my door in a flash, I was ready and determined to finish the house! Since we leveled the floor the day before, that morning we spent our time carrying the new pieces of the house. Four of us would carry the new floor and bring it to where we were constructing. However we faced a problem because the stairs to go up to the construction site was very narrow to walk up. We ended up lifting the floor and pushing it u, where group above we grasp and pull up. After doing this numerous times with every piece of the house, we finally reached the point where we had do lay the new floor board out onto the leveled group. Once the floor was layed out, we then had to nail it down so it would stay in place. Once the floor was placed, we started putting together the walls, first in an "L" shape then in a "U" shape and finally the whole house was put together. However we had to hammer the nails in to keep the house put together. Then came the another hard part, constructing the roof or in other words "TECHO"... :) This was especially hard because we had to carry the roof and bring it up to the construction site. These roofs weren't any regular roof, they were metal. So you had to be very careful when holding it because if you didn't hold it right you could risk the chance of cutting yourself. However while some people were building the roof, other people were attaching the hinges to the doors an windows. By around 6:30pm on sunday we were finally done constructing the entire house and it was time for the ingnaguration, the best part. We got to see the reaction of Pablo and Gloria, the owners of the new house. The sight of seeing them happy was priceless. Gloria was so happy that she began to cry, we all hugged an comforted her. One moment from TECHO that I will never forget was when Gloria asked me to describe the United States to her-- How it looked like? The weather? The people? etc... The reaction she gave was like the reaction from a little kid getting the puppy they have always wanted. "Sharing a story with someone who cares is like sharing a moment with someone who is actually there." ~Unknown
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
BloggerMy name is Stefan Stangl and I am originally from San Francisco, California. Currently, I am senior at Colegio Franklin Delano Roosvelt in Lima, Peru. My passions are sports and art. Personal: @Stefan6 School: @fdrinnovationacademy ♫Tweet me ♫
@StefanStangl6 CategoriesArchives
June 2015
|