While on break at the site: Patrick, one of the masons, and I were picking rocks out of mud to later mix concrete. We talked about money. He wants to get a microfinance loan to open his own store. He said, “Money is a problem in this country. You have to be patient to get it. If you’re not patient, you’ll have problems.” I added that money is a problem in different ways all over the world – some people have too much of it and then it can become a mind and heart problem.
I really like it here. The breeze is blowing and we’re building a house. I can hear the women pounding food with mortar and pestle. I’m sure that I do not know a lot about this country. What kind of stages would I go through if I stayed here longer? Not sure. Back to work.
Back “home” for the evening: So we smashed brick, moved more brick piles, took pictures, climbed on the house walls for work, climbed up a tree for fun, leveled some ground, and sat around. We were waiting for materials. Ready to work, but waiting. One of our group members made a good point: let this be a lesson to us about all the people in the world who would like to do something, but can’t yet for current lack of resources… this was an interesting tie-back to Patrick’s comment from earlier today. I’m excited to go back to grad school and learn about economics. It surely affects a lot on this Earth. More than it should, ideally. It worries me when material things highly affect non-material things. When lacking goods affects our desire to do good and to be good. Then we have problems. But then again, how would I understand what it is to lack in the first place if I eat good food every day and sleep in my nice bed?
Michael, our amazing local Habitat volunteer who’s been with us every step of the way, gave tonight’s devotion. He simply said: “There is no poor person on the Earth – just people who need. Me or you or him or her. A giving heart will be blessed. Proverbs 25 and 26. Psalm 100.”
I liked Michael’s words. We may not identify with poverty, but we can all identify with feeling in need. Of something.
On a different note: Critters we’ve found in the last couple days include small hairy centipedes whose trail leaves you stinging for only three hours (I found a couple on my pant legs before they found my skin), 2 small black snakes about a foot long, and an odd green- and white-striped cricket. Our latrine (read: 4-inch hole in a concrete slab) housed 2 New York City-sized roaches, a three-inch spider in the tarantula family, a couple geckos, and 2 or 3 two-inch black spiders. There was a bat waiting on one of our ladies’ towels when she stepped out of the shower. I’m writing this back at the farm center and a few geckos are keeping me company in the dining room. Everyone else has gone to bed. A massive beetle insisted on performing Top Gun-style fly-bys near my head. I just trapped it under a ceramic mug; the beetle continues to crawl, moving the mug from the inside. He bumped into my phone and is now not only blindly pushing the mug, but my phone, too. I think it’s time to retire to my bed and protective mosquito net.
From the safety of my bed: I freed the beetle and fled the room. Sweet dreams and good night.
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