I can´t feel my arms!!!

Today was an interesting and very productive day.  I was part of a group to meet the Minister of Housing (aka Secretary of Housing) for Paraguay. Senor Gerardo Eugenio Rolon Pose was much younger than I expected and also much more accessible that our friends at HUD.  I have never met Shaun Donovan but envision it would be more difficult that walking up two flights of stairs to meet him.  We endorsed our support of the Paraguay affiliate as well as spoke about our strong government/quai-government partnership with the affiliates in Colorado.  That was our role.  The Paraguay affiliate has entered into an agreement with the government to build 80 units for the indiginous people of the Chacao region (northern part of the state encompassing over 60% of the total land mass).  These individuals would be comparable to our Native Americans.  Most do not have education, skills or an ability to sustain themselves. A large Mennonite community donated the land and will teach the homeowners to become self-sufficient - including providing livestock, teaching them farming, etc.  The government has verbally committed to the project but to date has not delivered any $$$$.  Sound familiary???
We did end the meeting with the hope of the Secretary coming to the job site tomorrow afternoon.  We were psyched about that, as he brings media with him.  I do have some pix from our meeting today to share with Jerilynn and Rachel.

After our outing we returned to the job site. Although cooler today, we were "hot" to finish this house.  Everyday we learn/relearn a little more about our house and our family.  It seems that our family had already paid their downpayment to Habitat so Habitat hired these awesome masons for the build.  The other four families had not paid their downpayment so their contribution toward the home would be the payment to the masons.  So they contracted with a masonry cooperative - a group of masons working under the same business.  Consequently these inferior workers are producing inferior results both in quality and speed.  Our house/family/masons totally ROCK!!!  This is the perfect team for me -everything is a competition - to have the best house built the faster, as we are succeeding at that, so far.  I personally have found a way to satisfy my OCD niche - cleaning brick.  I do this for hours and I am very good at it.  No wonder Acora (and formerly Waltzie look so good - I can´t stop the incesssent brushing, scraping and wiping).  I was fortunate enough to work with Habitat Colorado´s Executive Director Stefka Fanchi to "raise" the first ceiling.  As a team, she placed terra cotta tongue and groove tiles on a stake that I raised up to an awaiting mason on the roof. The mason fitted the tiles together.  It was so cool to watch Carlos and Leandro see the room take shape.  She is a teacher but he is not a semi-pro soccer player as he told use but rather a third year Columbia law student studying family law.  And they are the hardest workers of all,

It has been a blessing for me to meet such wonderful people and to have a great team to work with and great homeowners to work for.  This is truly workforce housing at its finest.

We closed tonight with a board/Executive Director dinner.  Lots of US representation, but a little light on the Paraguay side.  The board president is 76 year old German immigrant who now has a 2000 cow dairy farm.  We enjoyed a wonderful Brazilian steakhouse dinner with plenty of meat.  Now we are entering a beef coma so that is all for now.

Stay warm and see you soon.
Love,
Karen