Monday, April 05, 2004

El Monte

So I was initially waiting to write about my house building experience in order to be sure of what my opinion was about the whole deal, but then I got caught up in other things and never had the chance to share with you my experience. And now I have decided that instead of opinionating (gosh, is that even a word? I know that my English must be deteriorating as my Spanish improves) on the experience, I am just going to relay the facts and let you opinionate.

So El Monte is a community about an fifty minutes outside of Santiago. The popluation is probably about 6 thousand, all in poverty. The few buses run on dirt roads. Life is pretty tranquil because there isn´t much "modernity".

The busload of students that I was with (about fifty from the group of 400 that was split into different communities) went directly to a small elementary school- the place where we would sleep for the next two nights. One of the things that stick out in my mind from the school was the bathroom that was attached to the classroom- it had about 20 toothbrushes inside a large cup; the students are taught hygeine in school because it is basically impossible to practice those habits in the family home environment.

Anyways, the forty of us were split into smaller groups to build a "media agua" (well, it might be a "medida agua" but it is hard to tell from the Chilean accent)- a "house" that measures 3 x 6 meters and rests on 17 posts that raise it about 15 inches from the ground (the name of this type of building is a derivative from the method in which these posts are leveled- with a hose and water).

The six of us in the group spent all Saturday digging holes (a little more than three feet deep) and leveling the 17 posts that we put in these holes. Late that evening, the pre-built floor and walls arrived, but there wasn´t enough light to continue. So Sunday, we basically put the formation all together, which is much easier said than done. We had to wait for several hours for the roof materials to arrive (sheets of tar and zinc) but we were finally able to do that after lunch (around 4 pm). Unfortunately, the insulation materials never arrived, so we were unable to do that for the family.

Speaking of the family- Miguel Sr. was the father, with his girlfriend and their two sons, Manuel (5 yrs old) and Miguel Jr. (2 yrs). Before we built this place for them, they were living with Miguel´s father in his house- a building of wood, no insulation, the only running water provided by a hose in the front "yard" (1.5 x 2 meters of weeds, trash, and junk).

Conditions of the house: The bathroom was the only part of the house with a concrete-like finish to the floor and walls. The toilet was "flushed" by running the hose into the house and rinsing it; the shower was right next to the toilet- a moldy area with a window through which the hose could be ran in order to take a shower. The two "bedrooms" were partitioned with sheets, the furniture consisted of an old couch, a picnic-like table from unfinished wood, and a whole lot of empty bottles (that comes from the house-owner). No stove, of course no refridgerator, but they did have electricity, provided by two cables (no outlets) that were split, with open wires, in order to use various appliances.

Miguel (same name as my father) is a fruit-packer (my father is an engineer). He works seven days a week. His girlfriend works during the nighttime. It was never specified to me what she does. Their son, Miguel Jr. (same as my brother) doesn´t really talk, although he is two years old (I heard him say gracias once), and the older boy gets into absolutely everything and does everything that he is asked not to do.

Miguel´s father (the house-owner), is a complete drunk from morning until night, and his friends were present, off and on, while we built this house for his son (who, by the way, worked side by side with the rest of us to construct this building). Apparently, what he and his friends do is work two days of the month (fishing) until they reach the cap on how much they can take. The other 28 days they spend getting wasted with the money that they made. Hence the neccesity for a space of their own (Miguel and his own famiy), although it is built directly behind is father´s house (about 2 meters behind) on the same piece of land.

So now this family has their own living area. I don´t know what they will do about electricity or running water. I don´t know what will happen with the insulation of the house, nor with the situation in general with the family.

It is said that every person is a product of their culture. It is also said that people make their own lives. Please opinionate for yourselves.

posted by Rebecca @ 4/05/2004 05:55:00 PM