Build Day. July 13th 2010.

Hey everyone.
Thanks for your kind words and for taking time to read my blog.

Yesterday evening was just great. We finally had orientation, in which we learned about Habitat Indonesia and also learned about who and what we were building. There are two sites this time around, One group is building a house for a couple from scratch, and another group is building a kitchen for a family with two kids. I'm on the Kitchen build. I'm very excited to be working again and making a difference. Even though a house is definitely important, a kitchen is important as well. The basic needs for a human is food, water, shelter and love, and this family needs a place to be able to cook healthy meals for their kids.

After our orientation, some of the group went to sleep, and the rest of us found mats, laid them out and star-gazed, listened to music and got to know each other that much more. Even though it's been a couple of days, we all feel like family. We all know each other really well and are all comfortable with one another.

The daughter's name is Ina, and she is 14 years old, and the song's name is Golong and he is 7. Both SO adorable, and both helping out with the house. The culture shock is very adamant here. No one speaks Balinese, and so it's hard to communicate with our mason and the rest of the family. Today, I tried to get to know Golong and asked him his name and his age and about school. Apparently for his spare time he tries to read the dictionary in English, but he doesn't understand me at all haha. Anyways, he started singing the Waka Waka song, and we all started singing it with him, and he started dancing. It was precious. It's great how even though there is an evident barrier between us, we are all still able to communicate.

Compared to Guatemala, the lifestyle in Bali is much wealthier. When driving by some of the houses here, they all have little stands, and pick flowers in the morning to pray to God for a good harvest. They all have bikes for the kids, and lots of food and water. Their sanitation is not that great, but everything still works fine.

Tonight we are going to the beach to eat dinner, and then probably we will all hang out and discuss our day. Tomorrow morning there is a devotional prayer being done before we start building our kitchen. Unfortunately, I heard that their prayer is sacrificing a chicken. Guess what was running around our worksite today. The chicken. I don't know if I can witness that. I guess I'll have to see what the rest of the group is doing. It's a voluntary thing, so I think many people will back out.

That's it for now I guess, thanks for reading.
I'll keep you updated!

Much love and Carpe Diem,
Shabana