Construction Day

"Whatever good things we build end up building us."

~ Jim Rohn

Construction day is a physically exerting experience, but very rewarding. On Wednesday, we headed out to one of the leprosy colonies to be helping hands in the construction of bathrooms and septic tanks. These projects are funded by the people themselves thanks to the success of their businesses, that were made possible due to the micro-loan program provided by Rising Star Outreach. As volunteers we help lower the cost by providing free unskilled labor, but the materials and skilled laborers are paid for by the leprosy patients who own the property being built on.

The colony that we went to was the most well developed out of all the other leprosy colonies. The people there has made huge improvements thanks to the micro-loans. There is a very good carpenter and barber in the colony as well as an art school and a community sponsored old person home. When we arrived there was music playing through these huge speakers at the community center. The community center was built last year by pooling all of their money together so they can celebrate life with each other. There must have been a party that day because it was the first time our construction volunteer coordinator, Kim, has heard music played on loud speakers at the colony. The music was uplifting and created a fun environment.

Our project that day was moving several piles of cinder blocks from the road to the back of the house where an outhouse would be constructed. At first we tried picking up one or two bricks from the pile and walking them behind the house as we tried to avoid running into each other. After the first two houses like this we decided it would be easier to do a pass along train from the front to the back. The music continued to play and Brenda and Kim started to really get into the music and dance as they passed the bricks along. There were two other women sitting in front of the house watching us and they had the biggest smiles on their faces as they enjoyed the dancing entertainment. Watching them made the work easy and fun, I had a smile from ear to ear. I would have joined them but I was lifting the bricks from the piles and had little opportunity to dance along.

The day seemed to zoom by as we worked hard. As we were walking back to our van we run into this tiny little woman with the huge bottom bottle glasses. We told her that we liked the music and emphasized it so she could understand with dancing movements, the she started dancing right back and it was awesome. I took a picture of her and our Coordinator, Kim. Try to imagine this little old woman dancing.

Returning to the colonies we stopped and got some delicious ice cream and then came back to the campus and after resting and taking a much needed shower went to play time with the kids. Somehow I got roped into doing the swings by a sweet little kid who said, "Uncle, please push." When it was discovered that I am an expert swing pusher I was not allowed to leave the swings for the rest of play time. The hardest part was convincing the kids to get off the swings in order to allow other kids who have been waiting to have a turn. They would just look at me with those big brown eyes and ask, "Uncle, please... just one last time." Unfortunately, they are not that good at keeping their promises of it truly being the last time, but somehow I was able to create a fair system of only pushing the kids three times before they had to get out. It was an exhausting day with construction and swing pushing but at the same time it was a truly fantastic, worthwhile day.