Un Techo Para Mi País

This is a bit late, but I really wanted to write a post about my day on Saturday with the organization Un Techo Para Mi País (I've mentioned that I'll be working with them for the semester).

I'm not really one for gushing about transformative experiences - but I can say that Saturday was incredibly powerful. I went back to the barrio I had traveled to for the Dia del Nino festival with a small group (some of whom I'm befriending now!), but this time to do what they call "asignacion" or assignment.

Essentially, the organization travels through these barrios talking to as many families as possible. They meet with each family 2-4 times, asking about the family structure, employment, income and checking the status of the house. They have to assess which families are in the absolute highest need of a new home for each round of constructions. In October they'll be building roughly 20 homes in each barrio, so out of the dozens that they've been visiting in the past few months they have to narrow down the families. I set off with one of the coordinators to meet with some of the families they had chosen to receive homes. We were to make sure that their situation hadn't changed in the past month, and to have them sign a contract agreeing to paying for a portion of the home.

My first reaction when walking around the barrio was shock - even though I've seen extreme poverty in the states and even traveled to villages in Zambia, this was my first time ever going inside these people's homes and talking to them about their living situation. For example, one family we visited was 6 people living in a 3 meter by 4 meter home constructed of wood and used billboard signs. However, we had the job of telling them that they'd be receiving a new home in just under a month and watching as they told the rest of their family the good news.

The hardest part of the afternoon though was visiting with one of the families that hadn't been assigned a house in this round. We talked to the mother for a while about her situation, and she interrupted telling us how badly she needed the help with a new house. The two of us then had to explain the process to her and assure her that she would be considered in the next round of houses.

Overall it was an overwhelming process because the coordinator considered us a team, meaning that the two of us had to agree on any decision we made. Sometimes we would step outside in the middle of a meeting so that he could ask me if I felt that it was right to choose the family. For one family he asked me what I thought we should rank their "need-level" in relation to the other families. This was the most daunting part of the day - I've never been put in the position to make a decision like that before.

I absolutely cannot wait to go back to the barrio to meet with more of the families and hopefully get to give out some more good news.