Mondays are for Building

Yesterday, Monday, was a hard day of work in a little village on a hillside on the edge of Chimaltenango. Ryan had signed our group up to build 2 additional houses, meaning we had 6 left to do from scratch when Monday started. So, we split into 3 teams and went to work.
Who gets these little houses we build? It's actually competitive, with an application process and a judging team of several people, mostly Guatemalans. It's a big deal if you are chosen. When you are working, other villagers frequently will come up to you or the leaders of our group and ask if we will build them a house. It's a sad feeling, because we can't.
Once they are chosen for a house, their responsibility is to dismantle the old one and clear off and level a 12x12 foot construction site. Then, a supply company delivers all supplies right to that spot. When we, the construction team, arrive, the supplies are lying there and we've got a level place to start digging. Usually. Sometimes, the site is not level, or it is just about too small for a 12x12. So, we modify. Plan B.
We have to carry all of our own construction supplies to the site. Here where we stay at the Mission House, there is a construction supply room where we keep the tools and chargers. All of our power tools (drills, circular saws, saber saws) are cordless, of course, no electricity on site. So in the mornings, we load up those tools, along with hammers, jabber hole diggers, shovels, ladders, and assorted other things in a pickup and go to the site.
Unfortunately, the villages are usually built into hillsides. And many of the houses to be built are not on the beaten road. Yesterday, I worked on and off at 3 sites, all of them far up the hillside, only accessible by narrow foot paths. We lugged all of our supplies up there, maybe the equivalent of 12 flights of stairs. It wouldn't be bad, if there actually were stairs. Rather, there is an uphill path made of rocks, tree roots, and mostly dirt (mud). The Guatemalan kids run up and down it in bare feet. Me and my co-workers have shoes, but we're not nearly as sure-footed. Some year, I think a team should come here and just spend a week building safe stairways for these people to get to their homes.
But we do get all of our supplies to construction sites, then we meet the family, visit with them through our interpreter, ask them about the direction they want their house to face and the slope of the roof, and usually pray with them. And then we go to work, digging post holes, measuring out walls and windows and doors. Folks in our crews sort of develop specialties in various jobs and just start doing them. My specialty: hmm, I'll think on that. Encouragement, maybe?
Once you've built 2 or 3 of these, efficiency improves. We usually have crews of 6 or 8, and we can do most of a house, except for pouring the cement floor, in half a day or a little more. The concrete floor usually is put in place the next day, by a crew of ours that specializes in that. Yes, the rock and sand and concrete for the floor is also dropped at the site ahead of time, by the supply folks.
On the last day we are here with this team, we will go back to all 12 houses we have built, one at a time, our whole group. We'll meet with the family, give them a package of "house warming" gifts, pray with them, and dedicate their house. That's an emotional time. For them, it's a new house! For me, they still have so little.
I also spent some time on Monday looking around at animals in the village. I saw turkeys for the first time here, plus the usual chickens and pigs and cows and goats. All poorly, except for one young gilt (pig) that looked pregnant and healthy, maybe 250 pounds. I inquired after the owner, but he was off at work. I'm going back there on Tuesday to do a cement floor, I'll look for him again. Easily, it was the healthiest pig I've seen here, I'd like to know why. I saw some other pigs yesterday that were in terrible shape, and took a couple pictures, I will show them soon. I even got to talk to the owners, a young man and his wife who were getting a new house, and he told me about age of the pig, cost, feed, and more. Maybe the picture and info will help you understand why we've wanted to do something here that would improve the quality of their meat animals a little, and that would help their family. A shot of Ivomec (for worms and lice) would go far. Know where I can get any? And how to get it here? For free?