Hello everyone, from Ahuachapán in El Salvador!  Today is day two of working on the Habitat home build. What us “newbies” learned today is that the construction of the homes in this area must take into consideration seismic (yes, there is an active volcano in nearby Guatamala) activity when engineering the design for the home construction. The design uses both poured concrete and cinder block while incorporating steal “tie bar” into the infrastructure. The homes must be designed to withstand a certain level of seismic activity. This design keeps the home standing when an earthquake hits the area. Amazing!

The frequency of seismic activity in the area has affected the quality of life for families in Ahuachapán.  In December 2006, a series of strong tremors damaged more than 3,000 houses in five different municipalities, including Ahuachapán.  Habitat El Salvador responded by building 200 permanent, seismic-resistant houses for affected families, subsidizing the loans of the poorest families in collaboration with various foundations.

Recently, these municipalities were affected by a new wave of tremors that have damaged other homes.  Habitat El Salvador continues to build houses throughout Ahuachapán and—to date—has provided more than 300 housing solutions in the department.

The following pictures not only describe our day today, but also will show you a little bit about the “seismic resistent” home design used by the HFH building team. Enjoy and God bless!!

After a big rainstorm last night, the team arrives to survey the conditions on the lot.

The team departs on the bus to Getsemani for day two of working on the home build.

“Oh, boy.” Mitch is not sure about this – “can we just go get a donut?” Paul assesses the wet, sticky, muddy, slippery and very humid conditions.

Fred F. and Bill start it off dividing up the workload and directions.

While the team contemplates options, home owner Joel just dives in and gets after it – we need to finish digging the last trenches for the footings.

The truck with the cement bags, tie-rod and various other building supplies – shown is the truck already half unloaded – 80 100 lb bags of cement must be unloaded – ouch!

How the sand bags are loaded on the “human mules.”

Luke tosses em around like they are marshmallows.

Mitch gets after it on the 100 lb bag transport.

Look how happy Bill is toting the 100 lb bag!

Pedro is happy too!!

This is about all Carl can handle……

On the other hand, this is how the locals do it!!

And the truck is finally emptied!!

Mean while, concrete is mixed with sand, and poured into the trenches.

Caesar builds the re-rod cages by hand.

Fred R., and Cathy from HFH, El Salvador agency.

Lupita, Joel’s beautiful daughter, watches us walk to and from the supply shed.

End of the day, back at the mountain side hotel, dirty, wet, sweaty and fulfilled!!