Day 7 - The word of the week is Flexibility

Be Flexible! All Thrivent Builds teams are given this advice before and during their trips. Things will be different. Schedules will change. Be ready to be surprised. Today was an illustration of why flexibility is essential for a good Build experience.
The first disruption occured as we were driving to the site. Just before we got to our turn-off into Villa Esperanza, we encountered a traffic jam. There was a protest blocking the highway. Since protests may be a short as a few minutes or as long as half a day, Ramon and Mario, our drivers, decided to go back and pick up an alternate route. It took us almost an hour, but we got to travel through the countryside, seeing rice and sugar cane fields, herds of cattle, and coffee bushes on the hillside. We also passed through some picturesque small towns where people waved to the gringos.
Once we got to the Villa, we found the masons had been waiting for us. A few times during the morning devotion Ricardo made a couple of references to our team and how we were helping them and the community. Then most of us went to the site and split up to various tasks around the job. Kirk and Chris went with Carlos (H4H Church Relations officer in El Salvador) to visit another H4H site, Gethsemane, where they are experimenting with a new form of development, working to improve housing and lives in an existing community by building new structures, but also providing training for skilled occupations. Kirk and Chris came back very excited by this new opportunity to help the working people of El Salvador.
In the afternoon, we were ready to start pouring a new foundation. The team of Salvadorans working on the house, unfortunately, had not operated the mixer and loaded it in the wrong order, causing it to bind up. After they cleared the batch out of the mixer (which took nearly an hour), MixMaster Eric G took the helm directing the operation. Shortly after the work really got rolling, it was 2:30 and we were scheduled to leave the site for a tour of the center of Santa Ana and an opportunity to do some shopping. A magnificent seven (Eric G, Eric B, Mike, John C, Dennis, Bryant and Deb) stayed on to finish the job, which lasted another hour-and-a-half.
Later, Jenni led a reflection on Stewardship and Service that went into a discussion of different interpretations of being a steward. Afterwards we went to dinner at the Lovers' Steak House for carne (or pollo) asada, arroz, melange verduras and tres leches (broiled steak or chicken, rice, mixed vegetables, and cake soaked in milk and cream). Once back at the hotel, Kirk reminded us that we'd be checking out in the afternoon so it would be a good idea to start sorting and packing clothes for our move to San Salvador and eventual return home.
Tomorrow will be our last day on the site. We'll work until noon and participate in the dedication of some completed houses before we check out of the hotel.