The Habitat Argentina affiliate uses the by-line 'Mucho Mas Que Casas' (much more than houses), which was exhibited with the last day of our build requirements where we dug a road-side culvert. Although at one time there were culverts dug along the side of the dirt roads in Emilio's neighborhood, most of them have now collapsed or grown over, and as a result - any heavy rains end up flooding the houses on either side of the road. Just last week the previous group was unable to get to Emilio's house for two days straight because the roads were impassable.
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| A view of the road (after pot-holes were partially filled) |
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So, we dug a culvert, and used some of the dirt to fill in the large pot-holes in the road. It was on a road about 4 streets away from Emilio's house, and when we asked why we were not digging by Emilio's house, the answer was that they wanted to show the whole neighborhood what Habitat was about, in an effort to prove to them that there were no strings attached, no-one was going to be looking for their votes, and that ordinary people (just like themselves) can create change to make their lives better.
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| Culvert Digging 101 |
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| Playing with dirt on a beautiful day.. |
It was good, honest, work, with the added bonus of having lots of kids about to amuse us.
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| Messi was our site supervisor... |
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| And he thought the cat was cute! |
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We were also actually able to see the results of our labor since the water immediately began to fill the culvert - and some of the work was pretty muddy.
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| Pretty Messy... |
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| Pulling Weeds from a Swampy Area |
The other thing that this new location brought to light was more evidence of the garbage problem. Garbage trucks do not even try to get into this neighborhood because the streets are often too muddy, so there was garbage everywhere.
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| A sign saying 'Do Not Dump Garbage Please' |
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| The view of the road in the other direction... |
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The very afternoon that we were digging the culvert, there was a meeting
with local residents where another Habitat resource talked to them
about garbage, and what they can do. Perhaps the combination of seeing
us dig a ditch would help to empower them... It was a great example of 'Mucho Mas Que Casas' - and I can only hope it works...
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| Much Mas Que Casas |
