Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The People--South America, Part 3
Let me tell you, I met some truly awesome people in Paraguay. Some of them were so awesome that I decided to hang out with them a little longer in Buenos Aires.
It's been way too long since I laughed as much with total strangers. Or since I spent a week with people and left feeling like I'd known them for years.
And now, here's your chance to meet them, too:
Our fearless leader, Rob, had been on one other Habitat trip before deciding to try his hand at leading a team. He's from the mythical land of Delaware, (Honestly. Have you EVER met ANYONE from Delaware?) but has been working in the UK for the past 2 years and is getting ready to transfer back to the States. Rob hardly said a negative thing about anyone, even when our excursion tour guides tried to make us stay in a hotel that made that Denver motel look like the Ritz.
Heidi was my roommate and has been friends with Rob for years. She sells body parts for a living, which is every bit the conversation starter you might think. She's from Delaware, too, and now that I know two people from there, I guess I have to accept that it is, in fact, a real place and not the land where unicorns roam.
The team member who IS from the land of myths and legends is Mark, who joined us from Scotland. He's participated in, like, 6 different Habitat trips and had plenty of stories to share. He refuses to join Facebook, so there was some discussion of whether we could really be friends with him. After all, it's not official until you're friends on Facebook, right? But, on the other hand, now I know someone in Scotland. So we might have to keep up our friendship going the old-fashioned way: e-mail.
The rest of the group traveled to Buenos Aires after the build, and had to say good bye to Rob, Heidi and Mark on Saturday night. (Or freaking early Sunday morning if we were headed to the airport with them, which I was.)
Walter was our generous host in Buenos Aires. He and his wife, Joelle, have been living and teaching in Argentina's capital for three years now. Well, he teaches at the international high school, and she's the principal. They are hilarious and awesome and incredibly generous for letting us take over their beautiful apartment for, like, five days. They've been all over the world together to places like Bhutan and Antarctica and Austin, Texas. I'm totally jealous.
Christy is from Arizona and used to work with Rob. She's one of the most organized people I've ever met in my life. She's also incredibly friendly and kind, too, which are unexpected qualities in a real estate agent. If you're looking for a house in the Phoenix area, call Christy. She'll take good care of you.
Chiara was our de facto tour guide in Buenos Aires. Because she spends so much time in Manhattan, she's got the big city thing down and managed to figure out where we needed to go to all week long. And in Buenos Aires, pretty much everything is 11 blocks from the subway. Chiara is a teacher and a marathoner. She's run marathons in several states and a couple of other countries. Her goal is to run a marathon in every state. And we tried to get her to sign up for the Antarctica marathon, but she said no since there's a three year waiting list.
Eileen teaches elementary school in Mexico, but she's from The Bronx. Although, if you tell her you like her accent, she's going to bring it up every single time she sees you. Apparently she's a little sensitive about it. And I saw enough episodes of The Sopranos to know what sensitive New Yorkers are capable of.
Kimberly used to teach elementary school in Mexico with Eileen, but in October she's heading off to some uncharted island in the Pacific to work with the Peace Corps. We had a lot of fun trying to name the most obscure places she could end up, but she'll probably get sent to live on the beach in Hawaii or something posh. Hmmm...that Peace Corps thing might not be such a bad idea...
Emily is a retired teacher from Portland. She was the oldest team member and had a lot of stories from previous trips and from teaching in Iceland and Korea. She's all about learning about the local culture and is pretty fearless. Just don't mess with her meal times.
Ralph/Raul/Jim/etc is Emily's brother. This was their second Habitat trip together. He goes by just about any name anyone wants to call him, which led to some hilarity. Heidi ended up just calling him Slash, but it never really caught on. Ralph is a lawyer and he's also very good at being a younger brother. He teased his sister relentlessly. We enjoyed sitting back and watching.
So that was our team. Everyone worked hard, laughed a LOT, and contributed to making it the best experience I could have hoped for. Together with the masons, the family, and the workers from the Paraguay Habitat office, we got so much done in such a short time and enjoyed every minute.
(Well, almost every minute. If I had to help unload one more truckload of bricks, I was probably going to cry.)
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You guys are really all bundled up in that first picture. It must have been really cold! Sounds like some great people. Most of them were teachers,ha?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great group.
ReplyDeleteA mighty fine team!
ReplyDeleteFor a second, I didn't understand why you guys were so bundled up in the first picture. Then I remembered some basic principles of geography. Hemispheres: know them, love them.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds great. I bet it was a wonderful experience.
ReplyDeleteMy friend just went on a trip in April to the DR and built a home for a family there. She said the people there were a joy.
Looks like a fun group. I'd like to build a house with them too.
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing group of people. And they've all done so much.
ReplyDeleteThat second picture looks very fun. I'm glad you've proven the existence of people living in Delaware!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great group of people. And you know, I don't think I have ever met anyone from Delaware!
ReplyDelete