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Francis
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| Francis
is the young spunky mother of two small adorable boys, Roman
and Ronnie. She works at the local Monteverde Cheese
Factory where just last year she lost her arm in a horrible
accident to one of the machines. Despite this impairment,
Francis works hard at the factory six days a week, then goes
out to the site to help with construction in the evenings and
on Sundays, her only day off. |
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| Little Roman |
Francis |
| We were astounded and inspired
by her strength and her cheery resolve to make home ownership
possible for her herself and her children. She was
always smiling, had a wonderful big laugh, and was gracious
and encouraging with us novice cement throwers...."Eso es,
Laura! (That's it, Laurie!)" What's more with only one
arm, Francis was faster and better at slapping cement on the
walls than two or three of us combined, while supervising her
son in the process. Talk about multi-tasking! Roman (left)
came out on Sundays and loved being involved as much as
possible with simple tasks. He was as sweet as could be,
very affectionate (obviously well-loved by his mama) and fun
to throw around as Matt and John can attest. |
Ligia
| Ligia and her husband, Mario and her
children, Wanner (age 13) and Andrea (age 18) look forward to
moving into their new home in a few months. We enjoyed
our days building with Ligia, a very fun-loving mother, and her family, especially lunch
times with Mama Beta and Don Carlos! Ligia's house is on the
same lot with her parents, so we were fortunate to get to know
her extended family as well and to be fattened up by some
delicious down home Tico cookin'!
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Ligia hard at work...
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| Mama stuffed us
to the gills every day with great food. |
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Mama Beta, who had a
delightful sense of humor, was cute and jolly like Mrs. Claus
and would occasionally entertain all of us by dancing with her hand on
her belly saying "oohhahh!!." She liked
spontaneously cuttin' a rug and taking a
few turns with the men of the group as well. What a hoot!
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Lunches were also good times to practice our Spanish with our
patient maestros - The most important Tico phrases according
to Mama Beta, "Pura Vida" (pure life) and in the mornings when
greeting someone, "Como amanacio (Literally:How did your
sunrise, or How are you this morning?) and in response
"Gracias, a Dios, y usted?" A lovely family! |
| Don
Carlos, Matt, and the (Cement) Mix Master Ernesto |
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Finally, how could we forget Canella, the pera loca (crazy dog)? She was a great little young boxer the family had, but you'd swear she'd had too much coffee because every time you would come to pet her, she'd
start quivering with excitmement! We took her for several long
walks, well, actually, she took us for several long walks, literally
bounding on her back legs like a kangaroo for the first several
hundred meters. |
| Canella,
the amphetamine wonder dog |
Eliza
Like
mother like daughter, Eliza and her little beauty, Maria Jose...
Eliza, also a young vivacious single mom worked hard on her house every
chance she got between her shifts as a cook at a local hotel. Maria Jose,
not yet in school, was also around most days, so we enjoyed playing with
her as well. Eliza's home was also being built on her mother's
property, so we were treated to yummy homecooked lunches on this site,
too. Her sweet mother, Albertina wanted to thank the volunteers with her
cooking, and we were happy consumers of rice and beans, homemade
tortillas, and chicken empanadas among other Tico treats.
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