In April 2003 the river overflowed its banks into Santa Fe, affecting more than 30,000 families. The economic damage caused by this flood was estimated to exceed $1 billion dollars. These numbers, however, only tell a part of the story. Prior to the flood, the city already had one of the highest poverty indexes and housing deficits in the country. A quarter of the city’s inhabitants already lived in substandard housing settlements that often were surrounded by garbage and contaminated waters. The flooding simply aggravated these long standing problems.

In answer to the flood and the resulting housing crisis in the poor areas of Santa Fe, Habitat for Humanity implemented a Disaster Response Project which included the accelerated formation of a permanent Affiliate in the region. Since opening of the Santa Fe affiliate, approximately XX houses have been built and another XX are in some phase of development. Our job during this build is to help the Santa Fe affiliate increase these numbers.

What will we be doing? Well, for one, we will help build what might be called simple houses of two to three bedrooms and one bath, with a kitchen area and a combination living/dining room. By our standards they are not big, averaging 500 sq. ft. The house is constructed on a concrete slab with walls of concrete blocks or panels and a roof of corrugated iron. Generally it takes about 60 days to build one house. Regardless of its size and type, for the people who will be moving in it is a castle compared to their previous house.

As important as building the house is, it is equally important with whom we will be working. Like all Habitat houses, the future homeowner and his family will be working with us. They are the ones who have most to gain and, for us, most to give. For, while we will be moving on after only two weeks, they will be able to see the fruit for their labor for a life time. We will also be working with at least one professional construction worker, and perhaps other skilled workers, who will supervise the work and also carry out tasks that are beyond our limited abilities.

On the last day of our work in Santa Fe, the Habitat team, the new homeowners and the Habitat Argentina staff will participate in a going-away event in recognition of what we have done. For all of us, this will be an emotional occasion. We, the team, will be leaving behind us an experience of a lifetime, friends – fellow team members and our partner Argentineans – that we have made and may never see again, and an accomplishment that we will never forget. Peter Jones, one of our team members who has been on a number of builds in Latin America, may have said it best. “But it is the people, and the sense of being part of the larger human family, that draws me back each year. Every year there is a special moment or insight that feeds my soul between trips….” I suspect that sentiment will be true for all of us after this trip.

* Build is the term coined by Habitat to refer to a house or houses being build by Habitat for Humanity anywhere.