Well Done GV Team !
26 June 2000, by Rita Cruz

A report on what happened in the Portuguese affiliate of Habitat last week cannot overlook the great job achieved by the volunteers, namely the Global Village team led by Michael Willard.

Working the whole week in Palmeira, this exceptionally lively and friendly team managed to dig the foundations for all the houses, as well as the steel beams for all first floors and the first floor of two houses. On top of that, they still managed to find some time to install wood tables and benches in the shelter, was build by members of our previous GV team, where meals are now taken.

As simple as it is, nonetheless, it serves very well its purposes: besides allowing for meals to be taken in the shade, it really helps to increase communication between people, namely between the Global Village Team members, the families and the local volunteers.

The families inaugurated the shelter on Saturday. It could not have been on a better day, as it was the day of St. Joao, the patron Saint of the city of Braga. The day before, the Global Village team and the new international staff had already discovered what the celebrations of Saint Joao were all about, as they witnessed the night of the 23rd to the 24th. One of the traditions during this time � as strange as this may sound on a sheet of paper � is to bang people in the head with little plastic hammers that makes a squeaky sound when pushed. One of the GV team members remembered to bring one to work on site in Palmeira and lunch was not quiet!

Besides the S. Joao party atmosphere, and our fourth international volunteer teams� arrival from Brussels, this Saturday was somehow different, as the GV team asked the families if they could make a visit to the houses where they presently live, as opposed to the ones they were helping construct. They divided themselves into groups and visited most the houses. I went with one of these groups to visit Dona Ana Maria�s house. Dona Ana Maria is an exceptional person.

She manages to laugh and to make jokes out of the conditions where she lives in. Just as we were arriving, she almost fooled us into thinking that she lived in the nice house that stand in front of the improvised shelter in which she actually lives. Four people live in a space that probably equals the size of one bedroom in the house that stands in front!

No water, no electricity. Cooking is still done on an oven that consumes wood, placed outside the house, at the mercy of rain, sleet, and animals. Now they have another one that works with gas (expensive for them), but this is very helpful when the weather is turns cold or rainy. Water is taken from a well that Ana Maria herself and her husband cleaned when they moved there, 19 years ago. Baths are taken in a small orange vessel equal to the ones that are used to hand-wash clothes.

As depressing as the picture is, Dona Ana Maria is an example of strength and optimism. She is obviously someone who has lived through much but that keeps on smiling by cherishing every good memory, moment or opportunity that life offers her. Such as Habitat! She learned about Habitat when she was trying to get water and electricity installed in her house to no avail.

Besides volunteer work, one other aspect that can not be overlooked in a report about last week�s work in the affiliate is that step by step, Habitat is beginning to be recognized in Braga. Thanks to the local and national newspapers, the radio and the national television that presented a report on the work that is being developed here, the name is now being recognized in some places. This is very good news and is a very good compliment to the work undertaken by the staff in Braga. Our goal is to make Habitat for Humanity International a household name. Little by little and with lots of hard work, we will achieve this goal.

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