Carson Graham – March-11-12, 2012
Today we continued our journey of building houses. Throughout the past two days, we have greatly enlarged our perspective of the world. Our emotions are fluctuating, we’re happy to see the smiles on the faces of the families, yet it is discouraging to see that people live in circumstances like this even in the present day. 
Today, excitement and courage took over our team! We all took roles in building the house, be it measuring and cutting the wood, painting, or framing. Once everything was framed together and painted, the next step we took was standing the house up. Anxiety then took over! We were afraid the measurements would be too short or a nail would collapse the whole house – but in the end, it was a success. 
Meeting the families was an experience that completely shook most of us. Observing the shacks that the families live in, produced of wood and any scraps found, around hit us hard inside. For example, a family of six live in a dark shack almost a quarter the size of a high school classroom. However, the families weren’t ashamed to invite us into their homes, they were open and welcoming. All our hearts were shining with passion and empathy. These are extraordinary people living in harsh circumstances, and yet they will not give up; they take care of their families, feeding them, providing some sort of shelter over their heads, and most importantly, they have an extreme bond with one another. That was something that truly inspired all of us. 
On the first day when I met my family of six, we asked the mother what building a house would do for her family. In reply she said, “open up doors and hope for us.” Providing a house means that we’re helping to provide future opportunities and inspiration. That is something we are extremely proud of to say. We are truly thankful for having the opportunity to experience all of this, and more importantly, to be a part of openning doors for families in need.
– Kerolos