Our Assignments

We received our team assignments a few weeks ago. The group is divided into 3 teams: home renovation, medical, and food and bike distribution.

Zachary (along with all of the other children and some adults to supervise) is assigned to the food and bike distribution team. The team will be organizing and distributing bags of food to 500 families during the trip. They will take bulk quantities of rice, salt, sugar, and beans and divide it into portions to be distributed to families. Each family will receive enough food to feed them for 2 months. They will also distribute 250 new bikes to children who live far from school and are usually the main caregivers in their family at the average age of 10. New bikes will be of immense help in allowing them to continue their education! They will also serve as goodwill ambassadors by visiting local schools to exchange drawings and bring gifts and school supplies. It sounds like a lot of work, but because of all of the children on this team, they work for a few hours in the morning, take a break for a few hours in some air conditioning, and then work a few more hours. They will return to the hotel by 4pm where they will get dinner and wait for their parents to return. I hope they leave some food for us!

I have been assigned to the home renovation team. You can stop laughing now! Fortunately, there are some people on the team that actually know what they are doing who will direct those of us like me who will need to be told exactly what to do. There are 18 adults on our team and our goal is to build 6 new houses in 4 days in 3 different villages. Our biggest challenges are not having access to "modern" tools (except what we are able to bring in our luggage), the extreme heat we will be working in, and the time restraints. Our team will be working the longest hours, starting early in the morning and stopping when it gets dark. We'll need lots of sunscreen, water, and something to relieve our sore muscles.