Neighborhood

On the last day of the Habitat for Humanity build in El Salvador, Rafael brought a T-shirt for all of us volunteers to sign. It said "neighborhood" in English across the front. Rafa is a cousin of the homeowner, Dora. Rafa and Dora's brother worked on the construction of the house from beginning to end, contributing sweat equity for Dora.

On the first morning of the build, we were all a little shy. Not too many of the volunteers spoke Spanish, and neither Rafa, his cousin, nor the Mason spoke much English. Mostly we volunteers chatted through the morning in English, and the local guys just worked in silence. After lunch one of the guys, the mason maybe, walked from behind a rock pile with a soccer ball in hand, shouting, "Vamos a jugar!" There were two young guys behind him in shorts and sandals. They were there to play. So about half of our group, all in work boots and already tired from the first morning of working in the 90-degree heat, followed hesitantly. Only one or two people in our group had really ever played soccer, but no one seemed to care.

As it turns out, the soccer field was just a few meters from the house we were building. It was big and dusty, surrounded on two sides by a steep drop into a river valley. Even though I never played, the daily post-lunch soccer games were some of the highlights of the trip for me. Because I speak Spanish, I was able to talk with the local guys, but for some of the others in the group, playing soccer together was the best form of communication. It was fascinating to watch how people were getting to know each other just through the game.

I have heard people talk about the magic of soccer, and soccer was definitely the magic that bonded our group across cultures. Check out some of the highlights below: