Rodolfo, Silvia and their three children, Diana (20) Evelyn (18), David (12) live in San Juan Ostuncalco, Quetzaltenango. Rodolfo works in agriculture and Silvia washes clothes for local families.

The couple lived in her former house for her entire married life, “all our children were born there,” says Silvia. The old house, made of adobe, belonged to Rodolfo’s parents and when both in-law’s passed, the family inherited the adobe brick house.  The age of the house and dirt structure meant it was harder to repair and the couple wanted more space for themselves and their growing children, who they felt needed more space. The family have been in their Habitat home for 6 months now.

Silvia says she feels happy having this new house. The couple want to finish paying for the home and then will make changes to add an extra room.

Of the volunteers who came Silvia remembers them. One of her favorite observations was that a fellow Guatemalan was among the group of volunteers, something she’d personally never seen before and it was a point of great excitement to see someone from her community actively involved in volunteer service. “It really is special that this group of so many came to lend their hands and help our family build our home, we are so grateful and will never forget them.”

Mayra, Norberto and their two daughters, Stephanie (9) and Juana (4) live in the town of Cantel, Quetzaltenango. Norberto is a breadmaker at a local panaderia and Mayra is a homemaker.

Their prior house had only one room for the family of four. Now they have more space for the whole family, which now includes 3 dogs and 4 kittens. Mayra’s younger sister, Iránel (18) now also lives with the family while she is in college nearby studying graphic design. The artistic talent definitely runs in the family, Stephanie and Juana also love to draw, and Mayra and Norberto encourage both girls in this. As part of decorating their shared room, the couple allowed them to draw a piece of artwork on the wall. What resulted was a beautiful butterfly that the girls completed together that is telling of the girl’s budding artistic ability.

More than the family’s ability to personalize the home, what they like best is  having more space and more privacy. Mayra says she also likes the windows and natural light that make the house beautiful and bright. In the future, the couple would like to put up a fence.

Of the volunteers, Mayra remembers that they were always smiling, very hardworking and creative.” We are so grateful for you and for your help”

Nazario and Cedelina are proud parents to five adult children. The couple recently retired and to make ends meet, Nazario helps at a local laboratory in San Miguel. The couple is active in their church and Cedelina, who has been a homemaker for many years, spends her time on committees and visiting her children and grandchildren. With their children all grown up and not living with them, “there’s nothing to clean” Cedelina says and laughs as she realizes that she too, is retired.

Their children visit occasionally, and their two youngest grandchildren spend the summers with them. When asked about their favorite part of the house, Cedelina says it’s having enough space for family gatherings. She also shares how much her guests comment on the house, how beautiful it is and especially the natural light that flows throughout. One of their daughters has even wanted to learn more about building a house through Habitat after seeing her parent’s house for the first time.

For Nazario, his favorite part is the house’s structure and design—”this house is well built” she says. Nazario shared that in their old house, they worried whether the roof would collapse each time there was an earthquake, as it was not well built. There were also tarantulas that would enter the house, which the couple were uncomfortable with as the spiders are venomous. “Because our house is now so well built, we have a strong roof and we haven’t seen any spiders inside.” The couple enjoys having their Habitat house for their peace of mind.

As for plans, they’d like to put a fence around the house and to take advantage of the opportunity to expand the house once they’ve paid off half of their debt.

“For me it’s beautiful how Habitat conducts its business, because they give people who wouldn’t have the money to build a house the opportunity to build and they include volunteers.  Even for the volunteers who didn’t speak Spanish, there was a translator that we could all communicate and interact,” says Nazario.

To the volunteers, Nazario and Cedelina send sincere thanks, “Thank you for coming to San Miguel. I give thanks to God and to you for coming—I hope that God will bless each of you and take care of you and bless you with good health. We have you in your hearts and I always think about you. I hope that if you come another time to our home that you will come and say hello!” Cedelina says. “They were very kind. When they were finishing the house, they asked for my number so we could stay in touch on WhatApp but I don’t have a telephone” Cedelina continues and smiles, “it was very kind of them and made me happy that they wanted to stay connected.” “Having them here made us very happy—it was a beautiful experience. Thank you for coming,” adds Nazario.