Day 2 Global Village Volunteers in Ethiopia

Guest Blog by Shan Bolen, 
Construction Volunteer Facilitator and AmeriCorps Service Member

In my first year of service with Twin Cities Habitat, I knew I found what I wanted to do in life but I also wanted to take serving communities beyond Minnesota. 

This is my first Global Village trip and I am beyond humbled to be here building with the community as well as my Global Village team. After spending our first day setting rocks for the foundation, we knew that next up would be mixing and pouring concrete for the slabs. What we didn’t know was what that process might be like.

Read about Day 1 in Ethiopia

We predicted that there would be a lot of hand mixing concrete but we were incredibly grateful when they brought a gas powered mixer. With the mixing under control, we moved forward with our loaders in hand to begin hauling concrete. After a few trial and errors of how to navigate site with the loaders, we found a good method and pace to pour the slabs.

At the end of the day, we poured three of five slabs and hauled a truck load of bricks onto site for the next task. We also had a good amount of spontaneous dance sessions throughout our day.