Day Five: What the Future Holds ...

Today, we completed our last full day at the build site. We continued to scrape paint from the front side of the house, took the concrete forms off the septic tank (thanks to the septic sisters) and did some more demolition on the interior of the house. We also capped off the evening with our last team dinner with our Habitat hostess.

 

 

Dave stands proudly in front of the exterior wall he cleaned and prepped for rebuilding. While a half dozen of us continued to scrape the front, Dave showed this wall who was boss. Meanwhile, Cindy helped us keep the interior clean and free of tripping hazards, and Florbela (our Portuguese host) expertly chiseled out a door frame.

 

Above, Sra. Ana Maria, Sara (her daughter) and Victor (her son-in-law) pose for a picture in front of the house. Victor has been a great help on the site (always positive and with an infectious spirit), while Sra. Ana Maria and Sara have kept us fueled with amazing multi-course noon meals. Their cooking is seriously going to make it hard to come home and return to the Thrivent cafeterias. Additionally, we took one last group picture in front of the house. They still have a long way to go, but the house looks very different from when we arrived at the beginning of the week.

 

 

  

After we finished our work day, we stopped at a completed Habitat house in the area. The house shown above was completed last year and gave us an idea of what the end product can look like. In Portugal, all of the Habitat homes are rebuild projects. The family must own the house/land, and it is required to keep the facade/outside of older houses. This example house was approximately 200 years old, and the architect incorporated the original stone structure while building out a modern interior.

 

 

In honor of our last night in Amarante, Florbela arranged a very special dinner for us. A few of us started the evening by donning animal print scarves in honor of our team leader, Jan, and then we headed to a wonderful dinner at Lago do Parco. Although Sra. Ana Maria had spoiled us with her great home cooking all week, we really got spoiled with this evening's team dinner at the Michelin star restaurant (the owner of the restaurant/hotel is a main supporter of the Habitat affiliate). The food was fantastic and the company made it better. A big thank you to Florbela!

 

Today's long-distance dedication goes out to: the Insurance Interaction Center.  Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.