Junior Andi Waghelstein didn’t spend her spring break at home with her family or relaxing with friends on an exotic beach. Instead, the business and environmental science and policy major found herself constructing houses in an impoverished village near the coast of South America.
Waghelstein’s less-than-traditional spring break included 17 other students from this university and 12 from Cornell, all of whom traveled to Argentina and Uruguay to participate in a program called Un Techo para mi PaÃs, translating to “a roof over my country.” The program, run by Maryland Hillel, focuses on building short-term housing for local families that is expected to last between five and 10 years, Waghelstein said.
The cost of building one house is $800, and in order to qualify for the program, a family must raise 10 percent of that amount, which can take weeks or months to do, said freshman letters and sciences major Becca Cohen.
When taking a break from building, participants had a chance to socialize with the families who they were constructing homes for. Though few of the students spoke Spanish, they managed to communicate with the families through rough translations and body language, especially with the younger people in the village.
“Playing with kids, there’s no language barrier,” Waghelstein said. She said that students taught the villagers how to play ultimate Frisbee. “There was a joke that we were changing the world, one Frisbee throw at a time.”
But besides teaching American pasttimes, students had a chance to see in detail the economic conditions rarely seen in this country.
“I’ve never been exposed to that amount of poverty before,” Cohen said. “But all the people we met there, they still have such a positive outlook. To see that was eye-opening.”
Waghelstein agreed, saying, “They live in such poor conditions, so they don’t even know what they’re missing.”
Much of the work reflected the economics of the area, which meant no drills and no bulldozers.
“We dug like 15 holes, no power tools,” Waghelstein said. “It was all shovels and stuff. Hardcore manual labor.”
The volunteers were also surprised that despite South America’s significant Jewish population, the villagers knew very little about Judaism. Waghelstein said that before this program, the people that she worked with had never met a Jew before. But in retrospect, “When they think of Jews, hopefully we’ll have taught them a bit,” she said.
The Uruguay trip was offered as one of several options for students looking to spend their break doing service-oriented work. Previous international ASB programs run by Maryland Hillel include trips to the Ukraine and Mexico, according to Julie Finkelstein, one of the two staff members to accompany the students. Finkelstein, a 2005 graduate of the university, participated in the Ukraine trip as a senior.
Upon returning to the campus, participants have aknowledged that even though their break is over, their job is not complete. They are in the beginning stages of planning a fundraiser so more homes can be built through Un Techo para mi PaÃs.
Cohen said that some money would go towards paying for supplies and tools.
“They’re using very rudimentary things right now,” said junior biological resources engineering major Andrew Skobac. “A little money would go a long way.”
Contact reporter Melissa Weiss at weissdbk@gmail.com.
