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Today we completed the final 4 houses of the week, bringing the total to 12. At one point, we stopped and noticed that there were 22 people working on one of the sites. Only 5 of them were from our team, the rest being others in the community who were helping our their neighbours. It was truly special to see how the people of Bermuda are working together in harmony to build their community.

In the midst of this final build day and many stories worth sharing, here is one that left a lasting impression.

The history of a people is a view into their reality. Some of our conversations with the people we are building homes for  have given us a chilling look into the reasons for their present state of poverty. Juan is a 74 year old weathered and wise gentleman living in the village of Bermuda, near Victoria, and took us back some 62 years and told us of a better vanished time that was shattered by bullets of the Honduran army. They invaded the village when this man was a boy of only 12. He shared stories of running through the forest to escape while bullets ripped through the trees. This war was a trial but nothing compared to the civil war that came during his adult years.

In the 1980’s Juan was a prosperous businessman, with investments in land and buildings in an established community. The civil war had him running to escape again, only to return to find all the buildings burned and the lifeless bodies of his friends and family piled on the very ground where we spent this week building homes. War has brought such pain to El Salvador, so it has been quite a privilege to be able to help bring some peace and prosperity to this community.