Poem: ¡Más Mezcla! (Habitat Paraguay, 2015)

¡Más mezcla!,

the masons cry

and we mix sand,

soil and cement.

Water dipped from drums

pail by pail.

So many bricks.

So much mortar.

Pail by pail

we dry up

a family’s

only drinking,

only washing.

Toma la agua,

the mother says,

risking all

to set a new foundation.

—for my childrens.

Tonight she will

go to the stream,

pail by pail,

starting again

toward survival.

Tomorrow,

¡Más mezcla!,

and we will again

risk with her

to build her

children a home.

Carmen was the name of the mother for whom volunteers from Thrivent Builds and Habitat for Humanity were working in a rural village of Paraguay, well outside the capital city of Asunción. “Mezcla” is Spanish for the “mix” used as mortar; “Toma the aqua” means “Take the water.”