3rd day own site

Today, we had a very physical day on site.  We finished off the second coat on the walls, with the top 3 feet set to be finished between Friday and Saturday.

We also started digging the drainage trench, with one team starting at each end, with us meeting in the middle.

We were joined by 2 members of the Habitat Armenia office, Luiza, the Executive Director and Seda, the Resource and Development manager.

During lunch we were given a presentation about how Habitat Armenia serves its community. Almost all work done is renovation, to help provide access to finance to help families improve their houses. Habitat Armenia works with micro-finance companies to provide small loans to the lower and upper middle class people who would not qualify for a traditional loan.  This economic class earns between $40-364 USD a month.  The also provide basic financial education on how to budget to be able to get and repay a loan, construction advice and referrals for laborers if needed. We will be hearing more about the specifics tomorrow when we meet at the head office in Yerevan.

After the presentation we went back to work, smoothing out the walls and finishing the rough cut on the trench.  We are aiming to have both projects completed by Saturday at the latest.

While we were waiting for the bus to pick us up, the neighbors were gracious enough to allow us into their backyard to see their personal business,  They purchase fish from the market then gut, smoke and can their own fish for both personal use and for sale.  It was a nice way to end the day.

To see other pictures of what we have been up to, check out Habitat Armenia's Facebook page here, where they are also keeping track of our trip.