Buena Vista Soccer Academies

 

Click here for Brock's Blog

 

Support our work around the world

Polo

Sponsor:  Willingham Family & Watterson Family - Jacksonville, FL

 

This family is affectionately called "The Treehouse Family" - a special house for 12x12 and those who have been a part of connecting with this family. Actually 4 families, the family consists of Polo Sr., His son, two daughters and their respective families.  

 

Polo Sr. is a widower, his wife died 10 years ago of diabetes.  They shared that they simply had no funds to seek treatment and she died.  This is a daily reality in Guatemala.  

 

We first visited this family with a team in June and so many things were unexpected that day.  For starters, this house is by far in the most remote location we have ever built a home.  From where we park it's a good 20 minute walk through the woods and trees with a few serious declines and inclines.  The family shared that in their 25 years they had never received visitors.  

 

As time went by we learned more about their story.  Originally from the pacific coast the family moved closer to the city in search of work.  Polo Sr. found work about 30 min (by car) from here in an area called Villa Nueva.  For 10 years or so they worked for a family.  In the course of their time there Polo Sr. became a Christ follower.  When the family they worked for learned about this, they fired Polo.  Their family had been living on the property where Polo worked...  so they were suddenly left without income and completely homeless.  

 

Through a connection Polo learned about a piece of property for sale here in Magdalena at a cheap price and He bought it site unseen.  When they arrived they learned why it was so cheap.  A good 25 min walk to town, up a mountain in rugged terrain where generally no one would pick to build a home.  Simply put they had "been had" but they had no other option so they began their new life in the trees.
Flash ahead 25 years.. his wife has since died and they have lived in cornstalk and lamina homes all this time up on the mountain without electricity or easy access to water.  Then one day a group of gringos show up and tell you they would like to build a home for you and your children and their families…


This family has been overcome with gratitude again and again through the whole process.  The first step in building this home for four families was getting a tremendous amount of materials up the mountain to the jobsite. The following is an approximate list of the materials carried up the mountain by hand after being delivered as close as possible to the house by a truck and then shuttled down on a kawasaki mule into the ravine:
Approximately 2000 block

200+ 60lbs bags of sand

100+ 60lb bags of rock

iron

tin for the roof

wood


Literally an incredible amount of effort.  It took 5 men two weeks to complete this task.  The first few days the ladies of the families were helping carry sand up the mountain and one of them went into pre-mature labor (she was 5 months pregnant).  I literally had to ask them to stop carrying things 3 separate times this particular day.  We ended up hiring separate workers for the rest of that week to get materials up the mountain so that they ladies would not work!

 

We finally celebrated the key ceremony and Gave thanks to God for this amazing provision.  Thank you Willingham Family and Watterson Family for joining together to forever change the lives of Polo and his family!