The New Makarios House

by Andy
This week I got my first look at the building project of the new Makarios House (Mak House for short), and it is going to be a significant upgrade and huge blessing for the ministry here when we are able to open it. The building project has been going on for close to two years, though I’m not sure of the exact start time, and now it’s close to being done. Hopefully only a couple more months until we can move into it. It’s exciting to be here near the end of the project and to see all the parts coming together.

So what’s the point of the new Mak House? It will be a large facility that will be the center of operations here in the DR and it will house the host couple, summer interns and work groups that come for short term projects. It will be owned by Makarios, unlike the current Mak House which is rented and the new house will also be better suited for those large work groups with more bed space, more bathrooms and a larger kitchen.

The house is a three story “L” shape building with the third floor being mostly open-air rooftop space (which is perfect on nice winter days like these). The house is designed to have rooms with large windows on both sides so wind can blow through each room as there will be no air conditioning (or heating) like most buildings here. As a result the house has a very open feeling about it.

The first floor has a carport, large living area, dining area, kitchen, bathroom, utility/washroom and some other room off the carport that I think is a tool shed. The second floor has two large bunk rooms, each with it’s own bathroom. Those bathrooms combine to have five toilets, five sinks and five showers. The plan is to have these two bunk rooms to be able to handle groups with close to 40 people in them. Also on the second floor are two bedrooms that share a full bathroom that are separate from the bunk rooms.

The third floor has a storage room with an electrical closet and a large outdoor rooftop space. A good chunk of the north wing will be the host couple’s apartment with a living room, bedroom and a private bathroom on the first floor and a private staircase to a second bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. The host couple apartment is there but will not be finished out in the first phase, it will have to wait for more funding. Until then, the host couple will live in the two separate bedrooms I mentioned earlier on the second floor.

The house is constructed with cinder blocks and cement and that’s about it. The walls have all been plastered for a smooth finished look and currently are adorned with bright white primer. I have no idea what the final wall colors will be. But I do know that in the near future that we will be staining the concrete floors with iron sulfate and coffee for a nice dark rusty brown color. I’ll keep you updated on how that project goes.

Work on the house is done almost entirely by hand with no power tools, which is good since the electricity seems to be on just as much time as it is off. Cinder blocks are laid by hand with cement and plaster that is mixed with shovels and a water hose in large batches on the floor of the carport and then carried in buckets to its final destination. The workers are strong and seem to be a good team. On most days they eat lunch together that is prepared on the job site. One worker will be in charge of cooking lunch, which is usually rice with either chicken or fried salami over an open fire. It’s good stuff, just remember to bing your own spoon. I enjoyed mine with a strip of ¼ inch plywood as a spoon.

My first task at the house was working with Mike, a carpenter from Austin, to make cabinets for the kitchen. We also had help from Aria, a young local carpenter hired for the week. Mike drew up some plans, got supplies and we got to work. I have never made a cabinet before in my life and I thought it was hard work because of all the detail that goes into making a cabinet look professional. And I was right, but Mike was a good teacher and gave me tasks that I could complete like putting biscuit holes in boards or gluing pieces together. Work was often hard to complete with power being off most of the week and with generators that never seem to being working quite right. So when Mike left at noon on Saturday, the project was not quite finished. Three of the lower cabinets were in place and mounted, but two more cabinets needed to be assembled and five cabinets needed to be mounted including three tricky upper cabinets.

This is when I had my moment of realizing I am in a completely different country doing things I’ve never done before and I will be forced to rely on God. I had a huge sinking feeling after Mike left to go to the airport as I knew that it was basically up to me to make sure that these cabinets got completed. Aria was a good worker but he spoke zero English and I speak almost no Spanish (Mike speaks both and had been translating). I was also the only person at the house Saturday afternoon that spoke English. I tried not to have a panic attack and was successful because it was time for lunch. I ate with the other workers and tried to listen to their conversation, but I could only make out few words. It is a very different experience being the person that doesn’t speak the native language. Learning Spanish is definitely on my list of things to do promptly.

Aria and I pushed on though and I was able to do each step slowly from what Mike I had taught me the previous days and by five o’clock that Saturday we had finished hanging all cabinets. I will go back next week and sand the fronts and put on a couple of trim pieces. I am also in charge of building the kitchen island and pantry cabinet, so pray for me and any people in the future who might use that island or pantry. We will have a contractor put in the counter tops and cabinet doors and drawers.

(Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the cabinets before the crew covered them with a tarp, but I promise they are there.)