Assistant editor Rebekah Daniels traveled to Puebla, Mexico, to cover the Jimmy Carter Work Project 2004 for Habitat World. She is shown here in LaGrange, Ga., at the JCWP 2003.

A Lesson on Rearranging Priorities

by Rebekah Daniel

I stood on the sidewalk on Street 1 of the build site in Puebla and spotted Angel Vargas coming toward me, returning from the tool trailer with a broom. I had interviewed him a few days before and learned about his three children, his job as a fruit juice vendor and the miracle of being selected to own a Habitat house after his twin daughters prayed to a saint at his church. Enthusiasm beamed from his round face, and despite my lack of ability to converse with him in his language, he felt like a friend.

I waved and jokingly asked if he were working hard. He could have pointed to his dusty blue T-shirt as evidence that he was, but he stopped, grinned and simply said, "Venga!"--Come with me.

Around the corner, we entered his house. The walls were up, the roof was almost completed, and the living room provided a cool retreat from the dusty glare outside. Indeed, he and the volunteers on his house had been working hard. He spread out his arms, pride evident in his posture, as if to say, "See? This is my house."

With the help of a nearby bilingual volunteer, I asked Angel if he'd thought of where to place furniture. I'd seen his wife working with him, and I thought perhaps they had begun to mentally decorate their new home--a chair in this corner, maybe a nice plant over there. His reply came quickly, without much thought.

"We just have two beds and a table," he said. "But there is a picture of my children....I will hang it there, in the middle of the wall."

I thanked Angel for his time, and he went back to work. I went back to work, too, but I couldn't shake the message in his quick reply. As proud as he was of the construction of the building he would live in, his family was still most important. It wasn't about the house; it was about the memories, security and laughter that would be created within it.

In the months since I've returned from Mexico, I've tried to keep this lesson in the front of my mind. How easy it is to be caught up in the structure of things while neglecting the people inside! Angel's focus has reminded me to hug a child even when they're being messy; to smile at the cashier even when I'm running late for an appointment; to mail a card without even having a reason.

Thanks, Angel. I needed that.

--Rebekah Daniel