Children played outdoors on the cement pavement. Some people started cooking, and a mother bathed her children outdoors because she didn’t want to get the new bathroom dirty.

"Come on, let's go home!" A father picked up the key to his new Tzu Chi house and took his son's hand, but the boy didn't move. He stared in amazement at what was before him. He was used to a shelter made of corrugated steel sheets and mud floors, and he couldn't believe he was seeing these new Tzu Chi houses before him.

On January 13, 2001, El Salvador suffered a major earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale. Tzu Chi volunteers went there five times to deliver relief goods and to provide free clinics, and they also decided to build 1,250 houses for the refugees.

The first batch of 119 Tzu Chi Great Love houses were completed in Sacacoyo, La Libertad Province. At the opening ceremony the Catholic priest, Fr. Sosa, said to the villagers that he had seen despair, fear and sadness in the refugees after the earthquake, but God had brought Tzu Chi to them to build new houses, and this had revived their confidence.

A little "mansion"

Earthquake survivors were selected according to the scale of damage to their homes and their needs to move into Great Love houses. For example, the first 119 families who moved into the new houses used to live by the railroad or in low-lying areas that flooded very easily.

After the earthquake, some refugees could only build shelters with the corrugated steel sheets they received from the government. Their homes became muddy when it rained and hot when the sun came out.

When they received their keys and ownership certificates on August 11, their faces shone with joy. They couldn't wait to move in. Children played outdoors on the cement pavement, which was much cleaner than the muddy ground they were used to. Some people started cooking, and a mother bathed her children outdoors because she didn't want to get the new bathroom dirty.

Their old shelters were only 16.5 square meters [177.6 square feet] in area, but Tzu Chi's cinder-block houses--with two bedrooms, one bathroom and one kitchen--were twice that size, so the new homes could be considered "mansions" for them.

Taiwanese businessmen in El Salvador also prepared many gifts for them, such as washbasins, towels, soap, and some cleaning tools. Each bundle was tied with a red bow to indicate the blessings and good luck we wished for them.

Temporary job

The person who contributed the most to the completion of the first batch of Tzu Chi houses was Yao Shu-tu.

Yao lived in Texas and had an import-export business in Central America, so he knew El Salvador quite well and could speak fairly good Spanish. After the earthquake, he went with Tzu Chi members to the disaster areas and helped distribute relief goods and organize free clinics.

When he was asked to take charge of coordinating the construction of the Tzu Chi houses, he hesitated for quite a while. He said that he usually went to El Salvador a couple of times a year on business. In order to cut down his expenses, and also due to the fact that he was not used to the local environment, he tended to make his schedules tight so that he could go home as early as possible.

But when he joined Tzu Chi's relief work, he well knew that what the refugees needed the most was housing to shelter them from the sun and rain. After giving it a good amount of thought, he decided to put aside his own business for the time being and devote all his time and energy to building the houses.

After finishing the first batch of houses, he figured that he had gone back and forth between El Salvador and Texas twenty times just for the project. Some trips took him several days and the longest ones could be as long as two weeks.

Yao admitted that he felt a great deal of pressure, mainly because he knew very little about building houses. But Master Cheng Yen's compassion, the support that the local government gave to Tzu Chi, and the expectations of the refugees motivated him to do his best. He earnestly visited and consulted many factories and professionals, hoping he could get the job done with all his hard work.

Once the workers went on strike because they hadn't received fair pay from the contractor. Yao thought that if the work was delayed for a day, the refugees had to suffer an extra day. Although other people told him not to get involved, he plucked up his courage and went to share his joy about Tzu Chi and Great Love with the strikers. He gently explained to them about the philosophy of Tzu Chi and their desire to help the quake survivors. The laborers went back to work the following day.

Yao said that he had the most pressure in May and June, and several times he just wanted to run away. However, he had willingly taken on the job, so there was no one to blame but himself.

At the end of June this year, Yao went back to Taiwan to be certified by Master Cheng Yen as a Tzu Chi commissioner, and the Master gave him the Buddhist name, "Chi Yi." [Each Tzu Chi commissioner is given a Buddhist name; "Chi" means "relief," and "Yi" means "diligence."] This meant that he had to be diligent all the time.

Love is contagious

Yao was faced with many difficulties in building Tzu Chi houses, like the designs of the houses, the different customs of the country, and the thunderstorms that always came in the afternoon. In addition, there were demands for meeting deadlines and for the good quality and reasonable prices of those houses. Yao had a real headache when it came to promoting love at the construction site.

Whenever he had the opportunity, Yao would talk about Tzu Chi at the companies, associations or factories he came across. He considered himself a "farmer," and his job was to take care of this tract of land that the Tzu Chi village was built on. He said, "A farmer's job is to attentively plow and weed a field, but the harvest depends on heaven."

His hard work finally paid off.

While Yao was having difficulties with the work schedule, a water company sent in fifty workers, three hydraulic shovel machines and a big truck to help install the plumbing infrastructure, because the company knew Tzu Chi was pushing hard to complete the project for the refugees. The company would also provide water to the villagers free of charge for half a year.

After their long contact with Tzu Chi, a company responsible for paving and building roads also decided to pave one road free of charge.

Furthermore, someone who was familiar with local regulations, engineering management and community development had to be hired to manage the new village. Mrs. Maria Santamaria, former director of Through Human Settlement in the Housing and Urban Development Department, agreed to accept the position with half the salary so she could work for these villagers.

Everyone is a volunteer

While helping with the Tzu Chi earthquake relief efforts, several local Chinese businesspeople became interested in doing charity work. Thus they set up a Tzu Chi liaison office in El Salvador. In addition to building Tzu Chi Great Love houses, they also went regularly to help at local orphanages.

Hou Jung-chao was one of these. He had been in the import business for a long time in El Salvador and had married a local woman. While the Tzu Chi volunteers were there, Hou served as an interpreter, and after that he became the head of the liaison office.

One time there were several street vendors selling pupusa, a local food, by the construction site. Many people simply threw the wrappers on the ground after eating the food.

Hou went to them and started talking emotionally to the vendors and the crowds in fluent Spanish. More and more people gathered around him, and there came laughter and the sound of clapping hands.

Hou told the villagers, "Tzu Chi came to help you build a wonderful community, so you have to take care of it. As long as you can keep your homes clean, you can be proud of them."

Hou told them that they should be grateful for receiving the houses, and the best way to express their gratitude was to keep their homes clean.

A young man objected that it was useless to do so because they would still be poor. Hou replied that complaining would do no good in their current situation. If they didn't work for their livelihood and dignity, they would always be poor.

Hou talked to the crowds for two hours, and everyone finally began to pick up the garbage. Very shortly, the whole village was clean again.

Hou gathered the people afterwards and asked them whether they were happy about what they had done, and they all agreed. Hou also took the chance to tell them how happy he was to contribute.

After that, Hou and the villagers came to the construction site every Sunday to clean up the garbage and do recycling. He also asked his Salvadoran friends, company employees and villagers to pitch in to help. If necessary, they would also collect money to send poor villagers to the hospital or to purchase coffins for those who died.

Becoming more enthusiastic

The second batch of 221 Great Love houses will also be built in Sacacoyo, and they were already contracted out in August this year. The last batch of 910 houses will be in Chanmigo.

Yao told us that 86% of Chanmigo residents were unemployed, and that figure didn't include temporary workers. Of the residents of Sacacoyo, 65% were unemployed. These two cities had been badly ruined in the earthquake and had received hardly any help after the earthquake, so Tzu Chi chose these two cities to build houses.

Chanmigo has no city government, hospitals, churches or public works. Thus, Tzu Chi will also build a clinic, a library and a community center that can also function as a chapel.

A government official said that during emergency meetings of the cabinet, they would mention Tzu Chi seven or eight times. Tzu Chi was the largest civil organization that had spent the longest time in the disaster areas. Yao mentioned that the foundation was now the only rescue organization in El Salvador still building houses for refugees.

The thunderstorm season in El Salvador is at its peak in August and September. Yao went to investigate other refugee camps and discovered that water had gathered in low-lying areas and thus had helped to breed many flies and mosquitoes, causing a severe health hazard. This meant that there was an urgent need to start building the second batch of Great Love houses fast.

After turning over the first batch of Tzu Chi houses to their new owners, Yao found out that he was becoming more enthusiastic through his volunteer work. He told us, "I have decided to go to El Salvador fifty times to finish all 1,250 Tzu Chi houses. Now there are thirty more times to go!"