Morris man builds a better life for Guatemalan poor

Foundations for the future

BY JOSEPH J. DELCONZO
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD
02/19/06 - from the Daily Record

Editor's note:

Joseph J. Delconzo is a New Jersey based photographer who recently accompanied Morristown native Joe Collins on a trip to Guatemala, where Collins has been working to build homes for impoverished families.

Collins, who earns a living as a private investigator, runs a program called Houses to Homes -- Guatemala that seeks to build homes for these families. The organization also raises money to pay for children to go to school and provides food, clothing and other necessities to families in need.

On the following pages are an interview with Collins conducted by Delconzo; biographies of Collins and Oscar Mejia, Collins'right-hand man in Guatemala; and a short essay by Delconzo on what he learned.

Delconzo was aided in his reporting and writing by Sharon D. Levis, who is a student at Brookdale Community College studying communications, sociology and cultural anthropology.

***

Although the majority of the Guatemalan people are living in what most Americans would regard as devastating poverty, they are a proud and dignified people, with a strong sense of family and religion.

Their homes are built from scraps of wood, plastic, sheet metal, or anything that will provide shelter from the elements. But they will sweep their dirt floors, hand wash their clothes daily, and work hard at everything around them.

Their strong sense of family is obvious in the way that they carry themselves when they are together. The touch each other and smile constantly, and the women will walk arm in arm along the streets. They are not inhibited when it comes to showing each other affection.

When living with just the basic necessities of life -- food, shelter and clothing --what people in poverty are left with is their hearts and souls. There is hardly any influence from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood or advertising. They are not concerned with getting "things." And yes, they can be happy, without the distractions that come to us, in the United States, from all directions.

Most of the people living in this developing country are not even aware that these "things" exist.

Do they want for anything? Yes, of course they do.

What they ask for is food, clothing, shelter, work and a decent education for their children.

There is something special about the people living in the impoverished areas of Guatemala. Something perhaps that has been dissipating from our own society.

The first-generation immigrants who arrived in America, shared their culture with their children, who shared it with their own children. They were happy living in places like the Lower East Side of New York.

Their focus on life was similar to what the Guatemalan people still posses: The strong sense of family, and the ability to be happy with just each other.

***

The following is an interview with Joe Collins, a lifelong Morristown resident who has been building homes in impoverished areas of Guatemala.

How did you get involved in Guatemala?

My son, Darron, was here getting his Ph.D. in anthropology at Tulane (University in New Orleans) and he was living in northern Guatemala for almost two years with this community. He rented a motorcycle and he would travel two hours down this dirt road to town, and send me e-mails on the weekends.

Did you visit him?

I couldn't get over what he was describing to me, so I said, "I'm going to come visit you." I had to look on a map to find out where Guatemala was. But I came down and I spent a week with him in this little house with no electricity. He had just married at the time and his wife was with him and they said they really got to know each other because there was no TV and you couldn't read too well with the candlelight, so they had to talk to each other. She's from Atlanta but they met in New Orleans.

What did you see there that inspired you?

On the way back from Coban, where they were living, we stopped in Antigua. I saw the poor living ... they were sleeping on the street out in the front and there were kids there and there were women there ... and I said, "God."I just couldn't get over how that was.

When was this?

That was in September of '99, and then it took me two years. ... One day I was sitting at my computer, and I put in "volunteering in Antigua." Up came the God's Child Project. That was in July of 2001. In August 2001, I met five other people, who became part of the service team when we came down to build the house.

How long were you with that organization?

I volunteered with them for like four years of at least full summers, and a couple weeks in between, in the fall or in the spring or whatever.

When did things change?

In September of 2004, I went home and remembered wanting to do something a little bit different than what they were doing. So I looked into forming my own nonprofit and what it would take and filled out the forms and in December of 2004 we were approved by the IRS and Jan. 2, 2005, we built our first home.

How many homes since then?

Right now, we're on 24. So we did almost two a month last year in our first year. It takes us about seven work days to build a house, so the best we can probably do is two a month, unless we do them simultaneously, but we're trying to do two a month anyhow.

Do you help in other ways?

We're doing other things to help the poor, other than just structure. I've got half of my living room or at least a quarter, full of clothes that I've collected from friends to bring down, but I'm only allowed to bring two 50-pound bags with me, but I normally bring down at least one bag with clothes or shoes for the poor. We do clothing distribution where we give out clothes that other volunteers have brought down or that I've brought down.

How much does it cost to build a house?

Depending on the number of volunteers we have, we've gotten volunteers from a lot of the Spanish schools here in Antigua. Sometimes there are a lot of volunteers and we don't have to hire too many people. Sometimes we hire Guatemalans to build, so the price varies, but somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500. You can build a 12 (feet) to 20 (feet) cinder block house for a family. We build bunk beds, where needed. The one we're building right now will have two bunk beds, three beds each, so figure six kids. And the cost of that mattresses, sheets, blankets and pillows come to at least $1,500. Maybe $1,800 with the three beds.

How are donations?

They were a lot harder in January of last year when we started because we were new, but now that I have documentation that shows what we have been able to accomplish in our first year. I'm hoping that it will get easier in our second year. December was a pretty good month.

Where do the donations come from?

Mostly private donations. No companies. The thing I'm seeing is that we've had volunteers from Germany, from the Spanish schools, who have worked with us for a couple of months, some of them, and they have gone home and they have formed their own "From Houses to Homes -- Germany."They're trying to get paperwork there, where they will try to raise money and get newspaper articles and stuff in Germany and send the money through to us, but we haven't received anything yet.

What's the best thing about the organization?

I think the volunteers are the greatest asset that we have because they experience what we are doing. They see where the money is going and they have direct contact with the families that they provided homes for. They can go back home and raise it.

How many volunteers have you had?

Thirty-three volunteers from 11 different countries have worked with us in the past year.

Are you sustaining right now?

We're surviving at this point. It's been pretty good. I don't know how long we can go at it, but I just believe. I have a great faith in God and I think I'm doing the right thing and he'll provide and I have a firm belief in that.

Who is helping you with this?

I'm very fortunate to have Oscar Mejia as our project director and Henio Perez Garrido, a hard worker. I have no problems being back in the states trying to raise money with them helping the poor down here with the funds that we raise.

Do you do anything besides build homes?

At this time we're registering children for school. We've registered around 40-some children this year. Last year it was 17 in our first year. We provide the registration fee. Depending on the year that the child is in, it costs anywhere from $50 to $75 depending on the school, but on top of that we have to pay for school supplies. The children here need school supplies. Some of them don't even have shoes. They need backpacks. They want to be able to go to school like the rest of the kids. A family of six with very little income, that's pretty hard for the mother and/or father to (afford to) educate them.

We met this schoolteacher today that told us about a family with two children that would not go to school this year if they didn't get somebody to support (them). There's no welfare system in Guatemala to help children get educated, that they don't have the money.

Last year we ran into a 13-year-old girl who had never been to school in her life. We didn't help her because she didn't want to go to a first-grade school at 13 years old.

You helped with the construction of a church too, right?

My son, Darron, spent 18, probably 20 months getting his Ph.D while living with this community, and he asked them, before he was coming back to the states, if there was anything he could give them? Because they were the community that he lived with for all that time and they were the ones that educated him. They were the ones that enabled him to get his Ph.D. They said that they wanted a church built. So my son sent me an e-mail saying could I raise some money to build a church?

You did this in memory of your sister?

And my sister just died of a brain tumor and I said I would raise the money for the church if we could name the church after my sister. He said, "I'm sure they will be happy to do that." So I raised several thousand dollars and I sent it down to them. He would send me e-mails of the construction of this church. That was in 1999.

Have you seen the church?

Two years ago I went back to this community on my own to see the church. I had to rent a car and drive two hours out this dirt road, the only American on the road, so far out into the country. I had a picture of my son, because I didn't know where the church was, and I didn't and still don't know how to speak the language. When I got an hour and a half down the road, I started to show my son's picture to the people that I met. I showed it to one, and they remembered him from 1999. We went to the church and they had a plaque dedicated in the honor of my sister. That church, I'm sure, is still standing today. It was a great thrill to see that. I don't know the name of the town it's in. It's about two hours outside of Coban, Guatemala.

What are the houses like?

This house here is probably a mansion. ... (It's made of) cement. For them to have a new cement house that would probably be as much as they can ever expect in their lifetime.

Do they own this property or rent?

That's what we have to be sure of ... that we see the paperwork from them. I don't want to build a house with some wealthy landlord and have him come in after (building) a new house and throw these people out. But it's probably been in the family for generations.

***

Where did you go to college?

No college. I was 17 and a couple of guys from high school decided to join the Marines. My parents said, "No, you're not going," and I needed their signature in order to go and they would not give it to me. They wanted me to go to college and I said I'll go when I get out.

But you went anyway?

This was August 1958. I said I'm going to be 18 in November of '58, so either let me go with my friends or ... so they let me go.

In retrospect?

I always wish I went to college because when I got out (of the service) I didn't go and I had a free ride with the GI bill at the time.

What did you do when you got out?

I went to work for a finance company. I was repossessing cars and I was making $100 a week repossessing cars in New Jersey. I went to Maple Shade once to repossess this guy's truck and he pulled a gun on me. And I said, you know this is not really worth it.

After that?

I worked for a bank after that and I was still in the collection department. I didn't know it at the time, but they gave me charged off loans to try to find the people. They gave me 10 accounts the first day and I found seven of them in a week. I didn't know it at the time, but this helped me with my P.I. (private investigator) work that I'm doing for finding birth mothers. That was in the '60s.

Then you left the bank for the bar?

I left the bank in '69 and I started bartending. I was making more money bartending than I was at the bank for sure.

In November of 1971, I bought Collins Pub in Morris Plains with my brother. I stayed there until '88. I said, "I want out,"and he bought me out and he's there to this day, so he's got 34 years as an owner. We bought the pub and named it Collins Pub. It was great, we had some wild times, we were successful, we made a lot of money there.

And then real estate?

So in '88 I got out and I went into real estate. I worked for Jim Weichert, Weichert Realtors, for four to five years.

What did the career counselor say?

In 1991, I went to a career counselor and this guy was in Summit, and he asked me what I wanted to do, if I could do anything ... and I said that I wanted to be an FBI agent, but I was too old and I didn't have any college, and so on.

He said, "What's the second thing?" I told him about years earlier, my cousin had four adopted children and my cousin said to me that one day that they wanted to find their birth mothers. And I said, "Well, let me try it."

I found both girls' mothers. One in a day and one in a week. And I was thrilled, and I was there at their reunion of these two women after 30 years with their birth mothers. So I told the career counselor about that and he said, "Why don't you try to do something in that field? You don't need a college education or anything like that."

You became a private investigator?

So, I went and I worked for a PI for five years, and after five years in New Jersey you can get your own PI license, so I got my own PI license, and I've just been reuniting adoptees since 1991.

Have you been busy?

I've reunited over 1,700 adoptees with their birth families in the last 14 years worldwide. I recently had an adoptee from Australia, got my name, wanted me to find her birth father, and I found him in Calgary, Canada. That was my most long distance find. I found one woman once in Mexico City from New Jersey. That took me six years to find her. That was my longest search.

Weren't you on the "Sally Jessy Raphael" show?

The most exciting thing was that I made it to the "Sally Jessy Raphael Show" once. That was an exciting time. That was in '91 or '92, right when I first started. A man and his wife were separated in Winfield Park. And the man had come home and wanted to get back into the house and his wife was arguing with him and he wouldn't let her in. And he pulled out a gun and killed her. And he killed her mother, and her sister and then shot himself; four dead in Winfield Park.

Well, those people had three kids: 4 years old, 3 years old, 18 months. They all were there when the father shot everyone. The 4- and 3-year-olds were girls and the 18-month-old was a boy. They all got split up into separate homes. This was 50 years ago, back in the late '40's.

One woman had an article (in the newspaper) about going onto "Sally Jessy" to put a plea out to find her brother and sister. She was the 4-year-old, and I saw the article in the paper before they hit the show, and I found the 3-year-old sister. And they told me not to have either one of them talk to each other, because they were going to be reunited live on "Sally Jessy Raphael" after 50 years.

I had my family there and I was new at this and I thought this was cool. And I got a lot of business from it. To reunite two sisters after 50 years ... The funny part was the boy, I couldn't find. ... Less than a year, maybe nine months to a year later, I get a phone call and the boy says, "I hear you're looking for me."

I said, "Who are you?" and he told me that he was the brother. He happens to be a PI in California and somebody found him, I didn't find him.