Ayres Engineer Builds Houses – and Friendships – in Dominican Republic

Two families in the Dominican Republic have newer, safer, and more structurally sound places to call home, thanks to the efforts of an Eau Claire, Wisconsin-area mission team that an Ayres Associates engineer was part of this winter.

Bruce Ommen, a vice president at Ayres Associates, was part of a 30-member delegation from Peace Church in Eau Claire. Bruce’s neighbor belongs to the church and asked him to sub in for someone whose plans had changed.

Bruce – no stranger to humanitarian work, having built bridges in Guatemala in 2010 and 2011 with Engineers Without Borders – was immediately on board.

The group spent about a week in the Santiago area of the Caribbean nation, building two 18-foot-by-24-foot one-story houses in that time.

“Three days a house. It was pretty fast-paced,” Bruce says.

Work included pouring concrete floors, putting up 2-by-4 walls, hanging siding on the outside and plywood on the inside, wiring for electricity, and installing a metal roof. Dominican pastors identified the new homeowners-to-be, who also pitched in to help with construction.

In addition to his home-building skills, Bruce brought one additional talent to the table – creating roughly 100 balloon animals for local children.

“You want to get people involved, and so that’s what I do,” Bruce says with a smile. “That, and about 20 pounds of candy, always makes you popular.”

In the end, Bruce found the experience to be a rewarding one that he’ll look back at fondly for years to come.

“It’s always a humbling experience,” he says, adding that, although living on less, people there were always happy.

Regarding the homes the group built, the level of improvement was obvious. Bruce described some specifics about one of the old houses.

“With the original house, when the water ran off, it went through the chicken coop, into their house, and then out. That’s how bad the house they were living in was – and six kids lived in that,” Bruce says.

Without hesitation, he says he’d do a humanitarian trip again. He has his early sights set on a project in the Peruvian Andes.

“I don’t know if it’ll be my next trip or not, but it’ll be one,” he says.