Mariá Ponce is 78 years old and lives in an enchanted house. She built it ingeniously with her own hands, using only plastic bottles and a few other recycled materials. The structure is so original that it has become an oasis of peace, hope and beauty in one of the poorest regions of El Salvador.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Mariá Ponce is 78 years old and lives in an enchanted house. She built it ingeniously with her hands, using only plastic bottles and a few other recycled materials. The structure is so original that it has become an oasis of peace, hope and beauty in one of the poorest regions of El Salvador.
Every day, early in the morning, the doors made of simple blue painted wooden planks open, shielding their fantastic inner world on the busy El Litoral road, in the canton of El Borbollón, department of San Miguel (125 km east of San Salvador) , where it is visible to all motorists. "Welcome to my enchanted house", she says with the smile she always brings to her lips, to those who visit her in her humble but well-appointed retreat, no larger than ten square meters.
To make the little house special are, in fact, many plastic bottles, even used to make the roof and prevent rainwater from penetrating. To keep them in place, they were strung on bamboo sticks planted in the ground. The best, however, is on the walls, where they have been used after being patiently hand painted, one by one.
“It took me a month and a half to find the materials for the house, then I had to collect the bottles. LThe construction of the house took three months, every day from sunrise to sunset I worked alone, but I'm proud because I didn't have a home and today, instead, they admire me, "the old woman told AFP, who lost her house of mud and earth walls in 2001, when the country was shaken by two earthquakes.
All around there is poverty: small huts with dirt walls and barefoot children with dirty faces. Few homes have electricity or drinking water. But just look at Mariá's house to find hope and beauty.
Roberta Ragni
Photo Jose CABEZAS/AFP/Getty Images
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