Habitat for Humanity Build

Picture me in a hard hat. Ok – good. Now picture me laying bricks. Still with me? How about me climbing on scaffolding? Yeah, I know – I probably lost you all the way back at the hard hat. But I swear it’s all true! Fifteen volunteers and I joined up with Habitat for Humanity for a week to build a community center for homeless Cambodians in Oudong province. This project was actually a test run to generate excitement for a huge blitz-build that will take place in November. The next goal: 21 houses in one week! Depending on my school schedule, I hope to participate in the second build because this past week was so incredibly rewarding.

We all piled into a guest house on Sunday night – not really sure what to expect for Monday morning. We knew we’d be working alongside the local community, for the community, but none of us had any construction experience and many of the volunteers actually thought I was serious when I jokingly asked if you could plug in a hammer. Oh boy.

Orientation on our first day consisted of a brief “how-to” on laying bricks before we were thrown into the action. My three-person team was in charge of laying the bricks on the Western wall of the center. Despite the scorching heat and long hours, the day passed super fast. I felt like I had learned a real skill and was using it to do something meaningful and lasting.

Day two we continued to work on our wall … this time on scaffolding. I dropped a re-bar on Tara’s head, but luckily she had a hard hat on and that was my only really spaztastic moment. Of course, the real secret to our dream team was Rebecca. That girl can BUILD. She was one of the few people who had a working knowledge of this sort of thing (grace à her father) and it showed.

We continued on to help install the doors and windows, which resulted in a minor catastrophe because the window and door fixtures were the wrong size so we had to do some improvising to get everything to fit. Aside from that, things were really shaping up and we were all having a blast doing it. Nothing like working under a blue sky and big sun to make you feel alive.

By day four I’d had my fill of brick laying and crack filling, so I switched over to the “management crew” while a few other volunteers raised the roof and plastered it into place. We weren’t allowed to help with the roof itself due to liability, so we cleared out all the renegade bricks from the site and organized the remaining materials. This was more interesting than it sounds – if for no other reason than there is tons of wild life that likes to hide in the brick piles. Hopping mice, frogs, snakes eating the frogs, scorpions … you name it.

On our last day, we finished the community center, cleaned it up, and prepped for the dedication ceremony in the morning. The families arrived after lunch all smiles. After a few speeches, we turned them loose to enjoy the building. Seeing the gratitude on the families’ faces, letting their children crawl all over me in excitement, and participating in an impromptu dance party right there at site (that’s how excited everyone was) was beyond touching. These families live on a garbage dump site that is closing down, so they will be loosing the meager homes that they have. To them, this isn’t just a simple building, but a new life. And being part of that is something I will carry with me forever.