Habitat for Humanity

---

Ok so I know its not very far from where I live but it feels like a whole different world, for the first time ever I went into a township, Mfuleni just outside of Cape Town. I decided to give two weeks of my time before leaving for thailand (its the least I could do) to building 2 house for the less privledged by joining the Habitat for Humanity project. During this week I am training by taking part in the building of a house and next week I will hopefully get to help crew lead the building of another house. So far I have been for the theory training and tour of the community, and i have spent one day building the external walls of the 3 x 5m house (2 rooms, a toilet, kitchen and lounge). The community is very poor and many of the people live in tin shacks with only 1 bedroom and an external toilet (longdrop) they share with our families, many of the children sleep on the kitchen floor. But this community is also very vibrant and welcoming, on our tour people where singing and dancing when we arrived to welcome us. This experience is very sobering as it is hard to imagine that a very large part of the African population live in theses conditions and worse. But there was also a circumcision happening in one of the houses when we were there which was for us completely frightening (no doctor or hospital) but for the community something to celebrate.


Day 1 of the build
We all had no idea what to expect but were pleasently surprised by how much fun it is. The house next door was being built by employees of Cape Union Mart, who were very excited and energitic about the project, the competition was alot of fun, and ladies from all around the community were keen to help as well. First we met the lady, Sonia, who's house we were building which was a little emotional as she as been waiting for ages and saving slowing to make up the required contribution, this is a very special week for her as she will finally get her own home. During the day we passed hundreds of concrete bricks in chains and mixed tons (well it felt like it) of duga (cement) and helped to brick lay. Lunch was surved by some of the community members and was traditional samp and beans, what we did not finish as a group the children lined up for afterwards. By the end of the day 2 and bit of the external walls were almost finished so we met the daily objective. I unfortuatly missed the 2nd day as i had to work and then the 3rd and 4th were canceled due to wheather, tomorrow we will hopefully be able to add the roof.

---

Photos

Mfuleni
The township

A Shack
This is where the homewoner is currently living with her family of 5