Day 3 on the Build Site

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Today we split our group into two teams: Habitat staff members /AmeriCorp members and those who do not work at Habitat. My team worked with Bartholomew on Anne's house. We spent most of the time up on scaffolding finishing the outside walls. I loved getting to work with Nepman and Immanuel, Anne's two oldest sons on their house. In many ways, Nepman was like the builder. He worked alongside us and gently helped us correct our mistakes so that each row of bricks were level. It was wonderful to see the pride that he took in building his house. While we did not get a chance to talk with Anne, I would have loved to tell her that she should be so proud of her sons. They are very mature for their ages. Nepman shared he has helped on houses before and plans on continuing to help build homes. He is a great builder and leader.

During our lunch break we brought out a new soccer ball and a couple of jump ropes so we could play a variety of games with the kids. A group of us engaged in a seven-on-seven soccer match, with Wise, one of the leaders of the village, serving as the ref and overseeing the rotation of players on the two teams. The skill set of some of the teenagers put all of us adult Americans to shame, though Emily scored several goals. Quickly learned how competitive Kevin, our other team leader, was when it comes to games. (He is also a die-hard Coke Zero fanatic.)

Other members of our group jumped rope with the girls. Later all the younger kids and more of our group engaged in Duck Duck Goose. All these games took place under the shade of a giant tree in the center of the village. Whenever the chief wants to speak to the village or there is some communal event, it always takes place under this huge tree. After we had all worked up a good sweat and had a blast playing together, it was time to return to finish building for the day.

At the start and end of each day, Sousand, the build site coordinator, met with us. In the morning he would tell us what he expected from us that day. At the end he would exclaim we had exceeded his expectations, which would always make us laugh since the builders were so much faster than us and still having to fix some of our mistakes. The joke at one of the houses was that we were starting to become "experts" and "professionals." This meant that we did not have to have every row inspected each time before we started another row. That being said, we still greatly appreciated any assistance and feedback from the builders and Nepman. We are getting better saying the names of our building materials in the native language, though our accent makes all the people in the village and the builders laugh.

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