Building Community

Almishet received her new house today. I gave her the keys. We both smiled.

Five other families received their houses, too. No, we didn't "build"

six houses in our time. We worked on many more than that, at various

stages. But because there are so many under construction, there are

always some that are ready to be dedicated, which adds a nice touch

for the team.

We did many of the steps involved in building here--digging the

trenches for the foundation, filling in the floor with dirt and

tamping it down, weaving the eucalyptus bark to lash the eucalyptus

poles that make up the walls, applying the chika to the walls,

covering the exterior of the house with chicken wire (poultry netting

in Mississippi--"you Yankees sure are funny, asking for chicken wire

when everyone knows it's poultry netting), "painting" the interior of

the six houses using paint made of gypsum, water and animal glue

(don't ask), sifting the sand for the concrete floor.

There were some tasks we didn't do---digging the 10' deep hole for the

latrine and lining it with stone (did that--don't need to do it again,

thanks), breaking up the quarried stone for the foundation (did that,

too, before and definitely don't need to do that), framing the basic

house with no ladders--just climbing up poles and hanging on

(definitely don't need to do that), putting on the corrugated metal

roof (while roofing is my thing, this doesn't look all that

interesting.)

A few days ago, we visited the current homes of several of the new

homeowners. Rentals, in town, and much smaller than their new home

(hard to imagine smaller than 200 square feet, but they were) and with

shared kitchens. By comparison, these are McMansions. And theirs, of

course.

Each nation's closing ceremony is unique. This one involved the whole

Habitat community joining us for lunch, then gift-giving, a couple of

mercifully short speeches, dancing, and off to the dedications.

We also visited the Habitat homes of some of the "Vulnerable People."

This is unique to Ethiopia, as far as I know, and results from the

efforts of some people in Northern Ireland. There are many people who

are marginalized here, sometimes for physical reasons (leprosy,

blindness, physical disabilities), sometimes because the man has

died/abandoned the family. They resort to begging and are ostracized

from the mainstream of society.

Habitat works with the local service agency to identify families who

are in this situation, builds them a home at no cost to the family,

moves them into the home and makes them a part of the community. None

of this "you stay there, we stay here" thing---they become integral

parts of the community, send their kids to school, share

responsibilities in their community, etc., even as they continue

begging to make a living.

Habitat Debre Berhan not only builds houses; it builds community.