An Unforgettable Experience
Today was our last afternoon at the build site.
Although none of the houses were finished by our group, great progress has been made.
This progress ranges from building walls, digging foundations, painting doors and windows, and putting tiles on the floors. To most of us these were new experiences and to all they were good ones. However what is definitely worth noting is that all our work could not have been achieved without the hard working and kind local community of home owners.
The home owners of the community in Rach Gia whom we were helping were invaluable. It was great to see how not only student and teachers worked together, but also how the home owners and Habitat for Humanity staff cooperated to create something special. To the home owners, we are not only building a house, we are building a home. And their appreciation could clearly be seen by the hard work they all put in. Everyone contributed, the men helped with the heavy lifting, the women helped by keeping everyone well fed and hydrated. Regardless of whose house it was, owners from all homes went back and forth between houses and helped where help was needed. The feeling of community was very strong there, and it is great to see how everyone was working together for a common goal.
Overall I think everyone can say that this has been a very eye-opening and rewarding experience which will not easily be forgotten.
Jason Klanderman
6:40 pm
31/05/10
Finishing What We Started
Over the past days we have been renovating houses for the people living in under-developed buildings. The houses we renovated were simple one-floor houses made of bricks, concrete and earth. The house we worked on had about three rice ponds at the back where from about August to November (the wet season) rice is grown. The family living in the house really appreciated the help we provided. They were, as a family, to help build the house in order to own it. The families really wanted to work hard to renovate their house. I worked on two houses while Jordan worked on the house next door. I enjoyed working with my two houses, though work was the same at both sites. Jordan and I enjoyed digging a GIGANTIC hole in the houses' front gardens.
Emily Higgitt
Lots of interesting things happened while we were on the site. I asked Li Yen if she could fall over so that we could write it on the blog. She said no, but fell over anyway. It was quite entertaining to watch. The digging place was so exciting that we decided to make it a place for bonding. Lots of people found this weird, but I think it was pretty cool. I forgot to mention the boat ride here. It was fun. Nothing happened, we were all just sleeping. For breakfast this morning we both had jam and bread. Lunch was fun; we ate rice, noodles, beef and watermelon. The watermelon was really big, so I couldn't finish it. We had lots of breaks while we were building. During the breaks we just ate snacks and drank water. It was really hot but it didn't rain. I don't know whether that's good or bad. Overall we had a great time at the site.
Jordan Elley
3:34 pm
31/05/10
The End of A Hard Work Day
After several hours of building, we were all incredibly grateful for some food! At my house, which was the third one along in four, (which were all connected by a dirt footpath) we had been shoveling clumps of the ground into a wheelbarrow and a harphazard stretcher to be taken back into the house and thrown into two walled-off areas (the walls came to around waist-height). Easy as this may seem, it was backbreaking work. Lunch was a much-welcomed escape from working in the hot midday sun.
All the four teams met up again, and we all walked to a one-roomed building between the second and third houses, which, out the back, had an out-door kitchen and tables to eat at, under some trees and a shelter. We dug into a meat and cauliflour broth, prawns, fish, rice, bok choy, along with more bottles of water (our chaperones had been putting countless bottles of water in our hands since we arrived in Ho Chi Minh!). The hard work had made me hungry, and at our table we all ate our fill, talking to some of the builders about where we had come from, and learning some simple phrases in Vietnamese (not so simple if you ask me!). Our hosts made sure the food kept on coming; even the plates of pineapple seemed to re-fill themselves, which seemed to bring an end to Mr. Glover’s fervour for fruit! Reluctantly, we put on our hats, slapped on more sunscreen, and returned to the heat of the afternoon for another few hours’ work. This time, at my house, we finished filling the brick pens with earth, and were allowed to finish laying and grouting the tiles in a room in the house (which was greatly appreciated!). Tired, hot, washing our shovels and buckets to return to each family, we came together at the fourth house, and started a series of picture-taking which frustrated most of us (after all, we were exhausted). After the fourth, and final group photo, taken at the first house, we happily bounded back to the long, thin boat which had taxied us there this morning. Card-playing, iPod-listening and book-reading ensued, with several naps, in an otherwise uninterrupted journey back to the docks, where we taxied to the hotel, took long relaxing showers, and had dinner.
My clothes are dirty, I’m sweaty, and in desperate need of a shower, yet I think we all feel the happy exhaustion that comes with a hard day of work. I won’t lie, tomorrow I’m not looking forward to working in the heat again, yet when we had finished grouting the floor, or when we saw the painted shutters and finished floors of the other houses, I was no longer bitter or cranky. Working for someone less advantaged than us, no matter how tiring it was, left me feeling good. Albeit stiff and sandy, good.
Kirsten Buckmaster
5:54 pm
30/05/10
Our First Day Building
Hello to everyone enjoying the beautiful coolness of air-con!
This morning we all had the wonderful pleasure of waking up at six. Unfortunately I set my alarm clock to the wrong time, so I got up at six thirty (aren’t I a rebel). Anyway I made it to breakfast on time, then at seven we all got into taxis, and like anyother day it was hot, and because we were in a taxi with no air-con on it was hotter. To make things worse I was in the taxi with four other guys. Four guys + no air-con+ doors closed+ hot vietnam climate= VERY HOT + four complaining guys. So we were off (in the taxis) to the docks, which turned out to be a piece of bare land looking out onto a beautifully brown river, and a plank to one boat, that was then connected to all the other boats. We then had the wonderful experience of walking/scaling the plank to get to our boat, which I’m sure everyone can imagine was a load of fun. I’m serious, it was very thrilling, I can now die knowing I have a sense of adventure! We all boarded the boat with an extremely low roof, which even me, a very short person, (ask anyone, I get grief for it!) found it hard to move around in. All of us got settled in to the planks of wood which were our seats. Then Mr Glover told us they had to fix the battery, which would take HALF AND HOUR. So the teachers said we couild say in the boat or crawl out and scale the plank to stay on land while we wait. Me being me, I decide to stay in the boat, but so does almost everyone else. So there we are waiting and waiting, and it was VERY hot, and I was siting around the same guys in the taxi (silly me). So now its More guys+ girls+heat + in cramped boat= everyone very very annoyed. Then the same guys played some very sadd music, which made me feel depressed :(. But eventually we move! So for the next two hours (felt more like half a day) we were all in the boat, all uncomfortable. I got a WHOLE PLANK to myself, and because I’m so short I could strech my legs. However one of the grade 11 guys, I won’t mention names, (*cough Jason cough*) decided to sperad his legs and take over half of my plank so I gave in and had to share :(. During the ride we passed a lot of houses, which looked really broken down, yet were still standing. It was interesting to be crusing along the river, even though the river wasn’t excactly clean, and the boat isn’t too comfertable. But it was pretty cool. Yet it wasn’t interesting enough to keep me awake, and when I came back from the dead we were in what looked like the sea but was actually a lake (according to Emily). There were a lot of people fishing and swimming and there was a lot of water splashing on me. After a long long long long ride we FINALLY got to the building site! We all then split into four groups and went to four different houses. My group was laying tiles. Now when I first heard what we were doing, I thought it would be okay, just laying tiles and scooping cement. OH how wrong I was! Cement is very very heavy, and so is sand and gravel. We got to work, me and Jordan carrying the cement into the house, at first. But after a while I got bored of carrying, and went to help the boys shovel and mix, which was a lot more fun. After HOURS of shoveling, carrying and mixing, it was LUNCH TIME!
ROAR
PS. Hey Day!
Li-Yen Sneah
12:28 pm
30/05/10
Building Heroes...
Discovering Rach Gia and HFH Vietnam
After settling into the hotel, and having an exquisite lunch, we went to the orientation at the Habitat for Humanity project building. After sitting through a presentation about what we are going to be doing, each participant was given a T-Shirt, towel, ID and a hat, which we could personalise! After the presentation, we walked to the Rainbow Village, a collection of houses built by HFH volunteers. There, we got in touch with the Vietnamese children for the first time, and we want to adopt them all! We were then taken to an orphanage, where the children had special needs (ie. deafness, muteness), yet, such disabilities did not keep them from being talented, especially in sewing and handy crafts. Many students bought the sewn masterpieces, as we valued their hard work. We went for dinner, and in our opinions it was the best food that we have had on this whole trip! After dinner we went for a walk along the beach, and stopped for a drink at a beach café.
Tomorrow we will finally start what we came here to do! We are all really looking forward to it and we can’t wait to meet the families we will be working with!
PS. HI LAUREN J
Kate Rogers and Ana Rudolf
10:24
28/05/10
The Journey To Rach Gia
Today we took a propeller plane to a town along the mekong delta, called ‘Rach Gia’. We took a bus from our Saigon hotel and arrived and a very small airport. I was quite shocked at how small it was. When we finally got to the runway I saw a big jet plane and expected it to be ours, but I was puzzled to find that we were taking an old propeller plane to the town where the build site would be. On the plane we saw the city slowly dissapearing and the countryside come into view. We saw rice paddies and farms galore! The view was very beautiful from our plane but the noise was deafening. We flew over many rivers and rice paddies, but after a short half-hour flight we arrived to a very tiny airport that was even smaller than the one before. When we arrived, the arrival hall was about the size of an small apartment! We were greeted by a member of the staff from Habitat for Humanity Vietnam. We soon took a very small and cramped bus to the hotel. Along the way we say more farms, and there were a lot less people and buildings in the area. When we arrived at the hotel I thought we might not get such great rooms, since we were in the middle of nowhere, but I actually like it more than the hotel in Ho Chi Minh! The rooms are much bigger and our shower looks a lot like a timemachine! It turned out to be a great day after all. I can’t wait for the rest of the week!
Andrew Clarke
12:04 pm
29/05/10
These are some of the houses we will be working on in Rach Gia.
The common specs for the houses are as follows:
Foundation: Brick/Dirt
Floor: Dust
Wall: Leaf
Roof: Tin/Leaf
Water: Water well
Toilet: None
Location: Thai Hoa
