40 Homes In 40 Days

I'm not sure how I ever get roped into these situations; inability to say the other "N" word, I suppose. But some months ago I agreed to help develop a program with Habitat For Humanity International through which East Carolina Episcopalians (and others) would build 40 homes in 40 days during Lent, 2008. In central Mexico. In a village so remote our overnight accommodations are in another town, 30 minutes away. Where no one speaks my Mother Tongue. And don't even think about cell phones. What's really strange is that I can't wait!

This past weekend was spent in lovely south Georgia, the international headquarters of Habitat for Humanity where we (35 of us) were introduced to the task of taking a group of gringos to Mexico and to countries all around the world. Several things struck me about this experience.

One is that most of the people there for the Team Leader training were going (literally) all over the world, into many countries I'd never heard of and couldn't spell, let alone find on a map. How about Kyrgystan or Burundi? These two and nearly a hundred more are the countries were Habitat For Humanity's international program, called Global Village, sends people. I was meeting over the weekend with the folks whose responsibility it was to get these hundreds of volunteers located around the globe, engage for a few weeks in home building, and then get them home again, all done inexpensively and safely. It boggles the mind.

Then when our team of 20 or so volunteers arrive "in country" (to use the jargon), we discover that we aren't building houses, but homes. And the people who will live in that home are working with us, spending their "sweat equity" on their new home and their neighbor's home, too. That's one of the reasons that Habitat is so successful: we don't build a house for someone, we build a home WITH someone.

Nor is this a handout. All these new homeowners not only help build their new homes, they pay for them, too. They're given 15 year interest free loans, and as they repay the money isused to build more homes! (That's the mortgage period in the US; I'm not sure what it is in Mexico or other countries, but the principle is always the same: a handup, not a handout.)

Another secret of Habitat's success is that it always maintains its single focus on its mission, which is to build safe, affordable homes for those living in sub-standard (to be generous) housing. Habitat doesn't try to change the culture of racism or eliminate poverty or preach Christianity. They just build homes. That singleness of purpose is one of their keys to success.

This is one of those homes where a family in our Mexican village had been living. I don't know if you can see it unless you enlarge the picture, but there are no windows. And inside there is a dirt floor and no plumbing. I'm not sure how many are in this family, but they all live here:



Into this situation the homeowners worked with Habitat to build this 526 square foot home, two bedrooms, kitchen, and a bath, for their family. Here's what it looked like as it was being built:



And that's the payday for Habitat volunteers. I'll never forget the story of a site where Ann and I were building in Maine, and the homeowner asked us why they were cutting holes in the wall. Those would be the windows, we explained, whereupon she burst into tears. "I've never had a home with windows", she sobbed. We all had to wipe a fleck of dust or something from our own eyes.

That story's been repeated, in one way or another, by over a million new homeowners all over the world. Perhaps when I get back I'll have some more pictures, and if you'd like to see more of this trip you can check out Habitat's story and mine at http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/participant/participant.aspx?pid=14917913.

I'm ready to go now!