Category Archives: Travel

Asia, Cambodia, Habitat for Humanity, Travel, Volunteering

A BIG Build

In November, had the opportunity to lead a Global Village Volunteer Team for Habitat to Humanity to Cambodia.  What a great experience!  It was not only the first time I’d traveled to Cambodia, but also a new volunteer experience for me – out of 20+ international volunteer trips, this was my first BIG build. 🙂

What, you may ask, makes this so special and WHY, Tricia, are you emphasizing the “BIG” part of this?  Well, this was no ordinary project.  In summary – 265 international volunteers came together during the same 5 days in Battambang province to build 23 houses for deserving homeowners.  If that doesn’t qualify as BIG I’m not sure what does.

From time to time, countries who are working with Habitat for Humanity decide to put on a special event and focus their resources on helping lots of families at the same time.  It’s their way of boosting their capacity and serving as many homeowners as possible!   This event, known as a “Big” or “Blitz” Build, is not only a mechanism by which homes are constructed, but also serves to build a bigger community of volunteers.  Here’s a little bit of information from Habitat for Humanity Cambodia on this years event.

During this year’s Cambodia Big Build, 17 teams of 2-40 volunteers each from 6 different countries participated.  The largest groups came from the US, Canada and New Zealand, but volunteers from Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong were there to contribute too!  Here’s a photo of most of the group – wow.

Because of the size of the group, the logistics were obviously very different than most of the other projects on which I’ve participated.  Instead of spending a week in the most remote corner of Kyrgyzstan, Zambia or China where few tourists ever travel, we created our own international convey descending on Siem Reap and Battambang en masse.  We spent time not just learning about the local culture, but meeting new volunteers from home too.  It was great fun!  Well…once we got going.  We arrived in Siem Reap and traveled by 14 buses for about 3 hours to reach Battambang.  Upon arrival, let’s just say the check in area was a little overwhelming…

We were welcomed to Cambodia with a dinner and presentation at the Governor’s Palace.  We learned about the work of HFH Cambodia, enjoyed a good meal, and were treated to some traditional Cambodian music and dance!

  

The next morning, it was finally time to get started building those 23 homes.  We loaded up our buses again and traveled about 20 minutes from the hotel to the work community – complete with police escort!  There was more ceremony for us before the hard work started – HFH Cambodia presented each volunteer with a traditional scarf and then we gathered in the lunch tent for another presentation.  Let’s just say that seeing so many people together in the same place at the same time for the same purpose was inspiring.

But when it really hit us all was when we were introduced to the 23 future-homeowners.  Each family sent one person to the stage and two representatives were selected to give short speeches.  They talked about how excited they were for this opportunity to own a home and how honored they were that we had volunteered to assist them.  Their stories touched our hearts and motived us even more to do everything we could over the next 5 days.

After a little more pomp and circumstance, at last we were released to work!  The 23 homes that would be built were located in two separate communities just a few minutes drive apart.  My team set off for “Site 1”.  Here we are….on our way… 

On this site, 9 houses would be built – all on the same street.  When we arrived, the foundations of the houses were complete and they also had a roof!  The roof is usually put on last but because the weather forecast included rain, local workers put them on so that we could continue our work no matter what.  No rest for the weary.

Our tasks over the 5 days included carrying lots buckets of mortar and sand as well as building all of the walls on each home.  Toward the end of the week, we also prepared the floor and plastered the walls.  The site was a buzz every day with ~100 people scurrying about.  Just looking up and down the street you can tell how hard everyone was working.

Well, we were working hard until the donut lady showed up. 😉 

Since finishing the houses by Friday was the goal, local workers helped to bring all of the houses to the same stage each evening.  On the morning of the last day, we were ready to present the homes to the families!  Everyone cleaned up their respective worksites, decorated the façade, and then (you guessed it!) held a short ceremony.  We allowed the homeowners to cut the ribbon on their home and presented them with a group photo, gift basket and symbolic key before removing our shoes and becoming their first guests.  We shared our thoughts with each other and celebrated this huge milestone together.  Here’s an example of what one of the homes looked like when we were finished: It was an emotional but exciting week and looking back, it’s amazing to think about how much was accomplished!  This was an incredible trip for many reasons and I’m so glad that I participated.  Stories of our particular homeowner will follow soon.  🙂 🙂

***Thanks to Habitat for Humanity Cambodia for hosting this event and for the group photo included in the above post.

Travel

Countries Tricia has Visited

Slowly checking them off the list, one by one. 🙂

  1. Armenia
  2. Austria
  3. Bahamas, The
  4. Belgium
  5. Belize
  6. Bhutan
  7. Bolivia
  8. Botswana
  9. Brazil
  10. Cambodia
  11. Canada
  12. Cayman Islands
  13. China
  14. Curacao
  15. Dominican Republic
  16. Egypt
  17. El Salvador
  18. France
  19. Germany
  20. Ghana
  21. Guatemala
  22. India
  23. Indonesia
  24. Ireland
  25. Italy
  26. Jamaica
  27. Japan
  28. Jordan
  29. Kenya
  30. Kyrgyzstan
  31. Laos
  32. Liechtenstein
  33. Madagascar
  34. Malawi
  35. Mexico
  36. Morocco
  37. Mozambique
  38. Myanmar
  39. Nepal
  40. Netherlands
  41. Nicaragua
  42. Paraguay
  43. Peru
  44. Portugal
  45. Russia
  46. Rwanda
  47. Singapore
  48. Sint Maarten
  49. Soviet Union
  50. Spain
  51. Sweden
  52. Switzerland
  53. Tanzania
  54. Thailand
  55. Uganda
  56. United Kingdom
  57. United States of America
  58. Vatican, The
  59. Vietnam
  60. Virgin Islands, US
  61. Zambia
  62. Zimbabwe
Asia, Habitat for Humanity, Travel, Volunteering

Tien Giang, Vietnam (March 2018)

We had an amazing build in Vietnam – check back for stories our our adventures!

The Tien Giang province, situated along the Mekong Delta’s coastline, faces the ocean and is one of the most vulnerable communities at risk to typhoons and storms from the ocean, leading to flooding in the area and destruction of poorly construction homes. This team will work to provide access to safe shelter, water and sanitation facilities for low income families.

While poverty has fallen in Vietnam in recent years, many ethnic minorities and those living in rural areas remain poor. Urban poverty is also a challenge, as towns and cities swell with the influx of people drawn by economic opportunities.

Many homes in Vietnam were built informally and without adequate supporting infrastructure. About a quarter of the country’s housing stock is substandard or temporary.

Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, established in 2001, specializes in the implementation of sustainable, community-based shelter and water and sanitation solutions. It has experience in rehabilitating and repairing properties damaged by the severe weather that frequently strikes the country’s long coastline. Habitat also works with microfinance networks so families can save and access credit for home improvements, a speedy way to help thousands of families improve their sanitation and housing.

For more information about this trip, please follow this link.

About Habitat for Humanity International

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity has grown from a grassroots effort that began on a community farm in southern Georgia in 1976 to a global nonprofit housing organization in nearly 1,400 communities across the U.S. and in over 70 countries. People partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

Global Village is Habitat for Humanity’s international volunteer program. Teams travel to over 40 countries to work alongside communities, build housing solutions, and experience local culture. Our goal is to change the lives of the people we serve, as well as the lives of the volunteers.

This post contains information provided by Habitat for Humanity International and Habitat for Humanity Vietnam.  Their help and support is much appreciated.

Africa, Rwanda, Travel, Wildlife

Sunday on Lake Kivu

A gorgeous freshwater lake, a calm day, sunshine, blue skies and a boat.  If you ask me, these are a perfect recipe for a relaxing weekend with friends!  Or so it would seem.

Our group was taking a break from a two week volunteer assignment.  We took a three hour drive from Kigali to Kibuye, one of the beautiful beach towns on Lake Kivu, for the weekend.  From the vantage point of the Bethanie Hotel, we had stunning views of the area.

Lake Kivu is a freshwater lake that separates Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  One of Africa’s Great Lakes (the 6th largest in Africa), Lake Kivu was formed by volcanic activity in the Albertine Rift.  You may also be interested in knowing that Lake Kivu is an “exploding lake”!  Huge amounts of trapped methane and carbon dioxide are suspected to be the cause of lake overturns  (that’s an eruption of dissolved carbon dioxide) about every 1,000 years.  A future overturn would be catastrophic to the 2 million people living in the lake basin.  Strategies to harness and utilize the vast amount of methane gas as a source of energy are continually being investigated.  Here are three interesting articles.

There are many islands on the lake and one of those – Napoleon Island – was our destination on this perfect Sunday back in December 2016.  We were ready to feel the breeze and set off without many expectations.  Our guide was really helpful but spoke limited English and kept telling us that we would see “a lot of birds”.  OK.  Fine.  Sounds good.

After a ride of maybe 30 minutes, we arrived on the island.  Our guide points up and says “we will go there”.  Um, what?  Where I come from, that’s a small mountain.  But OK.  We climbed uphill on a dirt path for about 45 minutes – it was hot and this was not how we intended to spend our “relaxing morning” but we trudged on.  And yes, the views from the top made it worthwhile!

Mind you, we had yet to see any birds…

After a short rest, we headed down in a different direction into the dense forest.  Our guide followed us and when he started clapping and whistling, we finally understood.  We were here not to see BIRDS but rather BATS.  And LOTS of them!!  You see, Napoleon Island is home to a colony of fruit bats.  🙂

The racket our guide was making woke them up from their daytime slumber and they started flying everywhere.  I mean hundreds if not thousands of bats.  We stood transfixed as they flew by so close that we could have easily touched them.

Pictures don’t really do it justice…

Some continued to hang from their trees, eyeing us as intruders and alternately ignoring us completely.  For all of the noise, they didn’t seem too bothered by us, really.

I’ve never been in such a strange, unique and unexpected circumstance!  But it was amazing.  We just stood there gawking – with our mouths closed, really, there was a lot of guano flying around.   Not entirely what we had expected from our “relaxing morning on the lake”.  Definitely much better. 🙂