Building Houses, Building Hope

'Building Houses, Building Hope' that's the Habitat slogan in Cameroon. And our team of 17 came together from all over North America to help further than mission. We had people from New York, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Pennsylvania, Alabama, California and Montana, as well as Toronto and Edmonton. And there were two expat Americans who are living in Paris.

Ages started at 24 (was he ever a sport!), then doubled to 48, with a concentration at about my age. The oldest was 65. And everyone was hard-working, fun-loving, and very compatible. We had two doctors and two nurses in the group, which came in handy as we dealt with a fall-related facial cut and black eye plus two ankle incidents; one teammate had a broken bone and the other a sprain. Just finding crutches for the two of them was quite a project. Fortunately, mosquito bites were my worst injury.

The HOTPEC Orphanage is home to 115 children, and those we saw during our visit seemed very happy and well-behaved. My friend Linda Dozier suggested I take balloons, and was that ever a big hit! The package held 72, and we blew them all up and batted them around.

On our one day off from work we went to the beach town of Limbe, 45 minutes away. It has a black sand beach, and water temperature so perfect that I spent about an hour in the surf.

It seems as though everyone carries things on their heads in Cameroon, from bananas and water to all kinds of wares. They start this at a very young age, as you can see from this photo of four darling girls who stopped and smiled when they saw my camera. People are so very warm and welcoming here; this is a big part of their culture. In fact, they greet you by saying 'you are welcome'. It was evident again and again that we were a sight to see. More than once we heard an adult or child exclaim 'the white man!' as we made our way about town.

I told you there were lizards . . . We'd see as many as five or six on a house wall at any given time. It took a bit of work to get a photo of one standing still.

It's always such a powerful and rewarding experience to work alongside the people who will own the homes, and to see their pride, and how much this means to them. Pictured here are Samuel and Lillian and their three children, who will become the owners of one house. Lillian told us that she has never left her village to go more than a mile or so away, and that she'd never seen a white person until we came to town. And we called the second homeowner 'Mama'. She will occupy the other house with her two grandchildren, who were abandoned by their mother.
Posing with Mama and me is 'flat Gabriel', the imaginary traveling friend of my niece Carrie's son Blake. Gabriel will be writing home to share our adventure with Blake's second grade class.

You can see the fruits of our labor in this picture. Just compare it to the last photo of the previous blog posting. One house was just the beginning of a foundation when we arrived, and now it has walls. And we completed the foundation and started to build walls for the second home, too.

I'm in Switzerland now for a two-day 'pause' before I continue home. I'm enjoying brisk air, uninterrupted internet access, water on tap (it's even hot!), and a soft pillow. What a contrast, and what great perspective.

It's a bit of a Habitat tradition that we bring old clothes to work in, and leave them behind when we depart. We get very dirty, so we pay to have them laundered. It's nice to have a lighter suitcase going home, and maybe fill-in with some souvenirs. But there are also usually plenty of local people who can use the clothes we donate. I even left my work boots, as the paid crew we worked with were in flipflops and sandals.

I have a personal tradition that I bring hammer, and leave it with a homeowner. There was no need for hammers this time, and in the end I had a better idea. I left my camera, as the Habitat office in Cameroon doesn't have one and this was on their 'wish list'. In addition to the material things, It always feels like we leave a bit of ourselves behind, too. But there is so much more that we take away!