Building in Buea Town

Our Habitat for Humanity 'build' is in the town of Buea, near the slopes of Mt. Cameroon. This volcanic mountain is the highest peak in West Africa, at more than 13,000 feet. There's a frenzy of activity on the street here morning, noon and night. Its tiny storefront businesses remind me of those of a Gold Rush boomtown. We seem to be the only white people in town and -- while we stand out -- most everyone is very friendly and welcoming.

We're primarily working on houses No. 21 and 22 of a 50-home Habitat development. The houses are mostly two bedroom in size with very small rooms. The construction is concrete block (the block is made on-site), with tin roofs and a stucco finish. And they will have basic plumbing and electricity.

Most everyone in this country farms the land. Fertile soil and plenty of moisture make for abundant yields. Planted corn and tomato crops run right up to the Habitat property, as do palm, banana and papaya trees. And we saw plantations for coconut, bananas, papaya, guava and rubber on our way here from the airport at Douala.

We see goats and scattering lizards and frogs on the worksite. And everyone stopped work to check-out this beautiful butterfly.

There's a Christian school across the street from the project, and kids come to visit us at the end of the day and at lunchtime. We're going to an orphanage tomorrow to visit the 100-plus kids there.

Our hotel is brand new, clean and very nice. But it's not even plumbed for hot water, and the water supply is inoperative most of the time. So we make do with a system of buckets. The black one is for flushing the toilet, and we 'shower' and wash from the blue one, using the brown cup at top left as a ladle.

The 17 of us have put in the foundation for one house, and we're building the block walls for another, while doing various other odd jobs ranging from hauling gravel and sand by wheelbarrow to painting access trim and digging a septic pit. We're soaked with perspiration most of the time, as temperatures are well into the 80s with humidity near 100 percent. We're taking Sunday off and going to the beach after 6 straight days of work, and we're ready for a break!