Breaking in the newbie.
We have two habitat support staff with us on this trip Winston and Jason. Both have been with Habitat for about 5.5 years. Vincent is a seasoned GV coordinator and has helped over 30,000 families and has hosted 38 teams. Jason has been working in the office writing proposals for funding, etc. We are Jason's first team. Winston is helping him along and leading for the most part but we will be alone with Jason on the weekend.
Still unsure of the name of the village--I just keep forgetting to get it written down. But, for some people in the village it is their first time seeing foreigners. Imagine. There is about 300 years of history in the village.
A team in the Netherlands has adopted the village and will be sending over 100 corporate team members in the next few months to help build...we are doing some of the prep work for them, hence the hole digging.
The hotel is amazing. It really is the 4 star hotel it seemed on the internet. The hotel is a big Habitat supporter and are giving us an amazing deal on rooms and food. Essentially every other person stays for free. Yeah! When Habitat first started using the hotel the staff would ask Winston what he was doing with the tourists, they would come back to the hotel at the end of each night very dirty and very tired. He told them and said they should join a build....so they did. A large number of the hotel staff have helped at a build and as Winston said to me they 'understand the pain of the volunteer.' I like that statement. So, we get the ROYAL treatment from the hotel staff. They hover close to our tables and ignore other guests, which was very amusing last night when we were being served ahead of the European tourists who had arrived first. A girl could get used to this.
Interesting facts about this trip:
-all the home owners will be women.
End of facts.
How cool is that? The womens group in the community got together and approached another group for support for helping to increase the equality between the men and the women of the community and to help with education, housing, etc. The other group partnered with Habitat and here we are. It's really great to be helping these women out.
*****
Notes from Monday night...
Monday night. My second Monday since leaving PEI. It was the first build day--it went really well. Though early days yet the team seems to be getting along well. We dug holes.
-greeted village
-digging
-money exchance
-supper
-walk to promenade
Tuesdays notes:
non existent. At 10pm my head hit the pillow and within a few minutes I was out like a light.
Wednesday. No notes yet today. I'm at the internet shop typing away and trying to remember everything that has happened over the past couple of days. We have now completed 3 days of 8 building days. Everyone is looking forward to Friday and our massages. :) Monday after the greeting by the community we started to dig holes. Each house will need 6 holes dug for it. We didn't finish any of our holes on Monday. Tuesday we continued with the digging of the holes. It is SO hot. Ok, maybe not hotter than last time but it is hot. I think the temps are comparable to my last trip. It is 6:35pm on Wednesday and the outside temperature is 30, feels like 37 with the humidity. It peaked at 34 on Monday...though ask anyone on the trip and we all think this morning was the hottest thus far, but that is likely due to our work locations in direct sun.
Today went quite well. I wasn't feeling 100% this morning and so I sat out from work until the morning break. Feeling rejuvinated I joined the team and took my turn in helping move sand. It is very hot work and hard. Sand is heavy.
The GV India folks are very pleased with our progress and so are we. The holes for 2 homes have been finished and we spent today helping mix cement, line the holes and sift sand. Does this sound like your idea of a holiday?
Am having a great time and loving all my team members. Tonight we are headed out for supper at a restaurant that serves Northern Indian. Mmmm. Can't wait.
Send EMAILS...I love getting emails when on the road. I may not get a chance to write but just hearing about the news from back in Canada is always good.
We have two habitat support staff with us on this trip Winston and Jason. Both have been with Habitat for about 5.5 years. Vincent is a seasoned GV coordinator and has helped over 30,000 families and has hosted 38 teams. Jason has been working in the office writing proposals for funding, etc. We are Jason's first team. Winston is helping him along and leading for the most part but we will be alone with Jason on the weekend.
Still unsure of the name of the village--I just keep forgetting to get it written down. But, for some people in the village it is their first time seeing foreigners. Imagine. There is about 300 years of history in the village.
A team in the Netherlands has adopted the village and will be sending over 100 corporate team members in the next few months to help build...we are doing some of the prep work for them, hence the hole digging.
The hotel is amazing. It really is the 4 star hotel it seemed on the internet. The hotel is a big Habitat supporter and are giving us an amazing deal on rooms and food. Essentially every other person stays for free. Yeah! When Habitat first started using the hotel the staff would ask Winston what he was doing with the tourists, they would come back to the hotel at the end of each night very dirty and very tired. He told them and said they should join a build....so they did. A large number of the hotel staff have helped at a build and as Winston said to me they 'understand the pain of the volunteer.' I like that statement. So, we get the ROYAL treatment from the hotel staff. They hover close to our tables and ignore other guests, which was very amusing last night when we were being served ahead of the European tourists who had arrived first. A girl could get used to this.
Interesting facts about this trip:
-all the home owners will be women.
End of facts.
How cool is that? The womens group in the community got together and approached another group for support for helping to increase the equality between the men and the women of the community and to help with education, housing, etc. The other group partnered with Habitat and here we are. It's really great to be helping these women out.
*****
Notes from Monday night...
Monday night. My second Monday since leaving PEI. It was the first build day--it went really well. Though early days yet the team seems to be getting along well. We dug holes.
-greeted village
-digging
-money exchance
-supper
-walk to promenade
Tuesdays notes:
non existent. At 10pm my head hit the pillow and within a few minutes I was out like a light.
Wednesday. No notes yet today. I'm at the internet shop typing away and trying to remember everything that has happened over the past couple of days. We have now completed 3 days of 8 building days. Everyone is looking forward to Friday and our massages. :) Monday after the greeting by the community we started to dig holes. Each house will need 6 holes dug for it. We didn't finish any of our holes on Monday. Tuesday we continued with the digging of the holes. It is SO hot. Ok, maybe not hotter than last time but it is hot. I think the temps are comparable to my last trip. It is 6:35pm on Wednesday and the outside temperature is 30, feels like 37 with the humidity. It peaked at 34 on Monday...though ask anyone on the trip and we all think this morning was the hottest thus far, but that is likely due to our work locations in direct sun.
Today went quite well. I wasn't feeling 100% this morning and so I sat out from work until the morning break. Feeling rejuvinated I joined the team and took my turn in helping move sand. It is very hot work and hard. Sand is heavy.
The GV India folks are very pleased with our progress and so are we. The holes for 2 homes have been finished and we spent today helping mix cement, line the holes and sift sand. Does this sound like your idea of a holiday?
Am having a great time and loving all my team members. Tonight we are headed out for supper at a restaurant that serves Northern Indian. Mmmm. Can't wait.
Send EMAILS...I love getting emails when on the road. I may not get a chance to write but just hearing about the news from back in Canada is always good.
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