Build day 4

Thursday was bittersweet for us.  It was our last day building in Pelican Park, the last day we would spend with the homeowners, and the last day we would be spending with the Habitat South Africa staff as well.  When we arrived on site, our main job was to bring in some 90's for the interior walls, bagging the walls and filling them with dirt and debris and cleaning up the site.


We got to watch the roof tiles being dropped off and to see the trusses being delivered.  Our houses were almost finished and we were really feeling a sense of accomplishment.  Just to see what we were able to accomplish with the help of our masons and homeowners was so fulfilling.

We ended our build day by with a quick recap by our block leader Glen, crew leader Bernie, John Bailey and Lea from Habitat South Africa.   We got to say a few words about our experience,  and we thanked them for taking us with such short notice. It was a touching moment for us all, so much so that I do not have a picture to post of it at this time.  I will get one and post it as soon as I can.  While our build days were behind us, we are due to fly out to Johannasburg in the morning for a short drive to Pretoria to meet with Habitat Regional Africa, Asia and Middle East staff, and also the director of Habitat Lesotho, Mathabo Makuta.  

Langa pictures

Here are some pictures of when we toured the town of Langa on Sunday.  You can get a feel of what we experienced while we were there.

Build days 2 and 3

 During lunch on day 2 of our week, we were joined by the Vice President of the Pelican Park Homeowner's Association,  John Bailey.  He has lived in Pelican Park for only 9 months, but has such a passion for what they are trying to accomplish: no drugs, no gangs, no chickens :).

He was kind enough to spend his entire lunch answering our questions.  We continued to build relationships that we may not have expected, but have been incredible all the same.  By the end of the day we had our dugha routine down pat, our brick lines were running like a well oiled machine and our bagging as smooth as a baby's bottom.

On Wednesday, day 3 of our build, we arrived to find that the builders had completed the exterior walls and had started building the interior walls in the end unit, which belongs to Wayne, who was working on another site for the week.  The builders needed more interior bricks, called 90's.  Those are our favorite because they are the lightest.  The 190's were for separating the houses, which we filled in with dirt, debris and dried dugha to help provide soundproofing and fireproofing.

 During the course of the day, we took aside one homeowner, Deborah and went inside her house.  The interior walls had yet to be built, but the one interior wall was only halfway built.  We told her about how back in Longmont when we build a house, we sign the studs and write prayers and words of encouragment for the families.  Since there aren't any studs in her house, we wrote prayers on paper, read them to Deborah and placed them inside the brick wall of her house.  Later, we were told by our crew leader Glen that he had never seen anyone do that before and that it was such a powerful thing to see.  We hope that they will carry on with this newfound tradition in the future.

World Habitat Build day 1 and day 2

We ended our day with having 6 courses of brick over the majority of the 4 houses we are building on.  We had dinner with our guide Carl and discussed the issues that face the modern, post-apartheid South African, such as taxes, availability of housing and the issues that they face.  The overwhelming sense of positivity and ownership of the welfare of the country of South Africa as a whole is refreshing to see and experience.

We started day 2 with another orientation, clouds overhead and a steady breeze, making it a bit chilly; then it was back to the brick line and dugha mixing.  We ended the day with the final 6 courses of brick going up on the back of the 4 houses and with 2 of the interior walls being half built.  Tomorrow should bring the completion of the rest of the exterior walls and finishing a majority of the interior walls.  We should be able to get everything but the roofs up by Thursday, which is quite exciting!  You really get a sense of just how different our building styles are.  We finished the night with buffet style dinner at a traditional Cape Malay restaurant. The food here has been amazing so far and quite varied as well.  You may have bobotie one night and fish and chips another.

On Sunday before we went to Langa, we went to Cape Town Gateway International church, where we observed mass and joined in on singing and dancing.  It was a very energized service, and at the end we found out that most of the parishioners would be joining us at the build for the week, most helping out as caterers for the over 200 people that were expected each day.

There will be pictures from Sunday and Monday posted separately, so you can see what we have been up to.

Getting acquainted with Cape Town

World Habitat build update

Today we were part of a large group build in Pelican Park on the Western Cape.  We started the day with a opening ceremony that included speeches from many dignitaries.

After the morning meetings, we were taken to our worksite.  We met our crew leader Bernie.

Then we started our day of mixing concrete, or what the locals call dugha, and hauling bricks.  

Happy World Habitat Day from Cape Town!

I hope everyone is having a great World Habitat Day, we sure did!

Blog update

With the lack of affordable and reliable internet in South Africa, the blog posts may unfortunately be delayed by a day.  At the moment, we have the ability to at least put out updates, although the ability to upload pictures at this time is limited.  There will be pictures uploaded when we are able to do so.

On Sunday, we took a walking tour of Langa township and we're able to tour the shanty town, the hostels that would house 16 families in 6 rooms no larger than an university dorm room, try traditional Xhosa beer called utshwala and we also got to see the Gugas Thebe cultural centre.  While at the cultural centre, we we treated to an impromptu performance by the after school program that allows children to come and learn dance and also get help with their school work.

On Sunday night, we had dinner at the hotel and got to meet Carl and Lea, who are a part of Habitat South Africa.  They held an orientation for us and explained the Habitat South Africa model of serving the community while also building houses.  They let us know what to expect in the coming week, being a part of the World Habitat Build week in Pelican Park, on the western cape.

There was an article in the Times Call on September 30th that talked about our trip to South Africa.  There is a group photo to check out and another picture that shows the art project that we brought with us to South Africa.

Safe and sound in Cape Town

So, a majority of us are now in country and well rested from our travels to beautiful Cape Town!  We will be beginning our build on Monday, in Pelican Park.  We spent today sightseeing and taking in the amazing natural beauty that surrounds us.  The food here is amazing as well.  Tomorrow there will be pictures and more of an update as we find out the details of our particular build.  Thank you for all your well wishes and thoughts and prayers!  So far we have been safe and well cared for.