Here in South Africa, the South Africa Habitat For Humanity held a Blitz Build in Orange Farm, which is a relatively new suburb of Soweto. As part of the Blitz Build, there were many houses sponsored by various South African corporations and churches, and each organization sent teams to work on the houses they were sponsoring - this will be very familiar to anyone who has built with Habitat in the US. As part of the celebration of World Habitat Day (week), the HFH Africa and Middle East Area Office (which is where I work - our mission is to support the various countries in our area that have Habitat programs) sent teams each day to work on the build. My team was there on Thursday, and several of the 44 houses being built during the week were already finished, while ours was a little more than 2/3rds done.
Yes, that's me on the scaffold, building a gable-end wall.
I have to admit - this has been my most fun day so far in South Africa. i have always loved building, and it's a lot of fun to be doing it with some of my co-workers, the family that we were building for, and several neighborhood volunteers. It was pretty cool to enter the Orange farm community, which has no street signs yet (or paved streets, for that matter), totally lost and all we had to do was ask someone walking down the street where Habitat was, and he gave us very specific instructions - even though we were very far away, he knew exactly where the build was taking place.
The existing shack and toilet on the lot we were building on.
Orange Farm is relatively new, a greenfield development of the type called "Sites and Services", which was an idea just starting to come in vogue in development circles about the time i was finishing my work in Zambia. The principle idea is that if land is made available to the poor, with a lot size that we would recognize as familiar in the US - say 60' wide by 120' deep, and services are made available - in this case an outhouse (connected to city sewer), water and electricity, the lot recipient has a stable plot with clear title that they can then build on, and over time they will be able to build a decent house. It is acknowledged that it might take as long as 20 years to have the finished product - but this kind of incremental building takes place everywhere anyway, often without title to the land or legal electricity or even the basic water and sanitation services.
The House across the street - note the shack in the back, the Habitat house in front - the lot owner has already built his garden wall, and you can see the partially completed neighbor's house (not Habitat)
It is very easy for Habitat to find qualified house recipients in these types of developments, and in fact, one of the areas that I will be spending a lot of my time on is helping existing Habitat countries to start working with either independent Micro Finance institutions or with the new, separate entity Habitat is forming called Micro Build, to begin offering incremental Housing Support Services, also known as Construction Technical Assistance. The idea is that we would offer support to people making micro-housing loans to incrementally build their houses, or to build a "Core House" that is a basic, one-room structure with a bathroom and kitchen. The idea is really exciting on several counts - first, Habitat resources get leveraged by other financial institutions so that the organization can increase the number of families it serves by literally 10 or 20 fold. Second, Habitat doesn't have to become a land developer, because they would be working with families that have already begun a housing process, on lots they already own, or, if Habitat does develop the land, they would do it with Sites and Services, again to spread the resources they have farther. And third, most importantly, Habitat can actually serve the poorest of the poor - those people who have not been able to qualify for the traditional Habitat mortgage (and they are by far the majority in developing countries) can qualify for a $100 loan to pour a concrete floor, or a $150 loan to roof a room addition.
A house almost completed after three days.
So, all in all I had fun building - although I realized it had been 12 years since I had worked a trowel when I got a cramp in my forearm while cutting a brick (you have to hammer it hard with the edge of the trowel, and I was making the brick shorter for a row over a window lintel, so I was having to cut it the long way) needless to say, the professional mason on site had to finish the cutting job - and I had to take a water break.
Carl, my boss, and Princess, our IT specialist, actually posing for the camera.
