National Make a Difference Day

October 23, 2010 marked the 20th anniversary of National Make A Difference Day, the largest national day of community service. Held annually the fourth Saturday of October, Make A Difference Day is an all-encompassing national day of service dedicated to helping others — a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors.

To honor this day, Habitat OC welcomed almost 80 volunteers to the Fullerton construction site from Beckman Coulter. Broken up into two shifts, the volunteers joined three families from the San Juan Capistrano site and three families from the Fullerton site. The volunteers dug trenches, painted and cleaned up the site. It was truly a remarkable day.

I invite everyone to take action in their own community and volunteer. View video of the volunteers and families building together. http://bit.ly/9Wvats

We must become the change we want to see.
- Mahatma Gandhi

S.E.

The People's Fleet

I'm happy to announce that Habitat for Humanity of Orange County is partnering with The People’s Fleet™ project highlighting community-minded young adults involved with Habitat OC. Recently launched, The People’s Fleet™ is using a nation-wide social media platform to increase awareness of a generation inspired to transform lives and communities. The project is also awarding short-term use of new, economical vehicles, enabling young people to achieve their goals more easily.

Aimee Sibet, 25, Volunteer Coordinator, serves as Habitat OC’s main featured personality on The People’s Fleet™ website and social media sites. Aimee was an AmeriCorps volunteer with Habitat OC for a year before her recent hire. Her strong values and life-long dedication to helping others is truly inspirational. Aimee, a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, decided to work with Habitat OC because she believes that living in a home owned by a family is extremely important for children. She cites her parents as excellent role models in assuring that she and her siblings had a simple, decent home to live in during their school years.

Being chosen for The People’s Fleet is not only exciting, it’s perfect timing. This October is one of our busiest months. The car is being used by the young people working in Habitat OC’s volunteer coordination department as we continue to build, search for families and work with volunteers. We’re very pleased!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube!

S.E.

My Mount Everest

The Everest Build has come to an end an everyone is on their way home. I would like to thank Adelle, Anne, Jaymie and Richard for joining me on this magnificent trip. Building a bamboo home in 95 degree weather with 90% humidity was not the easiest thing to do, but it was the most rewarding. This was a great experience and I can now say I captured my Mount Everest. Thank you to all of you for following me during this trip. I'm now on my way to go trekking with my friend Adelle. Namaste.

S.E.

Lunch with the President of Nepal

There was a sense of excitement and anticipation in the air on the last day of Habitat for Humanity Nepal’s Everest Build in Pokhara, about 200 km. west of the capital Kathmandu. More than 460 volunteers helped to build 40 bamboo houses over six days.

While international volunteers were painting the bamboo wall panels in colors similar to Habitat’s blue and green, the local community was getting ready to greet Nepal’s President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav on his first visit to Pokhara.

In the afternoon, the President arrived in a helicopter near Begnas Lake, about 20-minutes’ ride by bus from the build site. Several hundreds of Habitat volunteers, home partner representatives, the Lekhnath municipal government and the local community were present at the closing ceremony.

In his speech, Dr. Ram welcomed international volunteers and thanked them for their contribution. He unveiled a cement marker in the community, signifying the partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the Lekhnath municipality. He also graced a house dedication.

At the start of the dedication, Habitat home partner Man Bahadur Sunar and his wife Chija Maya lit a lamp for blessings. Chija also applied the tikka, a small red dot, on each volunteer’s forehead as she draped sashes over their necks and presented them with sprigs of flowers.

House leader Brendon Silcock said to his team: “You guys are fantastic and fun. It’s a privilege to work with you.” He then presented the home partner with a drawing done by a fourth grade student in the United States.

Source: Habitat for Humanity

The Beat Goes On at the Everest Build

Hi All! Evertyhing is going well. Weather is quite warm but we have learned to trim bamboo and we can weave the stuff as well. Great team with several New Zealanders on our team. Great workers. Richard is in heaven and seems to be enjoying every minute. Lots of opportunities for adaptation. Today is the last full day of building so we are elbow deep in slurry and mud (see photo of Anne working hard.) We are hoping to get a primer coat on the outside today. It's hard to describe the beauty of this place. Pictures don't do it justice.

As the Everest Build comes to an end, we are preparing to participate in a celebration in a nearby park that includes a visit from the President of Nepal (very big deal since until recently, Nepal had a king). We were told that the President has never been to western Nepal region before. It should be a great event.

More to come.

S.E.

Second Day of the Everest Build

Any of you who have ever worked with Richard on the construction site know he is a great construction supervisor, but learning to build with bamboo certainly has its challenges. After all, if we are going to weave every wall in the 18' by 18' home we had to have pliable bamboo, thin enough to weave. Wow, what an adventure. Even Richard was out there with a sickle trimming bamboo as we were all working to get the entire house woven by the end of the day so they could apply the corrugated aluminum roof. With the hot temperature and high humidity, we had our work cut out for us.

Although we have a few high areas to finish tomorrow, we managed to get the walls almost completely woven – and lived to tell about.

Today was World Habitat Day so we all had work shirts from our respective affiliates and had flags hung near each home. Our house had the New Zealand and USA flag - quite a colorful day!

Lunch again on the top of our mountain and back down the hill around 4:30 PM – a little more tired today. I'm sure every muscle in my body will be talking to me when I wake up tomorrow morning :)

S.E.

First Day of the Everest Build

Up at 6:00 AM and on the buses by 7:15! Our team, Adelle Yeaton, Anne Thorward, Jaymie Fisher and I, were ready to begin learning how to build a bamboo house in beautiful Pokhara. Our house leader, Richard Martinez, had arrived before so he had been to the site and was ready to lead us!

After a 45 minute bus ride – an adventure in itself – we were asked to exit the bus, walk across the bridge and then rejoin the bus on the other side. Children greeted us with Namaste, flowers and more scarves. It was extremely touching and brought all of us to tears.

Once back on the bus, we traveled up the winding road to our destination. Hopped out and began hiking farther up the mountain. Our house is #27 and is clustered with #28 and #29. The view is breathtaking! It looks out over Phewa-Tal Lake, the green mountains and the Annapurna Range of the Himalayas. Hopefully the pictures will help to convey the beauty of this country!

The foundation and the bamboo framing had already been done so our job was to measure and cut smaller bamboo sticks to be added to the frame in preparation for our weaving of the walls. Wow, we had lots to do and the weather, which is hot and humid, didn't help. Drinking water and trying to stay hydrated was a task - lots of watching out for each other to make sure no one was overcome by the elements.

Lunch was served under a beautiful tent on the side of the mountain. Going back to work after our wonderful lunch was a shock to the system as most of us would have loved a little nap.

We finished around 4:30 PM, trekked back down the mountain to our waiting bus and the E-ticket ride back to the hotel. Showers and a jump in the pool were certainly high on the "To Do" list. Dinner was at the hotel and then most of us headed for bed.

S.E.

Pokhara

What an adventure to travel from our hotel in Kathmandu to the airport. Once there, getting our tickets and passing through security took some time. But once we were in the terminal, we were excited to begin our adventure at the Everest Build.

Once we arrived in Pokhara, we were separated from our luggage, which went off to our respective hotels while we were transported to the Mountain Museum and a Habitat Welcome. Children greeted us with Namaste (welcome, hello) flowers and scarves commemorating the Everest Build. Mountain Museum was great, kids were wonderful and dinner (served in the middle of an open field) was lovely. We were entertained by children from a partnering organization - SOS Children Villages - who entertained us with beautiful folk dances from regions of Nepal. Time to go back to our hotel and get some rest.

Mount Everest

Habitat for Humanity Nepal representatives took us into the city of Kathmandu. It was a wild ride into the city as there are no lanes to speak of, and if they did exist, no one pays any attention to them. Whether it's a bus, van, truck, small tractor, little truck, motor scooter, bicycle or pedestrian, they all seem to share the road with give and take. It made the 405 look like a Sunday drive!!

Adelle and I took the first three days in Nepal to explore the ancient Buddhist and Hindu shrines in the Kathmandu Valley. There were markets and getting to see some of the handicrafts made by local artists was very interesting. The highlight of three days was definitely our 6:45 AM (local time) flight around Mount Everest! It was breathtaking and we were able to take photos in the cockpit. The stewardess opened the door to the cockpit and invited each of us (18) to come forward one at a time for a panoramic scene of the range. I think we were both humbled by the majesty of the Himalayan Mountains and were blessed to have this chance to see Mt. Everest - as we both know we will never climb it.

Once back at our hotel, we met up with Richard Martinez, Jaymie Fisher and Anne Thorward for a pleasant lunch. Then Richard, our house leader, flew on to Pokhara to prep for the build. We will be flying out tomorrow morning - so more to come...