Guitar Update

Habitat Build

My first habitat build, we left from school early saturday morning and arrived at the build site arround 8:00 a.m. The house was already fairly complete having been built on a previous habitat lone. The walls however were bare brick so they had asked for them to be concreted over. We split into to groups the first making cement the second using it to roughly plaster the wall while two hired construction worker smoothed over the areas we had plastered.

Alzheimer's Charity Run

 

Last weekend with Fillipo Steponi and a few other kids from OSC i joined in a 5km-10km walk to help raise awareness of the disease. Along the way we passed out pamphlets in English, Singhalese, and Tamil to many of the locals we passed on the way. Here in Sri Lanka especially in many of the more rural areas very few people know of the diseases existence, by raising awareness we hope to help more those suffering from Alzheimer's Disease get treatment.

Habitat for Humanity

When considering what Service to join at the beginning of this year I decided the most important factor was hands on work. I wanted an elective where I really felt i was making a difference or helping people in a meaningful way. Habitat was by far the best option. Habitat for humanity is a global network founded about 40 years ago with mission statement:

"What the poor need is not charity but capital, not caseworkers but co-workers. And what the rich need is a wise, honorable and just way of divesting themselves of their overabundance. The Fund for Humanity will meet both of these needs. Money for the fund will come from shared gifts by those who feel they have more than they need and from non-interest bearing loans from those who cannot afford to make a gift but who do want to provide working capital for the disinherited . . . The fund will give away no money. It is not a handout.

The houses would be built at no profit and interest would not be charged on the loans. Building costs would be financed by a revolving fund called “The Fund for Humanity.” The fund's money would come from the new homeowners' house payments, no-interest loans provided by supporters and money earned by fund-raising activities. The monies in the Fund for Humanity would be used to build more houses."

I think it's a fantastic concept. Joining habitat also means through them i can engage in an issue of global importance: shelter is one of the three basic human needs for survival yet around the world is a luxury many do not have. We actually get to go to the build sites and spend the day constructing a house, its an incredible opportunity. We help by tiling the roof, digging foundations, filling in a concrete floor, and whatever else needs to be done. (Undertake New Challenges and Develop New Skills:i must say I've never tried to build a house before) I was incredibly lucky to get in when i went to my first meeting i was told that they had over-booked the activity and so i couldn't join, it was only at the last minute an exception was made for me.

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Six months later, Ali Khan, our current president, and all the other leaders stepped down so they could focus on exams. I volunteered to take their place and am now the new president with Camie Raguin. One of the biggest problems we had last semester was the cancellation of builds.The entire 6 months i believe only 3 or 4 actually happened. Now many interrupted because of the rain and generally terrible whether but also a significant number because of miscommunication and disorganization. Our liaison from habitat, a man named Francis was terribly inconsistent, he took weeks to reply to emails, changed the location of build sites at the last minute, and generally was difficult to work with, and as a result many of our trips where simply cancelled. (However as luck would have it this Saturday we have a build planned if the weather holds up)So as our first order of business me and Camie are going to meet the president of habitat for humanity this Monday to try to build better relations between us. (Helping to improve my ability to work collaboratively with others) Our other plans include getting our service officially licensed as a branch of Habitat, which would make us eligible for funding with some of our projects and many other benefits and also taking the skills we have developed on the builds and using them to Plan and Initiate out own activities. For example close by to the school is a home for the deaf. We plan on using what we learned from our builds and the funds we attained from various fund raising activities earlier in the year to go fix up the home and other similar projects.

Week Without Walls Reflection