Myanmar Habitat Build: In Depth

When we come home from a Habitat for Humanity build, we get the same question, “how was it?”  It’s so hard to distill our experiences into words.  If you’re lucky, you get the short answer of “it was great, we can’t wait for the next one!”  If you’re unlucky, you get the slide show and the 30-minute answer.

Myanmar was our 4^th build together, and we decided to take some time and go in depth to describe what a typical build and the daily routine entails.  In this post, we will give you a taste of the whole experience in Myanmar.  We will attempt to answer a lot of basic questions you may be curious about, but never asked.  Many of you have donated to one or all of our builds.  Hopefully this is a suitable reward.

Myanmar is one of the newer destinations for Habitat for Humanity.  We were one of the first builds with non-Habitat employee volunteers and a build not led by a Habitat employee.  Given that Myanmar still doesn’t have a country advisory board and minimal local staff, we had very low expectations for the ability of the local affiliate to organize and host a build.  We were told to be patient and flexible.  Boy were we wrong; the local affiliate had its act together and did a wonderful job.  It did require some patience and some carefully worded suggestions (which sometimes had to be re-worded the next day) but they delivered beautifully.

What kind of people give up a real vacation, go to a third world country to perform manual labor and either pay or fundraise for this?

Our team leaders, Bob and Leslie, have led over 50 Habitat for Humanity Global Village trips.  They have lived in Alaska for over 50 years and are retired teachers. They have given a lot of their free time to this cause, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity International for 2 ½ years and were assigned to the Asia/Pacific region and assisted 14 Asian countries get started in the Global Village Program.  They have also led many builds for Fuller Center (a Habitat like entity founded by the same individual who founded Habitat).  These are truly special people – the world needs more people like them.

Our group of 23 volunteers ranged in ages from 23 to their early 80’s.  We had a Pharmaceutical Engineer, IT Program Manager, a retired COO of the U.S. division of a major insurance company, retired school teachers, a retired counselor, a retired Architect, a Mechanical Engineer, a criminal justice policy analyst, a retired lawyer, a home maker, a public housing architect and a VP of Design for a major fashion company to name just a few.  There were more women than men and there were as many retired folks as those of us still working.

One female volunteer was from Singapore and everyone else was scattered throughout the United States.  California in the house!  We happened to have one volunteer from Sacramento, one from Santa Rosa, one from Oakland and one from Mill Valley – all in our backyard. Plus the two of us.

Some of our group had volunteered on more than 20 builds and we had two couples on the trip that met while participating on a build, one of which has been married now for 8 years.

Habitat for Humanity continues to draw in the best amongst us.  They are without question some of the best people we have met.  They are thoughtful, caring and above all else dedicated individuals.

What was our daily routine?

We had our first “group dinner” on Saturday night at our hotel in Yangon.  Here we kept repeating each other’s names – trying to remember even a few of them.  The next morning, we drove two hours to Bago and checked into our guest house.  We had an orientation at 3:00pm with the local Affiliate staffers.  This was a very thorough, two-hour orientation that talked about Myanmar, the history of Habitat Myanmar, the families we would be assisting, safety on the job sites and a step by step power point presentation on how we would build two houses in just one week.

Monday through Friday were build days.  We had breakfast at 7:00am and then gathered for our “daily reflection” before being transported to our work site.  Although Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization, our previous builds did not have any sort of “daily reflection.”  We were a little hesitant as we are more spiritual but don’t specifically subscribe to any particular religion.  We didn’t know what to expect.  However, this turned out to be a great part of our day.  Each morning, one person would volunteer and read a short motivational piece.  These generally lasted only a few minutes but were definitely thought provoking and stuck in the back of our minds all day.  Some have even stuck longer than that.  We were the first volunteers to lead a morning discussion.  We focused on the importance of service by weaving together a quote from the Buddha and the sage words of a fictional television President.

On our first day, as we arrived onsite, we had community members greet us with music and dance, a blessing (dripping water on our shoulders with a special tree branch) and giving us garlands.

Transportation – you may be wondering how long it took to get to our job site from our guesthouse.  We took a bus for about 30-minutes into a small township within Bago.  At this point, due to hideously bad road conditions, we hopped onto tuk tuks for the last 10 minutes.  On some days, the roads were super slick and muddy after torrential rain.  We would pile 6 to 8 of us onto each tuk tuk, and most times the tuk tuks didn’t have benches – so we huddled together on the floor.  On more than one occasion, the bumps would be violent enough that we’d fly across the tuk tuk and end up in each others’ laps.

A typical build day started between 8:30am and 9:00am and ended at 4:00pm. Lunch was at noon; however, we always had a 15-minute break in the morning and afternoon.  They fed us plenty of snacks and cold drinks, and a full hot lunch.

Saturday, we took a break from work and ventured to The Golden Rock Pagoda.  This was one of the highlights of our trip and one of the greatest sites to see in Myanmar.

Sunday, we had a half day of work before the closing ceremony.  Each closing ceremony is unique to each culture but they’re always tearful and wonderful.  We dedicated both houses to the families – turning over ownership certificates with the volunteers making speeches to the village and the new homeowners.

It’s important to note that these are not just family events.  The entire village always turn out to celebrate the good fortune of their neighbors and the hard work of the volunteers.  The locals painted Thanaka on E’s face.  Thanaka is a sand colored paste made from ground tree bark, which helps keep one cool and provides sun protection.  it’s omnipresent.  If you’ve seen photos of Myanmarese women, then you’ve seen Thanaka on their cheeks and forehead.

During the ceremony, the same group of girls from the opening morning danced to loud music, then got most of us out on the dance floor.

That afternoon, we drove the two hours back to Yangon for one last night with the group.

Habitat takes good care of their volunteers.  They handle all health and insurance related issues during our visits, they pick modest but clean guest houses, they provide plenty of water and food and ensure you are having a great time building, in a safe manner.

How do you build a house in one week?  What was the process?

On the first morning, we were split into two groups and led to our job sites.  Before us stood cleared ground, with white chalk markings only. The first task was to start the foundation.  After digging several holes, we set bamboo posts into the holes and filled the newly dug holes with concrete.  Next, we moved the 4 pre-made frames into place and anchored them to the ground.  Then, we built short brick pillars around the bamboo posts, and filled the pillars in with concrete.  While some of team members worked with brick and cement others worked on splitting 15-20-foot bamboo logs into 2-inch-wide strips.  This involved using a machete to split a log into eight lengthwise pieces and then using a machete to strip out the inner chambers, so the bamboo can lay flat.  This was Day 1.

Day two, we began securing the framing with cross beams and continued to cut bamboo logs into strips to be used to secure the floors, walls and framing.  We had to use power drills to create holes for nuts and bolts to secure the horizontal beams and bamboo nails for the vertical beams.  Some also used machetes to turn 18-inch-long pieces of bamboo strips into bamboo nails.  This involved creating a sharp point at one end and turning the quarter inch square sides into a round or oval shape.  This was day 2.

Day three we continued cutting two-inch wide strips of bamboo, stripped and cleaned them, then scored them with saws every 18 inches.  Then a battery-operated drill was used to create starter holes for metal nails when items needed to be fastened to the framing and cross beams.  The rest of the teams were securing bamboo logs to the floors with power drills and the bamboo nails to create a level floor.  In the afternoon, we added perpendicular logs to help support the flooring.  Before the day was over we also added roof struts to further tie the pre-made framing together.  These roof struts would also be used to the hold the roof in place.  We also started the stairs that led to the elevated floor of the home.  This was day 3.

Day four we added floor boards and started to add precisely cut bamboo logs to create walls and door frames.  These logs also were held in place with the bamboo nails but often stayed in place without nails.  This was necessary to add to rigidity of the structure.  A corrugated metal roof was added.  We also added an elevated concrete and brick pad that held a giant plastic water jug that the families could use to store and capture water.  This was day 4.

Day five we finished the stairs, added the pre-woven exterior bamboo walls and finished the interior walls.  We added an open hole that the family will later use to build an extension on the home (for a cooking area most likely) and a Buddha box (for their home temple).  We also began to prepare some steps for a New Zealand team that was arriving the day we left.  This was day 5.

On our last day (Sunday – the half day), we treated the bamboo floors, beams and wall strips with vinegar and creosote for waterproofing, we hung a few doors and windows and completed a site cleanup.

What sort of tools do they provide onsite?

Usually, job sites don’t have enough tools to go around, so you must take turns with your team mates.  On this build, we had saws, DULL machetes and a battery powered drill (never seen any power tools on a build site except E’s first build in Romania).  S’s build site also had a battery powered drill, but we also had a gas-powered generator to drive a power drill.

You must be resourceful at times.  On E’s site, their only drill bit broke, so our fearless team leader Leslie made one out of a nail.  Talk about inventive – and it worked well considering.

They do however provide plenty of safety equipment including hardhats, extra gloves and eye protection for everyone.

So how does this build rank compared to our past experiences?

In many ways this was our most difficult build.  We thought that working with bamboo would be easy, but it required a lot of work to split, clean, score, saw, drill and nail.  We also thought a bamboo build would mean not having to mix mortar and concrete (easily the most physically demanding part of any build).  Wrong.  We had to almost continuously mix concrete and mortar several times a day, every day.  And lastly the heat was overwhelming – easily our hottest build.  The days would start hot and get hotter, but the humidity was a constant companion.  By the end of the first half hour, we were sweating completely through our clothes.  Adjusted for humidity, it was over 110 degrees and there’s very little shade on the job sites (until the roof went in).

E and S were nominated as water nags, so it was our job to make sure that our teammates were taking proper water breaks and taking timeout if they looked a little worse for the wear.  Thankfully, our teammates managed well and came out healthy.  There were a couple of nights that we stayed in and skipped dinner because we were so exhausted and worn out.

On the positive side, we successfully built two homes and met some incredible people.  From our group leaders to our teammates to the families to the local affiliate employees and our construction supervisors.  They are all wonderful people and better human beings.

Why do we build when we can’t possibly make anything but a small dent versus the larger need? 

We get this question from skeptics and even from the families themselves.

During one of our daily reflections, one gentleman told an important story that goes something like this: An old man is walking along the beach early one morning when he spots a young man throwing something into the ocean.  The old man approaches the young man and discovers that the young man is throwing starfish into the ocean.  The old man chastises the young man saying, “There’s hundreds of miles of ocean and tens of thousands of beached starfish.  You’ll never make difference.”  The young man shrugs and picks up a starfish and throws it into the ocean.  The young man then says, “I made a difference to that one.”

The teariest part of closing ceremonies is watching speechless families fully start to digest that they are homeowners now.  Maybe they get an inkling of how their lives might change, maybe they are struck by their good fortune or maybe they just don’t know how to comprehend that people they don’t know came to their small part of the world and did something nice.

What the families don’t always understand is that we get a lot out of these builds too.  All parents have dreams for their children.  Our parents had dreams for us.  But in Myanmar, for these two families, the gap between dreams and reality is just too darn wide.  The families don’t have the resources to close the gap.  But we know that kids with proper homes don’t get sick.  They can go to school and safely do their homework.  They can explore their curiosity.  They can leave the village and subsistence farming for a better life.

Homes change lives.  They change the trajectory of what families can be.  These two homes will help in a big way.  Hopefully we made life a bit easier and their dreams slightly more accessible.  To say we helped two families and four children is an indescribable feeling.  One that will last longer than the homes we build.  Perhaps it’s the idealist in us but its helpful for everyone to know that we’re part of a larger global community and people you don’t know can and will do nice things for you.

Will we continue to work with Habitat? 

The building is hard work and the weather made it harder.  The tools are substandard.  Your clothes are always dirty.  Your hands are beaten up with cuts, bruises and blisters.  You sweat constantly and are never clean.  The beds are never great.  The hot water is never enough.  There are rats and snakes and ants and spiders and mosquitoes and all sorts of creepy crawlies everywhere.  The A/C and the power work intermittently.  The cold beer is never cold enough.  The food has too much meat or too much pork or not enough vegetables or too much tofu or too much fried food or too much rice.  But this a list of stuff you never remember when a build is done.  What you remember is the people that you helped and the people with whom you built.

A vacation on a beach somewhere might restore your mind and body, but what nurtures you soul?  What restores your faith in humanity?

So yes, we will build again and often.  It’s the most fulfilling thing we’ve ever done.  Until you participate in a build yourself, the full measure of our words and the total weight of our experiences can’t possibly make sense.  Just try it once.  You’ll be hooked.  They have a name for it; it’s called Habit-itis.