Build Day # 2

Day 5 - September 17

As we arrive in the village for our second day of construction, our bus is surrounded once again by

throngs of children, and even before it stops moving, we hear shouts of "mzungu!! mzungu!!" (we have become accustomed to hearing this term, meaning "white person," also as we walk through villages, children calling their friends to come and see the visitors). For many of us on the team, interacting with children is one of the highlights of our time in the village.

Today we continue laying bricks, with a little more confidence and speed than yesterday. We enjoy the rare compliment from the local mason when he comes over to inspect our wall and doesn't make little adjustments, or tap bricks with the back end of his trowel to set them just so. It is a lot of fun learning this new craft -- not something we'd take on the first day on a build site in the U.S.!

Lenai carrying loads of bricks - barefoot.

Just as in our affiliate in NW Wisconsin, the Habitat partner families in Malawi help build their own homes, through Sweat Equity. Before we arrived, Mphatso (15) and Bayitoni (12) had dug and helped lay the cement footings for under the brick walls. And they did the backbreaking work of using a pickax to dig a hole, add water and mix to create the mortar, shovel the heavy loads into a wheelbarrow (the kind with a small, hard, airless tire), and put forth the great effort required to push this old wheelbarrow through soft soil to the home. While we worked they worked. But they were working before we arrived in the morning, and continued after we left at the end of the day. 

Helping with Sweat Equity

Lenai, the 70-year old grandmother and head of the household, has spent many days hauling heavy bricks, as have other women. Hard work is just a way of life in these rural villages, but to us it was amazing to see the strength and stamina at which the boys and grandmother worked throughout the day (especially for Lenai -- to put this in perspective, the average life span in Malawi is only 55-60). 

Because our Global Village trip has a strong focus on education, not just construction, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend additional time with the Habitat Malawi staff. Amos, the Executive Director, joined us on the build site numerous times. The first time I happened to notice that Amos was on site, I saw him down in the pit, digging with the pickax to make the mortar. Another time when I saw Amos "in the pit," he was having caring conversation with the partner family. Amos is a wonderful example to us of a servant-leader. 

Today on lunch break we traveled to the Kambwiri Sele Irrigation Scheme to learn about local villagers that have teamed together to form a non-profit agricultural group. The volunteer leadership team told us that in order for people to become a member, they have to pay a fee, which helps fund the deep well that was drilled, and the irrigation system which allows members to continue farming throughout the dry season. 

What a stark contrast between the green fields of corn and tomatoes, and the surrounding dessert!

It is wonderful to see examples of the many ways in which the people of rural Malawi have developed sustainable methods to improve their lives, helping them to afford basic necessities, such as food for their family, pencils and notebooks so their children can attend school, and adequate shelter. And this is the goal of Habitat Malawi, not to provide the poor with hand-outs, but rather through Habitat programs to provide a sustainable hand-up, helping families to maintain dignity, and to take ownership and pride through the ways in which Habitat is helping make a difference in their lives. 

Music from Home Dedication Ceremony - Pictures coming in Day 6!
Jon is playing a hand drum along with 2 local drummers

A house built out of Mud - Build Day # 1

Day 4 - September 16

When we loaded the bus this morning it was with excited anticipation for our first Habitat Build Day. As we arrived in Mbawa Village, we were greeted as usual with song and dance from women wearing colorful dresses. We were introduced to several local masons that Habitat has helped train and employ in building homes. We are also introduced to the two Habitat partner families with which we will be building.

Lenai, Bayitoni, and Mphatso

Let me introduce you to the partner family. My team helped build a home for Lenai and her two grandchildren. Lenai is about 70 years-old (age is approximate in this culture), and she never went to school. She takes care of two orphaned grandchildren, Mphatso (15) and Bayitoni (12), whose parents died when they were young. The boys have both dropped out of school. They are living in a tiny, one-room house made of mud bricks, a dirt floor, and a grass-thatched roof which leaks heavily when it rains. Their house is so bare -- it seems that all their earthly possessions could fit inside the large suitcases I packed for my trip.

During the rainy season, the grass-thatched roof and scraps of plastic do little to keep out the water, and the dirt floor turns into mud. With virtually no windows, ventilation and air quality is poor. If you stop and listen for a moment, you'll hear termites eating away at the roof of the house.

Typical one-room home

The family regularly suffers from colds and malaria. The family uses a nearby temporary structure as a toilet which is not safe. Lenai is grateful for being selected to own a Habitat home.

"Our house is a breeding ground for mosquitoes because we suffer from malaria from time to time. A good house with windows and mosquito-nets will be a great relief to us," Lenai told us. "We will be very grateful to have a house that does not leak, with a cement floor. It is a rare opportunity and we thank God for granting us this opportunity." 

The masons, along with help from Lenai and the two boys, had already built the corners of the house, so we were able to jump right in laying up the brick walls. Most of our team had never laid a single brick before stepping on the site, but with the coaching of our mason and a few other locals we managed to gain speed and see the house progress.




In Malawi there are bricks everywhere you go -- brick houses and huts, brick walls, piles of brick along the roadside for future construction. There are two kinds of bricks, both which are molded from mud -- fired, and un-fired bricks. We saw brick "kilns" along the roads, where they stack the bricks high, leaving openings in the bottom to add firewood, and when they've heated the bricks for several days they turn from the brown, earthy color, to a reddish brown.

Un-fired vs. fired bricks. Brick firing kiln in the background.

The matope (mortar) that we use is made simply by digging a hole in the thick soil near the construction site, adding water, and hauling it in wheelbarrows. These houses are literally made out of the dirt that surrounds them!

Fired bricks are still soft by American standards, but houses built with fired bricks can withstand the dangerous floods, whereas the mud brick houses can collapse. About 26,000 are affected by floods every rainy season, but this past January, there was a devastating flood in southern Malawi that killed several hundred people, and displaced 638,000 people (I don't know if this even made the news in the US). Farmland was washed away, leaving people that scrape a meager living off of the land without home, tools, or means to grow food to eat.

After lunch under a massive baobab tree (without leaves or fruit during the dry season), we visit a local school. The dark classrooms were packed full of kids, with not enough teachers to go around. One class may consist of 60, 80, or even 100 kids. Education is required by the government, but many children are not able to go. One reason kids don't attend school is that their family is so poor they can not afford to buy their children pencils and a notebook. Another deterrence from school is needing to help carry water (where there are not nearby wells), or during the rainy season, children living in thatch-roofed houses cannot attend because they cannot keep their books dry. 

One of the highlights of building is being able to spend a day immersed in a village, surrounded by the sights and sounds of daily life. While the conversations and singing are in a language foreign to our ears, we recognize the universal language of children laughing and playing, babies crying, and roosters crowing. By the end of the day, we are physically and emotionally tired, and ready to return to our lodge (albeit in the midst of a brownout) for a time of reflection and relaxation.

House # 1, at the end of our first day of construction.

Here's a few more pictures from our day:

Music recorded from a song and dance performed for us by girls at the local school.

78% of families in Malawi live in substandard housing...

Day 3 - September 15

Today we traveled from the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe, to the rural area of Salima. On the way we visited the Habitat Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) project in Salima (you can learn more about the OVC program in Day 5's post). Visiting another village (and of course seeing the children) was the highlight of my day. After the customary greeting by a group of women singing and dancing, flocked by a group of children, we crowded into the local Community Based Organization's (CBO) office to learn how Habitat Malawi works hand-in-hand with the CBO. 

One of the biggest questions in my mind about Habitat International's work in one of the poorest countries in the world, especially after visiting several villages yesterday, is this: How does Habitat Malawi select families for housing? To an outsider, it seems that every family in the village fits the "Need for adequate housing" criteria, which is also one of the qualifications for selecting partner families in the US. With such a daunting need for safe and decent housing in Malawi, where does one even begin?

In Malawi, 78% of families live in substandard housing; only 22% of the population lives in "Permanent houses."

What does "substandard" housing look like in Malawi?

A nice 3-room "Semi-Permanent" home (left), built by Habitat,
replacing the family's "Traditional house" (right)

34% live in Semi-Permanent houses (hand-made fired bricks, cement floor, iron sheet roof).

"Traditional" Malawian house

44% live in Traditional houses (hand-made un-fired bricks (walls made of mud), dirt floor, and grass thatched roof).

A typical home

Through interviewing a number of local village residents, we heard firsthand what "inadequate" means. I should preface this with the fact that in Malawi there are 2 seasons, the rainy season, and the dry season (we are there during the long dry season, thus why many of the trees are without leaves, and the land looks like a desert).

Some of the real challenges living with a grass thatched roof and dirt floor is that during the rainy season, the rain comes right through the thatch, meaning the floor upon which the family sleeps turns into mud. And with little to no ventilation in many houses, this brings major health problems. And with major storms or especially natural disasters, it's not uncommon for the "Traditional" homes to have their roofs collapse, or worse.

What really hit home for me is the fact that substandard housing keeps children from attending school, because during the rainy season they can't keep their school books dry.

CBO Office

So again I return to the question, How does Habitat Malawi select partner families? This is where the CBO comes in.

The Community Based Organization is made up completely of volunteers, and their board is made up of representatives from each village (in this case 7-8 villages). The CBO works directly with the village chiefs and other leaders, and it is the village leaders that identify to the CBO where the biggest needs are.


The CBO interviews and tracks data of the local people, so they know how many orphans there are in each village, how many children attend school, how many people are affected by HIV, Aids, or Tuberculosis, etc. The CBO also helps facilitate and track a micro-finance / bank program, where members can learn how to save up money for larger expenditures, as well as apply for a small loan to repair their home (buy glass for a window or sheet metal for the roof, for example), or funding to help start a small business.


Herein lies the answer to Family and program Selection -- The CBO uses resources in the local community to identify who is really poor or has the greatest need for more adequate housing. In addition to the Habitat Malawi housing program, through the CBO and local community leaders, Habitat asks the question: What are the greatest needs in the community? It is through the needs identified by the community that Habitat Malawi designs programs beyond just home construction. Other Habitat Malawi programs include: water sanitation, Malaria prevention training, HIV prevention training, vocational skills training, and property and inheritance rights training. And Habitat Malawi also finds other local partner organizations and funding sources to help address these needs.

Because the community recommends the partner families to Habitat, the community supports the selection process and celebrates along with the families when they move into their new homes. An additional asset to note -- Habitat Malawi has one Field Officer who lives in every village in which Habitat has built / is building, which also helps provide the eyes and ears, and ongoing Habitat presence within these villages.

The more I see and experience the immense need within villages in Malawi, the more questions I seem to have about how we can help. But at least today I came away with one definitive answer!

                                                    -- Jon Schack

Music from devotions with our team and Habitat Malawi staff

Habitat Malawi - Beyond Home Construction

Day 2 - September 14

We started our day by visiting the Habitat for Humanity of Malawi national office in Lilongwe, and had the opportunity to learn a great deal about Habitat's strategies, goals, and programs in Malawi, Africa. While Habitat is most associated with alleviating poverty housing, there we learned in addition to new home construction, Habitat Malawi has many other programs, each carefully researched to identify the biggest needs, through conversation with the leaders of local communities.

In Malawi, 69% of the urban population lives in slums, in substandard housing, with poor water and sanitation. Only 38% of the urban population has access to water inside their house or surrounding yard. Once traveling beyond the city, the statistics for the rural population are even worse. This is why Habitat Malawi has their Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WaSH) program.

Drinking Water (!)

In the afternoon we visited several rural villages, traveling down very long, incredibly bumpy dirt roads that would likely be impassible during the rainy season (in Malawi they have 2 seasons - dry, and rainy).

At our first stop we were greeted by the village chief, who explained how Habitat is helping to bring a source of safe drinking water to their village. We were taken down to see their current water source, a very shallow, hand dug well, that is the only source of water for a sizable village population.

We then saw the fruits of the Water and Sanitation project, a brand new well, complete with spigots, and a water station for villagers to pay a small fee for their water, helping to pay back the cost of installing the new well. Next we traveled to another nearby village, and this water station is fully operable, with a steady line of girls and women coming to fill buckets with clean water, which they then carry on their heads back to their homes, sometimes a very long walk.


At our third and final stop for the day, we were greeted by what seemed like all of the women and children in the village. The women were singing and dancing as we stepped down from the bus, and the children crowding around to see the visitors. We were sat down on benches for a program, complete with singing, dancing, and several long speeches from village elders and chiefs telling how greatly Habitat's efforts are appreciated, in helping bring clean water and safe toilets to their village.

When the ceremony finally concluded, our tour brought us to see a brand new, composting toilet constructed by Habitat. Before this was built, villagers had to hand dig new pit toilets on a regular basis, and sanitation was a regular problem. The old pit toilets also were physically unstable.

Through the WaSH program, Habitat built a toilet that not only will not have to be moved on a regular basis, but also has 2 separate composting basins built in. Over the course of 6-9 months, the basin is opened up, and what was previously an unsanitary product leaching into the ground water is now a safe fertilizer to put on local gardens and boost food production.

One of the highlights of our day was meeting the children. It was delightful to bring smiles to their faces by something as simple as showing them their picture on our digital camera, or shaking hands or giving a high-five. It was very apparent that we were a highlight in the children's day as well. We were greeted by flocks of children running from throughout the village to greet us, and as we drove away, the children chased after the bus, running along side the windows, and several times managing to jump on the rear bumper.

One of the main objectives of our Global Village trip to Malawi is to learn about the needs of the local people, as well as to be able to share what Habitat is doing to meet these needs, and what resources are still needed to continue to improve the lives of one of the poorest countries in the world.

Again, in conclusion, I leave you with some more photos from our day. Please feel free to leave comments or questions on Blogger or our Facebook page, or you can reach me directly via email.

                                                   -- Jon Schack

Be the Change

We have spent 2 hard days on the build site, laying brick for 2 new Habitat houses. We also found time to visit a local school, play with the children, and meet local members of the villages. Today we will interview some of the current local Habitat home owners, and then celebrate the dedication of the 2 homes we helped build.

Good internet (and electricity) is not a given in the lodge where we're staying by the villages, so I will have to share more pictures as soon as I'm able.

Habitat's Global Village

And so it begins, Barron County Habitat's very first Blog post...

I have the honor this week to share with you first hand how your support of Barron County Habitat for Humanity (BCHFH) reaches far beyond the borders of Barron County, far beyond Wisconsin or even North America. BCHFH sends a tithe, 10% of all donations, and 10% of the net revenue received annually from the ReStore, overseas to build houses. Since BCHFH was founded in 1996, we have sent over $95,000 overseas to help build houses in impoverished countries, most recently to Malawi, Africa. While working to complete our 20th home in Barron County, we'll have helped build 30 homes internationally!!

On my first day of the Global Village trip, we traveled several hours on a bumpy and winding road from Lilongwe to the Kungoni Centre, including a tour of their historical museum that celebrates the rich history of Malawi's cultural and artistic inheritance.

A big part of the day was also the journey itself, to see firsthand the types of homes and living conditions throughout the countryside.

We also had the opportunity to visit a local village and experience traditional African dances.

I think photos help describe my day better than my words, so I leave you with a collection from today's journey.