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Habitat for Humanity (Housing, Community Service)

I joined Habitat for Humanity this week, to pursue my recent interest in home building and repair. See this quick tour of what they do. They build houses (from scratch) all over the world for low-income people. And they TEACH total beginners too! Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife joined Habitat after they left the White House, helping to make it more famous.

Through my Silicon Valley chapter, I helped work on a three-bedroom, two-story house in Los Gatos this week. I helped build a frame for a wall in a bathroom and installed it, nailed sheet rock to the side of the house, helped them remove a beam from the roof's frame that had been placed incorrectly, helped measure a window, and helped saw sheet rock to surround the future window. I also taught this couple to use a circular saw and miter saw!

I felt a great sense of accomplishment. :D They've been building this home since March. Now mainly just the wooden frame and floors are done. They started installing plumbing and piping yesterday. After they put on the roof, they will tackle the electrical wiring. After the home is built, they will also paint it, do the landscaping, the driveway, the backyard, and even plant flowers.

This is a fantastic group of folks! For example, I met a couple, Don and Barbara. Don is retired after working for IBM many years. He told me he then went into home building as a second career. He was an employee for Habitat and has worked in Mexico, in Jordan, in Africa, etc. building homes with them!

The Kelete family will soon be owning this new house on 25 Charles St. I met the mom and her two kids, and she even took a picture of me. They are originally from Eritrea (Africa). I had a lot of classmates at Berkeley from Eritrea, which has been racked by civil war for years.

Please read this essay I wrote about viewing work as a craft. It tells why I'm interested in practical stuff like home repair now. Most of us sit in our anonymous little cubicles, reading information and spitting out information. Nothing physical or concrete. Our work doesn't feel like it lasts, that it helps people, that it counts. We need to do stuff like this as an antidote.