Building Homes – Building Friendship

This year, America’s Unofficial Ambassadors sent volunteers to Jordan as part of our Building Peace by Building Homes initiative. Volunteers worked side-by-side with local families to build much-needed housing and new friendships. Along the way, they had a chance to explore Jordan, visit Petra and engage in a host of activities designed to broaden their horizons.

Volunteers traveled to the historic town of Salt to take part in the program and returned with great stories about the partnerships they forged and the places they went over their 10-visit to Jordan.

Likewise, Habitat for Humanity is gearing up for a building excursion in Bangladesh later this year. The trip will run over 9 days from Nov. 30 to Dec. 8. Volunteers will work alongside local people, mixing mortar, carrying and laying bricks and putting up roofs. The program aims to complete 20 new family homes in Bangladesh within a week.

From Habitat For Humanity:

“Habitat Bangladesh began in 1999 and now operates in 13 locations through Habitat Resource Centers. To fight endemic poverty, Habitat Bangladesh frequently uses a “building in stages” concept—building a core living space with a family in need first, and expanding the home later as needed and as it can be afforded.

Families frequently pool their savings to build homes. Habitat Bangladesh frequently partners with other non-governmental organizations to develop new microfinance models to reach even more families. The average repayment rate for Habitat Bangladesh partner families is US$11 per month.

Habitat Bangladesh also works both to provide disaster-recovery help andto teach disaster-preparedness to lessen the impact of flooding on homes. After Cyclone Sidr affected 6.8 million people in 2007, Habitat Bangladesh resource centers produced transitional housing kits for 12 local communities. For more information on Habitat’s work in Bangladesh, visit the country’s profile page on Habitat’s website.”

Jordan Day 4:The Building Begins

The 2012 Building Peace by Building Homes participants recently returned from their trip in Jordan.  Continue to catch up with their experiences by reading more! To find an amazing volunteer opportunity, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations© today.

The idea that people would serve as volunteers is novel in Jordan. Most people there have never done it. To help normalize the notion of volunteering, Habitat for Humanity invites several Jordanian news outlets to film the Building Peace by Building Homes team at the worksite. Here the camera crew is talking to Habitat program officer Fadi and community center leader Buthaina.

After work the Building Peace by Building Homes team visits the Abdul Rahman Ben Ouf Society outside Salt. This is an NGO that has specialized in local permaculture, a branch of ecological design and engineering that cares for the earth and the people, and sets limits to population and consumption. The NGO also boasts a formidable chess team trained for years by Elham beaming here between Building Peace by Building Homes team member Constance and two of her chess champions. The chess players are top-ranked in Jordan and have competed in several different countries.

Contractor Abu Ussama hosts us at his family’s house for an evening feast. The centerpiece of the meal is mansaf featuring a whole goat. Notice goat meat artfully arranged on a bed of rice surrounding the goat’s head with a bunch of cilantro in its mouth. There are bowls of vegetables and tart yogurt as well as delicious yogurt sauce. The vegetarians in our group enjoy a separate feast of fried cauliflower, baked French fries, eggplant, red pepper sauce and fritatas. Yum!

Day 3 in Jordan: The Experiences Continue

The 2012 Building Peace by Building Homes participants recently returned from their trip in Jordan.  Below is a glimpse into their first couple of days during this exciting adventure. To find an amazing volunteer opportunity, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations© today.

Photo Credits Marcela Garcia

At the homebuilding site, the team forms a “brick dancing line.” This is a technique that our Habitat for Humanity program officer Fadi taught us so that we could move large numbers of bricks to the top of the building with no more movement than a simple pivot. From right to left, Jacques, Dan, Mitch and Gideon pass bricks up to the top of the building.

A school in the city of Salt invites the Building Peace by Building Homes team to attend its Jordanian Independence Day celebration. There are several troupes of talented Dabke dancers, a teen heartthrob rapper, and a wildly enthusiastic audience.

The Building Peace by Building Homes team ends the evening with a meal in the ancient city of Salt.  It’s been quite the day but day 3 was a success. After dinner, it was  finally time for some rest. Tomorrow begins a new day with more adventures.

Settling in: Jordan within the first 48 hours

The 2012 Building Peace by Building Homes participants recently returned from their trip in Jordan.  Below is a glimpse into their first couple of days during this exciting adventure. To find an amazing volunteer opportunity, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations© today.

On our second day in Jordan, the Building Peace by Building Homes team received an orientation from Habitat for Humanity’s Jordan country director Thomas Stocker about their work in Jordan. Habitat has been working in Jordan since 2001, supporting families who wish to improve their living situation, can afford a mortgage, but do not have access to credit. Luis, Gideon, Thomas Stocker and Mitch; Dan, Marcela, Constance and Jacques pose for a photograph before the Building Peace by Building Homes team ships out to the village of Allan on the outskirts of the city of Salt.

Here we are, arrived in Allan, standing in front of the house we will be working on. The Building Peace by Building Homes team is standing with the family that owns the house and some prominent villagers. A grown son, whose wife recently had a child, will be moving into the new second floor that we will construct. He had to go to work today, so he is not with us in the picture.

Stepping up to be of service is fun. Doing it against this stunning backdrop is a thorough privilege. Get a load of this view from the top of the house we are working on: A minaret in the foreground with Grampa’s house right across the street. A patchwork of olive groves across rolling hills for miles and miles, and desert mountains for as far as the eye can see. On clear days, the people of Allan tell us, you can even see the lights of Jerusalem behind those mountains at night.

The Building Peace by Building Homes team sits down for lunch on our first homebuilding day. Jacques, Mitch, Luis, Marcela, Constance and Dan are about to chow down. The bountiful spread includes mansaf, a bed of rice and toasted nuts underneath yogurt-marinated chicken drowned in a tangy yogurt sauce, as well as fresh cucumbers and peppers, and locally grown pickles and olives.

“Who are all these strange, new people that have come to Allan to stay at the community center guest house?” The Building Peace by Building Homes team is the first group of foreigners ever to have come to volunteer in Allan. No wonder all the kids in the neighborhood are so eager to see who we are!’

Our next door neighbor saw Luis taking pictures of all the kids in the neighborhood. He invited us over to his house and showed us his cave. It used to be a vast, underground storage space for wheat. We took a walk inside it with gas lamps to light the way. These days he uses the cave to house his chickens. Marcela is holding one of their freshly laid eggs!

When our neighbor realizes that we’ve come from America to volunteer and we’re interested in learning as much as we can, he takes us to visit his friends at a local forest ranger station. The forest rangers tell us all about local agriculture and forestry policies.

As we head home at the end of the day, Buthaina, who runs the community center guest house recognizes that the sunset is too glorious to ignore. She stops her car by the side of the road, cranks her stereo, and leads Marcela and Constance in an impromptu Dabke dance. What more joyous way to celebrate the beautiful setting sun?

Touching Down in Amman

The 2012 Building Peace by Building Homes participants recently returned from their trip in Jordan.  Below is a glimpse into their first observations during this exciting adventure. To find an amazing volunteer opportunity, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations© today.

The Building Peace by Building Homes delegation arrived in Amman in the late afternoon of Saturday, May 26th. Over our first dinner in Jordan at our hotel in Swefieh, we discussed our expectations for the trip: to experience life in a Jordanian village, to be of service to a family in need, to do some hard, hands-on work, and to practice Arabic.

Later that evening, we set out on foot to explore the neighborhood. There were stores selling fruit, candies, hookahs, as well as familiar businesses with unfamiliar scenery – such as this Starbucks. To our surprise, most of the billboards we saw as we wandered through Amman were either for Snickers or Burger King.

Building Peace by Building Homes: A Jordanian Adventure

Gideon Culman is AUA’s Program Officer and is currently leading the 2012 Building Peace by Building Homes trip in Jordan.  Below is Gideon’s post about his thoughts on embarking on this exciting adventure. To find an amazing volunteer opportunity, search the AUA Directory of Recommended Organizations© today!

I’m one of America’s Unofficial Ambassadors. Today I’m traveling to Jordan to lead the Building Peace by Building Homes trip. What has me step up to be an unofficial ambassador is my taste for adventure—my eagerness to see up close how people around the world live, the joy I derive from just being myself in new settings, and my commitment to putting America’s best foot forward by being of service.

I acquired this taste for adventure tagging along with my Mom as she launched a global career as an artist. By the time I was ten, I had visited countries in Africa, Europe, South America and Asia. Highlights of my early unofficial ambassadorial career include attending public school in Germany for a decade and a blind-faith move in my mid-twenties to the heavily Muslim Western Chinese megalopolis of Lanzhou to learn Mandarin from scratch.

The Building Peace by Building Homes trip is way more than just an adventure. Seven unofficial ambassadors, each representing a different facet of American life, are coming together as an expression of our joint commitment to build people-to-people partnerships with the Muslim World. We are all first-time visitors to Jordan. We will help build a house for a disadvantaged family in the ancient city of Salt. We will meet with Jordanian students and members of Jordanian civil society, we will experience city life and village life, and we will visit the Dead Sea and the caravan trade hub of Petra.

Even before the Building Peace by Building Homes team sets foot on Jordanian soil, our trip is causing stereotypes to unravel. Earlier this month, the team held a webinar with students from the King’s Academy boarding school outside Amman. Fully expecting a homogenous student body, I was astonished that the high school students I saw live on my computer screen appeared at first glance more heterogeneous than my own remarkably diverse team. Can’t wait to see what surprises the rest of the trip holds in store!

Spotlight on Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity has practically become a household name in the United States over the past few decades.  High profile politicians and celebrities have endorsed the organization for their efforts in rebuilding homes all over the world.  In the wake of recent disasters, the organization has worked tireless to recreate communities and restore lives.  This familiar organization also works all over the world and has a number of programs in Muslim majority countries.

Habitat for Humanity operating in Tajikistan.

The Global Village program is geared towards those interested in short term opportunities.  They have four upcoming projects in Indonesia.  Not only do these projects allow for volunteers to make a considerable difference in the local communities, but the cultural immersion aspect allows for meaningful exchange.  Volunteers can learn about customs and beliefs firsthand.  There is no better way to break down the misconceptions that each respective culture holds about the other than by living side by side and doing construction in communities.

The well organized programs feature cultural activity days, where volunteers travel in the local towns and get educated about what life is like through unique experiences.  You can see how people eat, live, even use websites like Facebook.  Putting faces and personalities to perceptions of life in Muslim majority nations is just one step to improving relations and showing Americans and Muslims that we’re not so different from one another.  At the program’s end, there is an appreciation dinner where volunteers can see how the locals have come to enjoy their guests and how thankful they are for the work that has been done.

It is truly an invaluable experience and we encourage everyone, college students, families, adults and retirees, to apply for this program and for AUA’s Mosiac Scholarship to finance this wonderful chance to change the world around you, while also learning yourself.