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Building homes andfriendships:Habitat for Humanity in Vietnam

Playing with children at break time.

The walls go up.

Louisa gets better acquainted with the family.

Page design and layout by Winifred Ribeiro

Life along the Mekong River.

Building forms for the walls.

Story and photos by Peggy Bell

The three sisters (left to right), Peggy, Louisa and Kathryn.

public health, Kathryn in propertymanagement, and I had justretired a few years earlier from a long career in banking. I learned about Habitat forHumanity through their chapterin Southern Alberta where theyhave built 170 homes sincetheir inception in 1990. Havingzero construction skills, I startedvolunteering on the Calgary job sites about 10 years ago, and discovered the HabitatInternational building programthat spans 93 countries, and hasbuilt more than 800,000 homesworldwide.

Now, none of us three sistershad a clue about how you’dbuild a home in Vietnam, butwe loved to travel, we got alongwell and thought, why not? Thethree of us, along with five

home to shops smaller thanyour walk-in closet, filled withexotic and colourful items thatwe thought we just had to have!We ate strange and wonderfulfood, sampled Vietnamese coffee, couldn’t speak the language, and met the gentlestand kindest people—and thiswas just our first night.

The next day we travelledto Rach Gia in south Vietnam towork on a Habitat project on theMekong River, where HabitatVietnam partners with low-income families build, repair or upgrade their homes. Thefamilies contribute “sweat equity”or their own labour and typicallyrepay the costs through micro-finance loans. Internationalvolunteers provide a hand up bybuilding alongside the families.

A modest clean hotel wasbase for us for the next ten days.We travelled to and from theworksite along the MekongRiver by barge, fascinated tosee giant barges laden withgoods, water taxis, the occasionalswimmer and people doingtheir laundry—all part of lifealong this famous river.

Our team was dividedamongst three houses, for whichwe built new foundations. Wewould then move the homes on tothe new foundations, providingthem with a slab floor, a hugeimprovement that would helpkeep the inhabitants dry duringthe country’s torrential rains.Sounds simple, and it was: no

other siblings had grown up in Zambia, Africa where our parents lived for 20-someyears. Perhaps this was why wethought: why not see the worldand lend a hand at the sametime? We haven’t looked backsince!

Our trip to Vietnam wasshared with 14 other people

from all over the world:Canada, USA, Australia and theUK (six Canadians in thegroup, four from Calgary). Wemet up in Ho Chi Minh City.We were bombarded with thesights and sounds of a millionmotorbikes, sidewalk shops,markets, bicycles, monks, streetvendors, and tiny back alleys,

Aren’t you too old for that?That was a question posed

to three sisters as we embarkedon a trip to Vietnam in 2013with Habitat for Humanity tohelp improve living conditionsfor low-income families.

We were ages 62, 60 and52—hadn’t even thought aboutthe age thing! Good thing wehadn’t because age doesn’t matter.This was our fourth trip travellingabroad with Habitat. All youneed is a good attitude (anythingcan happen), a desire to learn, asense of humour and a willing-ness to help and learn about anew culture from the peoplethat live there. Oh, and a fewclothes, work gloves, bug sprayand your passport.

We all come from differentbackgrounds. Louisa works in

Everything is transported by barge.

cement or concrete mixers, justgood old hand mixing, haulingbuckets of concrete and cementby hand through the narrow gapbetween the houses, diggingout trenches for the foundationwall—by hand, shovels andbuckets—bending rebar byhand (using nothing but anotherpiece of rebar), making wireforms for the concrete, andmore mixing, mixing, mixingof sand, cement, mortar andconcrete.

The families we serve workalongside us, shy at first, andwe have a language barrier. Butby the end of day one, we’reable to communicate throughgestures, smiles, a helping hand,and the universal language ofworking together.

Each job site has a localforeman who directs us in ourtasks, keeps us safe on the site,translates for us, shows us howto lay a brick properly andstraight, as well as the manyother things needed to completethe foundation. We soon findout what it’s like to work in aplace with a hundred percenthumidity and 30° temperatures:you drink way more water thanyou thought possible and neverhave to seek out the toilet facilities (which are, em, ah,“basic”).

During our frequent workbreaks, we are delighted withour nutritious snacks— coconutwater hacked open by thehomeowner with a very large

knife and fresh fruit picked upfrom the market on our way to the barge in the morning: mangosteen, rambutans, dragonfruit, the best little orangesyou’ve ever tasted, and some-times delicious little cakesbaked by the families—treatsyou’ve never imagined—worththe trip for the food alone!

We sometimes reached ahouse by canoe, on which villagers had prepared ourlunch, most of which we couldn’tidentify. But the food wasalways fresh, delicious and alllocally sourced and grown—Ithink the local food craze in ourpart of the world started inVietnam many years ago. Adaily delicacy we all came tolove was a plant we grow in ourgardens in Calgary—morningglory leaves—sautéed, in soupsand stews. Yum! This plant growswild and is full of all thosegood things we need.

Time after lunch was forresting, visiting with the familiesand playing with the children.No matter what country youtravel to and what language youspeak, or don’t, the appearanceof a Frisbee, a skipping rope or aball works magic. The childrenwere shy initially, but by the timewe’d left, they had us giggling,laughing, taking their photosand playing games we’d forgottenhow to play!

Work on a Habitat buildgenerally continues for three orfour days, then we take a bit of a break to visit some of the local schools, clinics or othercommunity facilities used bylocals in their daily lives. Thisgives us a better understandingof the challenges faced in some developing countries andhow people manage with fewresources. We were constantlyamazed at how they find solutions to their everydaychallenges with such limitedresources: another lesson learned.

One of the highlights of thetrip was a school visit—you’dhave thought we were royaltyby the greeting we received. Itwasn’t long before we had thekids skipping, playing HokeyPokey, charades and ball sports,while disrupting the wholeschool (we did see the headteacher smile a few times).Beautiful children—despiteextreme poverty, parents takegreat care to dress children aswell as they are able in cleanclothes. It was easy to see theywere well loved and cared for.

After a full week of workand a school visit we had a bitof a break and headed off to a little island off the coast for some R&R—beaches, sun,quaint little town, a great coffeeshop, more great food, and evena bit of Wi-Fi. Some of usindulged in a massage on thebeach—so inexpensive, it wasalmost free.

A welcome break, thenback to work on Monday,where we were almost finishedthe floors and had to prepareourselves for moving the houseon to the new foundation. Thisinvolved waiting for the crane,or some imagined “thing,” tomove the house . . . wonderinghow it would get here on thebarge (we couldn’t see anymajor roads anywhere) . . . justwondering: what was the plan?

As usual, our Western wayof wondering wasn’t going tomake it happen. Our job sitesupervisor had a plan, we justhad no idea what it was: wait,another lesson about to belearned.

They say it takes a villageto raise a child. Take that anotherdirection: it takes a village tomove a house! That’s exactlywhat happened. Our team,along with numerous locals,just picked up the straw/wood/thatch house and, metre-by-metre, moved it on to the

Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City.Homeward commute by barge.

Everyone pitches in.

new foundation. Who wouldhave thought it possible? Notus! But another great lesson: ifyou don’t have what you need,use what you have and it allworks out.

The houses moved, the jobcomplete, the families are presented with a small house-warming gift from the team—electric fans—a welcome addition in the heat. A fewbrave team members wentshopping for fans earlier in theweek on the back of a motorbike — very safe they said, butyou’re on the road with thou-sands of other motorbikes thatall seem to know exactly wherethey’re going and always fasterthan you: no helmets, trafficlights a mere suggestion and noright of way for pedestrians evenon crosswalks. We found it bestnot to look—just hang on!

A wonderful dedicationceremony ends the work. Weleave knowing we did make a small difference to three families: they will have a solid,dry foundation to weather therainy seasons. We will havelasting memories of the wonderful people we met andworked with in a country weknew little about, but where welearned much.Once the work is done, mostHabitat team participants takethe opportunity to visit otherparts of the country—sinceyou’re there, so far away, whata shame not to. Not enoughspace or time to tell about those

few days, but Hanoi, Hoi An,Ha Long Bay (a World Heritage Site), temples andpagodas, floating villages,water puppets, Cambodia . . . .The list is endless, the place ismagical, the people wonderful . . . but that’s another story, foranother time.Over the past six years, thethree of us sisters, along withmy husband Rick and manyother team members, have beenfortunate enough to travel withHabitat a half-dozen times toZambia and Vietnam. Friendshipsmade on these trips havebecome close for some of us.It’s the best way to travel, learnand have fun.Volunteers each pay their ownway, plus airfare, plus a donation to the local Habitataffiliate. These costs generallyrange from $3000 to $5000,depending on the location ofthe build. A charitable receiptfor these costs is issued to eachparticipant.We’re just back again fromZambia, where I have beenprivileged to lead teams,including a core group ofCalgary volunteers, for the pastfive years. That this same coregroup returns again and againsays a lot about these programsand the richness we come home with. To learn more aboutthis program, or to becomeinvolved in your own Habitatgroup here in Calgary, visitwww.habitatsouthernab.cawww.habitatglobalvillage.ca ❑