Habitat For Humanity

The build continues and we go to a wedding! - Habitat For Humanity (Part 3) /  by Kevin Hatcher

Back to work.

After a great weekend visiting the sites of Yogjakarta and enjoying the local food it was time to go back to work. 

We spent the next day building the walls up to as high as they needed, using scaffolding and some great teamwork. Once the walls were up, the neighbors took over and completed building the roof supports and joists. We could not do this work as it was pretty specialized and at a height that is probably not covered by Habitat for Humanity, so we spent the remaining few days throwing cement at the new walls.

The cement layer was to cover the rough cement and brick work and give a smooth surface for the plaster, and it was not easy. I think at one point everyone tried their hand at throwing cement, and consequently got covered in the bounced off cement paste that did not stick. 

Likan spent a lot of time doing this! What a trooper! 

The children watch as we work.

WWe spent the last few days of week two coating the walls, and would have to leave the house without a roof and a floor. This would be completed at a later date by the Habitat for Humanity Indonesia team and the amazingly community spirited neighbors.

Local wedding.

Over the course of the last week we had been working hard, we all wanted to get as much completed as possible. I think secretly we all wanted to actually finish the house in two weeks, but that is a lot of construction for such a short time period. 

As the week came to a close both teams got invited to a local village wedding. This was amazing! The wedding was bright and colorful and there was so much going on it was hard to keep up. 

The bride complete with traditional dress waiting to start the ceremony. 

The bride and groom.

The village chief. Cool looking guy!

One of the two guys of the band. Great guys!

The ring masters of the ceremony.

As we watched the wedding we had the honor and privilege to be asked to join in with the celebrations and to be in some of the photos with the bride and groom! It was great fun and we all had a lot of laughs. I will never forget this!

Bride, groom and Habitat for Humanity team. Great fun!

The last day at the build site.

All good things must come to an end, and sadly at the end of a great two weeks of building we had to leave. Before we left both teams autographed the houses that we had spent time building, and then as a final farewell we had a goodbye ceremony with a special lunch served in our family’s old home. 

The whole build team!

 
 

This was a very emotional good bye with speeches from the village chief, Jim and our Habitat team, and was truly heartwarming. I will never forget this last day; the smiles, the laughter of all of the people gathered around on the floor and the amazing food that we all shared.. 

The final farewell lunch.

Well, that is about it from Yogyakarta, and this part of my Indonesia trip. All of the support, food from the local families, neighbors and the Habitat for Humanity Indonesia was amazing! A great group of people and a really good work ethic with some amazing fun. I would do a trip like this again anytime.

Flying to Bali

As for me, I was taking a short flight to Bali to do a few days exploring with Mandy, Jeremy, and Allisa from the trip. First stop was Uluwatu and then up to Ubud. 

Come back for more! 

Cheers,

Kev

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The build begins - Habitat For Humanity (Part 2) /  by Kevin Hatcher

Everyone smile.

So, after a very busy and productive introduction to Yogjakarta, I suppose I had should settle in and do some actual work. Time to meet the crew and build a house. To be honest, I was really looking forward to this part, as I have never built anything from the ground up and meeting a whole bunch of new people is always fun!

This was our crew of 14 people!

Back row top left to right: Corrine, Jon, Tanner, Bernie, Jeremy aka Jer-bear, Mackenzie,

Middle row left to right: Mandy (HFH Group leader), Likan, Alissa, Me! Valerie and Jim (Love that T-shirt! Super jealous!) 

Bottom row left to right: Kay and Joyce. The hardest working people on the team! 

We were picked up by our Habitat for Humanity liaison team; Djingga Djiwa and Nofi Fuanda. Djingga worked tirelessly all day with us to help make our stay in Yogyakarta more enjoyable. He picked us up in the morning, drove us around, organized dinners during the week for all of 16 of us, and put up with all of our nonsense! No wonder he slept in the work vehicles so much. We also had the amazingly happy and friendly, Nofi Fuanda and her impressively large and colorful collection of hijabs. I don't think I ever saw two the same for the whole build project! Impressive! 

Thanks for the pick Likan. :)

Thanks for the pick Likan. :)

The daily commute.

After introductions and photos at HFH Indonesia HQ we were driven about 1 hour south to Selopamioro village in the Imogiri Sub District. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puji Raharjo with the sharpest knife I have ever seen. We never got to do this in case we lost a finger...right Corrine. 

We were split into two teams at the site and introduced to our site foreman who would look after the running of our house build.

Ladies and gentlemen...our foreman Puji Raharjo!

He would be in charge of us, instruct us on how to use tools, keep us safe (no mean feat) and helped us build our house. Oh, and he cut up and fed us fresh coconuts!

Awesome! 

 

 

 

Some of the children and a few from the local village.

The family, mother and father. They have 3 children too.

The family, mother and father. They have 3 children too.

We were then introduced to the family that would move into the new house. They were so friendly and accepting, it was amazing. In fact, the whole local village was, and it was all very humbling. 

Our house was a 3 week build and we would be working on it for 2 weeks to get as much done as possible. 

Right let's get started!

The build plan.

So, if like me, you have never built a house here is what you need to do:

  • Move all the material (boulders, bricks, grit/sand) to site.
  • Hand dig foundations.
  • Shovel through a large sift all of the grit/sand for concrete.
  • Make concrete.
  • Lay foundations.
  • Build walls.
  • Make and install reinforcing bar (Rebar) columns and layers whilst building walls.
  • Install windows.
  • Build joists and install roof.
  • Lay floor. 
  • Move in.

Well that is a bit simplified, but you get the idea and all this is done by hand. There was no machinery involved during our build. 

The first few days of the build. 

Now the first few days we dug foundations, moved material and laid the first foundation stones. We were also very lucky to have the neighbors help too. When we left for the day they would pick up where we left off and continue. That meant our build came together very quick. It was great! 

One of the greatest things was how happy, friendly and inquisitive the local kids were. It made working in the baking sun all worth it. 

During the third day I met the one pictured below on the right. His name...Kevin...What a great name! But I never could get him to smile in photos.

Kev on the right....Kev on the left and Riza in the middle. Both not looking impressed.

The other major part of this particular build was reinforcement bar (Rebar). It is long pieces of metal that had to be hand cut to exact sizes, and then bent and then wired tied to the beam/column for the house. It was a long process but a great way to chat to the guys and get to know people. 

 
 

During all of this rebar making our blue tarp/tent (it was just like being in a U.S. campground) that shielded us from the sun collapsed in the wind. So in true "get your hands" dirty fashion we helped to fix the tarp, and held up ladders and supports until the locals fixed it. Then it was straight back to making rebar.

No rest for the wicked!

In the first week the house made great progress, and we completed: digging the foundations, constructing foundation walls, started to build the house walls on the foundation and made some great friends with the locals and each other. 

The weekend arrives.

So after a very productive and busy few days it is the weekend and we all have time to relax, and do some site seeing around the wonderful Yogjakarta area. What better way to do this but to return to Borobudur to see if we could all see the sunrise! 

After a really early start, and along bus drive we all arrived in the dark to climb the stairs of this amazingly peaceful temple to wait the sunrise. There was a slight sunrise which was cool, but I also got more time to explore the temple afterwards, which gave me a real appreciation of the intricacy and detail that went into building the world's largest Buddhist temple.  

Borobudur Buddhist Temple just at sunrise.

After such an early cultural start it could only be topped off with thrashing around in a jeep around Merapi to see the remains of the last volcanic eruption. The jeeps where great fun, and we all had a blast! 

What a week! I took it easy on Sunday while others explored the city center. Next Indonesian blog update, we continue building the house, we get invited to a local wedding, we explore a cave and we have an emotional good bye ceremony with the family and all the HFH team. 

Come back for more! 

Cheers,

Kev

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The first few days in Yogyakarta - Habitat For Humanity (Part 1) /  by Kevin Hatcher

Kev: Hi Blog!

Blog: Hi Kev, where have you been? It has been over two months since we last spent time together.

Kev: Yeah, I know...I have been adventuring. I have visited the Westman Islands in Iceland, I went travelling in Indonesia for three weeks. When I returned to Iceland, I hiked four days between Laugavegur and Þórsmörk which is about 55km.

Blog: Wow! So a busy few months then, do tell.

Kev: OK, I will start a little out of order, Indonesia first...

The beginnings of an adventure.

I am very lucky to have the opportunity to live in Iceland for six months, as it has given me time to explore this amazing country and take images of the wonderful landscape. It also means I have some free time and decided to do some charity work. I had spoken to Emily Rusk (this is all her fault really) and Tricia Vos about working for Habitat for Humanity during my 6 month sabbatical. Habitat build new homes all over the world for people who are currently living in poor housing conditions and that is where the idea started.

After a phone interview with the Mandy Jansen from Habitat for Humanity (HFH) I secured the last spot on a two week build project in Yogyakarta. I had to raise $2,000 to help fund provide materials for the build. This happened amazingly quickly due to the amazingly generous donations from friends all over the world. I purchased my own flights and decided to stay another week after the build in Bali.

Easy really. 

The travel plan.

Bye, bye Iceland.

The journey is not one flight and because I live in Iceland it would be even trickier. My travel plan:

  • Keflavik in Iceland to London Heathrow.
  • London Heathrow to Changi Airport in Singapore.
  • Changi Airport in Singapore to Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta.

I would then return from Yogyakarta via Bali:

  • Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta to Denpasar International Airport in Bali.
  • Denpasar International Airport in Bali to Changi Airport in Singapore.
  • Changi Airport in Singapore to London Heathrow.
  • London Heathrow to Keflavik in Iceland.

Great, now everything is in place let's go!

 

 

 

After landing in Heathrow I spent a few days in London and stayed with my good friends Em and John and baby Max, and also visited my little brother. At the end of these short few days I headed back to Heathrow to fly out to Yogyakarta. On the way out to the airport on the Piccadilly line to Heathrow there was a fire and the tube train was evacuated. I had to get a bus to the airport. This made me late and I had to run through Heathrow to get my first flight...not a good start, but I made it.

Arrival in Yogyakarta.

After one very long flight and one short flight I arrived at Yogyakarta and met Joyce and Kay, who were part of the early arrivals to Yogyakarta. After a quick pick up at the airport and a beer at the hotel we all decided to try and overcome the jet lag by visiting the sultan's palace in the center of town.

It was an amazing place, that had so much history and relics on display it was hard to see all of it in one visit, especially being very jet lagged! 

 

Buddhist temple Borobudur and Jomblang Cave.

Headless statue. 

After basically falling asleep in my dinner, I went to bed at 6pm and slept until 4am. I got back up, packed my camera gear, and went to go and see the sunrise at the Buddhist temple Borobudur, and then visit a cool cave called Jomblang Cave. Now, I had organized this adventure with another early arriving member of the HFH crew, Corrinne, and we both thought it would be a bus tour event. She was staying at a hostel closer to the center of Yogyakarta and we thought we would meet up on a bus. Turns out it was just me, a driver and a car for the morning and she would be getting her own trasnport. 

After weaving through the crazy traffic of Yogyakarta I made it to the temple and climbed it in the pitch black of the early morning just before sunrise. Unfortunately, there was no orange sunrise as it was cloudy, but WOW! what a place. Very surreal and peaceful even with lots of other tourists. Well worth a visit. I did not manage to bump into Corinne, at the temple but I did get a strange look from a passing girl...who might have been Corinne? 

Buddhist Temple. Each "bell" has an Buddhist monk inside without a head.

My driver then took me back across the city to go visit the cave. It took about 2 hours' drive, and whilst chatting to the driver about the local food we decided to stop for breakfast.  We stopped at a roadside restaurant and had a local soup called Soto ayam. It is a rice broth dish with spices and chicken. Yum! 

When we arrived at the location for the cave tour there was a car bouncing along the rough track in front of us. My driver mentioned that it was his friend and he had an American customer today...oh oh! Sure enough Corinne was in the other car, and the girl who I had seen at the temple was her too! Oops! 

After some quick introductions we were harnessed up together, and lowered into a cave and spent the next hour or so exploring a massive cave with a beautiful light beam. 

What a great place to explore. My driver was super friendly and very knowledgeable. If you want to do this trip I would use http://jomblangcavetours.com/ again. I arrived back at the hotel midafternoon and then met up with the next arrivals for the HFH trip, Mandy, Jim and Valerie for dinner.

Candi Prambanan Hindu Temple.

During the previous night’s dinner, I made plans with Mandy to visit the Candi Prambanan Hindu temple, which was only 30 minutes by taxi from our hotel. 

Candi Prambanan Hindu Temple

The temple was amazingly ornate and was covered in very detailed carvings, and tourists. Each one of the standing temples had a stone statue inside and a few tourists too! 

As you walked out of the temple you are greeted with this amazing site of umbrellas in the trees!

I loved them!!

So colorful and bright! I love these!

That was only 2 days! I still have to meet the team complete Habit for Humanity team, build a house and I have a week in Bali! This was an amazing trip! So I think it will be in 3 parts, and then 1 for Bali.

Next Blog entry - The build starts and we meet our local family.

Come back for more! 

Cheers,

Kev

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