Home run

Our correspondent tries to lend a hand at building a home and realises that an effort, however small, goes a long way

Our correspondent tries to lend a hand at building a home and realises that an effort, however small, goes a long way
Last tuesday, I signed off my life to help humanity. As exaggerated as that sounds, it8217;s true. The first thing I had to do as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, a worldwide non-government organisation that helps the weaker sections of society build their own homes, was to sign a bunch of documents that said, 8220;Volunteer hereby expressly and specifically assumes the risk of injury or harm in these activities and releases Habitat from all liability for injury, illness, death or property damage.8221; I figured with my utter lack of any 8216;building8217; experience, the maximum I was going to be asked to do was lift bricks and nobody ever died of lifting bricks. So, I signed safe in the belief that the little act would put me in the same league as former US President Jimmy Carter, a veteran Habitat volunteer.

With the documentary necessities out of the way and armed with my very own volunteer T-shirt, I marched along with the other volunteers to the buses that would take us to the 8220;build site8221;8212;a village in Bhalaswa, on the outskirts of Delhi, flanked by a massive landfill site. The other eager bunch of volunteers were from six different countries8212;the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia and India. The build site, contrary to all my expectations, was an extremely tiny plot precariously located between two existent permanent houses. The 17 houses that Habitat was helping build in Bhalaswa were in keeping with the other permanent structures of the colony. Though the houses that we would help build that day were nothing more than one large room, but to most homeowners that was a rather princely setting, having previously lived in unsafe tin or cardboard structures.

8220;The first thing we will do this afternoon is hoard the material from one end of the build site to the individual house sites. So, let8217;s form a human chain,8221; said Vijay Xalxo, the supervisor to whom I was assigned. So, I got ready with my rubber gloves on. I was standing next to Susan, a Canadian, who kept passing me buckets of what looked like mud slush, it was called 8220;masala,8221; a mixture of cement and sand used to hold bricks in place. 8220;This work is not too hard,8221; I said to Susan. But I had spoken too soon. After about ten minutes of hoarding buckets, my arms felt like they were going to fall apart. I also felt a bit like Camus8217; Sisyphus since it felt like we were passing these buckets for no apparent reason. Passing the bucket seemed to be the task for the day. But I had to find out how the house actually gets built.

After looking around for Vijay who was involved in getting volunteers to lay bricks, I wandered over to the next site, abandoning poor Susan who was doing a stellar job at passing buckets. I asked one of the volunteers at the next site whether I could help, 8220;The foundation of the house has already been laid and we are getting started on the roof so that involves using the masala and cement to ensure that the bricks stay in place,8221; he said. That sounds great, so how can I help, I asked the volunteer in-charge. 8220;Join the human chain and pass bricks to the masons who are doing the roof work,8221; he offered. So, it was back to yet another human chain. During the course of the next few hours, I did manage to help mix cement, do some heavy spadework and lay bricks. Vijay had totally given up on getting me to do any one task for more than 15 minutes so he let me wander around the various sites.

I was just trying to learn how to lay bricks when somebody tapped me on my shoulder. 8220;Thank you for coming all the way to help me build my house,8221; smiled 52-year-old Geeta Devi, the homeowner. I felt a pang of guilt, as I hadn8217;t really done much at all. Determined to seriously do my bit for humanity, I trekked back to the original site and decided to stand in the human chain for as long as it took to get the work done. Unfortunately, I was out of luck. It was pack-up time and everybody was heading back to their buses. Did I learn anything from my experience? Well, now I know I am ill-equipped to build houses but I8217;d willingly volunteer again, because sometimes every hand, even the most inexperienced one, counts.