Guest Blog by Meghan Longtin

Guest Blog by Brian Juntti
Habitat Staff Member & Global Village Volunteer 

Our morning drive started with the smell of exhaust and the spirited chirp of horns in the scramble of San Juan’s traffic. Before long, we were on weaving country roads headed toward the cloud-covered mountains in the distance.

Guest Blog by Joe Milton
Twin Cities Habitat Construction Volunteer Facilitator 

The sunrise of February 4 rose from the beautiful mountains in the East. The Habitat volunteers woke up with excitement knowing they would make another great stride in building a new home for a wonderful family.

Guest Blog byTom Goodoien
Global Village and JCRC volunteer

Buenas noches to the Habitat for Humanity Global Village volunteers! 

My passion story advice for today and more:

Find a passion that gives your life meaningful purpose…I found it in Habitat for Humanity, an ecumenical movement. A collaborative effort of varied (sometimes ungovernable) volunteers who are habitually, deliberately, regularly kind and generous and want to give back from the abundance they have been given. And serve humanity in a bigger way. ‘Good God I am the luckiest person in the world.’

Guest Blog by by Peter Myers
Global Village Volunteer

Day One of our week in San Juan de la Maguana:

We were greeted at the hotel by our local Habitat coordinator, Nongelys, and our engineer (aka site sup) Roberto. We managed to pack all 18 of our Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity crew into two not-very-large vans for a half-hour ride to an outdoor factory where we'd be making concrete slabs for future houses. It was certainly a new construction technique for most of us ,but after a short training period we got the hang of it.

Guest blog by Tim Campbell

Guest Blog by Kim Welch
Global Village Volunteer

“Everyone has something to give. Everyone has something to gain.” — Jonathan Reckford, CEO Habitat for Humanity International, Vietnam 2018

Friday arrived and there was renewed energy inside us all. Could it really be our last build day together? There was so much more we wanted to do. More we wanted to give. The aches and pains our bodies felt earlier seemed gone.

Guest Blog by Jack Frangipane
Global Village Volunteer

Several hundred ducks pass under the Muong Daigre bridge at exactly 4:30 p.m.  A man in a small canoe gently guides them to a new location. Like the ducks, it’s one of our daily rituals when we  disembark and embark our bus so it  can safely cross this bridge where we meet it on the other side to and from the house sites. Just another wonderful surprise here in Dong Thap. 

Guest blog by Erica Lumley

We have arrived at the mid-week point of our build. Four members of the Twin Cities Habitat team have merged with 6 members of the Flat Iron, Colorado team to build a home for Chu Duc and Co Hai.

Duc and Hai are two very kind and grateful elderly people raising two grandsons and supported primarily by their eldest son who earns (78 USD) per month.

Guest blog by Barry Mason
Twin Cities Habitat Board Emeritus & Global Village Volunteer

"With tools we build houses. With love we build homes"

These words grace the tee shirts we were given upon arrival in Cao Lanh, Dong Thap Province and, indeed, these words resonate with each of the 200+ volunteers at this week’s Vietnam Big Build 2018.