so many camels, so little time

As I've hinted at in past posts, there's a very good reason Petra is a World Heritage Site. UNESCO goes into great detail on Petra's "Outstanding Universal Value." Personally, I was just glad it was as amazing in person as the photos and movie footage it's featured in.

The pleasant walk into The Rose-Red City first provides a view of ancient silica quarries, partially-carved tombs (which we jokingly referring to as "art school"), and Djinn blocks. The latter, freestanding cube-shaped monuments to spirits from Arab folklore, give the site a Flintstonian feel.

the walk in

the Marriott crew poses at "art school"

Rawan does her best Wilma Flintstone impression

The next section is The Siq, a narrow passage through the mountains leading to the carved city of Petra. Exploring the colors and textures of the sandstone canyon was one of my favorite parts of the visit. You can see my full homage to this natural wonder in my last post "Pet Rock."

entering The Siq

rockin' out

One hazard was the horse-drawn buggies designed for those unwilling or unable to make the walk. They'd come zooming by with little warning, although after a while we began listening for thundering hooves echoing off the canyon walls.

don´t get trampled by lazy tourists in buggies

At the end of The Siq, the carved facade of The Treasure emerges. This is the iconic view you see most often, but is no less spectacular to behold.

iconic Petra

Cue the Indiana Jones theme song!

The Treasury

oktapodi often gets mistaken for Indiana Jones

Unfortunately you can't go inside The Treasury, known in Arabic as Al-Khazna, but you can wander around and admire the carved facade. Crafted by the Nabatean civilization in 60BC, the structure is actually a gigantic tomb, covered in Greek-influenced columns and carvings.

Corinthian columns

Hellenic warriors

loving how the light moves across Al-Khazna

The scene in the Treasury plaza is a chaotic pastiche of camera-wielding tourists, camel-wielding touts, and wheelbarrow-wielding maintenance men.

Captain Jack Sparrow working the Petra crowd

in front of The Treasury

Lindsay, Rawan, oktapodi, Mark, Aftab

Treasury Plaza

cameltoe

obligatory cheesy tourist shot with fake guards

We continued down the Street of Facades towards the Theater, which was also under renovation. Plenty of cool stuff to see along the way, though.

lightshow

Rawan photographs Lindsay

mellow touts

festively-attired donkeys

Street of Facades

The fact that the Theater was off-limits didn't stop Aftab, who hopped the fence to take a better picture. I'm happy to note he didn't end up on an episode of "Locked Up Abroad."

renovations at The Theater

Aftab behind bars

There was no shortage of touts trying to sell us camel rides or trinkets, but they weren't nearly as aggressive as I'd expected. Some of them, like this young girl who approached us with an armful of necklaces, were surprisingly friendly.

vendors

touts awaiting their next customers

hey, shouldn't you be in school?

We weren't able to stick around for the hike up to the Monastery, as a member of our troupe had to get back to Amman for a flight. (A handy excuse just as the heat was starting to crank up.) But the stroll back through the Siq rewarded us with a delicious color show.

more spectacular lighting changes on the walk back

breathtaking

"a rose-red city half as old as time"

Then, sadly, back to reality.

annnnnnd back to the cheese!

time for souvenirs

And thus concludes the lengthy curation of my many-many Petra pics. Check out the links below for other posts and allllll the photos uploaded from our Jordan travels. Next up, our side trip to Beirut!

For more fabulous travel snaps check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

RELATED LINKS:
* Photo Friday: Pet rock
* Photo Friday: unexpected Petra
* Photo Friday: waking up in Petra
* Wanderfood Wednesday: epicurean despot
* Teambuilding in Amman: the hills are alive
* In my Dead Sea bowling shoes
* Photo Friday: Middle East teaser
* browse all Jordan posts
* browse all Jordan pics
* browse all Petra pics

Petra is most famous for its Nabatean-carved structures like the Treasury and the Monastery ...and we'll get to those in a future post. But even before the Treasury emerges from beyond the canyon walls of the Siq, visitors are treated to a spectacular display of sandstone colors and textures.

It's a photographer's wet dream.

I started to see faces everywhere in the charismatic rock formations.

The gorgeous hues seem to shift with each passing minute. We lucked out with a sunny morning, and left the site just as the afternoon heat began to seriously bake everything.

More to Petra pics to come! I'm just getting warmed up. Here's the rest of what I've uploaded so far. Meanwhile, for more fabulous travel snaps check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

RELATED POSTS:
* Photo Friday: unexpected Petra
* Photo Friday: waking up in Petra
* Wanderfood Wednesday: epicurean despot
* Teambuilding in Amman: the hills are alive
* In my Dead Sea bowling shoes
* Photo Friday: Middle East teaser
* browse all Jordan posts
* browse all Jordan pics (still a work in progress)
* browse all Photo Friday posts

hey, even touts need to check Facebook from time to time

light and dark and dark and light

Yes, I'm teasing out the Petra pictures, little by little... You know you love it. Keep begging for more! Meanwhile, check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

RELATED POSTS:
* Photo Friday: waking up in Petra
* Wanderfood Wednesday: epicurean despot
* Teambuilding in Amman: the hills are alive
* In my Dead Sea bowling shoes
* Photo Friday: Middle East teaser
* browse all Jordan posts
* browse all Photo Friday posts

Petra is one of those mystical-magical places that, even with our modern jaded overexposure, never fails to amaze. A small group of us had the opportunity to take a quick trip here after our meetings, and I came away with a small mountain of photos. (Imagine your complete and total lack of surprise.)

Today's first batch is just from the first few moments of waking up at the Petra Marriott, which is about 10 minutes away from the archeological site. Even the views from our room were stunning. We'd arrived late the previous night and hadn't had a chance to appreciate the delicious vistas of the Petra Valley.

Normally waking up before sunrise is not my jam. I got over that. The baklava tray helped.

The misty-mountain-hop quality of the light...

Gradually began to warm up...

It always amazes me to see plants growing under such austere conditions.

Bit of a lonely outpost, but the view beats cubeville anyday!

Just a few minutes' difference made dramatic changes in the scenery...

Oktapodi is awake and ready to see Petra!

Er mah gerrrrrrd, soooooo many more pics of Petra to come. Meanwhile, for more fabulous travel snaps, check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

Also, I'm still working on restoring the site after our recent crashitude, so not all pics have been uploaded and a few bits & pieces need to be tidied up. Do peruse the other Jordan blog posts, though! And thanks for your patience.

[Hey, waitaminute, it's not Wednesday! Le sigh. Some of you may have noticed that the site's been down for over a week. Massive server issues last week. Special shoutout to my crack tech team -- ehm, that would be Mark -- for pulling some incredibly long hours and working tirelessly to get everything restored. I'd say we're about 95% back on track but there's still a few bumps to work out. Thanks for your patience! And now, only a week plus one day later than I'd intended to post, it, onward to the latest Wanderfood Wednesday...]

Before coming to Jordan, I was aware of -- and, I thought, prepared for -- legendary Arabic hospitality. Boy was I wrong! The food was amazing, without exception. And even an allegedly small snack got turned into a copious multi-course feast. These people don't mess around. And they don't take no for an answer.

Y'all know I suffer for my art, but the dinner that capped off our team outing in Amman tested even my limits. It was redonkulous.

I blame these two:

Adnan, our gracious host

the lovely and talented Rawan, our handler

After a brief tour of Amman, the team got dropped off at the Amman Marriott. Apparently the restaurant we were headed to didn't serve alcohol, so we were instructed to get liquored up at the piano bar. Amidst the snark teambuilding banter, the strains of various showtunes floated up from the lounge. Also a little Metallica. Lemme tell ya, you just haven't lived until you've heard "Nothing Else Matters" as interpreted by a Jordanian piano player in a long red dress.

f'shizzle

Onward to the restaurant! Rajeen is a phenomenal Armenian restaurant located in the heart of Amman's entertainment district. Siderant: Why are there no Armenian restaurants in DC?? In a town that has more Ethiopian joints than Addis, and even covers cuisines like Burmese and Afghan, why no Armenian? That's just criminal.

As with most meals in Jordan, the feast started with a number of small plates, dips, and awesome bread.

We didn't order off the menu, so I must confess that I have no idea what most of this stuff was. It was just om-nom-nommy. And the dishes kept on coming!

With a brief stop for this digestive...

Annnnnnd then a whole batch of desserts. Ooof.

Bonus points to any foodies out there who can correctly identify any of these dishes. All I know is that we ate till we nearly exploded. It was deliciously grueling.

Overheard on the ride back from our team dinner in Amman:
"There's no democracy when it comes to food in Jordan!"

Epicurean despot. It's not only a great name for a band (or maybe a Food Network show) it's also how they do things in Jordan.

For more mouthwatering travel food photos, check out Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday.

roadside views from the Dead Sea to Amman

After a long day of meetings, we were treated to a team outing in downtown Amman. First stop: souvenirs! Because nobody can come back from a biz trip without some junk for the family and the office, right?

someday we hope to look as fabulous as this mud model

We stopped at a souvenir stand on the side of the road between the Dead Sea and Amman. While our lovely hostess helped each teammate haggle their way through bargain purchases, we had a chance to check out the surroundings. On one side, a ramshackle tent village. On the other, gorgeous mountains. From time to time a small child would emerge, moving a scraggly herd of goats down the highway.

a different side of Jordan

goatherder-in-training

this little girl seemed puzzled that I was taking her picture...

...but her little brother totally got into it

And onward to Amman! Since we'd arrived at the Dead Sea in the dead of night, this was our first chance to appreciate the Jordanian landscape. The elevation differential was ear-popping.

beautiful countryside en route to Amman

Jordan was much hillier than I expected

room with a view

Once in Amman, we drove past some interesting neighborhoods and notable structures, without much chance to explore beyond what we could see from the windows of the van. That's the downside to being part of a big group, and part of the reason we prefer independent travel. Still, we probably wouldn't found ourselves in Amman otherwise, and it was a nice overview of a surprisingly beautiful city.

We did stop and get out of the van to check out the Citadel and Roman ruins. The site was closed, but we got a chance to see it from the outside, and got some lovely hilltop views of Amman while the evening call to prayer rang out over the city.

Amman Citadel and ruins

eery green lighting

Amman at dusk

yay team

We also had a quick pitstop at the Roman Amphitheater, which looks absolutely gorgeous at night and would be a kickass place to see a concert.

Mark thinks AquaSpank should play here

Overall, I really liked Amman's quirky narrow streets and hilly landscape. The teambuilding continued at an amazing Armenian restaurant, but that's the subject of an upcoming WanderFood Wednesday post so stay tuned!

three cheers for biz trips to unexpected places

Arabic graffiti <3

RELATED LINKS:
* browse all Amman pics
* browse all Jordan pics uploaded so far
* check out past WanderFood Wednesday posts (I haven't done one of these in a while and it's long overdue!) 

Every time I mentioned to someone that we were headed to Jordan, they insisted on two activities: 1) float in the Dead Sea, and 2) visit Petra. We did make it to Petra, which is the subject of an upcoming post. Today, I bring you our adventures in floatitude. And mud.

best cure for jetlag is Turkish coffee


...served by this guy!

I traveled to Jordan for a work meeting, hosted by the Jordan Valley Dead Sea Marriott Resort & Spa. Not too shabby. (Have I mentioned that I love my job?) We arrived in the middle of the night, which made it hard to appreciate the hotel's proximity to the Dead Sea. After some strong Turkish coffee the next morning, we were delighted to find out that the Dead Sea was RIGHT THERE. If this had been a typical beachfront property, we could have seen the lapping waves from our balcony. However, at the Dead Sea things are a bit different.

way below sea level, but still not AT the sea

For starters, the hotel is already below sea level, and then you have to go DOWN to get to the sea itself.

beach slippers for all!

ready to brave the rocks, in my Dead Sea bowling shoes

Dead Sea shoreline

If that weren't weird enough, the shoreline is rocky, not sandy. Once you get close to the water it's pretty rough on bare feet. The hotel conveniently provides its guests with "beach slippers." Mmmmm, bowling shoes in a foreign country, how unexpected!

Mark floats vertically

circus seals

Floating in the Dead Sea is a surreal experience. Its hypersalinity makes you bob awkwardly on the surface; you literally can not sink. It's goofy. (I felt like a circus seal.) Do not get any in your mouth if you can help it; the taste is indescribably harsh and mineral-y. Plus it's got this bizarre slippery texture that makes it seem like you're swimming in motor oil. And heaven help you if you've got any cuts or even scratches. After a few minutes my leg started to burn and I realized I had a microscopic scrape on my shin. Not something I'd noticed before getting in the water, but the Dead Sea did not let me off the hook so easily. Owee!

where HASN'T oktapodi been?

Right, so after a few minutes we'd had enough of that. Floating in the Dead Sea, check. The other must-do is coating oneself in Dead Sea mud, reknown for its therapeutic properties. Mark was a little suspicious, but of course I dove right into the clay jar of mud sitting at the shoreline. I didn't go quite so far as to coat my entire body, just my face and arms. Mudtastic! I could feel it tingling on my skin, which was fun, but it turned out to be  pretty tenacious stuff to remove. Thankfully the hotel provides a nearby shower to rinse and scrub off. I'm all in favor of getting dirt under my fingernails, but I wasn't too keen on showing up for my work meetings in blackface.

oktapodi approves of this business trip

golden hour

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the hotel's lovely infinity pools and gorgeous landscaping. Not a bad way to slough off the jetlag.

Full disclosure: most of you know that I work for Marriott, and since this was a work trip it was paid for by Marriott. But, as always, my opinions are my own!

RELATED LINKS:
* Jordan Valley Dead Sea Marriott Resort & Spa
* browse all Dead Sea pics
* browse all Jordan posts

I'm waaaaaaay behind on posting pics and stories from last month's trip to Jordan & Lebanon  -- due in small part to a technology snafu that turned into a mild panic this week --  but I'm back on task and should have some goodies for you soon. Meanwhile I didn't want anyone to abandon hope, so here are a few quick teaser photos from our delightful accommodations at the Jordan Valley Marriott Resort & Spa.

Views from our room by night...

...and by day (that's the Dead Sea in the hazy background of the second photo)

And just for kicks, one from Petra, because who couldn't use a little cameltoe on a Friday?

More to come, including our adventures in Beirut. Stay tuned!

grrrrrrlpower!

Right now we're on a long layover in Heathrow Airport, waiting on a connecting flight to Jordan for a work trip. So I thought I'd commemorate International Women's Day with a pic of just a few of my favorite, fierce, international women. This photo always makes me smile; it was taken after we finished build week on our Habitat trip to Mozambique in October. The physical strength shown here is surpassed only by the strength of the relationships we build during that trip. In fact, we're going to visit Hanine, in the middle, in Beirut next week after my work in Jordan is done. Stay tuned for more pics & stories, and meanwhile take a moment today to celebrate the fierce women in your world!

RELATED LINKS:
* A love note to Team Pedro 
* browse all Moz posts
* browse all pics from Mozambique and South Africa

It's not quite a milestone birthday, but it's one of those halfway-to-a-milestone birthdays, and definitely time to celebrate! Recently I realized I've done several oktapodi retrospectives, but have never properly featured my two-legged travel partner-in-crime. Mah bad!! Please allow me to remedy that with a heaping handful of my favorite Mark pics.

party on, Wayne (Rio 2012)

We've had more than our share of epic travel adventures...

one if by land, two if by sea (Stinson Beach 2007)

Playarific (Burning Man 2008)

Malaysian beachy goodness (Sipadan 2008)

oktapodi and Mark attempt some early-morning cheer (Kinabatangan River 2008)

bellinis! (Venice 2009)

a great place to ponder life's mysteries (Furlo Gorge 2009)

if I completely empty my suitcase, this might fit (Jesi 2009)

hoping not to get struck by lightning (Assisi 2009)

yay, castles! (Piobbico 2009)

Rocca Montale (San Marino 2009)

The ol' Mark and the Sea (San Diego 2010)

devilish dudes in the Mothership (Burning Man 2010)

stuffed shrooms, om nom nom (Middleburg 2012)

Mark and I have been together a reeeeeeally long while, which means he's been a good sport as I've dragged him into odd circumstances, more times than I can count...

soaking with my crazy aunt in the Jacumba hot springs (San Diego 2010)

cooking doro wat with great friends in the middle of nowhere (Kamloops 2011)

putting up with my gardening insanity (San Diego 2012)

making art for Chipenhe village kids (Mozambique 2012)

And of course no Mark retrospective would be complete without some pics of him in full rawkstar mode. If you want to hear him live, be sure to check out his band AquaSpank for show detes and tons more pics.

Happy Birthday, MWS! Ah lurve yew!

festival <3 (Osyrusfest 2009)

RELATED LINKS:
* browse all Mark pics
* browse all Mark + Sonia pics
* AquaSpank site  and Facebook page
* aforementioned oktapodi features:
Hankering | My night with oktapodi | Showing your O face | To oktapodi with love

It's Carnaval time! Zoinks, it took me forever to get all the pics posted from our Feb 2012 trip, partly because there were soooooooo many of them, and partly because... well, life gets in the way...

Now seems like a great time to look back on this epic trip, which was primarily a celebration of my 40th birthday. (Mark tried getting them to move the party back to November, but alas it didn't work.) And why not ease the pain of this big milestone by hitting the biggest party on the planet? Brazilians know how to do it right, that's for sure.

Mangueira Samba School performs at Rio Scala Ball

In addition to attending a traditional samba ball, we splashed out on some fabulous front-row seats to the parades in the Sambadrome. Unreal. Gigantic floats, elaborate costumes, and nonstop smiling-singing-dancing from every single person in the parades and in the stands. For like eight hours straight.

warrior tigers

are we having fun or what?

sing it, sister

My siblings contributed to the birthday celebration by booking us a scuba junket in Arraial do Cabo. While it wasn't the most fabulous diving we've ever done, it was nice to get out of the city for a bit, and the scenery was divine.

and life is good

We also managed to fit in a few standard touristy things, like...

taking a trip up Corcovado to see The Big J

checking out the jaw-dropping views from Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar)

and loving life on Ipanema Beach

Choosing just a handful of "best of" pics was almost painful! There were just so many beautiful shiny things as far as the eye could see. (See below for links to the rest of the photos, as well as all the blog posts from that trip.) Someday it'd be great to go back and see Rio in its natural state -- y'know, without a troupe of singing and dancing M&Ms crammed onto the subway at all hours of the day and night -- but it sure was fun to experience it in all its partyrific glory.

For more fabulous travel snaps, check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

RELATED LINKS:
* browse all Brazil pics
* browse all parade pics
* browse all Arraial do Cabo pics
* browse all Corcovado pics
* browse all Pão de Açúcar pics
* read all Brazil posts

It's time for part three! If you missed them, catch up on the WHO and WHAT. Now it's time for the WHY.

Why did we travel across the globe to spend a week slinging cinderblocks in the middle of Mozambique? Here's a hint: it wasn't really about building houses.

Nosta and family: Juliao, Sheila, Celeste, Eclipson

Sure, Habitat for Humanity's mission is to provide affordable houses with those who lack adequate shelter. (Notice it says "with" and not "for.") But, let's face it, there are much more efficient ways to build a house than schlepping in a bunch of foreigners with little-to-no construction experience.

Nosta and Felixmina

We were there to participate in the transformative experience of giving these two women and their families a second chance. And while it takes money to do that -- undying thanks to the many folks who sponsored us and made this journey possible -- it's so much more powerful to be there in person.

Working side by side with these women and their neighbors, each step of the way...

Getting to know their children...

Hearing their amazing stories and songs of gratitude...

And, of course, coming back and talking about it nonstop. :)

This is not the same as writing a check to some faraway organization, not by a long shot.

opening ceremony

We were greeted by Nosta and Felixmina and their neighbors on Day 1 of the build, where they immediately started singing and dancing. Not knowing any better, and in fact not entirely sure who exactly it was that we were there to help, the team gamely joined in. We'd eventually get the hang of this, as singing & dancing (and not quite being sure what the heck was going on) would be recurring themes for the week.

Stef and one of the neighborhood ladies

Peg and Nosta

With the help of Mama Ida's translations, the families and masons gave brief speeches thanking us for "leaving your beautiful homes and families" and coming out to the middle of nowhere to help. Truly lump-in-your-throat sentiments, and we hadn't even been there an hour! Another theme for the week: surprisingly intense emotions.

Master Mason Pedro and his team

After working alongside Nosta and Felixmina and the ladies of Chipenhe village -- the village is composed of almost only women, as the men have mostly perished from civil war or AIDS or malaria, or have gone to work in the mines of South Africa -- we got to celebrate alongside them at the dedication ceremonies.

dedication celebration

It was here, for the first time all week, that we heard some emotion come from these stoic, tough women. Felixmina's concern every time she saw rain clouds, because without a roof her son Alvaro's school books would get wet. Nosta's yearning to be reunited with her fifth child, who ran away to live with his aunt because the housing conditions were so bad. And through it all, incredible gratitude at the chance to start over, at the opportunity that comes from having a safe secure place to live, at the responsibility of homeownership.

Felixmina and Alvaro

It costs about $3K to build a house in rural Mozambique. But when fourteen strangers join a community to generate true empowerment, it's priceless.

blessing the house

It's taken a while to capture the words and pictures from this trip, much longer than I expected. It's both a blessing and a curse that I don't operate under any external deadlines on this blog. Your indulgence, dear reader, is appreciated. More pictures have recently been posted: the inspiring and truly fabulous ladies of Chipenhe village, the children, and some scenes from village life. Or check out all Xai-Xai pics in one big batch.

Believe it or not, there are still a few more African tales to tell, so stay tuned for the last few dispatches from our adventure. Happy New Year!

RELATED LINKS:
* A love note to Team Pedro
* Work is love made visible
* browse all Moz posts
* browse all pics from Mozambique and South Africa

For those of you keeping score, I'm still working on the final installment of my three-part series. (Check out the WHO and WHAT posts, if you've missed those, and WHY is coming, I promise!) But in light of last week's horrificness in Connecticut, it seemed a good time to showcase some of the beautiful children of Chipenhe Village.

These kids were our constant companions during our week on the Habitat build site, and part of our assignment was to interact with them. This was pretty much the easiest task we were given... they were friendly, adorable, entertaining, and just all-around fabulous kids.

They helped out around the worksite...

Delighted in having their picture taken...

Of course, loved them some oktapodi...

They greeted us every morning and said goodbye each evening, by running after the van and frantically cheering...

They played with whatever materials were on hand...

Enjoyed some of the supplemental entertainment we brought with us...

And generally seemed to make the most of just being kids

To say they touched our hearts is the understatement of the century.

This is just the tip of the iceberg... of course there are tons more photos of these little guys. (Warning: somebody's been having a bit too much fun with some new Lightroom presets/filters!)

For more fabulous travel snaps, check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

RELATED LINKS:
* Work is love made visible
* A love note to Team Pedro
* browse all Mozambique posts
* browse all photos from Mozambique and South Africa

Today we take a short break from Moz posts to bring you a few pics from the London Wonderground.

freaks and a geek

Southbank Centre in the moonlight

Open May through September at Southbank Centre, this "marvellous new festival of cabaret, circus and sideshow" was set up right behind our hotel, and we happened to catch one of the last nights. By chance, as we strolled along after dinner one eve, the Friday Night Freakshow was about to begin. Oh, what luck!

freakshow next to The Eye? yes, please!

let the show begin

Emceed by the salty Miss Behave, this fabulous concoction of vaudeville acts kept us well entertained into the wee hours.

Miss Behave

Kalki Hula Girl

Gypsy Wood

This was one of those magical moments of travel synchronicity that we couldn't possibly have planned better.

score!

Back to our regularly-scheduled Mozambique posts soon! And more London pics/posts to come.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in union?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life.
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret...

Work is love made visible.

-- Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet

I've written a bit about the WHO, now it's time to dive into the WHAT.

Nuts & bolts: 14 people (plus a handful of Master Masons and the community of Chipenhe Village) built two houses in five days.

Just chew on that for a minute. It's a pretty amazing thing.

old house, new house

Even more amazing, the way this project was managed meant we had slightly different tasks to do every day. The essential rhythm was the same: pile into the van after breakfast, head over to the work site and unload the water and snacks in a shady spot, do whatever Pedro directed us to do until lunchtime, sit around and discuss any number of topics (including Kahlil Gibran) while eating something delicious prepared by the village ladies, and power through the afternoon till the van came to pick us up. For the most part, we functioned as human cement mixers, combining sand and concrete and water into the versatile paste known as masa.

Despite the consistent rhythm, though, each day had a slightly different theme to it.

the starting point

Day One: getting the hang of it, and putting up walls
The basic foundation was already there for us. After a brief, heartwarming welcome ceremony, we got to work mixing masa and laying cinderblocks. It was a little awkward for most us who were much more comfortable in front of a computer than actually working with our hands. But through the patience of Pedro (it's so eeeeeeasy, guys!), extra translations from Sara, and some fill-in-the-blanks knowledge from Sean (the only one of us with actual construction experience), we muddled our way through.

so many cinderblocks, so little time

By midday we'd managed to get about five of the ten rows constructed, plus some of the interior walls. Every once in a while one of the masons would correct our work and we'd have to rip out a crooked block or fill in more masa. But we were starting to feel like we were getting the hang of it.

not bad for a day´s work

By the end of day one, it seemed as though we might actually end up with a house at the end of the week! Monday was completely exhausting, but it's not often you see such a tangible product of your efforts.

Day Two: da roof, da roof...
Maybe it was luck, maybe excellent planning, but in any case Tuesday turned out to be only a half day of work, plus a half day of beach R&R. This was super-handy, as most of us were completely drained from the previous day's exertions. I don't know that I could have made it through another full day of toiling in the hot sun. But we didn't have to!

Sean and Pedro set the roof beams

Day Two was all about setting the roof beams. This involved wrapping up strands of rebar, pouring slightly saucier masa into a mold, and tying the whole operation up to let it dry.

rebar into roof beams

It wasn't immediately clear to most of us how this operation was going to work. Happily, we did as told and everything came together. By the end of Tuesday, the house looked like this:

Day Three: MacGyvering our way towards the finish line
Hump Day on the worksite was probably our best day. The morning consisted of setting the rest of the blocks on which the roof itself would sit. I had one of those "I love my life!" moments where I found myself on a scaffolding, in the middle of nowhere, in Africa, working with a bunch of people I'd come to know and love, building a house. Like ya do.

lovin' it

Mark saws cinderblocks for the roof

As if that weren't fun enough, that afternoon Lacye somehow got us into a series of wheelbarrow races, MacGyvering a ramp in the process, to prove a point to Pedro. I'm not entirely sure how it all started, but the result was an exercise in teamwork and hilarity that became my all-time favorite moment of the week.

wheelbarrow races

Lacye and Hanine pour the floor

too bad Team Pedro never has any fun

By the end of the third day, the house was ready for the roof. And as an extra bonus, because it was Lisa's birthday, we had a little extra celebration that night.

Day Four: things fall apart, sometimes
Our best day was followed immediately by the toughest. Thursday was hot, with a dusty wind blowing grit and sandblasting our faces. (It reminded me a lot of sandstorms on the Playa, but without the RV to hunker down in for shelter.) Several folks weren't feeling well throughout the day. The week -- and maybe the previous night's celebrations -- were catching up with us.

That day's tasks involved mastering the difficult arts of masa-flinging and wrestling with The Spackelizer.

Mark flings

Masa-flinging requires scooping just the right quantity and consistency of slurm onto your float. Too much and your arm soon tires. Too little and you have to break the rhythm to reload often. Similarly, the masa needs to be thin enough to allow the correct velocity of the fling, but thick enough to stick to the walls when flung. It's not as easy as Mark's making it look in the above photo. We were tasked with covering all interior walls with patches of flung masa, which then got sanded down into a smoother consistency. Hoo boy.

spackelizing the exterior

Meanwhile, the outside chore required coating the exterior in a kind of stucco-finish. This meant getting intimate with a nasty little device we called The Spackelizer.

pouring masa into The Spackelizer

higher altitude spackelization

A thinner, soupier version of masa gets poured into The Spackelizer, which you then crank like a salad shooter. Masa sprays out in irregular bursts, and you must ensure you're coating the surface with just enough but not too much, otherwise you get clumps and you incur the Wrath of Pedro. (OK, not wrath, he'd just come over and kinda shake his head sadly. But it was heartbreaking to let him down, even just a little.) This got particularly challenging toward the top of the house, which necessitated holding The Spackelizer at or above eye-level and cranking till your arm was about to fall off. Goodtimes.

smooooooooove

Nevertheless, despite a challenging day, we ended up with a smooth house inside and out. And one more day to go!

Day Five: dedication
TGIF! There was still plenty to do on this last day, including decorating the house with pipecleaner flowers and construction paper chains. Festive, without overdoing it.

decorating Nosta´s house

We knew it was a special day when our lunch contained meat in addition to the usual vegetable/curry stew. Deluxe!

this beautiful photo was taken by Hanine

And around us, everyone was getting washed and dressed and ready for the party.

I'll spend a bit more time covering the dedication ceremony in my next post (about the WHY). It was a moving celebration of gratitude and possibility. A phenomenal way to endcap the week's hard work.

the community blesses the house

At the end of the week, we left behind two houses meant to last 25 years or more. I've done plenty of volunteer projects in my lifetime, and most of them provided some form of do-goodery gratification. But this was satisfying in a completely different way. Stay tuned for further reflection on the women and their families, whose lives will be changed when they move into these houses.

Meanwhile, what do you plan to accomplish with YOUR next five days?

RELATED LINKS:
* view the complete set of photos of our Habitat build
* Photo Friday: thankful for...
* browse all Mozambique posts
* browse all photos from Mozambique and South Africa