Habitat Global Village Build, India

Monayampettai, Tamil Nadu, India – 2010. This Habitat for Humanity India project site was a small agricultural village called Monayampettai located a few miles north of Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu. The village depends entirely on agriculture. We worked on three houses that had been partially built by the Government but funding had run out before they could be completed. Habitat for Humanity India and an Indian NGO called Rural Education and Action for Liberation joined together to complete the houses. We also worked on the start of a new house which was a Habitat project.

Welcoming ceremony put on by the villagers

Welcoming ceremony and introductions

This is one of the four houses that we worked on (the “Widows” new house)

Inside the Widows current house – two rooms, mud walls, dirt floor & thatch roof

We dug this trench for the water pipe

Adding a room to the back of another house we worked on. We moved the blocks, sand, rocks and mortar.

A pit for the septic tank – 4’x4’x 6’ deep in heavy sticky clay

Adding a room to the back of another house we worked on. We moved the blocks, sand, rocks and mortar.

Sifting sand

Carrying sand to the roof

Laying bricks for the fount porch

A “good luck” loonie was embedded in each of the three houses with an accompanying ceremony

Offerings of good luck for the new house

A “good luck” loonie was embedded in each of the three houses with an accompanying ceremony

This scarecrow is to ward of envious looks from passersby. A common thing a most building sites

The Widows house showing some progress by the end of week one

This was another house we worked on – a duplex

The Widows house showing some progress by the end of week one

This was another house we worked on – a duplex