Tangerine Dreams – Habitat for Humanity

This is the first in a series of posts from my trip to China

Ah, China. Images and moments from my Habitat for Humanity build rotate like a slide show stuck in a perpetual loop in my head. Chickens, tangerines, candy designed to shock and awe (corn candy that tastes like well, corn. Cream of corn at that), watching morning Tai Chi to Ole, Ole, Ole, karaoke, cement beds, mastering squat toilets, meat juice, cucumber facials, breakfast greens, the masons vs. the roofies, fireworks, overwhelming kindness of the village families, and laughter. Lots and lots of laughter.

From the moment that I met the 20 other volunteers on the bus ride to Conghua, at the start of the Habitat for Humanity build, I felt like I was part of a family. Albeit, one big crazy, fantastic, and inspiring family.

Village Life

The village where we spent the week working is surrounded by tangerine orchards, vegetable gardens, lovely green hillsides, and waterfalls and creeks, which sadly were often polluted with trash. Traditional mud brick houses are peppered throughout the village. Chickens and dogs walk freely in and out of houses and along the dirt paths. Our Habitat for Humanity host, Michael Cheng, informed us that during the weekdays, the village mainly consists of elders, very small children, and the women who helped in the orchards. The older children go to a boarding school and the villagers who can work, work in Guangzhou in factories during the week. Everyone returns home on the weekend. A large part of the village income also comes from tangerines; the orchards dominate the hillsides surrounding the village. Given how precious the tangerines are, we were told to never take tangerines from the village unless we are offered them. Needless to say, we were inundated by the generosity of the villagers who gave us so many tangerines that we would often walk around with our hands and pockets overflowing with these delicious treats. Mr. Tao, one of villagers, even threw tangerines at us during a hike one day, in his excitement to share with us.

Getting the Day Started

We stayed at a hotel about an hour from the village that had western amenities, such as a non-squat toilet. Each day, I would unbury myself from my cocoon of bedding that I had built to compensate for the lack of heat in our hotel and would slowly peel myself out of the harder than rock bed to get ready for the day of work. Breakfast was served family style at the hotel. Regular attendees were congee (rice and water), garlic noodles, breakfast greens, some sort of meat-less sesame donut dim sum, and weak tea. Regular guest stars were pork buns, purple yams, corn on the cob, and hard-boiled eggs. On two occasions, Hoa, one of the volunteers, went to the market and brought back additional breakfast treats for us to try, such as buns filled with pork and chicken and buns without meat.

After an hour long bus ride looping up the mountainside to the village each morning, we would start our day stretching in a big group circle, with each of us initiating a stretch. It made me feel like we were having a dance off. Dance party China. You could always count on Abir to call for the groin stretch. I didn’t realize at the time that it was just a prelude to our New Year’s Eve karaoke party with lots of singing and dancing. We were now limbered up and ready to go.

Village Work

Much of the lower and upper half of the village was under construction. The villagers, who provide sweat equity and work on their own homes, have set up temporary rudimentary houses nearby. During our orientation, we learned that we would be working on several houses in the village. The houses are in various states of construction and we would be moving bricks and tying rebar on roofs to prepare for the cement for several homes.

Armed with hardhats and work gloves, we received our work assignments at the start of each day. Over the course of the build, I moved and separated piles of wood, tied rebar on the roof, pounded down dirt and rocks in the floor of a house to level and prep for concrete and helped move 15,000 bricks. The highlight was the day that we moved 8,000 bricks by hand. We had perfected our brick passing/tossing techniques over the past few days and had turned into an efficient brick-moving machine. We had wheelbarrows at our disposal; however the location of the house on this day was not conducive for such things. Between the house and the pile of bricks, you had to walk through a large patch of mud, go up and over a hip-high pile of rocks, cross over a small and dubious looking stream where the villagers had just erected an impromptu bridge for us using a few scraps of wood, and then climb a small, but muddy incline to get to the shell of the house where we were to deposit bricks evenly into the center of each room. Once the human brick-moving chain whirled into motion, we dominated the pile of bricks and each of us had battle wounds to show for our hard work at the end of the day. Man, it felt great!

Lunch and Breaks

Each day lunch was prepared by one of the village families and served at noon. Lunch usually consisted of pork, pork fat, or duck, lunch greens, rice, and either fried eggs or tofu skins. We ate in the main room of a house that was in the last stages of construction; sitting on small orange plastic seats around three tables. We supplied our own dessert and shared candy and snacks that we had acquired at the market the evening before and we would gorge ourselves trying all the strange and sometimes tasty Chinese treats.

After lunch, we would branch off into smaller groups and go for a ramble in the countryside. We trekked to the waterfall, walked through countless tangerine orchards, hiked up bamboo shaded paths, and soaked in the 360 degree vistas spread out before us. The beauty of the countryside was breathtaking and the solitude was much needed. It was during these walks that I felt more alive and re-energized than I had in years.

Evenings

At the end of each workday, we dragged ourselves onto the bus and made our way down the mountain to our hotel. Once clean of the brick dust we had accumulated on our clothes and bodies, we reconvened for a few minutes to reflect on the highs and lows from the day. Though the topic was often serious, it was a great opportunity to share stories from the day and make each other laugh. Though I for one could have done without hearing Kyle and Gordon’s low of finding a rat in their room. Thanks a lot guys!

We ate dinner in various restaurants near the hotel each night. The restaurants all blend together due to similar menus and decor, but in most cases we were seated in a banquet room with two large circular tables. Dinner was also served family style and we purchased our own alcohol. Food came out of the kitchen in a seemingly endless stream and was placed on the lazy Susan in the center of the table. All variations of rice, pork, fish, chicken, greens, noodles, tofu, was paraded before us that week. Dinner was a time where we laughed, shouted, talked over each other, stuffed our faces, and became friends. The energy was always high and the company was fantastic.

Back at the hotel, we were subjected to nightly rounds of really really awful karaoke from the Chinese tourist group staying there. The singing echoed and wormed its way up the staircase and could be heard all the way up on the 5th floor.

At this point, I would pull on multiple layers of clothes, climb back into my cement bed and burrow into my cocoon of blankets, waiting for the karaoke to finish and the fireworks show to begin outside my window. Ready to do it all again the next day.

Up next: Favorite moments from the build