Building houses outside of Antsirabe, Madagascar, May 19 - 23, 2025

 The local NGO (Non Government Organization or what we in the USA would call a nonprofit organization) had selected two families for the two homes we would work on.  I worked all week on a two room house with the husband and father Augustin working with us.  Unfortunately, I have not figured out the correct way to put these photos, as they are in reverse chronological order.  The first photo shows the house at the end of the week.

 

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The next photos show the entire village, all built by Fuller Center for Housing in conjunction with the local NGO.  The three room house is in the first photo, the two room house I worked on is at the very back end of the row of houses in the second photo (it is just barely visible), and the third photo is the community outhouse with three stalls.  There is a well near by, but no running water, no sewerage system other than the outhouses and no electricity or gas.

Once away from the city center, the roads were dirt roads.  They were so bad that the six kilometer drive took 30 to 35 minutes each morning and afternoon.  Even oxcarts tipped over on the roads.

 

 

Six of us volunteers worked on the two room house, nine volunteers worked on the three room house.

 

After our team left, local people continued to work on the homes.  These are photos sent to me from one of the local volunteers.

 

 

Saturday, the return to Antananarivo only took about seven and a half hours as there was less traffic and we did not make a stop after lunch.  We did see several rural gatherings of people in fine clothes, apparently going to weddings.  We had our last meal dinner Saturday evening at the Hotel Sakamanga restaurant.  A couple people left that night, most people left Sunday.  And I was the last one to leave on Monday.  I flew Ethiopian Air to Addis Ababa.  When I landed, I found my flight to Brussels had been canceled.  I ended up flying to Rome and then to Brussels.  I missed the connecting flight to Chicago, so ended up going to Newark and then Phoenix.  It was six airports, five flights and about 44 hours door to door.   I was tired when I got home.  But it was very rewarding to see people getting a new life with clean and solid homes to raise their families.  They have so little but are so much happier, kinder, hard working and do not complain about their situation.