The village of Lepa has become a make shift home for fifty volunteers under the Habitat for Humanity organization. The team is mostly made up of New Zealanders and Australians. There are skilled tradesmen, laborers and ordinary individuals that came here to muck in.
Each volunteer has paid their own way to Samoa, leaving their lives to help others in need. I met with the site manager, overseeing the construction of new housing to see their work in action. It is three in the afternoon; the team has been working all day in thirty-degree heat with 90% humidity. It is hot for me standing in the make shift workroom. Volunteers are busy, preparing building material to be taken to a site.
The foreman is cordial, dismissive of his efforts and rather awkwardly agrees to talk about what drove him to come to Samoa. He has a family in New Zealand that he hasn’t seen for a month. Ultimately his family was behind his choice to volunteer. He’s been building for twenty years and built his own home. His family has security and these people don’t. Shelter is a basic need and since this is his skill (building) that’s what he could offer.
That’s all he would say about his own work. It is such a big job. I can sense the enormity of what they’re doing here. So many families need the assistance. ‘Habitat for Humanity’ and their building efforts are helping the East Coast people start over. Volunteer teams build several houses a week.
The further I traveled the coast, the more signs of rebuilding I saw. With so many villages absolutely wiped out, there is a wait list for housing. It is a big job but there is no shortage of goodwill. Habitat for humanity has an equal waitlist of volunteers that are keen come to come up and assist where they can.
It is not all one way giving, many volunteers walk away with so much more from their cultural exchange with the Samoan culture.
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