Sorry for the short radio silence. Our last day with Habitat came and went and yesterday was a travel day and all I wanted to do was space out and read Ready Player One (thanks Atul for sharing the addiction) when all was said and done.
Our last build day had it all: mortar slinging, Queen Mothers dancing, k-20 shooting, kids breakdancing, dust up-kicking ... oh you get the picture.
Yesterday morning it was like we'd forgotten everything we'd learned. Gerard (who finally admitted he wasn't a Gerhard after it'd been spelled wrong all over the whole time), Ed and Paul and I only were given this small 10 foot wide outer wall to finish via scaffold. We were sloppy and just couldn't get the wall smooth. Took us 2 hours to do what had been done for days in an hour.
We went to break and kind of felt useless. Not a good way to finish. Then we saw Mark had done the upper part of this massive outer wall (maybe 25 feet) in the same amount of time and on a scaffold. That got us determined. So with 45 mins left, before we had to leave early to get ready for our closing ceremony, we did what Americans do best: mediocrity followed by a grand BIG finish.
We grabbed Kareem and new addition and local Peace core volunteer Raven, Ata Papa (aka Vincent) and Gerard mixed up a massive batch of mortaah and a-slinging we went. I had Mark's über trowel and it was like it all came together. We attacked the bottom part of the huge wall, all 25 feet wide and 10 feet tall (thanks to Kareem and Ed's height); done in 45 mins flat. Now that was an accomplishment.
From there the grand celebration began. They'd set up these huge speakers connected to a desktop with an old school winamp setup and 3 canopies. At first it was like the start of a post war treaty. Humjibre locals under one canopy, the chief under another, and obroni (white people) under the third with a big space in the middle. No one spoke ... till the jams came on. Then the locals started grooving and when people groove, us obroni join in. Every piece of the ceremony where our Habitat head spoke before the chief had a dance off musical interlude between speeches. Definitely how all celebrations should be.
Ribbons were cut, the kids showed us some awesome local dancing which looked like the peppermint twist and many a picture were taken. And the chief smiled. All we needed was the crane to rise the camera above the dancing and the swirling dust and grab a shot of jungle and blue sky for the Hollywood close.
Fast forward the Habitat hugs and goodbyes as we all went our separate ways and somehow KC and I are back at the coast, shells collected, feet dipped and back for adventure to a high walk through coastal jungle canopy.
Fade to black. Cue Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.
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