Home Again

Dear DU Brothers:

I just got back to my home in Boulder Colorado after 5 months in Nepal.  I wanted to give you an update on my “tour of duty” in Nepal with Habitat for Humanity, and thank you for your interest and donations.

When Fratkins and Dave Watkinson suggested the DU-Habitat for Humanity Challenge to raise $2100 from Class of ’68, I was surprised and honored.  We figured that this contribution would help fund seven houses in Nepal.  In fact, with the help of some brothers in some other classes we raised $2825 which will support the construction of nine simple, decent houses for poor families in Nepal.  This is absolutely outstanding!  So thank you!   Thanks to all the brothers who participated in this successful effort:   Alex Watson, Bill Wolcott, Bob Coleman, Charles Hupfer, Dave Watkinson, Dick Rose '69, Dwight Allen, Fred Atkins '67, Howard Warren, Jake Elig, James Clark, John Nemeth, Joseph Ely, Smith Freeman, Robin Dial ’67, David Benbow ’67, Dan Howe ’67, Bill Snypes ’70, and anonymous!

Most of my time in Nepal was spent in the Habitat office in Kathmandu doing resource development.  But last week they let me participate in a Habitat Global Village Team house build in Pokhara Neapal.  Pokhara is a small town about 100 miles west of Kathmandu.  The Global Village Team was made up of 16 volunteers from all over the world:  USA, Canada, England, Germany, Australia, Dubai, Singapore.  The team worked for 10 days with our local Habitat home-partners and built three houses.  (You can see pictures of the team and houses on my blog:  http://michaelrabb.blogspot.com.)  These houses represent one type of construction that Habitat does in western Nepal using concrete block and stone. 

In southeastern Nepal, Habitat usually uses bamboo and adobe plaster.  There are also pictures of this type of house construction on the blog.

In October - December, Habitat-Nepal reports that they constructed 525 houses, renovated 35 and implemented training, safe water, and sanitation projects to serve 150 families.  (I attach a copy of Habitat-Nepal’s 2^nd qtr newsletter.) The UNC DU donations will support this ongoing program in Nepal.  Habitat and I thank you for your help!

 Best regards,

 Michael Rabb (Rabbi)

 PS:  Go Heels!  (Jeanne and I have tickets to final four in Detroit and expect to be watching Tarheels!)