Habitat for Humanity - Blue Sky Build

[mockbee]

Hello,

I have "known" a lot of you folks for a long time, maybe 12+ years.....wow, and am often entertained or learn something interesting when visiting here. That is the only reason I am posting this here. I am also making requests to friends, family and affiliated community groups.


This summer, my wife and I will spend a week helping build energy-efficient homes in Mongolia for families in need of decent and affordable housing.
Ulaanbaatar, the capital city and home to more than one million people, is the second most polluted city in the world. Their reliance on coal during the long frigid winter and substandard housing in a rapidly expanding urban environment makes it difficult for families to prioritize their work and the education of their children.

During this build I will manage the construction of one of the 30 energy-efficient green homes to be built in Ulaanbaatar. I will be utilizing my experience as an architect and skills from volunteering 20+ hours a week at my local Greater San Francisco Habitat affiliate. Mongolia has many talented and experienced builders but it is through the collaboration with Habitat for Humanity International and the raising of funds that make this build possible. My goal is to raise $1000 that goes directly to Habitat Mongolia for building supplies and local labor. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the build or how to make a donation.

If nothing else I hope you have a wonderful weekend and have learned a bit about Habitat for Humanity and Mongolia.

Thank you for your time and support,

Vale

To donate: http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/participan ... d=93244760
To learn more: http://www.habitat.org/asiapacific/pdfs ... re2012.pdf

[mockbee]

Here is where the above photos are from, an interesting account of some guys trip.....

http://jordyclements.com/sleepwalking-u ... -mongolia/

[mockbee]

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/wanderers- ... -nfoa.html

A short narrative on a Mongolia trek via ger camps....

[SR]

Keep us updated. Well done, sir.

[mockbee]

Keep us updated. Well done, sir.

Wow! SR thank you so much....I'm speechless....

[Artemis]

I hope the trip goes well.

It's really refreshing and inspiring to read about what you are doing.

I look forward to seeing the photos.

[mockbee]

Hey, thanks Artemis!! I really appreciate your support!

[SR]

No, thank you. My level of altrusistic work has been pathetically low in the last decade. I am a HUGE fan of the private sector doing this work and facing the stark reality that government is far too mechanized to get anything done, even if these values were real a priority and not merely propoganda. Too, the action is in direct revolt to so many I loathe who are content to intellectualize these ethical matters (moral imperatives, really) and rest blame on governmental inaction.

You guys aren't heros, I know.....just fine fuckin people I adore who do what needs to be done because the need is self evident.

[SR]

Remember a guy by the name of PF who threw some weight around too back in the day?

[mockbee]

Hey, whatever reason to help out is a good enough one for me.

Honestly, I mostly volunteer because it just feels good and I like being around like minded individuals that way. So one could say it's just self gratification.....

[SR]

Honestly, I mostly volunteer because it just feels good and I like being around like minded individuals that way. So one could say it's just self gratification.....

This very position of the mind and heart is thoroughly considered by Kant. It's beautiful.

[guysmiley]

dude I would love to do that and visit Mongolia. I'm so busy with work now I don't know if it will happen. I have a days off in August. I'm in Asia. Any chances?

[mockbee]

dude I would love to do that and visit Mongolia. I'm so busy with work now I don't know if it will happen. I have a days off in August. I'm in Asia. Any chances?

Hey guysmiley,

If you are interested in doing the build it is from July 1st-7th in Mongolia. There is more information here about what to expect and who to contact if you are really interested: http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/trip_desc. ... de=GV12084

That would be great if you could manage to do it! I believe there are direct flights from Tokyo to Ulaanbaatar.

[mockbee]

Just an update for those interested. I got my travel plans all squared away a while ago with the airlines which was a relief. Also, I have come pretty close to achieving my goal of raising $1000 for Habitat Mongolia. Thanks in no small part to the efforts of people here!

There is about a week left before my full payment is due, but I am very happy with what we have achieved so far.


Thank you!

[Hype]

Really cool Mockbee.

[mockbee]

Really cool Mockbee.

That's AWESOME Adurentibus!!!! Thank you so much!

You guys are bringing tears to my eyes!!

And for the record.... ANR is now ahead of my own family in contributions, if there was a contest.... Jeezus Frikin Christ!



thank you all so much again....

vale

[mockbee]

Could you PM me if your initials are JMN?

Today is crazy with people being so generous and I don't even know who they are.........

People rock today!!!!!

It's not often you can say that or feel that, but today is one of those days............

[Hype]

That sounds like it could be Larry B...

[dali]

[Juana]

Man that fucking rocks man

[SR]

Really cool Mockbee.

That's AWESOME Adurentibus!!!! Thank you so much!

You guys are bringing tears to my eyes!!

And for the record.... ANR is now ahead of my own family in contributions, if there was a contest.... Jeezus Frikin Christ!



thank you all so much again....

vale

Interesting. I like this place. Throw down mockbee.

[mockbee]

Okay, another mystery is afoot.....
Could you PM me if your initials are DB. I will keep you confidential, I just need to thank you.....



Folks, you are all something else, my skin is tingling........

[mockbee]

nice one dali...........

[mockbee]

Mongolians are not very good at towns and Olgii was no exception. The capital of an aimag or province the size of Holland, it felt like an abandoned outpost at world's end. It had an apocalyptic air, as if only a recent catastrophe could possible explain such bleakness.

Mongolia's few towns are administrative gestures, state projects, built within the past fifty years, to provide the facilities of modern life - education, health, and wrestling arenas - for sceptical herdsmen. They are all composed of the same ingredients, as if officials, unfamiliar with towns, were working to a check list: a barren- looking square, a town hall, a theatre, a museum, a school, a hospital, a sports stadium. In their cement drabness the buildings are barely distinguishable from one another. Mix in a few potholes, add a lot of waste ground and a handful of Russian-style tenements in an advanced state of dilapidation, and the desolation is complete.

Flats in the tenements were much sought after by the urban elite for their futuristic facilities like light fittings and flush toilets, though the erratic supply of electricity and water mains made these largely redundant. Most of the population remained unconvinced by the idea of buildings and lived in sprawling suburbs of tents, the round felt yurts of Central Asia known in Mongolia as gers. At this season the bleakness of Olgii was exaggerated by the fact that much of the population had packed up their gers and departed for the summer pastures. The municipal buildings were shuttered and closed, and dead things littered the town: the carcasses of jeeps, the hooves of deceased horses and the bones of butchered sheep. A bitter wind blew relentlessly between the buildings, banging loose doors, hurling scraps of paper into the air and bending the stray pedestrian figures like saplings.

The hotel offered little comfort. A surly caretaker lived in a small anteroom off the lobby like a squatter with his Thermos and his cot. On the stairway murals of Mongolian landscapes were flaking onto the burgundy runners. The door of my room had been smashed open so often that it no longer closed; this was not crime but simply people unused to the idea of locks and keys. The nagging wind whistled through a broken window pane. As the sun set a winter chill settled on the town. It was the end of June but it felt like November. After the vistas of noble grasslands glimpsed from the aeroplane, Ölgii was a bitter arrival, a town built by people who hated towns.


p. 87 In the Empire of Genghis Khan: An Amazing Odyssey Through the Lands of the Most Feared Conquerors in History
Stanley Stewart

[mockbee]

Well the final numbers are in!

My goal was to raise $1000 to go directly to Habitat Mongolia to help build energy efficient homes for the displaced families who are stuck in the polluted wasteland capital of Ulaanbaatar, which already has a million plus people.

I was able to raise $905 with the help of family and friends and ESPECIALLY the help of the people from ANR. Combined you guys contributed $250!!! My god you are AWESOME!!!

I can't believe it, I really can't ................

On a personal note, my parents came through for me but out of my personal friends and extended family I was able to raise $20.........and very few bites of "hey...that sounds cool...." It's not so much the lack of money that disappoints me, just the lack of curiosity and interest. I'm not just picking some random charity and fundraising, I'm fucking leading the construction of a house, utilizing new building techniques, that is half a world away.....

I have learned from all this that you get done what you need to get done, even if it happens in a way that you would never in a million years expect....


Again, thank you so much for your donations, interest and support! Keep rocking and I will keep you updated on my travels..........

The trip is in late June/early July.