1) KOJURA VILLAGE - This mud shack has been the Rawal Family's home for six years. Before Dhan got his job at the airport a few hundred meters away, they lived in a remote mountain village which is a ten day walk away.

2) KOJURA VILLAGE - This is how the Rawal Family's new house looked when we first arrived. The contractor put the foundation in the front yard of their old house. (Day 1.jpg)

3) KOJURA VILLAGE - We built the entire house out of brick, mud, and stone using no modern tools or electricity. To move brick, we formed a human chain and passed each brick by hand.

4) KOJURA VILLAGE - By Day 4, we had most of the the weight bearing walls up. For the most part, the 11 Habitat volunteers did all the unskilled grunt work, moving raw materials from place to place. Masons and carpenters did most of the skilled work with a few of us pitching in.

5) KOJURA VILLAGE - Doris Strader shovels more gravel to filter out the sand that we need for cement. The sifter that Habitat orginally gave us was inadequate, so several team members created a "new and improved" model which we titled the "Sift-A-Matic 5000." Over the 9 days we worked on site, the "Screen Team" sifted more than 15 cubic yards of gravel to make the cement that we needed for the house.

6) KOJURA VILLAGE - By Day 6, we had all the weight bearing walls up and installed the hand-crafted wooden door and window frames. We added the tin roof and started working to cover the brick walls and floors with a final coat of concrete.

7) KOJURA VILLAGE - By Day 9, we had finished sanding the wooden window and door frames and started painting the house. We also helped the masons finish the floors and walls with a final smooth coat of concrete. This was our last day of the build.

8) KOJURA VILLAGE - Me standing next to the house I helped to build.

9) KOJURA VILLAGE - Team members from Habitat for Humanity gather with the Rawal Family at the dedication of their new home. Dhan and Gouri are the parents. Their sons are Surendra and Kancho, and daughters are Kamela and Bindu.

10) KOJURA VILLAGE - Age is deceptive in Nepal. This "baby" is actually more than 26 months old. Unable to walk or talk and constantly surrounded by flies, it remained happy and played with team members for hours.

11) SURKHET - Village kids walk to the site to see our progress.

12) SURKHET - A local dance troupe entertains us with native dancing. This year, they were named the top-rated dance group in Nepal. I can see why -- they are amazing.

13) SURKHET - Another night at Linda's room. Corinne Wilkinson, Doug Haas, and Linda Gremillion laugh while playing one-card stud "stupid" poker. The winner won "one billion rupees!" -- a line which soon became the punch-line for hundreds of jokes throughout the trip.

14) BARDIA NATIONAL PARK - A marigold plant and scarecrow stand guard over a farmer's field. The marigolds are enormous in Nepal, growing as high as seven feet tall. For special occasions, the natives string together the blossoms to create a necklace.

15) BARDIA NATIONAL PARK - After our build, we spent some time in the Bardia wildlife preserve for some R&R. While there we saw wild elephants, rhinos, monkeys, vultures, deer, and alligators. We also saw many tiger paw prints, but the tigers remained elusive.

16) NEPALGUNJ - This is a "good traffic day" in Nepalgunj. You should see it during rush hour! (City roads.jpg)

17) WESTERN NEPAL - The shattered hulk of an police truck destroyed by Maoist rebels. The rebels ambushed the truck one night as it was being driven on a highway in between Nepalgunj and Surkhet. All four police officers on board were killed.