Habitat for Humanity's Global Village

It was March 3rd and the forecast was cloudy with a high of 80. We were getting rain storms North of LaGrange so we decided to head South. The destination was the Habitat for Humanity's Global Village in Americus. I discovered this location through Roadside America which describes it as the Slum Theme Park.




With the warm outlook, I donned the half helmet and removed the liner from my jacket. When we left, it was in the low 60's, overcast and windy. It ended up being a much colder ride than expected. I got to use my new GPS for the second time and, once again, it was nice to relax and enjoy the ride without worrying about missing the next turn.




Our timing was perfect as there were two bus loads of school kids leaving as we were parking the bike. After a picnic lunch on the curb we went into the welcome center and saw a 10 minute video on the work of Habitat for Humanity. I was familiar with them and had previously visited a build in progress, but I did learn some things through the video - I hadn't realized that is was a global organization and they build houses across the world.








After the video, we went through a mock village showing an example of poverty housing, which made for the more interesting photo opportunities. Once through the village, they had examples of the various houses that they build in different countries across the globe. The various houses were customized for the various locations. One was on stilts, another was predominately outside, and the building materials were all different. The Roadside America website presented the village in a comic light, but it ended up being very well done and informative.














As we left, I told the GPS to take us home and we hit the road. At one point, we were directed down a side road that went from bad pavement to no pavement. I was getting concerned as we were in the middle of nowhere and the road was getting rougher and rougher. It eventually let led us to pavement and I was able to get some unexpected practice riding on dirt and rocks.




The trip took us over about 220 miles of roads and left us physically and emotionally relaxed. A good day and the second of ten planned trips for 2012.