ANAHOLA — Jennifer Hsu of New York said she absolutely loves Hawai‘i and was thrilled to be able to lead a Global Village team for the Kaua‘i Habitat for Humanity. “Half of us have been here before and absolutely love
ANAHOLA — Jennifer Hsu of New York said she absolutely loves Hawai‘i and was thrilled to be able to lead a Global Village team for the Kaua‘i Habitat for Humanity.
“Half of us have been here before and absolutely love it,” Hsu said while working on the roof of Kaipo and Lovey Napoleon’s Kaua‘i Habitat home in Anahola, Friday. “The other half have never been here before and this is an experience for them.”
Hsu said she’s been on three other Habitat builds, but this is the first time she gets to build in Hawai‘i, and as a team leader.
“This is my first Global Village trip and I couldn’t be more excited,” said Laura Waszack of Brooklyn, New York. “I have a huge passion for volunteering and traveling and Hawai‘i has been my No. 1 place that I’ve always wanted to travel to. Our GV team is made up of all kinds of people — from the East Coast, West Coast, Canada and all over.”
Hsu said the team, on Friday, was split up with eight members working at the Napoleon home site in Anahola and the remaining four being sent to a Kaua‘i Habitat Repair and Renovation project in Kekaha.
The team arrived on Tuesday and spent Wednesday in a team building day, primarily on the South Shore and ending with dinner at The Shops at Kukui‘ula prior to its first day of building.
Hsu said Chandra Varanasi is originally from India, but lives in Portland, Oregon, working for Intel, his trip to Kaua‘i being his first vacation since starting work in Oregon.
Although looking forward to painting the walls, Varanasi had to change his plans as the team was involved in installing the roof on the Napoleon’s home.
“Volunteering in a group with people of diverse backgrounds is perhaps the best way to come up with a foolproof solution to real world problems,” Varanasi said in his bio to Jessica Clabo, the Kaua‘i Habitat Volunteer Program Coordinator. “This makes the Build in Hawai‘i particularly appealing to me and I look forward most to painting the walls of the house.”
Other members in the Global Village team include Grace Nieh of Washington, D.C., Joanna Chin of New York, Paul Camera of Toronto, Canada, Lisa Schmidt of Toronto, Canada, Connie Chan, described by Hsu as the doctor in the group, from San Francisco, California, Amireh Ghorob of San Francisco, Tom Frampton and Linda Knobloch of Illinois, and Kim Cobbs of New Mexico.
Clabo said people are invited to stop in to volunteer on the build with the Global Village team who will be on-site at Anahola, Saturday during the Family Build Day when the families of the Kaua‘i Habitat homes join the Global Village volunteers.
Sunday and Monday are time off for the Global Village team with builds scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, being their final day, with work ending by 3 p.m. in order to attend the mahalo party being hosted by the Napoleon ‘ohana at Ke Akua Mana Church in Kapa‘a.
People interested in volunteering at the Kauai Habitat for Humanity can call Clabo at 335-0296, ext 152, or visit www.kauaihabitat.org.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.0
