Michael Daley

For the past few months I've been working with Habitat for Humanity on building houses for some great families here in southern Oregon, but for the next few weeks I have a paying job. So the team will be putting up the roof without me. However, in a way, I am still working for HFH. I need the money to pay the way to get to Hungary this summer to work with the Global Village project. So, I have an idea, while I pay for the flight, will you help by donating to this project so the building materials and other Habitat Hungary expenses get paid.

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! You can donate as much or little as you want. Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

For over 20 years I was that guy. Not the guy on the other end of the video phone, but the guy to the side. The guy that made sure he stayed in prison, the guy that made sure the visits were held only on certain days, and for certain hours. To the families, I was the guy that kept them apart.

For good reasons. I am proud of the fact that I kept families safe from individuals that were dangerous. But few kids could understand all the complexities of the modern criminal justice system. In the little eyes I could see that to them I was a cop, a policeman, the man that kept their dad or mom in jail.

There are a host of changes that working in that environment does to you, and studies bear out what I tell people about that career choice, and why I opted to take an early retirement. I am so lucky now to be another guy.

This past week there was an annual dinner put on by the Habitat for Humanity chapter to thank all the volunteers that help in the many phases of the operations. People working in the office, helping with events, stocking and selling at the Restore, and the builders on the job site.

I took my wife along and there she met a cute little red head preschooler sitting at table next to us. I was talking with her and left to get drinks when my wife asked her how she knew me. "He's one of the builders" she said.

Later when I heard this tears welled up in my eyes, (just a little, and hardly noticeable), because this means so much to me now. That is the guy I am now. I build. I build bedrooms for little girls to sleep safe at night. I build houses big enough so that families not longer have to be parted out to relatives for living space. I build healthy families. That is the guy I've always wanted to be, and because there are people that share this vision by giving, I am now.

My vision extends beyond the local area, I see and hear of needs around the world and wish I could help. So, I do the irrational thing, I go. It takes my resources to get there, and it delays plans to see my own family at times, but I love doing what I do. I need only another 900 or so dollars to reach my goal for helping families in Hungary live in decent housing, will you do what you can today to help.
Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! You can donate as much or little as you want. Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

From my journal during the 2009 build in Hungary.
Wednesday August 12, 2009

Oh to be young lithe and limber. Meet Lisa one of our valued members on the Global Village build team in Hungary. There was not a construction challenge she was afraid to tackle. Not even insulation.

On the second day of our stay there was enough cloud cover and cooler temperatures to make the attic work bearable, so there was a call for volunteers to tackle this job. Lisa stepped forward without a moments hesitation. Can’t say that much for myself. I knew what a messy, itchy job this was going to be. But hey, if a 16 year old girl can do it, this 53 year old birthday boy was not going to left to sanding on the lower levels.

Lisa wanted to travel and join a Habitat build, however, being under 18 she could not travel by herself. Her mom, a family physician from the Toronto, Canada worked out her schedule so that there was a week she could take off to make this possible. And so our team ended up with a mother/daughter team. (And to think that some mom’s complain about taking their kids to a cross town soccer game)

Laying down roll insulation is not an easy task. We had one person measuring and laying the bats of fiberglass, and a second cutting them to that size and handing them off. Lisa had the former task. She could duck and weave under the roof rafters, where as I was constantly watching my head. She would turn a perfect pirouette on a narrow two inch board to take the cut insulation, then spin on the same axis and lay it down with the precision of a gymnast.

I started with another young gal partner and had the cutting job down pat, but lost her mid-way in the morning job as she had to see a local doctor for an allergy condition. For some odd reason I thought I HAD to keep up the same pace as Lisa and Eric.

And I was, for awhile, then as the temperature in the attic was getting higher I had to go down for awhile for some rest and drink up some water. But not too long, oh no, couldn’t let my team down. I was back up in the attic of a second house to drive on.

It was while trying to navigate the ceiling joists on this second house that I missed a step and planted my foot on the ceiling drywall. Just a little slip, but it busted up the piece enough so that it would have to be replaced.

I worked for maybe another 20 minutes up there before I slipped and fell again. Yep, another section of ceiling would have to be replaced. This time I admitted the heat was probably getting to me and my legs were just too shot to stay up there and work any more.

The next day they were looking for volunteers to go up on the roof and lay shingles. Sigh… best I admit my limitation and stay on the ground
From the information I've been getting from Hungary this year, the building project this summer is much like this, a lot of insulation work. I may not be squeezing up in any rafters, but I expect to be handling a few foam boards and getting them in place to help families stay warm, and help them reduce their energy expenses. The days are quickly slipping by and I still hope to raise enough money to meet my goal. If you can, will you please make a generous donation to Habitat for Humanity and the Hungry project I'm working with this summer.

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! You can donate as much or little as you want. Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

When I traveled to Hungary in 2009 to help build a house for a family, the team was invited to the current home of one of the families we were building for. It was a very small place, two rooms as I recall, for a family of four. Two adults and a teen son and daughter. The family kept it clean and they were so sweet to have baked a few cookies for us to eat. But you know what, the mother could not wash the dishes in her house. They had no indoor plumbing. There was only a garden type hose bib in the yard. This family, in the middle of town had to use an outside outhouse. It was for exactly these reason why I loved being there to help.
And it is the same reason I've wanted to go make to help again ever since. My friends have helped me raise 44% of the funds I need to help Hungarian families move into better decent homes. Will you please donate today to help create better houses for children and parents working in Hungary.
There was a sign of sponsors at the build site in Hadji and on it was a constant reminder of why it is important to assist the least of our brothers in this world. "What you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me"

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

While I'm out this day to help with a building project local, (framing outside walls today), how about someone step up and make a donation. The meter shows 870, can someone kick in a 30 spot and make it an even 900 by time I get the first wall built.

Thank you.

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

http://youtu.be/SmEYDY2REZs

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

The temperature was high, but the team spirit working on a house in Medford were just as high.

While we were finishing up on a house on the the other side of town, another company donated their time and installed all the underfloor insulation for this house. This was a good thing, besides just getting the donation. Climbing in and out of all those floor joists is a pain for us old timers.

But we were all over it today. There are two houses side by side we (that is the group of volunteers out of the Medford Habitat for Humanity chapter) are building on the north edge of town. One house has been designated for the "Women's Build" week. So any women that show up as we build are concentrating their efforts on that. For now as we work up to that week it's still a mixed team effort, but that week will be a big team of women volunteers from around the valley.

Today the goal was to get all the sub-flooring nailed down to the joists. Heavy sheets of wood, lots of holes to cut and match up, and a crew of old men. Just let it be known, that a great sense of humor goes a long way on the job site

.Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

Last Friday the crew here in Medford wrestled with 30 foot floor joists. There is a reason that all the professional construction crews are younger than us. But what we lack in physical strength, we more than make up for in our enthusiasm to help people have a better home to live in.

With this phase complete, the plumbers will jump in between all this jumble of lumber and lay in some pipes and get the water in, and the sewage out. There will be pipes sticking up where the sinks will go, the toilets, and the washer, then we can go back to this house and lay down some flooring. I always find a house with just the flooring down to look too small, but then the walls get raised and things begin to take shape again.

While the pipes are being installed in the correct place here, I'll be with the regular volunteer crew on the the house across town and very near completion. We will finish installing cabinets, floor molding, closet rods, and a list of small things that still need to be done.
As of today, I have over a third of the money raised to help Habitat for Humanity Hungary. These are funds needed to buy the materials and run the office in Hungary for this summers volunteer building season. I've committed to raising $2000 by the end of June, and I hope many of you will pitch in and donate to help families overseas get into a better house.

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

"We are out of propane. It's cold, and the power is out"

And so began my day this past Sunday as I tried to relax, enjoy my coffee and read the newspaper.

It was a text message my wife read to me from our daughter. She lives off the grid, as they say, about 15 miles away from here. It is as new lifestyle for her, and getting used to the hardships and challenges of living that life is taking some getting used to. But it fits her. She is taking on the task of managing a small farm in her little travel trailer with her daughter, dogs, chickens, and rabbits. She is loving it. Except for the cold morning starts, and the dark nights when the battery power runs low.

I had a friend coming in from out of town to visit, so I couldn't run out there to spend a lot of time helping her, so I tried to diagnose the problems with a short series of messages, but all I got from that was that she had a full tank of propane, but the valve was not working. She had some power, now that she was up and had moved the truck up to the trailer so she could charge it up a bit off the truck battery.

As a father, I was not happy about this, but I wrestle with this fact of life. I will not always live close by to help her, so having her find her own answers and solutions is important. On the other hand, this day I am available, and although I have a friend from out of town coming to visit, I can make a run out there. And so I did.

As a person blessed with a decent place to live, I am moved by pictures and stories about families that do not have this, but I wrestle with this. Local families and communities need to help one another, but often local resources simply are not adequate to the task. We don't want to move in and do their job for them, they will miss out on the opportunity to learn. So, although I have a retired life I am loving, I also have the time and ability to go, so I do.

Over the week end I also cleared out a lot of shelf space in my garage and held a quick yard sale. It was an chance to sell off things that have little use to me, and we had a lot of things my daughter was no longer in need of since she moved into smaller quarters. I'm sending in all the money from the things of mine that sold to Habitat for Humanity Hungary. This summers project will help a family save on heating costs by rebuilding their home to be more energy efficient. It fits my belief that any aid given should last more than a short period. I made around a $100, so, I look at it as converting an old unused back back into nails, leftover bottles of oil into foam insulation.

An investment of dollars given today, will help a family in Hungary with expenses that will save them money in the future. Money that will buy them better food, better books, and most important for me, a better life for their children.

See, it all comes back to helping our kids. Please give as generously as you can today, I'm almost to my half way point in goal, and I'd like to cross that line this week.
Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

On my last trip to Hungary in 2009 I wrote up a few thoughts and stories while there. In the tradition of "Throw Back Thursday" I'm sharing my blog again from August 10, 2009.

Strange how one of the defining marks of a culture is the design of their bathroom, or water closet, or loo, or privy, or outhouse,…. See what I mean. Do you squat, stand, sit or straddle? I am pretty sure that as adventurous as my wife is , I will never get her to a country that has you squatting over a hole in the floor, no matter how nicely tiled the room is, or how clean it is..

On a construction site in the states you’d find the portable chemical john. Self contained, and hopefully, pumped and cleaned on a regular basis. Here in Hungary, at least at this work site, we had the good old school pit toilet. AKA outhouse. Smelly, yes, fly ridden, yes. Breathe through your mouth and you won’t smell it. Sure…. I find tasting the air just as disgusting. At least there was two sides, Noi and Ferfi, girl and boy.

The indoor public restrooms are much better, or course. In our hotel in Budapest I found two buttons to flush, my room mate, with some European travel experience, pointed out that it is a mini-flush and a maxi-flush feature. (There is a great water saving feature that could be used stateside.)

I noticed in Hungary, and many places in Europe, they separate the the toilet from the wash basin with a solid door. Even in the houses we are building that is so. In the public restrooms there will be a couple of closets with the toilet set in these. Quite different from the US model made of flimsy partitions and the foot high gap on the sides and door.

Now here is a strange feature I found on the water closet at the bath in Hajduboszormeny, it had no door knob. In retrospect I should have inspected that anomaly. I just assumed that the latch that locks the door is the same latch that will unlock the door. Yes, it was odd that it took as good hard slam to get the door to close, but maybe it was not built so well. Trust me now, it was built well.

When I stood to leave, I turned the latch to open the door. I pushed. I pushed harder. It was definitely more than stuck, it was still latched.

Did you get that description of this. It is a closet with a toilet in it. There is no gap to crawl under, no partition to climb over. There is a small window, but I am not that desperate, yet. I am at a public pool, with only my swimming trunks on, and I have not idea how to yell, “Help, I am stuck in the water closet”, in Hungarian. (I doubt that if I had my handy little phrase book it would have helped me).

Perhaps if I start babbling in English they will go get the other Americans to come to my aid. There has to be some alternatives here. The Ah-Ha moment comes to me. I have my room key. If I can somehow jam it into the turning mechanism I can turn the latch enough to open the door.

Key in, too loose, All the way in, not enough leverage to twist. Next idea. Not a good one.

Get a running start and bust the door open with my shoulder. I’ve seen enough cop shows to know a door can give when rammed with enough speed and bulk. Key word here, speed. There simply is not enough room in there to gain any kind of ramming speed. The little I did hit it with made me think that it would not work anyway. It I hit it with enough force to break it, my shoulder would bust and certainly that scream of agony would bring some attention. Time to use the small room to some advantage.

Sitting now on the closed lid of the toilet I brace my back against the wall, and my feet on the door. I will power push that puppy open.. I think for a minute about my escape, I’ll just walk past the splintered door and calmly head back into the water. No one knows me here, and they will forever wonder what happened to that door. Ok, push…….flush……I succeed in pushing the flush button on the wall behind me with my back.

Sit, think, try that key again. The second time around, I'm perhaps a bit more determined, or just have a tad more luck on my side. In either case, I'm freed from my temporary imprisonment, and can sheepishly wander back out to the pool.
Indoor plumbing is one the many ways Habitat can help people around the world move into a decent place to live. Your generous donation below will help a family in Hungary live a better life. I thank you for any gift you can afford around the yearly task of paying taxes.

Help me reach my campaign goal on #Share.Habitat! Check it out: http://share.habitat.org/mike-daley-gv15475

And it did for me. A friend in California had an abundance of lemons from her backyard tree, so she offered to send to anyone who wanted, a box of fresh lemons. After that my daughter brought over a bunch of fresh eggs.

What would I do with these?

Well, to be honest, I had no idea, so being the nerdist I am, I Googled it. "Lemon" recipes. I was thinking of something along the lines of Lemon Meringue candy, much like my favorite I always find in a candy shop in Bandon, Oregon. Then I hit on something brilliant, just brilliant I say. (And I don't say much, usually, unless I'm blogging, or had way too much coffee or Irish Coffee). The lemons came from my first supporter of my Road to Hungary, I am going to Hungary this summer, and, I hit on a recipe for "Hungarian Cakie Cookie" See, I told you it was brilliant.

Kossuth Kifli, not Klingon, but I think Hungarian is closely related, is the name of this recipe, I haven't fact checked this with my Hungarian co-horts to see if this is an authentic Hungarian word, or even food dish, but it works for me.

So with my wife hunkered down in the other room, she hates it when I cook, (I make a mess, can you believe that) I started in. Bowls were tumbling from the cupboards, flour was flying, and the beaters made quick work of whatever I dumped in.
This cake/cookie calls for 8 eggs, and 2 sticks of butter, not for the artery plaque prone, but something different than Snicker Doodles. There is nothing like whipping up egg whites in frothy little waves. (One should always hold the beaters down in the eggs while the beaters zoom at high speed. I got it Hon, I'll clean it up)
Bake it, and cut it, and what do you get, a dozen pieces of Hungarian Cookie Cakies for me, and me and me. Ok, I'll share, but only if you do, check out the donate button below to see how you can donate to help a house in Hungary become more livable.

On this past Monday, I had my first interview by phone with the team leader going to Vac, Hungary this coming August.

I had submitted my application online, it had all the general stuff about my past experience with Global Village, skills, travels etc. so in front of him was most of what he really needed. However, he still had one big question for me. Bear in mind, he's has led Global Village teams to Vietnam, Hawaii, Tajikistan, South Korea, Jordan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, India, China, Nicaragua and Thailand. So he noted that rarely does he see people sign up to go back to the same country. And yet, here was my application to go back to Hungary, a spot on the globe that I visited in 2009.

Like yesterday's post, I was thrown back for a second and had to think on my feet. (Something I'm really not good at). I loved the country, the people the sights, the history. I've stayed in contact with a couple of people from Hungary and I'd love to see them again. That may be unusual, country volunteer coordinator is not typically a permanent position, and many project managers are not centrally managed from country headquarters. Hungary has an outstanding staff, that was obvious on my first visit, and in the years I've followed them by newsletter.

That was Monday, I wanted to give a good impression. What I've since remembered is the confusion of changing planes in Frankfurt, Germany. The headaches from jet lag. Staring at signs that have no meaning to me. Getting lost and stuck with the entire team when we stayed out past the bus line schedule. Oh, and the time I got stuck in the "Loo". (find that somewhere on my blog posting from that trip. http://www.daley-travels.com/hfh-hungary-2009.html .) So, why would I want to go back and work in foreign country.

The first night at the job site the homeowners held a traditionally cooked Hungarian meal for us. I could not speak more than a few words of Hungarian, and for them the same. But smiles and laughter are universal, as is good food.

I could go back for that.

Each day at noon we'd walk to village restaurant to eat yet another cultural food dish. It was fascinating to see what was in store for us each day.

But it was really the things our site leader and translator told us that really makes me want to go back. The local people were amazed that so many would come from so far to help them. It was more than building homes, we were building ties and trust with people on a local level that no amount of internet, news, government foreign aid could ever do. We made a difference in lives.

I could go back for that.

And I hope that you too can see that it is important to support this work and that you give generously today.

It was only my second day on the job site when the local director of Habitat for Humanity (Rogue Valley) came to have a little discussion with the handful of regular Wednesday volunteers. I had a short visit with her, and knowing that I was new to the crew, she asked me a simple yet deep question. "Why was I there?"

From the standpoint of a director of a volunteer organization I'm sure she was trying to fathom what motivated people to come out and help, but to me I had to really reach down a decide for myself, "Why do I volunteer my time and talents to Habitat?"

That morning, I didn't have time to flesh it out very well, I rattled off some line about my past experience with building projects, how I enjoyed the work, and that felt a need to help when I can.

Since that morning I've wrestled a bit more with the question. I found a long list of reasons people volunteer.
to feel needed
to share a skill
to get to know a community
to demonstrate commitment to a cause/belief
to gain leadership skills
to act out a fantasy
to do your civic duty
because of pressure from a friend or relative
satisfaction from accomplishment
to keep busy
for recognition

The list went on for many more and I saw in myself many of these reasons. Two of them stood out as a reason I began volunteering when I was working as a state correctional officer.
as therapy
to do something different from your job

It was important then as I was working in such a "dark, vile" place. I needed, I guess as therapy, to see some good in the world, to see good change and be an element in that. It was also vital to do something different. If you can imagine a life of working in a prison, that could be obvious.

So, why continue. Is it now a habit of mine that has continued into retirement? Perhaps, and that is not a bad thing.