It is no exaggeration to say Dunloggin residents Gary and Lynn Pakulla are in the housing business 24-7. When they're working as real estate agents, they're helping Howard County residents buy and sell homes. When they're vacationing, they're building decent, affordable housing with Habitat for Humanity, as participants or team leaders.

In 1999, Lynn Pakulla received the book Living Faith by Jimmy Carter as a birthday gift from her husband. She read with interest the section on Carter's work with Habitat for Humanity International. Habitat's Web site (www.habitat.org) delineates its mission: " ... to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action."

"When you get to be 50-plus," said Lynn, "you start to wonder, what's this all about? What do I want on my tombstone?"

Lynn did research on the Habitat Web site and told her husband she was interested in going on a Global Village Trip.

Global Village Trips with Habitat provide an opportunity to work alongside people from another culture. "It's a very responsible way to see the world," said Gary Pakulla.

Gary and Lynn signed on for their first trip, to Antubochiu, Kenya, in 2001. As part of a group of 15 people, they helped build three homes in two weeks.

Habitat home designs vary by locale, reflecting the culture and climate of a particular region. In Kenya, the homes were 14-foot-by-24-foot wood structures with metal corrugated roofs and concrete floors, replacing existing thatch-roof and mud-hut dwellings susceptible to termite and rodent infestation.

Habitat provides an on-site construction supervisor - usually a native speaker - who has obtained the necessary building supplies. The construction supervisor meets with the project's Habitat team leader, who each morning sets out the day's work plan for the volunteers, many of whom have little or no construction experience.

"The Habitat homes are fairly simple," said Gary. "Believe it or not, 80 percent of a home can be built by anybody."

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