My name is Hasna Al Barahmeh. My husband died four years ago, leaving me to care for our six children.

   It is very crowded in our house since we have only two rooms. The Habitat workers, with my son Mohammed's help, are building a bathroom and a kitchen. When the work is done, we will have a bathroom with a toilet, running water and electricity in our house. We won't have to use a stick to scare away the snakes that live in the woods around our toilet, and we won't have to worry about them dropping on us while we're there.

   Now all my cooking is done outside. Because we don't have a sink, the girls wash the dishes on the ground next to a water tank in our courtyard. When the new kitchen is done, we will have a water tank on the roof and running water in the kitchen. The first thing I am going to do in my new kitchen is clean it. Then I am going to cook mansef [the traditional Jordanian dish of goat cooked in yogurt].

   Mohammed has helped a lot on the construction and he likes it. He knows his work helps the family by reducing the cost of the house, and he thinks that helping is like doing a sport because he's been lifting a lot of heavy things and digging.

   When the Habitat people came to my house for the first time, I never believed they would return. I am a poor widow; why would they come and help me? When they came back, I almost could not believe it. God answered my prayers.