Traveled to Americus, Georgia where we toured Habitat for Humanity’s “Global Village” and interviewed site manager Linda Mills. Habitat volunteers from all over the country have come and built a mock, Third World slum here. Cracker box, one-room dwellings are slapped together with rusty, corrigated tin, old boards and other things gleaned from dumps and the side of the road. (Just like it is gleaned in the Third World.) At the time of the tour, it was 15 degrees with the wind chill. And the wind whipped through open wooden slats and open windows (because there is no glass). It swirled around bunk beds made of rough tree limbs and small boards, no matresses and dirty blankets. The only thing that is missing, said Ms. Mills, is the sound of “crying and dying babies.” (“Children living in poverty [like this] are five times more likely to die by age 5,” a sign here reads. And there are “1.2 billion” people in the world living in “absolute poverty” like this.)… Coming out of the slums, you are greeted with a stark contrast. Nice, colorful (yet modest by American standards) homes line the next part of the path. Habitat volunteers have built a series of homes that replicate the Habitat Homes going up in other countries. There is a stucco design for Mexico, a two story, wooden frame Sri-Lankan home, a one-story brick home like ones going up in Tanzania… Ms. Mills said Habitat “Volunteer Vacation (Building) Trips” go to more than 50 countries now to work with local people to help them get out of the slums — one house at a time. Habitat has built 2 million homes housing 10 million people, so far. (Homes that can often be put up for less than $2,000 in the Third World, said Ms. Mills.) Habitat’s goal: Adequate housing for everyone — in the world. Note: I couldn’t help but think how many of us in America will spend $2,000 on frivolous things — the car with additional options, the leather couches, air conditioning for a year, a $2,000 casket… — when that money could house a whole family in Uganda and maybe mean the difference between a little child in that family dying or not. How spiritually nuts have we become?