Shantytown coming down

However tired they may have felt and however much they wanted to get out of a soaking rain, the residents of Rice's temporary shantytown still had work to do Sept. 11.

After lunch, a team of students -- members of Owl Microfinance, Engineers Without Borders and Humanitarian Medical Outreach -- attacked their temporary quarters with hands and hammers to complete a four-day, three-night challenge that tested both their stamina and their ability to live on a mere $2 a day, like those whose lives they were trying to emulate.
More than 40 Rice students slept in the shantytown next to Brochstein Pavilion to draw attention to the plight of the world's poor and to raise money for their organizations. But last Friday, everything came down, with most of the wood carted off to various colleges to be recycled in sets for plays.

"Somebody said it's one of those things you talk about, the crazy things you did in college," said a hammer-wielding James Liu, a Hanszen College junior and member of Owl Microfinance who slept in a shanty. "And it served a good purpose."

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Education

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• shantytown
• $2-a-day challenge