Mark Brooks (right), last week in Chiang Mai, Thailand, helps Seo-Jin Lee get started laying block. Mr. Lee is a well known Korean actor participating in the work project. Brooks, construction manager for Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, was a crew leader of the Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Habitat for Humanity Work Project in Thailand.

Language barriers and hot and humid temperatures couldn’t stop two Lawrence men and volunteers from around the world from building homes for the needy in Thailand last week.

“We all have a common purpose, and we all get along just great,” said Mark Brooks, 64, a carpenter and construction manager for Lawrence Habitat for Humanity.

Brooks and Ken Ratzlaff were both crew leaders who helped construct houses in Chiang Mai, Thailand, as part of Habitat’s annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

It’s an intensive weeklong building project in different cities around the world each year. This year’s build involved 3,000 volunteers and took place in five Asian countries last week.

The 100-degree heat was a factor in Thailand, Brooks said, as he led a crew of about 16 volunteers per day working to lay concrete walks and a roof on a house.

“It’s about the same as one of our hot June days when everybody staggers around,” Brooks said in a phone interview on Thursday.

But they survived, he said. Another obstacle was communication. Interpreters were on site, and many South Korean volunteers, including actor Lee Seo-Jin, offered helping hands to the work. Their common purpose united them, Brooks said.

He and Ratzlaff are scheduled to return to Lawrence to their families before Thanksgiving.

“The whole project has been about the people we met here,” Brooks said.