Albany GA Week 1
I’m staying at a beautiful Methodist church camp here in
Albany, Georgia. It’s a 70 acre retreat
complete with dorms and large kitchen/dining room/lodge. The grounds are well maintained; wooded with several large ponds, a playground
and volleyball court. There are several
RV full hookups sites. This week we have
65 young adults from 3 colleges. Sacred
Heart University in Fairfield Connecticut, Ohio Northern University in Ada Ohio
and University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg Virginia. During orientation Conor and Steve approached
me from Sacred Heart. I worked with them
last year in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Conor made
a video and posted on YouTube, check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCVW6L5Glis. This is already starting out to be a great
build!
The build is about 15 minutes from the camp, with 2 lots
next to each other. One house had the
outside walls up and the other was just a concrete slab. With 65 kids, I was curious to see how this
would work. There were two construction
leaders and a whole lot of eager builders.
The first order of business was to pass out the equipment. As soon as they opened the trailer door, I knew
what job I wanted to do. I saw an entire
trailer piled full of ‘stuff’. There were
bins, hard hats thrown everywhere, nail aprons piled high, cases of water,
items for the house, building supplies, boxes of hammers, tools, cases and
cases and cases and cases of trash bags, lights and on and on. I took a team and got to work. Along with the supply trailer we had a tool
trailer that was a lot more organized, but still quite a mess. There was a 3rd trailer with
building materials, but that would have to wait. To make a long story short, I had a spectacular
group of 4 that consisted of Katie, Katie, Graham and Dana. In 4 days we emptied and loaded the trailer 3
times, rearranged the stuff over and over, built a set of shelves and
rearranged it again. For the icing on
the cake, we created a bin that would hold 100 hard hats by enclosing one part
of the shelf and cutting a hole in the top of it for easy access. It came out oh so much better than we thought
it would, especially considering we had no idea what we were doing. Graham will be a great engineer! Also during
the week, I got to work with an awesome young lady Anna who helped organize the
tool trailer. I really enjoyed our day together,
she reminded me so much of a college friend who had been in the Peace Corp,
which Anna expressed an interest in doing as well. I know I say this every time, but this was
such an awesome group of kids, I felt so blessed to be able to work with
them. The feeling of satisfaction at the
end of the week is so much better than any pay check I’ve ever earned!
While we were working on the shelves, the house was moving
along at rocket speed. They went from nothing
but outside wall frames to ready for siding and most of the roofing done. I was totally amazed at how fast it went. The
construction supervisor Jimmy was great, he kept everyone busy with meaningful
work and kept the house moving right along.
No easy task with so many people.
The volunteer coordinator David was awesome too, he spent all day at the
job site running just as hard as everyone else.
I don’t know where he gets his energy, in addition to his full time job
with Habitat, he’s a part time Minister, runs a business and is a published author
with his 2nd book coming out this spring. http://www.amazon.com/Leap-Let-God-Catch-You/dp/1480074047
This is a great affiliate, they have so much community
support. They have a deal with Home
Depot where they get more tools then they can use really. They have volunteers who provide not only
lunch but 3 dinners a week. As an added
bonus, snacks and drinks are also provided.
One day lunch was provided by a
local culinary school. It was delicious
of course. The next day several of the
cooking students came back and helped us build.
I got quite a shocking reminder that I’m in the south this
past weekend. I was getting my nails
done Friday morning before heading back to Tuscaloosa for the 3 day weekend. There were 2 black ladies, myself and another
white lady in the shop with a black man came in selling President Obama calendars. He approached one black lady by the door,
then walked past myself and the other white woman without even making eye
contact with us. She jabbed me and said did
you see that. I said let’s wait and see what
he does when he comes back by us. After chatting
with the 2nd black woman for a few minutes, he walked right on past
us without even a glance in our direction.
That got us to laughing because both of us said we probably would have
bought the calendars because they were really nice, the kind you can write
notes on along with appointments. Neither
of the other 2 bought one and they were only $2. Then we got to talking about racism in
general. I said being from DC, the north and in the military, I don’t really
think about race when dealing with people. She was
married to a black man and said her kids had more problems in the south from
other black kids then anyone. Apparently
this made one of the black women mad and she told the nail tech to hurry up,
she didn’t want to be here with us and she stormed out. When I left, there were several people out
there selling the calendars and not a single one looked my way even though I tried
to catch their eye. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny,
but in a sad way. I couldn’t help but wonder if the people
selling the calendars were aware that the President was ½ white.
After my little nail adventure I headed back to Tuscaloosa
for a few days to see Roger. Let’s just
say it was a very fine weekend! Of course
I couldn’t go and not work on my house. We
were joined by the home owner Lee who looked 100% better then the 1st
time I met him. He had just been release from the hosp after suffering a heart
attack and had come down with Pneumonia.
I barely recognized him, mainly because he was in a fully upright
position. Also joining us was my favorite
volunteer Jon Ward. He does maintenance
for a nearby apartment complex and often
comes to work with us on weekends. We were
joined by a group of local high school kids and their teacher from Northridge High
school. I’m making plans to go back
after my Disaster course in Americus next week.
I can’t stay as long as I’d like because I have to head to DC for a RV
rally and I want to stop by Reedville VA to visit my cousin Jennifer and her dad
Charlie, my mom’s first cousin, who had a little health scare. I’m happy to report he’s doing much better. Jennifer promised me a girls night out with
the same wild bunch I got to meet on New Year’s Eve and I can’t wait.
Check out the pictures for this week at
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