Habitat for Humanity

Today I participated in the Habitat for Humanity event, it was so much fun! I could have never imagined that working hard and doing back breaking labor would be something I would actually enjoy. I got to meet wonderful people that I was not aware even went to my campus, and working together on a project as a team really brought us together as friends.

We had to arrive at the campus at seven thirty in the morning in order to make it to the Habitat for Humanity location by eight. When we arrived there we had to wait in the car while Mr. Maher along with another student advisor went inside to find out the location that we will be participating in. I was surprised to see that it was mostly all girls and only one guy that signed up to do this!



Ready to Dig!

We finally arrived at the location around nine, and began work. The first two hours went by so slow! Our job was to even out the ground in the back yard, as well as move dirt to the side of the house from the end of the back yard. We did this so that when rain falls the water does not flow towards the house, but away instead.



For the first hour, we were going strong. After about the first hour and a half is when we all started hurting. It got much colder all of a sudden and the wind picked up as well. We were lucky that it did not rain, but the wind definitely did not make things easy for us. I have never imagined how much work doing such a simple task as moving dirt from one area to the next could be. I think that was a reality check for all of us, regarding how hard some people work in this world to make a living, and what it takes to give someone a home to live in. I even learned how to use a shovel properly!

Some of the girls and I got curious and wanted to see what the house looked like on the inside. We asked the supervisors if it was ok to go see it, and they were nice enough to even give us a tour. The house was much bigger than I expected it to be. It had two bathrooms, two or three bedrooms, a large living room as well as an enormous garage. The best part of taking the tour was to be out of the cold wind!

By the time eleven am hit, we were drained. We were tired, cold, hungry, and slowly started to get whiny. We were quite happy to see that the van came a bit early to pick us up to go get our lunch. We got back to the headquarters and waited for Mr. Maher to bring in the pizza that they got from the local pizzeria. After we were all done eating we sat for a couple of minutes and chatted about some interesting topics. We spoke about our majors, what each of us is hoping to do after we graduate, as well as some off topic subjects that were very interesting and funny to listen to.



After lunch it was time to go back to work. This time we were relocated to another location, but still in the Paterson area. This house needed a fence to be moved as well as to have its driveway evened out so that they can put asphalt on it. At this time of the day the sun slowly started to peak out, and the work wasn’t as hard as it was at the other location. Since we were all filled up with pizza, we were also a lot more energized to work. We only stayed at that work site for about an hour and a half since there was not that much work which needed to be done.

Before


After


Since we were done early, the shuttle that got us there was not able to come back until three thirty. Because of this, the supervisors of the work sites gave us rides back to the headquarters and the Student Development advisors drove us back to the school since we were only about ten minutes away.











Today was a very meaningful day because I got to do something for others. I realized how much work goes into a project like building a house, and people who do this every day deserve much more credit than they do now for providing people with homes and places to feel safe in. While doing something meaningful, I got to meet great people and learn aspects of great team work. I will never forget this day and what a learning experience it was.