Day 7, The Last Day of Work.

This was our last work day, tomorrow we load up the vans and head back to Houston Intercontinental Airport and split for good, back to our respective colleges around the US. A map of the US hangs in the hallway, and this week students have been using push tacks to mark their home towns. This informal map started filling up very fast two days ago when the United Way coordinators embraced our little vandalism with a new pack of tacks, hung up next to the map. There are about 50 pins in the map, but with over 120 ASB volunteers it by no means represents the collective group.

This week my group, animal code name "The Owls," has shifted between four Habitat for Humanity sites doing odd jobs and helping other groups with their projects. However, we haven't had the opportunity to see our own project through from beginning to end, which was a bummer for some team members as it became apparent that we were the only team in this situation. Today, we were at a Habitat home that was reclaimed by the organization after the owners defaulted on their 0% int erst loans to Habitat. Our job was to help the contractors remodel the house to the specifications of the new owners. This job included interior painting, which a group from Michigan did last week, and re-tileing the floor which was our job today. None of us had ever done tileing before, so after a week of painting and cleaning the warehouse we were happy to have an interesting project.
We worked hard prepping the floor for the tile, mixing mortar, and laying the tiles with the assistance of the Habitat Foreman, Terry, and his assistant Rusty.

Now, I am back at the United Way shelter, the general mood is that people are ready to go home. Sleeping in a bunk bed in a huge room with 50 other guys is not much fun. I'm happy that we were able to help some of the people down here in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and assist Habitat for Humanity and AmeriCorps. I have learned a lot about both organizations, and also about life in Louisiana, and about the effects Hurricane Rita had on the area.

I hope our being here sets an example for other college students and people in general to answer the call for help wherever it may be. Publicity takes a central role in Alternative Spring Break, we put our signs up at the work sites and headquarters, and were on the front page of the local paper a few days ago. MTV is our media partner, and their camera crew had been around all week shooting footage for the upcoming special: The Amazing Break, which will air on MTV later this month. Hopefully the more people hear about our story, the more they will be inspired to lend a helping hand.

The truth is that the ASB program is unorganized, we send more students to work sites than there are jobs for them, and many of us spent significant amounts of time hanging out, or waiting for materials or instruction. One day we went to a Habitat home and ended up waiting in our van for 30 minutes for the contractor to come unlock the house and show us what to do; he never came so we left. Our first two days here there were 24 students at a work site with two houses where the job was to put cabinets in the kitchens. This job requires only a hand full of people. The rest of us painted some trim boards, put in a few door knobs and then basically sat around. I didn't mind relaxing and socializing with my new friends, but I felt that we were a ready and eager labour resource that was being wasted. In total, we didn't accomplish a lot of work. We did help out a lot, but didn't put in the solid weeks worth of work that I would expect from 10 workers. This is why I hope our story is one of inspiration that challenges others to do good when and where they can.