Leveling the field - one volunteer at a time

Everyone in our team wore these on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Today was the official kick off of the 2010 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Day, which is tied to World Habitat Day.  As I left the hotel and got on the Metro, I wondered about the type of work I'd be doing, the type of people I'd be working with and what the day would be like being that President Carter and Mrs. Carter would join us at the sites.

That's when I remembered that we were all there for a reason:  to volunteer to do Habitat's work.  Right there, I remembered that no matter what background each individual volunteer had, we were all the same: good volunteers.  I have already met people from different places in the US.  No, I can't remember everyone's names, but their faces are now familiar because we've made some kind of connection.

There is this woman, Miranda, who is an Interior Designer in Georgia and who has been to another JCWP before.  We both found each other wandering around in the wrong part of the neighborhood and then found the site, together.  Then, there is this father and son team, whom we've decided to call "Chicago Sr." and "Chicago" who came all the way from... Chicago!  The dad favors Tommy Lee Jones in his looks and mannerisms, but also favors one of our Weekday Saints, Drew from the East of the River team.  This is Senior's sixth JCWP and we can tell he's having a lot of fun doing what he's doing.  Junior, is a quality supervisor for a company that makes frozen pizza.  We just found out Kashi makes frozen pizzas - so note to self:  must look into them when I get back home.

I have met a few people who constantly remind me of my Habitat family back home.  I've seen The Mayos, The Zwerlings, The Wagners, The Trumbles, Mike, Turquoise, Burt, Carl and so many others in the faces and actions of these people.  It's just amazing!

People are constantly asking me: "Aren't you so and so?  You look very familiar! Have you (fill the blank)?" and I am constantly saying: "Nope, first time here!  Lord, don't let another one of me roam this earth, that could be trouble!" Sure enough, it's a joke and they start laughing, but it makes it easy for each party to walk away in a joyful manner.

What is more exciting is the look on people's faces when I tell them:  "I am a staff for Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity and I am also a homeowner - in that order!" They immediately lighten up with all sorts of questions - and of course, I am just honored to tell them my story when they ask.

We had our group's photo shoot with President and Mrs. Carter and Jonathan Reckford, Habitat International's CEO around 1:00pm.  It took us forever to get to that point and the moment was just like a ride at Six Flags: wait for an hour in a line for a ride that only lasted 1 minute.  It was all in great fun and it was nice to see them there.  Afterwards, we were joined by the CEO (equivalent to Executive Director) of the DC Affiliate.  He is a very nice guy and even gave me a ride to the Metro station at the end of my work day.

After speaking to him, I confirmed what I remembered earlier:  we are all equals at the site.  No one is better than anyone else, no one is more devoted, more experienced, more committed or more skilled.  We are all equals and regardless of status, socio-economic backgrounds or educational level, we are there for the same reason, which is to build safe, decent affordable houses that hard-working families can come to at the end of the day and call "Home Sweet Home".

Hugs from DC,
Ana

PS - Click on the link for images of our demo site.