Our Week at Habitat for Humanity

By Elizabeth Foley

The van was packed and as the twelve of us piled into this massive car I found myself in a state of shock, and I could not help but think, "We were actually going to be doing this." I guess it was because we had put so much effort into planning for this trip and spent so much time raising the money for it that it seemed as if this day would never come; however, here we were, beginning our 19-hour drive to Dodge County, Georgia where we would be working on a house for Habitat for Humanity. As the car started and we pulled out of the St. Mary's Parish parking lot I knew we were finally on our way yet I had to admit, I was quite skeptical. How was I going to survive this week, living with two other girls that were just as outspoken as I was, and nine raucous boys, plus we hardly even knew each other.

At first we tried to be accommodating to each other?s needs, politely asking each other if they could talk quietly so that one of us might be able to get some sleep; however, as the exceptionally long drive was coming to an end and we were approaching our destination it seemed that we all became very comfortable with each other and had no problem telling each other exactly how we were feeling at that given moment.

Our week in Georgia at the Habitat for Humanity site changed all of our lives. At times we spent the entire day working the 92-degree heat in the small closed-in rooms with no ventilation except for a small house fan, facing out of the window in order to suck out the tiny pieces of fiberglass floating around. Some days we spend half the day working side by side with the people that were going to be living in the house that we were building. During the night, we spent our time swimming in church members? pools, going to cookouts at townspeople's houses or going to different religious services held in the town. When we were back at the dorms, some of us would play cards till all hours of the night, while others tried their best to sleep over the loud sounds of laughter.

On one of the days our Habitat director, Brother Tom, took us to visit some of the other houses that he had built. On this day we met the people that lived in the houses and learned about how Habitat for Humanity changed their life. Brother Tom introduced us to people that had been living in small shacks, with roofing systems so inadequate that they needed pots and pans all over the floors in their houses to catch the water from when it would rain. It felt good to know that now they were living in beautiful homes that they could easily afford.

Our week at Habitat for Humanity ended where it had started, in the St. Mary's parking lot It was a great feeling to be home again. Yet, as I climbed out of the van I could not help feeling slightly sad about leaving; it was weird because I was so incredulous before I left about being with these people I didn't know for a week. However here I was, not wanting to leave them. We left on this trip not knowing each other at all and we ended it a family. We gave our hugs and drove away. We all knew that this had been the experience of a lifetime.