Habitat for Humanity

At the FEMA office my team works for 4 out of the 5 work days in the week. For those 4 days we work diligently reading courses and updating files ( 😀 ), so what do we do on the fifth? Is every weekend a 3 day weekend? Do we spend the day meditating or practicing our spells for defense against the dark arts class? Nope. We do ISP’s.

Now for those of you who may be new or just forgetful, ISP stands for Independent Service Project. They are the extra work projects that my team has to seek out and do in our own time, and they count towards our hours. Basically we call up volunteer and nonprofit organizations and ask, “hey, want some free labor for a day?” Of course they say yes, because who doesn’t love free labor?

This past weekend we did something that I have always wanted to do. We volunteered with Habitat For Humanity. If you are unfamiliar with “Habitat” just know that it is a volunteer program where people get together and build houses for those less fortunate than themselves. It’s a great idea and a great progam, and I’m so glad I finally got a chance to work with them.

We showed up at the build site earlier in the morning than I was used to. The air was incredibly cold that morning (for Atlanta at least) and my team shivered quietly in the back of our van, waiting for the others to arrive. I felt awful from the lack of sleep and, more importantly, the lack of coffee. Luckily the Habitat people showed up shortly, with breakfast, with coffee (score). The breakfast was from Chic fil A, a famous fried chicks chain that is all over here in the south. Now I’ve tried to stay away from buying Chic fil A as best as I can since the company is fairly evil (they’ve been known to fund anti gay groups all over the world. It’s fair to say I don’t agree with that). Unfortunately for my morals, I had not had breakfast that morning, and I was pretty damn hungry. So I begrudgingly ate a chicken biscuit sandwich. It was delicious, and I hated it.

We were on a day 2 build, meaning that the frame of the house was already built. The jobs to be done on day 2 involved roofing, siding, window, and door installment. I like being up high, so I did roofing. After a quick overview of what had been done, what needed to be done, and how we were going to do it by Jason, the very nice, very friendly build director who always (ALWAYS) had a cigarillo hanging out of his mouth, we got to work. I climbed up into the rafters and started nailing plywood in for the roof. I felt perfectly safe up high on the roof, but that changed slightly after I was told by the contractors that the safety catches on the sides were really just for show (thanks for that btw). It didn’t stop me though.

The work that day felt really good. There’s something satisfying about hammering a roof all day (that is, when you aren’t hitting your damn thumb!). We got plenty of water breaks (which was good because that cold morning weather disappeared FAST) and even lunch (not from Chic fil A thankfully).

After lunch things wound down a bit. We nailed in the last of the plywood on the roof and I enjoyed sliding up and down it like a fool (inadvertently making my pants filthy for the whole rest of the week, limited laundry trips and all). By the time we started putting the tar paper down my fingers killed from hammering all day and the sun was starting to get to me a bit. I kept going just fine and we got the tarpaper down, but soon it was time for us to go, and I was glad for it. Before we left they had me sign my name on the tarpaper, showing that I was a part of it all. We then said goodbye to the homeowner whom we were building for, grabbed some soda and headed back to base. It felt incredible to have done a full day of labor building a home for someone who really needed it, and to see the look of gratitude on her face as we left, but what felt even better was the nap that I took later that afternoon. That nap. Oh man that nap. I could write beautiful poetry about that.

And what makes it even better is that we went out for milkshakes, and then Taco Bell, where we had a run in with a sketchy guy, but I was over it by the time that taco hit my lips. I swear, whoever came up with the Doritos Locos Taco should have their own statue somewhere, because they’re a genius.

So that was my second ISP, and my favorite one to date! Thank you to my teammate Genise who put it all together. I’m so glad I did Habitat For Humanity, and I would recommend it to anyone! Thank you all for reading, until next time!