Finally! An Update!

The new term of service has started at Habitat Charlotte. We have a new crop of Americorps living and serving here and I've been working my tail off learning all the details of new construction as well as having more responsibility and leadership of the worksites. It has been alot of fun, but I end each day crashing into my bed exhausted! But I love that I wake up each morning enthusiastic and excited about the work ahead! The new group of Americorps is really fun. Everyone likes hanging out and getting to know each other. There is always someone around, or something going on.

Next week is the official start of our Blitz Build season, but alot of the projects are already underway. My team had two new starts last Saturday. Our houses are sponsored by the Charlotte Church partners and they've been sending out fantastic groups of volunteers to work together to build these houses. Yesterday we put the trusses on both the houses. They are looking fantastic!

Emma, Isela and Chasity on their first build day!

 

One of the new houses being framed!

Charlotte Church partner finish sheathing the house in the foreground while also putting up trusses on the house in the background!

Decision

Tuesday morning I had a meeting with the heads of construction, new construction and host site coordinator. They had scheduled the meeting with me the week before to talk about my service next year. I assumed that we would set goals for the year and talk about specifics on what I should focus on learning and how I could be a leader amongst the Americorps. Knowing that I had the goal of reapplying to be a Construction Fellow next year I assumed they would help me plan my next year with that goal in mind. I was struck speechless when instead I was offered a Construction Fellowship starting in August. After looking at the new construction goals for the next year and the increase in the number of families served they decided to hire three Fellows instead of two.

My initial gut reaction was to decline the offer. After accepting another Americorps term of service I’ve become really excited for all the positives about that experience. I was looking forward to the camaraderie of belonging to a group, going to Talledega for the Leadership Conference, going to Build-a-Thon in the Spring and having another year to become proficient at construction skills. I don’t think I smiled at all during the morning meeting as all these thoughts were racing around my head. After talking with my mom, current supervisors, and making a pro/con list with Caroline and Sean I had a lot of perspective on the decision before me. Spending another year as an Americorps would mean an additional year of experience and learning new construction. Becoming a Fellow would mean more responsibility and taking that position now would show a lot of growth.

My deliberations led to these final thoughts: I know that I love my job and the work that I am doing. I want to be able to do this and be happy for as long as I can. My thought process leads me to believe that having the experience of being a fellow would be best for my career path. If after the fellowship I can’t find a job as a site supervisor I still have an Americorps term of service that I can use to continue gaining experience. And it meant a lot of me that the heads of construction see a lot of potential in me and want to invest in me by offering me this opportunity. Ultimately I recognize that this position will be very challenging for me and I can’t wait to rise to the occasion and prove that they made the right decision.

New Goals

Professional:

• Read 1 professional book a month
• Connect with the homeowners we serve more, and create meaningful relationships
• Attend Family Selection meetings and HIP Orientation
• Become LEED Certified?

Educational

• Take the GRE
• Renew my Wilderness First Responder Certification (2015)
• Learn French
• Apply to Grad School

Fitness & Nutrition

• Lose the 10 pounds I've gained in Americorps
• Run the New Years Double Marathon
• Take a Yoga Teachers Training

Personal

• Call Gram every week
• Be a good friend to the new Americorps members, coordinating Birthday cards, initiating and regularly participating in Family Dinners and being supportive as members learn and grow in their service
• Buy a car
• Go to group runs/meetups
• Volunteer

Build-A-Thon

Last week all the Habitat Americorps travelled to one of three sites for a week of Blitz building. All the Habitat Charlotte Americorps travelled to Raleigh to build with the Wake County Habitat for Humanity. We spent the week building 5 new homes (3 from start to finish, 2 from drywall to finish), and 8-10 repair/Brush with kindness projects. I worked on the Brush with Kindness projects. My crew spent the first 3 days ripping off an old roof and replacing it. Because we usually subcontract out our roof repairs in Charlotte, it was interesting to see how you would do that with volunteers. We only tore one half of the house off at a time, papering and begining to shingle the first side before starting to demolish the other half of the roof. This allowed the family to remain in their home during the repairs. We had a great crew and stayed busy all three days. We also used harnesses to rope ourselves onto the roof. They were often in our way and we spent alot of time untangling ourselves. We spent the remainder of the week repairing decks, installing handrails, painting ad planting flowers to make families' homes safer and to beautify the neighborhood.

In the evenings we returned to the NC State campus where we were staying in one of the dorms. It was alot of fun getting to meet other people serving in different affiliates and hear about their experiences!

Friday after the home dedications and closing ceremony we drove back to Charlotte to prepare to build with the Bike and Build team riding through. Saturday we hung drywall and siding with this years' NC2SD riders. They were a fantastic bunch, energetic and passionate about the amazing summer they were embarking on! After work we had a barbeque for them where we mixed and mingled, and tried to convince them to continue in service by considering joining Americorps.

After a glorious Sunday full of yoga, runnng, reflection, and relaxation, Sean and I worked on the Veterans Build. This year we are building a house for a retired Navy Vet and his family in the Reid Park neighborhood. We had alot of media attention and alot of great volunteers who gave up their long weekend to kick off the build! With a condensed build schedule, that house is scheduled to be complete for the fourth of July.

Its been a great couple weeks of building and playing, reflecting and enjoying my time as an Americorps. And as of yesterday its official: I'm coming back to Charlotte to serve another term!

Natalie and Tom halfway through the roof repair!

Gary and his family standing in front of their newly framed house!

El Salvador

This weekend I returned home from our Habitat for Humanity Global Village trip to El Salvador. I went with 10 other people including Alex and Bettie (who works for Habitat Charlotte as well). We spent the week building a home in Sonsonate. The home was started the day we arrived. We were working in an area where several homes were being built. Don Julio oversaw our efforts for his son. His son and his family will be moving into the house when it is finished, but had to be away working all week in San Salvador so his father was there to greet and work with us. The house next door was being built for Don Julio’s daughter. We began Monday by starting to dig the foundation for the house, and finished the day by passing buckets of sand to mix into the cement from the street where it was delivered to the worksite. We spent a lot of the week moving sand, gravel, limestone, and cement bricks from one location to the worksite. By the end of the week we had managed to get the foundation dug, and all the cement mixed and poured (by sheer muscle power- no cement mixer included!) There was another Global Village group of Canadian high school girls who stayed with us and build on a site just down the road. Did you know Canadian bacon isn't a thing in Canada? And their money is plastic? 

Even though my knowledge of Spanish is limited I felt able to communicate well enough on the worksite and greet Don Julio. I also understood him when he told me it was hot outside and was able to exchange pleasantries. One member of our group, Maggie spoke Spanish really well. She’s currently in high school and tutors English as a Second Language (ESL) to adult students. She was awesome at connecting with the families and neighbors as we worked! We also had a few members of Habitat El Salvador staff to help us on the worksite. They not only helped translate the Mason’s instructions to us but also coordinated our travel, meals, and everything else we did. They taught us about the different Departments in El Salvador and told us about the local culture as we traveled.

While the work was more physically difficult than my normal work, building in El Salvador still felt like a vacation because mentally the work was less taxing. My only responsibility was to show up on time and work with my team. I had no other responsibilities to coordinate tasks, prepare meals, worry about transportation. Even the worries and stressors that I left in the US remained un-thought of as I concentrated only on the beauty of El Salvador and the work we were doing.

Our accommodations were gorgeous! The first night we stayed at a resort on the beach. We spent our first few hours in El Salvador getting to know our travel-mates, walking along the beach and eating. After that we travelled into the mountains, closer to where we would be working. The “resort” in the mountains was even more beautiful than the first! The area was so lush, covered in tropical flora. We all had beds in one of the cabins. We had 4 cabins between the 11 of us, and each had a toilet (that flushed) and a shower. The staff even changed our sheets every day! We also ate two meals a day there (breakfast and dinner) and it was always delicious! While I am tired of tortillas, I filled up every day on eggs, beans, vegetables, fruit, and even got to try papusas- a stuffed tortilla (usually with beans and cheese). Being able to go back to the resort every night and walk around, relax by the pool, journal, reflect, study, drink coffee (or una cerveza, por favor), was just fantastic. It was a great trip. I learned a lot about El Salvador, the people, culture, way of life, the local Habitat for Humanity, Spanish, and I met alot of great people! I highly recommend going on a Global Village trip, and cant wait to do another!

Palm Sunday Procession in the Streets

Don Julio

The finished foundation with rebar set!

Alex standing outside of our mountain cabin accommodations! 

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

This time next week I’ll be in El Salvador! I’m going on a Global Village trip to volunteer for a week with the Habitat for Humanity affiliate down there. I’m super excited for this experience and to spend a week serving in a community with a completely different way of life. It’s supposed to be 92 degrees the day we arrive, and I’m told the work we are doing will be very physical. The last group who came back from El Salvador said they spent a lot of their time carrying cement bricks up a hill.

Here in Charlotte my team is currently working on a huge repair project. The house was severely damaged in a fire. We’ve spent the last week, and the last few weekends doing demolition, and preparing the materials for the big rebuild. This week we are having two all-staff days to get the new roof on the house. Then, Friday is Realtors Cares day and we’ll be having a huge crew from their group shingling the roof. This project has given me the opportunity to do more new construction type tasks, such as building the ladders attached to the gables for the new roof, as well as some demolition work. Our first day on that site we led a crew of Homeowners-in-Progress (HIPs) knocking down the drywall and insulation out of the attic and cleaning it up so the lead remediation contractors could remove what remained of the roof. That crew of HIPs was so great we requested them the following weekend to remove the old baseboard to prepare the house for the electrical subcontractors to do the rewiring.

This week Caroline, Alex and I went to Fern for their weekly outdoor yoga class. I biked there right after work for a cocktail and appetizer. (Fern is this natural, local vegetarian restaurant!) The appetizer I ordered (Cauliflower Poutine) was awesome, and my kombucha-rum cocktail was delicious! The yoga class was awesome! The turnout was way smaller than I expected (only five people, which I expect is because it was the first event of the year) which meant we had a lot of hands-on assistance from the instructors. It was probably the most physically demanding yoga class I’ve ever done.

This is what the house looks like in the livng room-where the fire originated.

Me after a long day of demolition!

Alex and I doing yoga outside of Fern!

Photo Cred: Caroline

Volunteers

Yesterday we finished the house on Alleghany we’ve been working on. This house needed a large portion of the floor replaced. Termites had eaten about 17 floor joists and the band under the house causing the kitchen and bathroom to start caving in. The walls also had asbestos and had to be removed. We had a lot of volunteer groups come in to work on this project, spontaneous volunteers, the Wednesday and Thursday crews, a volunteer Meetup group, and a group of Hands on Charlotte. I’m super excited to have gotten to meet all these cool volunteers who came out to make a difference in their community. I weatherized the house with Liz from the meetup group and as we were installing the vapor barrier under the house she told me about the running group. It turns out she’s the run leader for the local Thursday night run I’ve been meaning to go to. Now that I know someone who will be there, the thought of attending a Meetup is a lot less intimidating! The group from Hands on Charlotte worked with us yesterday to paint the house and do the final cleanup. They went above and beyond, painting way more than expected, helping us dig a trench, caulk, clean, and they finished everything on the list by noon! When I first moved to Charlotte I went to the Hands on Charlotte new volunteer orientation, but I haven’t found any volunteer opportunities that appealed to me, fit in my schedule, and that I could get to. But working with this group renewed my interest, so I’ll keep looking, and hopefully find something this Spring!

The kitchen floor before

The kitchen after! New floor, walls, cabinets, and light fixtures!