Winter Break with Habitat for Humanity
Coming on the Vero Trip, I wanted to learn how to build a home and influence others’ lives not only my own life. This trip has met my expectations and more. Today we were scheduled to do construction. Driving into the worksite today was very exciting and I felt ready to do anything the construction workers/ supervisor told me to do. All that was up was the basic wood structure of the home and we had to nail the house together. The supervisor, Richard, told us to get an tool belt and a hammer and start nailing away. We had to nail two walls and it was a nail after every three inches by 8 inches wood. After an hour I started to get the hang of the job and it became quicker. The whole time we were working the house owner was there helping and it made me feel great to be able to know who the person we were building the house was for. She was very appreciated about the house and it gave me the motivation to give it my all because I knew she was going to be living there and it would be her home. Working alongside her was very humbling and made me want to do so much more. That one moment of seeing how much our work meant to her made the trip across the country worth wile. A job as simple as hammering on the red lines meant so much to the owner, and it left me wondering if it was because we were able to accomplish a lot (being a 9 person group) or if it was because she saw how much the community supports her. The woman was so grateful and I loved nothing more than working alongside her. We both had the common goal of creating a beautiful home to support her family which inspired me to work so much more efficiently. It was also amazing to work alongside the volunteers we did. An 85 year old man was hammering away with an incredible amount of zest, while I stood a mere two feet away hammering my thumb. There was also a dreamy man in his later twenties who was the head contractor for the houses we were working on. It is amazing to see how so many people from all walks of life incorporate social justice. A young man dedicated his life currently toward making a difference, but the same social justice was seen in a retired elderly man weekly. All together today was very inspiring seeing how people incorporate social justice into their lives.
– Stephanie Herrera ’18