First off, a giant THANK YOU to all of the team that helped make Alabama’s PROJECT H a success; to those who supported the project financially ($40k to date) –and to those who came and provided labor, help, medical (Oh man), and emotional support.
Like many of my ideas, this one was just a bit beyond what I actually thought we could do…I mean, renovating a historic building…getting 70 people together to do it…sleeping in a gym together…eating together…taking cold showers together…and at the same time, getting far beyond the casual conversation, the superficial, the trite or trivial ---and reaching deep inside each participant so that he or she would somehow be moved by the experience.
For me the week started on Monday, as I came in with a few other team members to do the most dangerous and dirty work, which was the demolition of a room and ceilings/walls. Very dirty work, for sure. Joe Sherwood, Jason and Claire from the UK, and the Kastner Clan did most of the ugly stuff before the team arrived on Wed.
From Wed to Saturday night, everyone who arrived worked like dogs, nearly non-stop, always hard, through thick and thin to make this project happen. We went to watch a movie film festival and the Rural Studio, we worked on other projects, we met in a circle on numerous occasions to “talk story”, and we gathered in many other ways to make friends, to listen to stories, to laugh, and to share ideas.
People brought students, friends, and family members. Kids ran around, strangers became acquaintances (if not friends), and we performed a demo, sent 5 people to the hospital, nursed our wounds (part of the house collapsed on us), and got back on the horse to make it happen.
In the end, the trip wasn’t about building a house –it was about overcoming obstacles, about thinking differently, about coming together, and about team.
First we had a group of 25 students from the Universities of New Hampshire and Philadelphia here for a week volunteering for Habitat. An energetic team of 20 came th
