Habitat
So we journeyed to Jamaica, Queens for another addition of Habitat for Humanity with Bank of America. I decided to bike this time because it took about as long as the train. A total of 15 miles, and though maps told me it would take an hour a half, I made it just about 1:10ish.
The two houses were in the same general area, but instead of being nearly finished like last time, they had just been gutted. We were included in the reconstruction process and were tasked with putting in studs and supportive beams.
The house exteriors were over a hundred years old. They used to have squatters and were very dilapidated. They were being restored to be given to families. The neighborhood was positively nice. It had a very city-suburia feel, the houses were 2 stories plus basements/attics, not too much of a front or back yard, but most had some space. I would guess 2-4 bedrooms plus 2-3 bathrooms. This is especially considering I biked through a lot of different demographics on my way there.
Two fun facts I picked up: 80% of house recipients are single mother.
All recipients must put in 200hrs of work, in Habitat offices, builds, or other org work.
We also had a chance to visit the house we had helped with back in November 2017. They were nearly completely finished, the power and water lines were hooked up. They had to clean and install some appliances and maybe a touch of work in the basement/attics, but other than that, just about done. It was really exciting the see the culmination of the work we had put in. It was also a great feeling that the nice house was going to be given to some people with needs.
They didn’t cover up my signing which was cool to see!
As for what we did today, putting up all the support beams was awesome. Nice to be physical. Fun to wield tools like power saws and hammers. It’s also fun getting slowly better at using those tools, even only just one day of work, I got more and more comfortable. We worked really efficiently in our group.
It was a productive day, we did quite a lot of the necessary jobs.
It was also hot, and so there was a lot of sweat.
I feel so satisfied when working with my hands, even though I’m exhausted right now. I ate so much food, three slices of pizza and when I got back, just rice and soup and eggs.
Keeping that veggie for the last week.
Speaking of, they had a nice garden going on in the back. I ate some tomatoes, but they had eggplants, cucumbers, peppers and lettuce too. It was pretty fruitful honestly.
They also had other staff on hand, plus regular volunteers.
We had some of the same leaders as last time too, so the consistency was cool.
Cool to get to know my coworkers a little better. No one wanted to drink after, so I just biked back, definitely slower.
All in all, excellent. Nice to get somewhere new. Nice to break up the work week. Nice to do something good for the people.
I mean to post on the gram, with all the pictures, and hashtags. Build that clout on the volunteer work!