Working in the Moment

It seems to me that so much of our troubles come from living outside the moment. When we are working on houses it becomes doubly hard to do so. The entirety of our work is so that in the future a family will have a home. Often this idea becomes so daunting that it is difficult to really look around and see what we accomplish. There is always something to do after we finish a project that it is difficult for us to take a moment and relax. So often this means that we are so caught up in what needs to happen next that we forget to look around us and really see what we have accomplished.
For an example, the first day we were here started out with us gutting a house. Yesterday some of our group spent the afternoon moving furniture into that same house. It’s kind of like the calm before the storm or the eye of a tornado, a few moments of clarity and then we’re thrown back into the struggle.

There are few things I’ve learned in this project; 1-there are no such things as an excess of buckets. 2-Sometimes less is more; cleaning up blown in insulation is not one of them. 3-a 24oz cup of coffee from the gas station is ALMOST enough to get a person through the day. 4- If you’re nice to the ladies giving out lunch they will give you more dessert. 5-Just about everything can be accomplished with a stout crow bar.

Yours in Service,
Harry Aungst, oak 5

Thought for the day- Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way. - Dr. Seuss

Reflections on Job Site Apathy

Sometimes, it seems that we forget what the truly important things are in life. Everybody knows this, but unfortunately, sometimes we are all too apathetic to revise our priorities. For me, this apathy commonly comes from all of the minuscule details that sometimes get blown way out of proportion an into something much bigger than it was intended to be. I get lazy when, let’s say, I have spent the last three days in a basement painting the ceilings and the walls. When I get done with one of those days it becomes much more difficult to motivate myself for the rest of the evening. But that’s ok. Sometimes it’s good to lock yourself in your room and sleep through dinner.
I think the reason that we are so tired by Friday is that we keep reminding ourselves why we are here. When I look around me while walking down the street sometimes all the abandoned houses seem to close in on me and make me feel guilty for taking a 5 minute break and walking to the gas station. When being tasked with helping the flood recovery it sometimes becomes hard to recall what the larger picture is. When all we see around us are the remnants of broken homes and lives of people who have become disenfranchised it becomes easier to become more complacent with our roles.
Still throughout this, there is an ever present gleam of hope in every ones eyes. It becomes easier to keep up our energy through out the week when we realize what is truly being accomplished here.

Yours in service,
Harry Aungst
Oak 5

Closing thought- A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. - Greek Proverb

Whether the Weather is hot or cold decides on whether Oak 5 will weather the weather.

We started off the week with a snow day. That is, typically, every child’s dream, right? Not when the alternative is staying on campus and working for the day instead of making snow forts and having snowball fights. Gone, apparently, are the days of care free youth, when I would hide and wait for the neighbor to walk out and get his morning paper and plaster the poor bath robed man into submission with snow balls. I found myself envious of tarring down ceilings and pulling up floor boards. Instead of dreaming of white sand beaches of Mexico, I was dreaming of the van ride into work.
Later that evening I counted up the number of things I had done. It amounted to James and I moving approximately 35 wardrobes that weighed upwards of two hundred pounds. Looking back I count myself lucky; we had a dolly, an elevator, no permanent back injuries and lots of coffee.
Despite our snow day, two early leave days and one delayed start day it has still been a productive week. Much of my time has been spent dry walling. I can’t speak for the whole team, but I at least, enjoy it. The work is meticulous enough to be engaging yet calm enough to keep you from going into overload mode.

It seems that things have not been running quite as smoothly for the flood recovery office. Even since we started working with block by block the decline of volunteers is noticeable. Apparently there were eight teams lost due to the weather this week alone. On the brighter side however, Melisa, our sponsor from Block by Block has just yelled across the room to me that by next Monday they will have will have reached over 10,000 volunteers that have worked with Block by Block. June 10th of 2008 is when the count started. That works out to roughly 500 volunteers a month.

Closing thought for the day-
“The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.”-Leo Tolstoy