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| A Day for Humanity |
| Thursday, April 10, 2008 |
We were asked to volunteer to help with the Habitat for Humanity Organization in building homes for the poor, as part of Community work. Several team at work are volunteering all through April. Today was the day chosen for my team. Self being always enthusiastic about volunteering for such stuff, up to doing anything for the poor, ended up signing for it, even before knowing that the work involved getting very dirty at a construction site.
The day started off with me having to spend a good hour on the phone making some travel arrangements, totally not related to the post, and hence having to skip morning tea and rush out to meet the rest of the group at work at 7:30AM. The 40 min drive to the site itself took some energy out of me, thanks to the Sun and the erratic driving of a 24 yr old behind the wheel. The site was a plot where the other construction workers were building a home for the needy apparently. The joke was on us, that none of us owned a home, and here we were helping build a home for someone else for free. Yes, I suppose there is a difference between owning a home and being able to afford one.
So anyways, most of us had on our 'X Involved' T shirts to show off the company volunteer work. We were supposed to come in clothes that we wouldnt mind getting dirty. And comfortable shoes and most importantly, cap and sunglasses for the sun. And water.
The first task was to paint the fence. We all got the buckets with paints distributed and the roller brushes and set off. I have painted once before. When we were trying to decorate the walls of the conference rooms in my previous company. It was a fun task, except we got blots of paint all over our clothes and ourselves.
The next task on to cut a 5 inch deep pathway which would be the driveway. You would think it was an easy task. But it is so not. We were about fifteen of us, one using the axe kind of an instrument to dig the earth , one using the rake to collect the mud in one place, and a few using the shovel to take the mud and put it in a wheel barrow, and three people rotating in rolling the wheel barrow to dump the debri. This took most of the morning. It sure was back breaking job. Even picking up some mud in the shovel and putting it in the wheel barrow was not as easy as it might sound. The ground was so uneven with tree roots and stones and even worms. Apart from the other couple of women from marketing, I didnt know them, I was the only girl. And they were limiting themselves to painting the fence, giving a second coat.
I moved on to help some others digging a trench for the water pipe. The trench was supposed to be 18 inches deep, and very long. While the strong guys dug the trench, I shovelled out the mud. Again back breaking.
At a quarter past eleven we broke for lunch. I have not been so hungry. With the sun killing me with the heat. There was a long line at the Mexican Restaurant, I had a Mexican Veggie Bowl and a heavenly tasting Pinapple Juice. We analyzed our looks, we really looked like the construction workers with paint over us and dirt and mud.
We didnt feel like leaving the cosy comfort of indoors, we wanted to go back home ;--)We dragged ourselves back to the site.
Our next task was to move a mound of concrete bricks from one place to another. Sounds easy right? Three of us took like an hour to do it. I had on these construction gloves, and since we were some of the last to arrive in the morning, thanks to this colleague who came super late, I got a torn pair of gloves. Which didnt help at all while I carried the bricks. I took over pushing the wheel barrow job for sometime. One of the construction workers saw us struggling with the barrow and commented - How many engineers does it take to push a wheel barrow? Three. Earlier in the morning I was wondering why they didnt fill up the wheel barrow to its maximum capacity and transport, in the afternoon I realized. The barrow itself was so heavy to lift and push. My appreciation for the laborers has definitely gone up, they do so much more work everyday than us, we sit in the cosy comfort of our office, work without breaking a sweat. I agree the stress is so much more for us than for them. But still. ;--)
Then we had to cut a branch of a tree. It was high up and we had a saw. This was a task where in, one person was doing the job, propped up on a fence and ten others were watching him ;--) So another joke popped up.
How many engineers does it take to cut a tree branch? Eleven - One to saw through the branch, and ten to oversee the job. ;--)
By this time everyone was super tired. The workers were already cleaning up the area, washing stuff. We washed the paint brushes and other things, with water from a hose pipe. I had paint all over my hands. I was scared they might not go off.
Flashback begin
I was in Std 6, we were living in Bombay. It was Holi day. I came down happily with a Pichkari filled with water to play with friends. The moment I came down one Didi from the ground floor flat came running and smeared red paint on my whole face! I was mortified, that I ran up home crying. It took me an hour atleast to take off the paint from my face, using kerosene. So I have an aversion to paint. And an aversion to Holi. I havent played Holi ever since.
Flashback End.
When I stated my concern, my Amru friend confirmed that its Latex paint, and it should be easy to take off with just water. Thus peace prevailed in self.
Soon we were all just playing around with the tools, making jokes and it was time to leave. We took some pictures as proof of work done successfully. ;--) Thirty minutes drive back home and my headache shooted up several notches. I came home and hurriedly made a cuppa coffee. One cup didnt help. Had a second cup, and closed my eyes and slept for sometime. Slowly my arms have started aching with all the shovelling, and my legs feel tired with the regular workout at gym.
One happy thing out of the whole thing is, I am done with my workout for the day, so no gym today. Of course the other happy thing is the satisfaction of having done something for the poor, even if meagre in all respects.
I am still waiting for pain in other parts to show up slowly. Thank god tomorrow is a day off, for all the hard work we did the last quarter. Yipee! |
posted by SK @ 8:51 PM  |
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| 7 Comments: |
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Your day sounds super interesting (ya I guess reading about all the stuff you did is not tiring :-P). So now you can add "construction experience" to your list of qualifications kya :-)?
Hopefully your headache is better now.
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I guess the pain is worth it if its for somethin good...here u hv 2 reasons to feel good:1. compensates for the gym 2. helps the homeless! haha...
interestin! :) hw i wish i hd somethin interestin to talk abt too!
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The satisfaction at the end of teh day should be ultimate, I reckon. I hv actually never done anything like that. Maybe one day....
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Here is a thought. Its from one of Seinfeld's stand-ups.
Isn't it surprising engineers get paid more than construction workers. Nobody wants to be a construction worker. So to get somebody you need to pay them a lot. On the other hand, everybody is ready to be an engineer. So why pay them so much?
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Nice gesture...looks like a lot of hard work...:-)
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I have moved
http://ok-genstuff.blogspot.com/
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Arch, heheh, yes, in case something happens to present job, definitely this is the second choice :--))
Preeti,
Ohho yes, it felt great at the end of the day inspite of all the aches. :--)
Arun,
yes the satisfaction is indeed great. You should do it, if you get a chance too..
Ok,
Heheh. But thankgod they are not paid so much, else what will happen to the already peaking home rates?
Shilpa,
Yes, and it was fun too! :--)
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Your day sounds super interesting (ya I guess reading about all the stuff you did is not tiring :-P). So now you can add "construction experience" to your list of qualifications kya :-)?
Hopefully your headache is better now.