[font="times new roman"] Sweat flowed steadily down my face; a white light slowly captured my vision as I lost consciousness, I felt myself slowly nearing the ground. Lying passed out on an immense concrete slab in one hundred degree Florida weather, 750 miles from home rebuilding destruction from Hurricane Ivan is probably not how a typical high school student would envision community service. Despite what my body might have been saying as it got over heated, I never thought that what I was doing wasn’t worth it. While I was recovering by the water cooler a tiny eight year old boy with huge spirit, named Jamerico sprinted up to me with an ice cold towel and held it on my neck. This boy and the other six members of his family lost their home in Hurricane Ivan. His family was relying on Habitat and my church group to provide them with a brand new five bedroom home. Everyone saw images from the destruction hurricane Ivan left behind on the news, but I’m sure not too many people from the St. Louis area can say they’ve actually done anything hands on to help as I have.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] In the middle of June, 2006, I traveled about 750 miles with a group of thirty adults and teens to Pensacola, Florida. Every year my church has a “mission trip” where we build two houses for people in need in a one week period. Last June marked my third year participating in the trip. Since I had already built three houses, counting a woman’s build I participated in sponsored by Lowe’s, I thought I knew what to expect. I strolled on to the job site, loaded my nail pouch, grabbed a hammer, and got straight to work full of energy despite having woken up at five in the morning. After the first few hours, time moved agonizingly slow. Before anything else we were set to the tedious task of framing walls and hammering sheets of thin wood on top of the frames. The sun beat straight down on us, since there were hardly any trees, and the concrete slab we were working on was barren. Florida experienced the hottest temperatures of the summer that week in June, soaring over a hundred degrees. Although I knew inside that the work I was doing was really important, I wished I was inside the air conditioned church we were staying at doing something other than working. [/font]
[font="times new roman"] It wasn’t until our second day on the job site, that things started to pick up the pace. That morning, we started to lift up some of the wall frames we built, and were met with a wonderful surprise around lunch. It’s tradition that the family we build the house for comes and visits at least once during the week. Usually, they come and stand under the tent in the shade and observe for a while, and then leave. Last year, the father in the family came and actually helped work a little bit, but it was hard to instruct him since he hardly spoke any English. When I saw this year’s family wandering around the job site for the first time, something simply felt different about them. There was the mom and dad, two sons, eight, and ten and two daughters, one in middle school, one in high school. Their grandfather would also be living in the new house with them, making seven people in all. At first, they were very tentative, and watched all of us work from a far, but after a while, they were each toting their own hammer and nails eager to do anything they could to help. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]The rest of the week, the family became a vital part of our work force. They dutifully showed up everyday prepared to work. The way each of the children constantly hovered over my shoulder practically pushing my hammer out of the way, so they could hammer in nails themselves constantly made me laugh. As more and more walls began to come up, and you could finally see the floor plan come to life, I found myself picturing all of the happy times the family would share in each room. From getting to know them on the job site, I was driven to do everything I physically could to give them the best house I could deliver. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]From talking to the family, I learned how devastating the hurricane really was to them, and how they were dealing with it. The smallest son, Jamerico was the comedian of the family opposed to his laid back siblings. He provided comic relief to the family’s trying situation by shouting out things like, “I still got my X-Box!” He was definitely a trouble maker on the job site. I would be working, and look up to see that somehow he was swinging from the beams in the ceiling. He favored all of the girls, bringing them water, singing to them, and providing an endless supply of backrubs, while he liked to wrestle the boys. When the local press stopped by to take some pictures, and gather information for an article in the paper and a news segment, naturally he ended up front and center in every picture, while I ended up with a rather unflattering shot bending over in the background.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]At the closing ceremony, on the last work day, emotions were running strong as it was our last day on the job site, and meant we would be going home to St. Louis soon. The father gave a tearful speech in which he called us his family’s “gift from God”, and a “blessing”. I started crying too, partly because I was so touched, and partly because Jamerico was yanking on my hair during the speech. The memories of Jamerico will remain in my heart forever. It almost brings tears to my eyes to think about how upbeat and positive he remained even though he experienced more devastation then I will probably know in my life. There were lots of times throughout the week when I just wanted to give up and sit by the water cooler because the work was so tough, but I didn’t with him in mind. He took care of all of us and kept us entertained as we built his house, truly making the week so much more enjoyable. I feel so fulfilled knowing that with my own time and strength I was able to provide a deserving family with something so many of us take for granted, a home.[/font]