Today was both our first day working with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans as well as my first day ever working with Habitat. I was blown away by how much work and effort goes into these houses! Yesterday we were able to explore the lower ninth ward and New Orleans which allowed us to gain more insight into the history of this city and the people we are here to serve. While that was an eye-opening experience, today was the day I finally felt like I was truly serving others.

The houses we worked on were already mostly built so we worked on a lot of finishing touches. We also worked with two others volunteer groups, one from Florida and the other from New York! We were split into smaller groups throughout the day to work on projects around the two houses. Throughout the day I got to learn how to use a saw, to paint a house, to lay sod, and – most interestingly – how to build a drive way (much more interesting than that sounded).

Through the several tasks I was able to perform today I gained a strong respect for those who work daily with Habitat, as well as the volunteers. These houses are not casually thrown together in the least, the site supervisors make sure everything is done right and done well. It was obvious, through everyone’s work and conversations, that everyone there truly cared about what we were doing. I look forward to the next two days getting to know everyone at the site better and getting more done on the house. I also plan to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity at Missouri State after we get back!