First day of the Community Action Project

Hello blog! It’s Savannah, Desmond, and Ashley, and we were leaders of the day for the first day of the Community Action Project. We left to the CAP site early at nine in the morning to get a head start on building Maria’s (Community Member) house. The group communicated with the community members about what our plans were on how to deconstruct Maria’s house and rebuild her foundation to ensure that the project was beneficial for Maria and the community. Then, the group started with deconstructing the wood frame of her house, we used different tools such as hammers, pickaxes, and shovels. We worked for 3 hours in the morning to destroy the flooring and walls, then after a lunch break, we headed back to the site for 2 hours to shovel the dirt for the plumbing. Meanwhile, the residents of the community watched, supported, and gave feedback on how to successfully achieve our goal.

Today was a very difficult, but rewarding, day of work. Our group had to work through communication discrepancies in order to carry out the tasks that were given to us by the contractors. We also had to learn how to use the tools effectively and also teach the group how to use them safely. For us as leaders, we had to balance the duty of leadership while volunteering our service and time. Us leaders also had to motivate the group during times of discouragement and hardship. Overall, this was a great learning experience for the entire group, as we learned many valuable lessons such as real world problem-solving, compromising, communication, and the importance of safety in the workplace. We also learned sentimental lessons such as the importance of community and the need for fellowship. In closing, this was a fantastic experience that we would do again if we had the opportunity! Thank you for tuning in and we can’t wait to see you guys soon!