The experience of a lifetime: Spring Break with Habitat for Humanity

I’d heard stories about how great these alternative Spring Breaks are and how fulfilling an experience it can be. So, drunk with excitement, I decided to gather up my belongings and board a van for a cross-country journey that would take me to Louisiana and back over 10 days, with a stop to help boost a community jammed somewhere in the midst of a lifetime experience.

So I finished a last minute paper and headed to the BU Castle to meet everyone who would accompany me on the Habit for Humanity organized trip. On the corner of the street 16 students and vans await to travel just under 2,000 miles to perform our good deed. We then split up into two groups and begin our ride. With little else to do over the course of a 30-hour ride, we begin our introductions are made and delve into the details of each other’s lives.

I get second shift in the driving schedule, so halfway through Pennsylvania I take over with my shotgun partner. Over the walkie talkie I radio the other driver, we will call him Ice Man, that I will take the lead. To keep each other up through our long drive, Ice Man and I tell jokes and sing songs all the way through Virginia.

During this ride I come to the realization that I have no idea who this Ice Man person is. The fact that it seems like we have known each other for a while makes me excited to interact with everyone else on the trip. After a lot of passenger trades between the vans, many many pit stops, breakfast, lunch, dinner, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, we finally reach our destination: New Orleans.

Around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday we find Bourbon Street. For those who haven’t been there, all of the crazy stories you hear are true. Beads are flying everywhere to girls that have their shirts over their heads. Beer and margaritas are spilling everywhere. My eyes are wide open as we walk down — what I have by now designated — the greatest street ever. There are no worries in the minds of anyone there.

After partying for a few hours, we find a rest area to sleep at until the morning when we can go to Alexandria to what will be our shelter for the next five days. At the retreat center all of us are horribly tired and many of us rest or take peaceful walks in the woods. Myself and a girl — we will call her Maine — take a walk on a trail and tell ghost stories. Dinner is approaching and since we are so close to Texas, we decide to drive the extra hour and a half to have dinner in Jasper, a small town that does not get many visitors.

During our first real meal together at one table, everyone is telling jokes and stories. Bonding has begun. Every server or customer that sees us is so fascinated in why we are there. Each person we explain Habitat for Humanity to tells us we are the “cat’s meow” for participating in it. None of us realize what a good thing we are doing for unfortunate people on our Spring Break, when most college kids are relaxing at home or partying for the entire week.

Finally our first day of work is here. Monday morning we wake up and go to the Habitat office to have breakfast and meet Viola, our mother for the week. She tells us where to go and what she is making for dinner tonight (which, by the way, is rice, rice and rice). At the work site we meet our head contractor, Mr. Vic, who seems like he is 100 years old, but works like he is 30. He gives us the plans for three sheds that we have to frame, side, roof, shingle and floor over the next four days.

As we build the sheds in three different groups, we start getting competitive. Each of our groups try to have the perfect shed with the least amount of questions asked. We do, however, run into some small problems. For instance, the group building the “Love Shack” has to rebuild a whole wall. As I work on the “Perfect Shack,” I develop a bad sunburn, bruised fingers, splintered hands and somehow, at the same time, a love for what I am doing. None of these things stop me from striving toward the goal we came here to achieve. Finally, around lunchtime on Thursday, we finish our masterpieces. They stand so beautiful to both us and to the families that will be using them.

Though a shed doesn’t sound like a lot of work or a necessity for living, the families that will be using them and the neighborhoods in which they are in, showed us so much praise and thanks. We had given them hope showed them that there are still people trying to do good deeds for others.

Along with the good deeds we did, the other reason for many of us to go on this trip was to bond with people we never would have met or bonded with otherwise. This group was so heterogeneous, yet our heterogeneity brought us together. Each of us represented the extreme of the other, so everyone is evened out.

And through all of the Waffle Houses, Sonics, temper tantrums, friendship bracelets, flushing toilets, cold water, snoring, palm readings and dancing at sketchy jazz clubs, the Habitat group gave me the experience of my life. That includes Ice Man, Maine, Miss Farty, Duchess, STB, Mets Boy, Janis, Samadactal, Spielberg, Shhhhhh, Red, Masseuse, Danger Wang and “the girl who never lost that lovin’ feeling.”

Finally, to remember the trip, I quote The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”: “Oh, and our good times start and end without dollar one to spend. But how much, baby, do we really need?”