When I came back to camp from a morning run I took a quick shower and got a birthday cake ready for one of the camp workers. Some of the other volunteers and I baked the cake last night, and between purchasing the cake mix to figuring out how to use a conventional oven - it took a good three hours to finish the cake. But the bonding that occurred among the volunteers plus the look on the camp worker's face when she received her birthday surprise was well worth the time.
After we had breakfast and sang "Happy Birthday" our whole group drove up to St. Bernard Parish to tackle whatever they had in store for us. Today's job: move housing material from to the new warehouse at the St. Bernard Project headquarters.
Due to increasing support the St. Bernard Project was granted enough funds to purchase a bigger warehouse in order to store material to build more houses. With the warehouse all set it was our job to move doors, windows, and various housing material from the moving truck to the new warehouse. Some of the material was light enough to carry alone but most of the moving required us to work in pairs. Since there was an odd number of people we ended up switching partners multiple times, but this allowed us to talk to everyone at the site.
The humongous warehouse seemed to go on forever when we were inside. There were no lights or windows and there was only one fan that was supposed to keep us all cool. When we started unloading material the heat became unbearable. I reached the point where I felt like I was drowning in my own perspiration. I don't know which surprised me more - the short amount of time it took for me to drink 24 oz. of water, or my ability to sweat it out.
The first hour of work was extremely exhausting, but it got easier as the day went on. The more we worked in the warehouse the closer our service group came together. The most unifying experience occurred when we began unloading 12-14 ft. long planks of wood into the warehouse. The planks were too long to be moved into the warehouse by a fork lift so we had to carry the planks in by hand. It took two of us to carry the planks in stacks of three. We also had two people transferring the planks to the carriers and two people stacking the planks once they were brought into the warehouse. As the hours passed our station eventually fell into a flawless routine.
Carrying planks inside the warehouse soon turned into a mindless job. No one had to think about what they were doing; we all sort of transformed into machines walking in and out of the warehouse. The hardest part about carrying the wood was trying to find the most comfortable way to hold the plank. Whenever I tried to manipulate the plank against my body I always ended up walking in an awkward side shuffle with the plank in my arms. Everyone's goal was to hold the plank in the least painful way as possible. But no matter which way you held the plank it would always find a way to dig itself into a hip bone or a rib cage. There were multiple times when my mind wandered off, but I never skipped a beat when it came to work because my body always knew what to do. We were all so dedicated to our work - when they called break I would collapse on top of a pile of wood and lay motionless unless I was talking to someone or drinking water. But once we started working it was like I had never been tired. For one day I had become invincible. We all felt that way, though. That is what brought us together, this common bond that empowered us to feel like we could move the world if we all worked together.
By the end of the day we moved over 700 planks into the warehouse and celebrated with some ice-cream. Up until that point the warehouse had been filled with chatter and music, but as we ate our ice-cream the entire warehouse silenced for several moments. Not because we didn't have anything to say, but because we didn't need to. My experience in the warehouse tested my mental and physical endurance, and I realized by the end of the day where my personal capability truly stands. I have never known the meaning of strength until today.
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