First of all, I am finally here....I did it....my very first blog ever....always wanted to write something and share it with every1...had all the stories and all the talent (well...i can write in english;) needed....didnt had the inspiration....finally got it....:).....i did something amazing....tat I am so proud of and really wanted to share it with all....
Gautam (my husband) had an offsite last wednesday and his group was going to do some community work....I had nothing important to do so I decided to tag along....
Wednesday was the most windy day of the season....when we started out at 7:00 in the morning I thought the wind is going to blow us away....but fortunately we made it to Georgetown (a place near Austin)....we were among the first few who were on time and were shivering in the early morning wind and cold.....:)
The project is part of 'Habitat for Humanity's effort to provide housing to the lower income group of our society. People receiving these houses are required to perform from 300-500 hours of volunteer work called the sweat equity and they purchase the house with a loan from the Habitat for Humanity group and the mortgage is for 20-30 years with 0% interest. We were to volunteer at one of these construction sites with 5-6 homes being built.
Now comes the most amazing part of the project. The management team. It was a bunch of oldies (all retired). Bob was the leader of the group. He assigned work and divided us in groups to do the work assigned under our leader. The work varied from Dry walling, electric work, to painting the houses. As its a very common observation with these guys, I was assigned the painting job as girls love to paint. Our leader was Shirley and Bill. As we got to work we also started talking. Sirley is retired and doing this volunteer work for almost 3-4 years. She told me that when she was young she always wanted to give back to the society. She had a good life and she wanted to help others achieve the same. And that was not just her. All these cute old guys Bill, Bob, shirley and others were all so excited about building these houses and giving the underpriviledged the satisfaction of owning a home....it was just amazing. I was so pround of myself. I am so happy I was a part of their great work atleast for a day.
It gave me new inspiration. Taught me how to be selfless and do something for others. These dedicated old people, who are supposed to be burdening the new generation were actually helping the new, young generation to achieve their dreams. These guys have shown me the satisfaction of selfless work. Their glowing smiles and satisfied look at the end of a hard day's work lifts u up. One cant help but be thankful to god for such wonderful people who are willing to take responsibilities and make it a better world for everyone. Thats the way these guys are "Giving Back".
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