Is Habitat for Humanity fun?
One caveat: HFH is more religious in some areas than others. This is from their website: Austin Habitat for Humanity (AHFH) Mission: AHFH works in partnership with God and people everywhere, from all walks of life, to put our faith in action by building affordable, quality houses with families in need to eliminate poverty housing, one family at a time.
I’ve been on 3 HFH trips to sunny Florida with my college, and each was a major blast, though there are a few variables that effect how fun both building sites and volunteer housing can be. On site: You’ll want to be in pretty good shape. Even working with power tools can be exhausting after a while, so limit your activities to ones you can handle for the duration of the day. Good site supervisors will keep things moving and keep everyone comfortable. Plan for the weather — usually trips involve alot of sun, so keep everyone covered in SPF 45 reapplying every 1-2 hours. Off site: You’ll be able to ask about facilities while planning the trip. Make sure that there are *showers* at the site. Having to truck people and gear around to a shower location is time-consuming and won’t make people comfortable. Everyone should have a cellphone. Gather all the names and numbers on a list, and photocopy for everyone. It really helps if everyone puts each name in the cellphone during some downtime.
Habitat for Humanity is an awesome experience. Theres nothing like building something with your own hands and knowing it will do the world some good. I volunteer at the one in my town (Wilmington, NC) and there has never been much Jesus talk. If there ever gets to be a lot, I would get scared and run away (or just live with it). But luckily everyone for the most part is there to work hard, and do some good. Unlike some of my other volunteer experiences, I have never had to admit I haven’t officially ‘let jesus into my heart’.
I realize you’re asking about volunteer experiences specifically, but I’m a HfH homeowner (technically, condo owner) and have lived in my current home in WI for going on 10 years. The homeowner experience is probably different for each family who is offered housing – I can only speak to my own experiences. It was a joy to put in my sweat equity hours, despite the fact that my son’s bicycle was stolen the very first day we showed up to begin the sweat equity. I’d never have learned about door repair or staining or woodwork or all the other cool things I learned had I not participated and put in the time I put in. Making the videos of the open air drug dealing outside of my new home? That’s been exciting. We’d give those to the police in a effort to clean up a crime-ridden neighborhood for all our children who we wanted to keep safe. I had no idea I’d be a permanant fixture on our condo board when I was asked to be the secretary years ago, but, what with my fellow HfH condo owners who do
