My third Habitat for Humanity build

I first volunteered for Habitat for Humanity almost a year ago. I joined the corporate social responsibility club we have at work a little more than a year ago, and on March 23 last year, we had our first trip to a Habitat for Humanity site, where volunteers moved hollow blocks and cement mixtures from one place to another, allowing skilled workers to focus on the actual house building rather than on the smaller stuff.

Since then, I've gotten really involved in this corporate social responsibility (CSR) club, so much so that I've been elevated to initiative head. I have three other co-heads (great people with whom I really love working) and it's amazing that our CSR initiative now has the full support of our country management. we now have projects and programs meant to contribute in the areas of environmental sustainibility, economic development and philanthropy, and educational achievement.

Last Saturday was our first company-wide activity for the year: another build for Habitat for Humanity. We had over 60 volunteers participate and it was great. There was a lot more work to be done this time around. we were broken into four groups. although two of the groups ended up merging. The first group painted the steel components of the roof. The second group poured the cement mix into the walls, and the third group, which I was in, did all the heavy lifting - hollow blocks, sand, and cement mix.

Of all my three trips to a Habitat build, this was probably the one where I had the most fun. Mainly coz we had more volunteers than in the past. But also because we were involved in the latter stages of house building so you could more easily see progress. my group moved enough cement mix to allow the builders to complete three floors in three different houses. It was amazing to see really, and I think as the day wore on we actually got faster and faster with respect to moving the cement mix. It was also great seeing how much higher the walls had gotten due to the great work of the volunteers pouring the cement mix into the hollow block walls. There were so many roof components that were fully painted by the end of the day.

This was also the first time that we all had name tags (I guess we have learned from past experience as well). And seeing the name of the person standing next to you made it so much easier to make new friends.

Of course, considering the fact that I haven't had any exercise in a long time, I feel like I've been beaten up today. My back (upper and lower), biceps, shoulders, and even legs feel extremely sore, almost like I was beaten up LOL. unfortunately, I wasn't able to hit the spa today to get a massage, so I plan to get one tomorrow instead. Nevertheless, all the pain is worth it. Not only did we get to help build houses, I also got to meet a lot of new people.