In 2002 I joined AmeriCorps moved to Jacksonville, Florida for a year to build homes with Habitat for Humanity. The year was trying in unexpected ways. It turned out we, the mostly white college educated Americorps volunteers were not expected to do actual construction so much as supervise groups of volunteers and "homeowners" in painting, landscaping, roofing, installing windows and doors and framebuilding.
To say I was not entirely comfortable with the leadership role would be a great understatement. I was also not comfortable with being federally funded and asked to pray every morning. Anyway, I did learn some things about homebuilding which was my goal. Afterwards I wanted to not ever be responsible for vinyl siding or suburban sprawl. I moved to New York to work with non-profit housing co-operatives.
Jacksonville was/is beautiful. I miss the beaches and rivers.
On this page I'm planning to post drawings at other art works from that year.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
