Baton Rouge Habitat

Tuesday, November 8th, departure day was here...

After nine hours of laughs, great music and driving an intensely boring I-55 through Mississippi, Emily and I arrived at the lovely Motel 6 in Port Allen, Louisiana.  By lovely, I mean scary, and by scary I mean located between a strip joint and a truck stop.  We checked out of this real estate treasure early to arrive at the Habitat Women's Build in South Baton Rouge.  We really had no idea what to expect when arriving for our first build, especially lacking any and all experience. 

When we got there, we met both Kristen and Lauren who were in charge.  There were four total houses being built next to one another.  It had stormed pretty bad the night before, so the site was incredibly muddy.  We were introduced to an amazing group of women, who had been building at this specific site every Wednesday.  They took us under their wing, gave us a tour of the house and put us to work. 

http://www.habitat.org/wb/
http://www.habitatbr.org/T1-home



exterior of the house when we arrived



 

We did A LOT of caulking on the exterior of the house that morning.  It wasn't pretty at the beginning, but we got the hang of it.  A few battle wounds and caulking stains later, we moved on to painting the exterior of the house (the color was cathedral stone, not to be confused with grey).  By the end of the day we had a majority of the exterior sealed and a first coat of paint on both sides of the house.  The women who also participated in our first day building were such an outgoing group, making us feel so welcomed and definitely laying the groundwork for a lot of future excitement.  On a side note, our group was treated to an amazing lunch from a caterer in the Baton Rouge area that day.  Very cool. 



 



The other women making progress on the front of the house



We came back to Baton Rouge from New Orleans on Friday night in preparation to build again on Saturday morning.  Many thanks to both Lauren and Alyssa for letting Emily and I stay with them Friday night.  These two girls are from AmeriCorps, and are currently working directly for Habitat for Humanity.  They both taught us a great deal about AmeriCorps and what drove them to want to be a part of Habitat.  It was very inspiring.  Things that many people do not realize about Habitat, they were able to share with us.  Like individuals who do qualify for Habitat housing are required to put in 250 sweat equity hours (volunteer) for the community and have payed off all bad debts prior to moving in to their new home.  It was all so interesting.  The fact that Lauren and Alyssa were willing to take us in after a day of knowing us speaks volumes to them as human beings, and is a direct reflection as to what they mean to the Baton Rouge Habitat organization.

Alyssa, Emily, Erin, Lauren
THANK YOU BOTH!

The last day started out putting the fear of God in to Emily...they handed her a caulking gun.  After getting on the scaffolding and doing a majority of the roof on the front of the house, I pulled her away to come paint with me.  We spent the rest of our day applying a second coat of Cathedral Stone paint to one side of the house.  May I add, on this day, we were blessed with a great Cajun meal from the Girl Scouts as well.



One final look at the house

 



Girl Scouts of Baton Rouge supplied lunch




 

A look at our final product

If I had any hesitation as to what I'm embarking on over the next couple of weeks, all was put to rest that Saturday afternoon when we pulled away from the Baton Rouge build.  This group set the bar high, especially Lauren, Alyssa and Kristen. They exemplified exactly what I was looking for on this journey.  So all I can do is end this post with another huge thank you to these girls for opening up their home to us, and to the Baton Rouge Habitat Community for welcoming us with open arms.

On to Sarasota....

Love from the road,
Erin