ChickSpeak

Spring break is around the corner for most chicks and while I always look forward to some time off from classes and homework, this spring break I am especially excited to be going on my first Habitat for Humanity service project to Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  

Each year, the Appalachia Volunteer Group at Boston College sends approximately 200 students to trips throughout the Appalachia region during the first week in March. The experience however, is not limited to the one week that the trip takes place.  

Since the beginning of September, the rest of the 200 volunteers and I attend weekly Sunday meetings where a variety of speakers come and talk about problems that the Appalachia region faces, the meaning of a service trip, and how to incorporate what you learn on these trips into everyday life.  

I admit to going to the very first meeting expecting to zone out half way through, but the ideas I have learned about over the past couple months have significantly opened my eyes and challenged me to think about how I live my own life.  

For example, one week the speaker was a representative from Agua Para La Vida, an organization that works to provide potable drinking water and sanitation to rural areas. In these areas, the water is either completely unsuitable for drinking and/or causes illnesses such as diarrhea. I was astonished when I learned that 2.2 million people a year, the majority of whom are under five years old, die from contaminated water that causes severe diarrhea.  

Of course I was previously aware of all the poverty that exists in American and in third world countries, but for some reason when I leaned the statistic of 2.2 million people a year dying from diarrhea it forced me to realize the amount of people who do not even have access to the basic necessity of clean water.  

Then I proceeded to think about all the times I leave the faucet in the bathroom running and how much I take having such easy access to clean water for granted. While I personally cannot give all the people around the world clean water, I feel like being aware of the overwhelming problem and furthering awareness is a step in the right direction. It was an adjustment of my own perspective to say the least.  

Another week, a speaker from the Boston College Campus Ministry came to recount the story of his first time on a volunteer trip.  He had approached the trip with the attitude that he was going to do so much to help underprivileged others. He had envisioned himself constructing houses for the homeless, but when he got to his destination he was assigned to sweep the floors of an old building in the town.  

That was when he realized that the service trip was not about how much he was doing. Rather it was about him playing a part in a larger experience and doing whatever he could. He now says he learned more from the people of the town he went to help than they did from him.  

Last week, after months of learning about the Appalachia region, my fellow volunteers and I got assigned groups, trip leaders, and a placement. My roommate got her e-mail with all the information about where she was going first, so we went online to search the town she is going to in Mississippi.  

Yet again, the things we learned forced us to think; only forty percent of the town buildings and homes have electricity, over half of the houses are mobile units, and the school in town was not even assigned a ranking level, which means it does not even meet the qualifications to be ranked in the first place.   

My whole experience with the Appalachia Volunteer Group thus far, has been radically educational, which is why I am so excited to actually be going on the trip next week. My only expectation is to have my conscience continually pricked by all that I will learn and perhaps to learn how to use a hammer, since I will be doing some construction work.  

For any chicks looking to get involved with a Habitat for Humanity service trip, check out the website, http://www.habitat.org/, for opportunities.  

Erin Nerlino is a communications and English major at Boston College. She is looking forward to meeting new people and experiencing a new place this spring break.