Anastazia in Kentucky: Fixing Houses verses Fixing People

    I know this blog is about a week late, but that is what happens when all I have been doing was sleeping and working. I did make dinner this week, but I would have died without my house-mate's help. Over the past two weeks I have been allover Cumberland Valley and it turns out that I won't be home for two more weeks.

     Anyways, From March 13th to March 18th I was in Jackson County taking a break from the shelter to work at an alternative spring break called "WorkFest". I spent my week working on houses and getting to know other college students allover the country. There was only two other long term volunteers staying at "Workfest" with me. Well actually there were a couple past volunteers, some retired construction workers, and of course all of the housing volunteers. Going to Clay County and working on a random stranger's house and learning about the people of Appalachia was a nice change from working in a shelter 45-50 hours a week.

      When I first got to Camp AJ I was excited to see other CAP volunteers from the other houses and programs. If nothing else getting to see the other volunteers was a good thing. then being on camp grounds made it even more enjoyable. I arrived at AJ around 2:00 on Sunday, moved into the Counselor Cabin with all the other female volunteers and works of CAP. Before the day was up I had already been in a canoe and enjoying the outdoors. I also had orientation and was pumped about being able to actually do something with my hands instead of just being a shoulder to cry on.
    On Monday I got up early and worked out, then went to breakfast and by 8:15 got ready for a day of building. The house we were working on involved mostly outdoor activities and took longer than we excepted, because of the rain. I learned very fast how much I hate putting up siding. It took me and another girl two hours to just get the last piece of siding up. It wouldn't have taken so long if it wasn't cold and if the J-channel didn't keep falling down as I was trying to get the siding in. After lunch I got to use a drill (which has been over a year since I had use one) and even taught another girl how to use it. I felt so productive and awesome for teaching someone how to use power tools. I even used a circular saw, but it was the only time I used it during the week. With in the first day we had three sides of the house sided, a porch put up and some paint bought for the inside of the house.We also got some doughnuts from our head crew leader Fred.
    For the next three days I took pictures and helped out where I was needed, but since I was a long term volunteer my biggest worry is that the college students had fun. In the end I went up on some ladders, went under some floor boards, got to meet some new people, put up siding, fascia, and play with some cute dogs.
    The things I enjoyed the most about this week as that for once I got to meet the participants (the people who owned the house we were working at) and didn't need to ambush them with all these questions upon the first time meeting them. When I am at the shelter and we have a new woman come in I have to get all of her personal information before I even show her the room she will be sleeping in. I still met and got to know the lovely woman and her family that lived in the house that I worked on. then again I wasn't pressing her for information, instead she just told me about her life and her family. I talk about and deal with domestic violence and child abuse every day at the shelter and it was nice to just hear a man and a woman talk abut how they met and fell in love. Of course I also learned a lot about fixing up houses and putting on siding, but I also learned how real domestic violence is for people in Kentucky.
   On Friday when the college students were going back to finish up their spring break I was getting ready to head back to the shelter. At first I was a little worried to go back to a shelter where there is only one child (a beautiful blue eyed baby) and a lot of stress (due to being short staffed and other things). Then one of my friends gave a closing talk and I realized how much I miss my residents.
    On the ride home I started to realize that even though I can never have pictures of my residents or take pictures of my children and show off all the cute things they do... I do enjoy working with them. Fixing up these houses for the poor and disabled in Kentucky is great, because I can actually make something with my hands and see the end result. When I work with the broken people due to abuse I will never see the end result. Even if I make a difference for these women and their children I'll never get to see how it made a difference. Then again even though the women made fail at times, make mistakes and make it seem that all my effort was wasted, when fixing up a house there are also mistakes and it is also frustrating. When fixing people or houses things aren't gonna be perfecting and in reality no fix is ever permanent. Which is okay, because after this week being back at the shelter and enjoying our one child; I read over the story about the guy throwing star fish in the sea. I actually used that story as my devo for dinner and explained why we may not ever be able to change the whole world, but by being here at CAP helping someone we are making a difference in one person's life. I loved my week at "WorkFest", but I still love the shelter. Even with drug abuse, child abuse, and just bad mothers I still love all my ladies even if they can't love themselves.


Fred thought it would be a great idea to write bible verses on the last wall of the house that needed siding to leave a piece of ourselves with the house. The wall is now covered with new siding and will never be seen, but the family knows it is there.