Welcome to NC, we're certainly not in Connecticut anymore toto

Today was a great day, and somehow, even though yesterday's ride was three times longer, today was a much longer day. We did so much today and most importantly, finally got to North Carolina!!

We all cheered as we pulled into Camp Royall, our home away from home, for the next week. I think many of us were pleasantly surprised by how nice the camp is. There are soccer fields, frisbee golf, a pond with boats, two dining halls, a playground and more. We will be sharing camp with two other colleges working with habitat, Providence and University of New Hampshire. We got the opportunity to speak with some of the students from UNH and they were very friendly and I think many of us hope to spend some time meeting people from the other schools during our down time.

Another great thing we got to experience today was an orientation with David from Chatham Habitat when we first arrived. David was able to tell us about the area, the campsite, and the Chatham habitat. Some of the most valuable information he gave us included who we build and work for and also out value in habitat volunteer work. David told us that although habitat is commonly misconceived as a volunteer program which gives away houses to families for free, the families who receive the house must meet three main requirements: 1) they must be in need of a home 2) they must volunteer sweat equity or volunteer a required amount of hours through habitat and 3) the ability to pay for a non-interest mortgage. The other thing I really took away from his speech was that the collegiate challenge, the program through habitat which brings college students to work with habitat, has made one of te biggest impacts on the success of the chatham habitat. David really made us feel welcome in our new home and made us feel like what we are doing is something which really helps the habitat program.

Another couple highlights of the day include going to a fantastic BBQ resteraunt where we tried hush puppies and assorted fried foods, exploring mount chapel and the UNC campus, and shipping for groceries as a group. These activities were all a lot of fun and allowed us to bond with each other, an the grocery trip really challenged us all to become organized and work together.

Something really exciting tonight was the team's excitement for the reflection. In the discussion today, there was a lot of focus on getting know each other better and also getting to know the background that each of us came from. It was meaningful to discuss our pasts and then to discuss how the recipients of these houses are not just reviving simply shelter, but a home in which to have similar experiences and memories to those we have. I think that this point, that we are not building just shelter but memories, brought up by the reflection leaders Yessenia, Michelle, and Nicole, was a very inspiring and powerful image for the group. I enjoyed the discussions in reflection tonight a lot and I hope to have more of these. Meaningful discussions In our other reflections as well.

Finally, I think that the most valuable thing which happened to me today, even better than the hush puppies and fried okra, was a discussion I had in the grocery store checkout line with someone from the area. Imagine being at a relatively small grocery store on a Monday night and then you see twenty college students with at least seven carts full of food pull up to the register. I think that what you are imagining in your head right now, is exactly what the lady in front of me was thinking...what on earth is going on, and she was pretty clear in expressing that. I explained to her that we were a group of college students from Quinnipiac University in CT who came down to volunteer for Spring break with Habitat for Humanity. Her reaction was something I don't think I can ever quite explain exactly, as she put her hand on my shoulder, she said to me "why you guys are doing here is incredible! People give young people a bad reputation but we were all young once and there are a lot of you who are doing some really great and impressive things. I really want you to tell your group that what you are doing is incredible and has a huge impact on our community." I don't think anything on this trip will be close to as satisfying as hearing this woman thank us just for coming. We didn't build her a house, we hadn't worked with us, she had only just met me, but I think what she said had more impact on me than most things anyone has ever told me. Just coming down to help meant so much to her because we came down to help her community. To know that what we are doing makes such a difference, is not something that always ces with service, but hearing it from this total stranger will be something I will never forget.

Alternative Spring Break Trip to North Carolina for Habitat for Humanity

Yesterday we left Quinnipiac bright and early at 7am. There are 20 of us headed to North Calorlina in two white 15 passenger vans. The drive yesterday was around nine hours including stops which was surprisingly quicker than expected. We watched license plates, asked icebreaker questions from the packet in our "van survival guide kit," listened to the cds we all made for the trip and of course most of us did quite a bit of napping along the way. We traveled through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. You definitely can't beat the gradually warmer weather each time we stopped.

We stayed at the best western in Richmond, well that was after we found out we had rooms there.... I'll explain: on the trip we have groups which lead a group reflection each night so we can all try and get to know each other better, discuss our experiences, and participate in planned activities and discussions led by other trip members. So, for yesterday's activities the group decided to have our group leaders tell us that the hotel was booked for the wrong night and that there was no where in the area for us to stay. We all tried to discuss ideas of what to do and as a group weconcluded we would get dinner and then continue south and call other hotels along the way until we found one we could stay at. Later they told us it was all just a jake and it was an activity to see how we would react to a change in plans and how we would come together as a group to solve the problem. So then we did some activities which included revealing some of our group member's fears about the trip and allowing us to see that we all share many of these fears.and that marked the end of the day and many of us got to bed pretty early after the long day. There is something about being in a van for 9 hours that is very tiring.

The beginning of our day started at 6, well for me because I got up and showered and we met up and packed the van at 7 (actually Brian and Tom did most of the van packing) and then went to the continental breakfast at the hotel. This was no ordinary continental breakfast and it definitely surpassed my expectations as they had a waffle maker which was exceptionally delicious when I was expecting cereal. And we also got a nice taste of the south with biscuits and gravy for breakfast, well some of us did, I stuck to my waffle :) and then with that we now start our day with a three hour trip to Pittsburo, North Carolina.

High: I think the most exciting part of this trip ao far has been going on the road with all the games, bonding, and music because I have meet gone I a huge road trip with a group of people my age before and it is really exciting!!! I am looking forward to everyone getting a lot closer because I think that we are already all starting to get to know each other and I am sure it's only going to get better from there--I guess thy is what a nine hour can ride will do for a group of people.

Low: trying to figure out where we could go for dinner with 20 people after a long day of travel.