Guilt, or something like it.

Never underestimate my susceptibility to guilt, ability to swallow my pride, or desire to appease beautiful women -- and Mike (who is beautiful, but that's beside the point). Regardless of the reason, I have elected to stay with the affiliate for at least another week.

Oh the rationale seems, ahem, rational enough: we are having a blitz this week and there is another one next week. Or, there is the fact that I am responsible for ordering $52,000 of material from the Home Depot that is trickling in and needs to be accounted for. (You want to know how to get help when you go in the Home Depot? You let them know you're coming in with a check for $52,000. OK, you want irony -- I actually had to wait.) Or, I did promise to provide the affiliate with a slick web-enabled front-end to a relational database full of house information, and then I spent all of my time going out and helping to build houses, or making phone calls, or spending money at the place I've already plugged twice (they deserve it and more because they gave us such a great discount on material. That is in large part due to an employee of theirs who believes in the work that Habitat is doing. Thank you Travis.) Finally, there is the fact that the blitzes take a large toll on the construction staff (the one's out there actually banging their fingers and sweating), and if they need help I'll certainly do what I can for them.

Anyway (bringing it home now, boss), I'll stay next week and help out in the office or on site if necessary. After that, I'll probably work for a week from my apartment getting the aforementioned web thingy up and running (because that's how long it take to develop great software, right guys?), and then I'll finally take my car to the shop, pay my water bill, beg for food and internet access and a job. I promise, I'm not wishy-washy -- just easy.

Last Weekend

The Baton Rouge Habitat affiliate started three builds this weekend. The first is a community build funded by the ReStore and from our "Fund for Humanity", where the mortgages of existing homeowners are used to pay for new development. The other two are sponsored by Formosa Plastics and are a blitz format -- they will be completed this weekend.

I'll let the Formosa sponsors speak for themselves and recommend you visit their 2 Xtreme Blitz Build Blog to view a daily progress report. In particular, you should read this to learn about my mighty replacement, Stephanie. She is a remarkable individual, and in her brief time here has distinguished herself by her attitude and personality.

Coach Rob Spivery of Southern University brought about twenty of his basketball team and coaches to work with us to build a house for Kim. Because it was the first day of the build, Lynn began the day with words of thanks and a blessing, Joan introduced our gracious homeowner and Mike started organizing the volunteers. Just one day before, several of us on the construction staff worked into the early evening getting this site ready preparing the sill- and top-plate and completing the house layout on the slab. This is one of the rare times I have been able to work with our new AmeriCorps, and I really enjoyed the opportunity. Among our new employees are some truly bright spirits and I will regret not having an opportunity to work with them more. This affiliate is better off because of them.

I worked with Mike and Lynn Saturday at the Community Build. For us, it was like old times working together on my last weekend as an employee -- and I was glad to work with them. They have treated me like family since I've been here, and I will never sufficiently express how much I will miss them.

Hey, Hey. I got my 'A'

Now that the end is near, and I have successfully completed my term here as an AmeriCorps with Habitat for Humanity - a friend gave me a wonderful gift, my very own AmeriCorps/Habitat shirt. I finally have my very own A.

What [I have|have I] been doing

As I mentioned previously, I was to make an entry to let you know to which organizations I have applied. Let's not tell either of my current employers, in the event that I have to lower my head and plead for employment (since James asked that oh so poignant question). Without further ado (cliché of the day), the list:

Doctors Without Borders
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
William J. Clinton Foundation
The Carter Center
Save the Children
Grameen Foundation USA
ACCION International
Geekcorps

and two more that I just submitted and don't want to jinx, yet. I think this may just be a partial listing because I think I've applied to a few more organizations than these. These jobs range from IT specialist to a camp coordinator in Darfur, Sudan. I feel confident stating that I am not uniquely qualified for any of them, but they all seemed like something to which I could have adjusted. And, I've only officially gotten rejections from two of them (I seem to recall).

Again, unless you are actually offering me a position, this is the best place to check the online, realtime status of mattfite's non-profit job search.

Three more...

The two Methodist builds and the Women Build kicked off this weekend. I believe that the Women had all of their walls up before the Methodists did, but let's not tell them that. It was a race to finish on Saturday because like most residents of Baton Rouge, our volunteers wanted to be home for the 2:30 kick-off for the LSU/Auburn matchup. The fan loyalty is something we have to plan into the weekends - so we were prepared to knock-off a bit early.

Veni, Vidi, I had my ass handed to me

The Thrivent build started on time, and after two build days, we're still more or less on schedule. Congratulations to the house leader as she's really earning her stripes. That means that this weekend we start three new houses in Hidden Cove.

I say we, but I don't really feel it. It's odd not being a hands-on part of the build, after helping with the previous ones since I arrived. Perhaps that's the reason why I resigned today. September 29 will be my last day at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge.

Oh, I'm certain that some (all three) may be curious 'what's next.' And, if I knew I would tell you. I will continue to seek a job with a non-profit or other organization that is trying to improve the quality of life for someone else, that can provide me with some way of finding something I do well, and using it to help others.

One year ago, I was working with a team of volunteers in Kauai building a dust wall to enclose a 150-house development during its construction. We were rushing to reinforce the wall because there were three tropical storms moving toward us. I was incensed at what I felt was a lack of coherent response at the time to the devastation of hurricane Katrina, and within another week - Hurricane Rita would begin to threaten Texas and Louisiana. One week later I determined that I had started something that I wasn't going to be able to finish anytime soon. I am thankful for that group of friends that I made and the new ones that welcomed me in Baton Rouge. Frankly, I'm grateful for everyone that I've met for this entire year. In one year, I began and ended my time with AmeriCorps, and I have completed the hardest year of my life, and the best year of my life.

I have no idea what the future holds. But I promise that I will spill it here first.

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Faith Court is done

So we finally dedicated Faith Court and turned the street over to the city. The mayor of Baton Rouge, Melvin L. "Kip" Holden, attended the ceremony where we presented him with a plaque commemorating the event. The family that donated the land to Habitat, and subsequently the city, also attended. The ceremony didn't last very long, but it was still very meaningful. After the event, the mayor stayed around to mingle with our staff before they went off to continue preparing for this weekend, when we start building the first of the remainder of the houses we will build this year.

Last night, I was asked to give an orientation to the ladies that will participate in our Women Build that begins next Saturday. Minutes before I was to attend, Lynn told me that last year there were more than 90 women who attended a similar reception, a point she neglected to tell me when she asked me to speak. Fortunately for them, and me, there were no more than 25 who attended. Not only was I asked to talk about construction, I was also the only male there - no pressure whatsoever. The Women Build is one of the builds we do that doesn't have a sole sponsor, but instead is developed of funds raised by functions like our Pink Toolbelt Bash, auctions, a raffle, and selling sponsorships by the square foot. For a mere $55, you too can sponsor one square foot of the house they will build.

Now that September has begun, there will be little rest until November. I'll do my best to keep this site updated as there should be more than a few upcoming photo ops.

Televised

The first Friday of every month, a local news affiliate, WAFB Channel 9, gives us a few minutes at 5:53 a.m. to plug what we're doing at the affiliate. Lynn has been our face on the news for a long time, but this month, our new executive director made his appearance to discuss the upcoming build season and give a report from our dedication at Faith Court. I'll plug here that although the photos are uncredited, they are mine and show some of our staff, AmeriCorps (both HFHI and *NCCC) as well as the house sponsor, Exxon Mobil. Enjoy.