TWO WEEKS
This trip stirred up a large number of thoughts on a variety of subjects. But I want to focus on a feeling that surprised me with its force (and the fact that I even felt it at all): how great it can feel to do manual labor.
My group's arrival came at exactly the right moment for the orphanage. In recent weeks, they had been told they needed to leave the building they had been renting. They were moving into a house that someone had bought for them, but still needed help moving everything.
The morning after our late-night arrival, we began the formidable task. Moving the orphanage was kind of like moving a family--if the family were made up of around 12 homeschoolers. Bed frames and a swing set were dismantled, desks were moved and every little knick-knack was gathered up. That day, we made six fully laden trips.
Thankfully, the next day required us to move only big-ticket items like refrigerators, washers and dryers. Customs are a little different in Guatemala though. Instead of just taking all their possessions and leaving any additions made over the years, people take every possible piece of wood or metal they've added to the structure that can be reused or sold. What this meant to me was that I got to spend several hours on Sunday almost single-handedly dismantling a wooden shelter they'd built.
Those hours were some of the most fun I've had in quite a while. There was some annoying work, like taking out more screws than I care to remember. What was really great though was that I got to swing a hammer a lot. I even got to knock off plastic pieces of roofing with a large pipe. When I finished, I looked at one of the Guatemalan volunteers and, in a moment of testosterone-filled exuberance, shouted "¡Somos vencedores!" which means "We are victors!" It was glorious.
My enthusiasm probably seemed a bit strange to my Guatemalan comrade, who works construction. What we did was nothing out of the ordinary for him. However, for me, it was anything but normal. As a full-time student who has worked as a tutor for the last two years, I'd never been well-acquainted with labor like that.
Before we started working, I thought the moving would be annoying. As it turns out, I really got into things. I worked hard, sweated and got an adrenaline rush I hadn't been expecting. I don't know what got me going, whether it was all the bottled water or the smiling faces of the orphans we were helping, but those days really gave me an appreciation of time spent laboring outdoors, instead of laboring over a book.
I haven't dropped out of school to enlist with Tricord Homes or VDOT, but it made me realize that life won't be over if I don't immediately jump into a desk-bound (or, at the least, indoors) career after college.
Sam Krieg is a student at the University of Mary Washington.