Monday, Workday 1

March 9, 2009

Monday morning started bright and early with a light breakfast and a long bus ride to our much anticipated destination. I felt pretty excited, as excited as I could be at eight a.m., to arrive and see just where I was going to be working and what I was going to be doing. Upon arrival, the IERU looked like a building that had once been in great condition, but now had fallen to disrepair and had been somewhat abandoned. Our leaders gave us a brief summary of exactly what the uses of the building were and what they plan to do in the future, as well as showing us just what they wanted from us during the following week. In the past, the building was a school, but unfortunately, it shut down years ago. Yet, three weeks from now, children will be walking the halls again on Saturdays for a weekly day of Hebrew School.

Our work started with some heavy cleaning, reorganizing and sanding. We had to clear our box after box and stack book after book just to get to the floor. Then, the sanding started so that we could put a fresh layer of paint down. All in all, the day was a successful start. Multiple rooms were worked on and the end product of the day was a great start on the week. During the work day, I got to make some friends with other students from Virginia Tech and Kenyon College, a time that I really enjoyed. It seems that doing unfamiliar work in an unfamiliar place can bring people together pretty quickly.

Later that night, we celebrated Purim, a Jewish holiday that somewhat resembles Halloween– however, it has much more serious historical significance. As a huge group, we headed out from Hillel after the celebration to an area downtown to continue the celebration and have a few more laughs. The day had seemed to kick-start the week and bring us a little closer as groups of students.

I´m looking forward to continuing our service work and building relationships throughout the rest of the week!
–Charles Mautz,
UNC-Chapel Hill Class of 2010