11.5.2010

So after all this time switching temporary teams, playing ice breakers to get to know each other and having to constantly make good impressions, we finally were rewarded with the big "Team Reveal" this past Friday.There were a lot of rumors, presumptions and accompanying butterflies leading up to this moment and believe me, the team leaders were aware of it.They took advantage of it even!It all started with them telling us they were going to distribute the team rosters on Saturday instead of Friday, leaving us, Earth Unit, to be the only ones still in the dark headed into the weekend.So what a surprise it was Friday afternoon when they asked us all out onto the soccer field after diversity training…

Then all hell broke loose.At least emotionally anyway when they told us they hadn't been able to agree on permanent teams the traditional way because of too many wild card personalities.They were giving up on drafting us onto their roster behind closed doors, instead choosing to just have us draw names from a hat, letting the chips fall where they might.You can imagine this induced near heart attack situations for many of us.I believe I had my vulture stare on in full force.How could they buck the system like this after so long observing how we work together?After so many lectures about team cohesiveness?

I shut up real quick however, when I drew the name of my most preferred team leader!And my little heart had just slowed to a normal pace when Stephen handed us each a different colored piece of paper, seemingly welcoming us to the new and everlasting team with some kind of game (they are fond of forced socialization activities).The joke was on us however, because then they yelled, "OK go find your team!!" inducing a mad dash across the field with people's paper flapping in the wind.It didn't take long at that speed to find my fellow "blacks" and honestly at that point, I was just glad to see that none of them were known to be crazy or super weird.It did strike me that other than that fact, I didn't know any of them that well at all.

But boy were we relieved that the charade was almost over, save for the identity of our team leader.Then we spied all of them lining up with their backs to us…seemingly unbuttoning their shirts?Suddenly, they turned around and whipped their shirts off to reveal a different colored undershirt, one for each different colored piece of paper.Jason was wearing the black t-shirt and he walked over to meet our group, the one we were told will feel like family at the end of 10 months.

I feel so lucky to have gotten the team I did.I say this all the time, but it's funny how life works things out for itself and things happen the way they're supposed to.Even though I didn't know them very well at first, all of our personalities have been meshing perfectly and I can see great potential for the future.There are 4 boys (plus one for Jason) and 6 girls and everyone combines to create a nice energy level; no slackers but no crazy silliness either.Frank, one of my favorites so far, pointed out that it's a great sign even that we were all awake and chatting during our van rides.Even at 8am, there was no fighting about music, nobody being quiet in a corner.

This will be extremely important, especially on our long trip to our first SPIKE project.Drum roll please!Lucky us, we are headed to New Orleans to work with Habitat for Humanity in the Lower 9th Ward for four weeks!We'll be living in a Habitat house only about a mile from the warehouse where we'll be spending the majority of our days accepting and organizing donations, building smaller components to ship out to construction sites and delivering appliances to families who have just moved in to finished homes.I think this is just so perfect I can barely breathe when I think about it.A wonderful cause, a wonderful city, a wonderful experience!Laissez les bon temps rouler!