Chillin’ with the Okies

Something I thought I would never say… I love Oklahoma. Initially this is surprising, because honestly, what is there to do in Oklahoma? No offense to those who hail from the state, but I have always thought of the area as somewhat empty of people, excitement, anything of value really. I have never been more psyched to be wrong. My team has been here for about two weeks and so far the people and our new project are kickin’ butt. What are we doing here you may ask? Once again, drum roll please, we are tackling disaster relief. Last year Piedmont, Oklahoma (a small town about 20 miles away from Oklahoma City) was hit by an F5 tornado, which for those who don’t know is the worst kind of tornado possible. Travelling through Piedmont today there is still evidence of the mark left upon the community by the disaster. There are huge swaths of land with hundreds of felled trees, immense piles of assorted items thrown together by the tornado (including random crushed vehicles, furniture, etc.), and areas where all that remains of a home is the cellar families took refuge in during the event. The destruction spans for miles to the most rural areas of the town. Never having seen such destruction from one single event, I have been constantly astonished and humbled of the power of nature. In Texas many homes had water damage due to the hurricanes, but much of the poverty and damage we dealt with were already a part of the area. Piedmont is an entirely different story. In addition, with such a different culture and form of destruction the team has been working on an even greater variety of projects. Already I have dabbled in welding to install a new enclosure for horses, roofing (the tornado literally lifted this families entire roof right off and placed it back down, damaged and insufficient), and as always tasks including my new power tool friends such as the circular saw -haven’t cut my finger off yet!-, drywall drills, etc. Basically my point here is that I have learned a lot in a short amount of time. All of this education hasn’t been merely in terms of construction. Almost each day Water 7 interacts with a new homeowner or community member, discovering something new and meaningful each time. One homeowner, Vick, we have spent a few days with. One day I decided to ask if the thought of another tornado demolishing the new home he is currently building (to replace the last destroyed one) ever discouraged Vick. Vick looked at me in utter seriousness and stated that life constantly provides challenges, but that the duty of a human being is to rise above these challenges and pick themselves back up. The final thing Vick stated to me was that  “the day you fall down and don’t get back up, is the day you have given up at everything. The day you have failed.” I sure did not expect such a response from one simple question, but in this response Vick demonstrated the resiliency in the tornado victims. A determination that can be learned from and applied to all aspects of life.