Still waiting

Today we volunteered with the World Cares Center, another organization like Habitat for Humanity which provides rebuilding and assistance to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. Three groups did manual labor, but I elected to do phone banking. I wasn't quite sure what that was and I knew that it would be different from the Sandy recovery I participated in yesterday. The woman who oversaw our work was named Alanna and she was very friendly and helpful. I was pretty nervous at first when I received the phone script and list of the names of the people I would be contacting because I don't have too much experience with strangers on the phone and I knew that the information I got from the people would be crucial on their way to full recovery.
It's been 18 months since the storm. There is so much still that needs to be done. 22,000 people needed to be called and so far only 2000 have been. As if the storm itself wasn't bad enough, the government recovery organization, Build it Back, has been a complete nightmare. They've made promises time and time again that they have failed to keep and people are beyond tired and frustrated, their whole way of life has been changed. However, I had expected to get several angry phone calls but instead I was surprised by the patience that somehow people still managed to have. Most were still very positive and I was delighted by how excited some of them were just to talk to me and just to have someone listen. For many of them it was the first time someone had offered to help, and while I find this difficult to understand how people are still waiting for that first step in recovery, I am glad that I could have made even a small impact.
Amanda Fata