Sunday, June 3, 2007

The End

I've arrived back in Decorah after my month in New Orleans.

Thursday and Friday were spent working with Kevin from New York and Dana from San Francisco. It seemed appropriate to end my trip working with 2 people from opposite sides of the country, all working together for another part of the country. I gave them my Iowa tourism promotion pitch- the people, the lifestyle, the beauty- and my Northeast Iowa promoition pitch too, telling stories about growing up in a small town. I've honed the pitched by constant pitching when I'm not in Iowa, and 4 years of experience has made me, from what I'm told, a good salesman. I succeeded this time- I got a promise from Dana that she would visit. We were trimming, spackling, sanding, and painting a front porch. The trim had been started before we got to the house, but it had been done in a way that it was functionally correct but asthetically unattractive. We discussed whether we should copy it for the sake of uniformity with the rest of our trim, or re-do it, and ultimately consulted a Habitat employee. She told us, "You can do either way, as long as it is uniform. If it was my house, I'd want it to look nice."

So we, somewhat begrudgingly, set out to un-do and then re-do the trim that had already been done. It was very frustrating to take a few steps back before taking any steps forward, particularly on that hot and windless day. But we knew we needed to redo the trim. Sure, it would have worked fine. But had it been our home, we would have wanted it to look nice. And making sure that homeowners don't just get a home, but get good service too, is what creates moments like this.

I don't plan on posting to this blog any longer, but please feel free to email me if you want to hear more about my trip. I had an incredible time- meeting homeowners and working with them on their homes, listening to great live music, eating tasty cajun and creole foods, and taking in the New Orleans culture. See for yourself why New Orleans needs to be rebuilt: take a trip down there , listen to some local music, and pitch in.


http://www.firstgiving.com/robsand

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rob, thanks so much for sharing your experiences- I'd love to hear more! In fact, I think a lot of Decorah folks would like to learn more, see pictures, etc- might you be interested in doing a library presentation about this? I can't seem to locate your email address, so please send it to me at my yahoo address or at ktorresdal@decorah.lib.ia.us.
thanks!
kristin
p.s. want to have lunch sometime soon?

Anonymous said...

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Finality of Prophethood Foreword
-----------------------
Of all the conspiracies hatched against Islam in modern times, the most dangerous is a false claim to Prophethood made in the beginning of this century. This claim has been the main cause of wide spread mental chaos amongst the Ummah for the last sixty years. Like all other schisms, the root cause of this mischief is that the Muslims are generally ignorant of their religion. Had they been truly imbued with its knowledge and developed a clear understanding of the article of faith relating to the finality of Prophethood, it would have been well-nigh impossible for any false claimant to Prophethood to take root and thrive among the people of Islam after the last ministry of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). At this juncture the most perfect and effective remedy for eradicating this evil is to educate the maximum number of people in the best possible manner about true faith in the finality of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) and stressing the importance and value of this article of faith in the religion of Islam. It is also imperative that all doubts and skeptical notions about the final ministry of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) should be dispelled through reason and logic. This booklet has been prepared to serve this very purpose. Readers who find it useful should take a step further and extend their full co-operation in the propagation of its contents. This booklet ought to reach all literate people and they having studied it themselves should read it out to the non-literate. It is hoped that a study of this booklet will not only immunize people who have not been contaminated with this malady but would also make the truth manifest to the right-minded persons among those who have received some of its germs. However, those who have fallen victim to falsehood and are impervious to all reason--for them, hope and salvation lies only with Allah.


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