Rebuilding Together in Montgomery Alabama Day3

Not knowing exactly what you're volunteering yourself to do is difficult. It requires a certain breed of bravery, something we've learned a lot about so far in Alabama. Because whether its showing up at Mrs. P's home and clearing trash and painting, letting strangers read to you, or staying in your bus seat even though society says that you should give it to the white man, going at it alone and being brave is hard. 

This morning we arrived at the home of Mrs. P and five other generations of her family, we got a list of things to do from Dee at Rebuilding Together. We worked all morning scraping paint off of metal awnings and making enough noise to wake Little M, Mrs. P's six year old great-great-grandson. He was brave enough to let us know that we had woken him up. As the morning progressed and we moved on to painting and priming the same little voice asked through the window if we were coming back the next day. "No sir" we kindly replied. And as we readied ourselves to leave for lunch; we found the books we had planned on taking to the homeless mission and thought how nice it would be to give Little M a book. So the Americorps vista, Ashely, that was onsite with us, went inside and asked if he would like to come out and meet us. When he arrived outside we offered him two books and chatted with him for awhile. He mused about Transformers, talking vehicles, and being lonely. You could just tell that he was so happy to be paid attention to. And as I read to him from "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" I found myself becoming so happy that he had been brave enough to venture out and say hi. His visit became the highlight of my day, and it made finishing the painting of his home after lunch all the more satisfying.