jakorte's blog

I wasn’t up there on the roof Monday or Tuesday, but I was blessed with the joy of watching our female crew go through some empowering changes.

They developed new holes in the seats of their pants, accompanied by deep ground in grit and dirt. Later, after returning to our bunk room, the decrepit conditions of their clothing were compared with amazed joy.

Someone stated that if they kept scooting along the roof, they would wear out the seat of their jeans well before Friday. Someone suggested that duct-tapping the butts of the jeans would make them last longer. Someone else tossed out the phrase “Duct Tape could be my Butt Badge of Courage!‿ Another someone came up with the idea of using double-sided duct tape to not only seal the holes, but help the volunteers stick to the roof better.

I’ve never seen a group of ladies so excited to be wearing dirty, ripped, sweaty clothing. They talked about laundry and belabored the point of even washing their jeans because they would be back in the same state by mid-morning the next day. So, they wore them again. There’s something liberating about not having to put any thought into what to wear. (At least, for us women.)

As I related earlier, the ratio of women to men in this GITC group was 10/4. Despite being jokingly tagged the “Frilly Team," it was awesome to observe our female crew going way beyond being women on this trip. Adopting a “No Glamour, Just Guts" attitude, they moved into being capable women, confident women, conquering women, and without a doubt the most beautiful group of volunteer women in Slidell.

jak