What a day! Today was quite different than I had expected. It was a really enlightening day. The moment we entered Flint down the King’s Street, I realized how barren and troubled the city is. It was weird not seeing anyone on the streets and not looking at vivacious houses. The memories that gave the town life were no longer enough for the citizens to stay. It was evident that this city was slowly dying.
That’s when we reached our workplace. I was excited to work with power tools and constructing the barrels. I realized how vital these barrels will be for the gardens of their houses. The introduction saying they needed volunteers to help create these barrels made me realize that our help was not only appreciated but needed. This gave me a new perspective that there are some places in the world much different than where we live in Florida. These places need our help for bare necessities and this epiphany left me with a melancholic feel.
Despite the severity, our team had a great time and a amazing opportunity to not only bond but help out this community. I felt closer to the people while creating these devices. It was a very enjoyable time overall. My curiosity drove me to want to see the exact current problem in tap water. At lunch, I collected my samples of tap water because I wanted to test, back home, to see how polluted the water would still be for a diagnosis of the city. I filled two bottles of tap water to take back to my bags.
Next we had worked directly with the people of Flint as they came in and brought the water barrels to take back home for gardening. This was revitalizing. I saw how the community was still in touch with their traditional roots and how the community was so tightly bonded as they tried to help one another in this time of hardship. One lady which I helped move the water barrel to her car thanked me a lot. Her appreciation struck me. At that moment I concluded that the city wasn’t in reality dying, however, is sick and just needs a helpful treatment from volunteers like us and this community’s desire for healing to get back on its feet and functioning again.
– Prasnav Naik
