Limestone 2007

360 degrees with thanks to Dave for photos

Back Home - Re-Entry

It happens each year. Almost as soon as I start the ride home from the tikkun olam week the sun feels warmer, the sky looks bluer and the landscape appears greener. I bubble with thoughts, joy, about what an amazing place this world is and how lucky I am to be experiencing it so fully. I'm not sure why this is, but a week of exposure to less - less food, less luxury, less affluence - seems to be more. It really intensifies my sense of experience of the world around me. Is it that I have removed some clutter from my life for one week? Is it that in doing a little repair of the world I see the reality of what it could or should be? Or is it the bonds I create with others in the process of doing the work? And then all too soon - poof! - I am back to the way I was, with only the faintest recollection that there is something greater out there. With each tikkun olam trip the recalling of this joy gets clearer.

What's your experience of re-entry from the tikkun olam week back into normal life? It would be wonderful to hear from others.

Tearing Down The Shed

This is the Limestone group taking down the shed in the back of the house.
I missed the first time it fell but I got it the seco This is the Limestone group taking down the shed in the back of the house.
I missed the first time it fell but I got it the second time.

Pictures

Here are some of Yonah's and Barbara's pictures from Limestone. It's more than just a good paint job.



The front porch--before the front porch--after



Ruth, Aliza,Yonah, Larry & Raymond


on the roof of the Historical Society


Rabbi on the scaffold


Emily using the chop-saw










the view from Main Street--before the view from Main Street--after













the back wall with the shed no shed--stairs instead!

Wilkes-Barre 2007 - The First United Methodist Church where we met and ate.

House Rehab in Wilkes Barre, 2007

Scaffolding for working on roof also showing trim that we repaired behind it.

Window exterior trim after we repaired them.

Rafi, Phil and Sara installing, caulking and painting new roof fascia boards.

Limestone 2006 Before and After

History of the Tikkun Olam Family Work Project

• August 2005 - a group from Boston traveled to Cumberland, Maryland for one week with parents and teens (ages 13 and up) to work with the Greater Cumberland Interfaith Consortium, a non-profit housing organization (the host organization) that buys blighted homes in the community and repairs them for rental or ownership by low-income people.
• August 2006 - a group of parents and teens from New England traveled to Limestone, Maine, to rehab a home that was in need of significant repair.
• August 2007 - two groups from New England. One group of parents and teens returned to Limestone, Maine, to rehab another home in need of repair and a second group of parents and children (11 years old up) traveled to Wilkes-Barre, PA, to complete the rehab of a condemned home, fence in a community vegatable garden and improve a book store that employs unemployed people.