Nechama

Yesterday I volunteered with the organization Nechama. Nechama is a Jewish organization, based in Minesota, that is set up to provide disaster assistance and relief from flash floods and tornadoes (primarily). As you may or may not know, a fairly strong tornado ploughed through Stoughton, Wisconsin: a town about 10 miles south of Madison. Although there was only 1 fatality, there were quite a few injuries and lots of damage.
The relief effort was organized by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, so there was a bit of drama in allowing the Nechama truck to the relief site at all, but eventually all was resolved and we happily puttered our way to the house that we were assigned.

Trees were down everywhere. A good bit of their roof was ripped off. A van, which I later learned had been turned upside down a few times, looked it had, well, been rolled over by a tornado. Siding, glass, and leaves were everwhere. It was a mess.
But, the dynamic of the relief effort was amazing. 100 or so strangers managed to get to work surprisingly quickly, pulling branches out of the yard, collecting debris from the fields, and throwing away huge quantities of wreckage from the yard.
They even gave in and let the man from Nechama bring out his chainsaws. I was frightened, but he did very well. When we left that afternoon, the yard looked a thousand times better. Their family and friends had arrived, and the cleanup was fully underway.

The amazing thing, I think, was the family hadn't lost their spirits. The father of the household was out with his chainsaw, directing the clean up effort, and keeping a smile on his face. He seemed greatful for the help.

It always amazes me to see the response to disaster. Humans are actually very good at coming together for a crises. People of all ages, from the entire region were at the Stoughton high school volunteering to help. From teenagers in sandals, to fully trained and equipped disaster specialists, they all wanted to show their sense of community. All of us know that a different twist of a butterfly's wings could have brought the tornado over our house rather than over the houses it did strike.

Last week I was dealing with an infestation of fruit flies. They had come in attacking a peach pit I had foolishly left on my kitchen counter. The next day they were swarming. I panicked a bit. I freaked. I cleaned everything in site. I complained to all of my friends because a relatively harmless insect had invaded my apartment. When I stood in front of the house and yard the tornado had plowed through, I realized how silly my problem is. The fruit flies are nearly gone. Their house is still, most likely, incomplete. But their spirit is strong