What a day Saturday was! I really enjoyed my first (but hopefully not
my last) experience with Habitat for Humanity. I spent all day (8:00
am - 3:30 pm) up on a roof, putting shingles on. The two most
significant/exciting parts of the day were 1) learning how roofing
works, and 2) trying to do my part to show some guy that women are not
useless.
Okay, so the roofing part... It was fun! I definitely wore the wrong
clothes. I had shorts on in anticipation of the heat, and so I
couldn't really kneel on the roof - between the heat and the asphalt I
would've torn my knees to shreds. So I basically ended up doing
squats all day long. What do most fitness magazines recommend? Three
sets of twelve or something, for toning? I think I did about three
gabazillion or so. Or at least, that's what my legs thought the next
day when I couldn't walk. But I really enjoyed learning a new skill.
I have not really spent that much time in my life swinging a hammer,
so I sort of started with that - hacking away for what seemed like
forever to drive a nail at first, then eventually getting a little
better and only needing two or three strokes... And besides learning
how to use a hammer effectively, now I know how to line up shingles on
a roof, and where to nail them, and what to watch out for to avoid
leaks, etc. I am confident that these skills will come in very handy
in my career as a computer nerd...um...er...well, okay, but it was
still fun...
So the other interesting part of the day was my encounters with one of
the men that was working on the roof. The person in charge of the
roofing was a woman, which was pretty cool, but other than that I was
the only chick, out of the ten or so people that were up there. So
shingles come in packages that are maybe three feet long, a foot and a
half wide, and 6 inches tall or so, but they weigh about 80 pounds
apiece. So this guy is standing in line waiting to carry one up the
ladder, and he asks if I can hold it for him. I go to take it from
him, and he sort of laughs at me - he was apparently making a joke
implying that I wouldn't be able to lift it because I'm a woman. I
asked how heavy they were - and he sort of scoffed at me - someone
else told me they were about 80 lbs. So later, we were unloading
more, this time from the edge of the roof to the top, and someone
requested everyone's help - "except you - you don't have to help." So
I got up anyway and went over there and the same guy as before made
another comment implying that I couldn't carry them, but said that if
I wanted to try it, he would put one on my shoulder for me. So he had
some other guy stand kind of behind me/next to me so if I collapsed or
something I wouldn't fall off the roof. He puts it on my shoulder and
I carry it over to where it needs to go and put it down. I come back
for another one, and told him I'd rather carry it with my arms
extended in front of me because I'd feel more stable that way. And he
says to me, "Like a big baby?" I was appalled. My only regret of the
day was being too polite with this guy - I should've yelled at him,
"Listen jerk, I do NOT need a maternal analogy to understand and
successfully complete these tasks!" The next time I came back for
another bundle, my coworker Peter stuck up for me, saying that he
figured I could probably lift them by myself, and explaining to
Mr. Sexist that I go to the gym almost every day. So from then on I
just picked them up myself. The guy shut up for the most part, except
for some comment about how "women think they have to do everything men
can do" in a sarcastic tone of voice. So then I pushed him off the
roof...well, no, but it might've been good for him!
Anyway...a big thanks to Evanda, Peter, and Chris (the guys I went
with) for getting me involved with Habitat - I definitely enjoyed it a
lot!
Roofing and Sexism...