After two days of non-stop talks and discussions at the AID conference, the Session of Service on the last day was a welcome change. Two projects were designed by AID Buffalo in collaboration with UB Green, the environmental office of the University of Buffalo (UB).

In the first project, volunteers removed over 100 cinder blocks from a creek and carried them up tothe road for pickup. The second project entailed retrieving 36 tires from underneath an overpass and rolling them half a mile to the same pickup point.

The first project began with great gusto. The group soon realized that they had to form a closely-spaced daisy chain if they were to last long. The work was back-breaking, but the friendly atmosphere and joking kept spirits high. Many people teased Naga, a Duke volunteer, to stop taking photographs and “supervising” and to start lifting.

The tire removal team actually had a more fun job, or so the cinder block folks would like to believe! The tricky part for them was to prevent the tires from falling and splashing their contents of delightful sludge everywhere!

This was a great team building exercise and helped us turn many acquaintances into friends. Afterwards, Nirveek, EB-CVC volunteer commented, "I hope that this 2 hour-long activity will also make us appreciate the dignity (and skill) associated with all work and make us look at the next NREGA proposal or the minimum wages campaign in a different light".

Vijay Loganathan, AID-Buffalo