Working at being human

Rico says his father sends this, part of a missive to his father's friend in Norway, thus the metric units:

I have started a new routine. I volunteer one or two days each week to work with an organization called Habitat for Humanity which builds houses for deserving families and arranges affordable financing so that the family really owns the house (much different from subsidized rent in which the recipients have no interest  in maintaining or improving their housing). Yesterday, I worked with a wonderful group of young people— about fourteen of them, about half were women— all were students in a school training them to be missionaries. Although I am a non-believer in religion, and feel that missionaries going out to convert the heathens is wrong, these kids were so friendly and hardworking, I even joined hands in a circle with them while one of them volunteered to speak a prayer before we started, before the lunch break, and at the end of the work day.
The organization usually builds new houses from the ground up, but also buys older homes and remodels them so they look like new. The two jobs I have worked on are both rehabilitation projects on existing houses. The one yesterday was the first work by non-professionals on a house which was in terrible shape, apparently occupied by a woman with five children and a lot of men (according to neighbors, who are regular middleclass people.) The condition of the place was disgusting. My specialty is water-related systems, so I had the job of removing the kitchen sink, the garbage disposal unit, and the dishwasher, all of which went into the giant waste disposal bin (about seventy cubic meters) that the crew filled completely that day. The smell of decaying food below the sink, and whatever was growing in the water in the bottom of the dishwasher, was overpowering, but I just kept at it by not thinking about it. I disposed of two bathroom sinks and the hot water heater and still had time to help sweep up all the plaster and insulation that the crew had created in tearing down walls and ceilings.
Believe it or not, it was fun.

Rico says it's amazing what becomes fun when you really want to do it... (But religion is a scam, no matter how young and nice you are.)