Ending With A Beginning

Our Thursday began at Royal Palm Lane, where there was simply a cement slab and a port-a-john.  The slab will eventually be hidden by a brand new house that is going to a homeowner named Kim, who we had met during our Sunday orientation.  If you've been keeping count, you'll know that this is the 4th homeowner that we've gotten to meet this week - on most H4H trips, you are lucky if you even get to meet one.

Exceeding Expectations

As of 11:00 this morning, we had already completed all the work that John had anticipated us doing this week.  We had finished all of the siding and soffit on Barb & Joe's house.  Between the sodding, siding, and soffit, John thought he would've kept us busy until Thursday.

From Soddin' To Sidin'

With John anticipating that we would take two days to sod, he was planning to have us do some siding on a different house, beginning on Wednesday.  Well, we bumped that up a day and started working on Joe and Barb's house.  There was siding and soffiting that needed to be done.  With no need to wait for a sod delivery, the day began an hour earlier, arriving to the site at 7:45.

It's about time that I introduce you to the H4H regulars, that don't work for the affiliate, but are all retired men who volunteer on the construction crew to stay out of their wives' way.  There's Dominick who is an 80-year-old Italian man that doesn't often let you get in the way of his plans; Paul who seems to be on the back end of "middle-aged," is incredibly helpful, always smiling, and has a strange quantity of short shorts; George who likes to think he is John's (the site manager) right-hand man - he's pretty knowledgeable, but is missing a few screws from his short-term memory hardware; Al who wears a sheriff's badge around the site, but overshadows his old-man sarcasm with a smile and extensive construction knowledge; and finally Jim who is a middle-aged guy, former professor of architecture, pretty quiet, but very good at teaching people how to do things and supporting them...duh, he used to teach.

So this was an interesting day because I got to work with Dom for most of it.  Now I'm no expert on installing siding, but there were a few opportunities for Dom and I to disagree.  I tried to give him my logic, but his old Italian stubbornness out-dueled by young Italian rebellion.  It made me really appreciate the day though.  Learning that Dom was 80 years old, made me wish I could be siding alongside my 93-year-old grandfather, and arguing with him about how to do things.  Needless to say, Dom and I are pals...and even though I know I was right, I bit my tongue =P.

As for the homeowners, Barb was out there hammering away.  It was obvious that she really appreciated our help, but wanted to have as much effort of her own put into her home as we did...not to mention, she is pregnant.  It really is inspiring not only to see the dedication and commitment from the students and other volunteers, but to see how important the process is to the homeowners is a humbling experience that makes you realize how much your help really means to them.

After hitting the showers at the RB club, we left straight for Daytona Beach; we again had to kill some time with the church being used until 8:30...I know, not a bad place to kill time.  There were a ton of other tourists there, comprised of bike week fanatics and people on vacation.  We ate at "Sicily Pizza" where the owner, Robert, gave us a great deal on his New York-style pizza.  I figured the New York and Sicilian combination was a match made in heaven for our group to eat there - he agreed.  The group crushed 6 pizzas and still stopped for some ColdStone ice cream (they worked up some serious appetites during the day) on the way back to the vans.  We finished up by killing the last 20 minutes of our time out by swinging by SuperTarget on the way home.  We got back and did a reflection activity where everyone talked about an obstacle and a positive from the day's experience.  Then we did some prep for day 3 and hit the hay.

The week is almost at halftime...crazy.

Tuesday morning sunrise

Beginning of the day

Paul in the back (short shorts). Al in the front. Jen watching and learning.

CNU leaving its mark

Daytona Beach

DB Boardwalk at night

DB Boardwalk plaza

Getting Our Hands Dirty

Sunday night at 6pm was when we had our official Habitat For Humanity (H4H) orientation with Joanne (our contact from the local Habitat Affiliate).  Joanne explained the ins and outs of the week, as we ate some baked ziti and salad that was provided by Amber, a future Habitat homeowner.  All individuals who hope to be eligible for a Habitat house have to put in time identified as "sweat equity." Sweat equity is achievable through any effort that helps further the H4H mission.  A certain amount of your sweat equity hours have to be met on an actual job site, but you can also fulfill your "elective hours" through other efforts such as speaking engagements or in Amber's case, feeding a group of volunteers.

As I noted in the initial post, the church is located about two football fields from the beach.  We have one main carpeted room where we all sleep, with a stage that we keep our belongings on.  In addition there are several small classrooms in the church that we can use for storage, peace an quiet, changing rooms, etc.. .  There are several bathrooms but only one shower (which I learned the hard way, has a timer on it's hot water supply).  For the most part, we shower at a racquetball club near the work site after our day has ended.

Our Digs: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church

One big bedroom. And a jam-packed stage.

Also present at dinner was John, our the construction site manager, and his wife Sandra.  John and Sandra are SO kind and personable, their accents confirmed that they've lived in Florida for their entire lives.  They filled us in that we should watch out for jellyfish, avoid sharks, and step lightly when crossing the street as we would be catching the kick-off of bike week on Friday.

We started out our Monday morning at 8:15 when Joanne came by the church to guide us to the work site.  We arrived at a house that had a completed exterior with a group of volunteers painting the inside.  Meanwhile, this house was not only lacking interior paint, but also lacking a front and back lawn.  Cue sodding.  We had three truckloads of sod delivered, along with 20 yards of my favorite landscaping supply...mulch (hope you can sniff out the sarcasm there).  Our tasks for the day included sodding the entire property as well as planting some trees and shrubbery.  The bonus of the day was that when you least expected it, you would find a couple of fire ants hanging out in your piece of sod.  Surprise!

pre-sodding

The true bonus was that we had lunch donated to us from a place called "Sonny's BBQ" which made us a ton of pulled pork and pulled chicken sandwiches.  I've always enjoyed some good pulled pork, but had never tried pulled chicken - I did on Monday, and it was freaking amazing.  Better than the fire ants and the food though was meeting and working with the homeowners.  The one man's name was Max, and his wife's name escapes me at the moment - but they both came to the US from Haiti 20 years ago and met each other through their church.  They were amazing people to talk to and work with, as they logged their sweat equity hours.

Group shot w/ homeowners

John had anticipated that we would need two days to sod.  Well we burned through all the mulch and sod by the end of day 1.  Not a bad way to kick off the week.  We made a quick visit to the RB club for showers, got home, ate a quick dinner of grilled cheese and soup, and then had to vacate the church due to an event that they were holding.  We passed the time by going to a local bowling alley, where they gave us a great group deal.  After laying some eggs in my first two games with a 94 and a 70-something, I closed it off with a 125...not even halfway to 300, but I'll settle for it =/

I ended the day with another cold shower.  All hot water I've ever used in my life: consider yourself officially appreciated.

Sod anyone?

John's truck.

Done and done.

Ian got carried away with the camera.

View from the bridge. Welcome to Flagler Beach.

Road to the left, beach to the right.

Hit The Road Jack

Last year I started this blog when I helped supervise a group of Duquesne students traveling to New Orleans to work with Habitat For Humanity.

So, when I was preparing to take a group of 19 students from Christopher Newport University (my new employer as of 8/2012) to Bunnell, FL for a Habitat trip this week, I figured that this Blog interface was an appropriate host for a documentation of the journey.

I guess that means that Keepin It Cajun is now the official unofficial home for my traveling expeditions.

Anyway, we went wheels up from Newport News, VA at 4:15 this morning, and arrived in Flagler Beach at 3:30pm.  Not bad timing for a trip that Google Maps estimated would take 12 hours without stops.

Not much more to add yet - this is the short and sweet kick-off post.  We are crashing in a church for the week, and we get to sleep in on Day 1 tomorrow, with our report time scheduled for 9am at the worksite...we'll be laying sod.  And oh yea, Flagler is literally located right on the water - our shelter is one block from the Atlantic...awesome.

Not a bad road to be taking home at the end of the day.