Keepin It Cajun: Work Hard, Eat Hard

Thankfully I am able to type this, as my fingers have thawed out from this morning. Yes, it was ice cold again. The air temperature was in the low 40's, however, the wind chill made it feel just like Monday morning all over again; and the wind was relentless.

The day started out with a few odd-jobs that needed attention, but the main task of the morning was the lifting and installation of the first truss on Mac and Tammy's home. It was an awesome team effort, which included lifters, spotters, guiders, climbers, and nailers. Basically, we had a group of people lift the truss up over the front of the house, meanwhile it was guided by others using y-shaped 2x4 pieces to guide it through the house into the hands of Drew, who was up on top of the house. Drew then passed it through to the back corner, where I was stationed with Lauren spotting me (I only almost fell off the ladder once). With a huge effort of pushing from the y-people and lifting from Drew, we were able to lift the truss up, slide it into place, and begin stabilizing it with nails. It was a pretty neat experience to have so many people necessary for the completion of a critical construction phase.

Also in the morning, Bob put together a few jobs inside the house that he educated me about, and I was then able to group up a few different groups of students, who tackled the differing tasks with ease. Most of the jobs consisted of putting in different support pieces in the interior walls that would either, a) support the second truss on the other side of the house or b) eventually support interior electric fixtures such as lights, electric boxes, etc. It was definitely a fun time working with Lauren, Maddie, Alyssa, Becca, Alyson, Olivia, and Erin.

Then came lunch, where I established a new name for this experience - "HabiFAT for Humanity." It's hard to really put into words how well we've been fed this trip. For lunch today, we had three women bring us food, who operate a catering business. Needless to say the rice & beans (I had 2 platefuls), and salad that they brought were delicious. Not to be underestimated though, they also provided banana pudding for dessert along with brownies and toffee. I had a piece of toffee, 4 brownies, and 2 servings of banana pudding. Back when I was a pudgy little baseball player in grade school, my teammates had nicknamed me "pasta" for eating too much pasta, and I definitely lived up to that mantra today...way too much eating. Then, by request, for the second day in a row some of the students joined me in the van as we all took our seats for a post-lunch power nap, supplemented by some meditation music from my iPod.

So with full stomachs and relaxed mentalities, we entered the tail-end of the work day with plenty to do. We finished up some of the interior work and then began to prep for putting up the second truss on the other side of the house. The setup was very similar and went pretty flawlessly, as we nailed everything into place. Then as I was prepping a group of students for our next task, we got a surprise visit - my sister-in-law's mother, Mrs. Seth, dropped by the work site...and of course brought us some food! I brought the students over to introduce them, and then we took a 5-minute break to chow down on some delicious brownies (I figured I had already pigged out at lunch, I might as well keep going). We then returned to work, as I worked with Lauren, Dana, Becca, Maddie, and Ian to put a temporary beam on the back of the house, preparing to put up a small truss on a storage room tomorrow morning.

After work, one van went to the YMCA for showers, while for the second day in a row, a group of students came back with me to the church, so that some of us could get a quick run in. A few of us figured that with all the eating we've been doing, that a bit of running might offset some of the damage. Our group then swapped out and went to the YMCA for our turn at the showers, and then returned promptly to the church where Derek met up with us to escort us to a local church for dinner. Without being positive, I'm pretty sure that we went to a Methodist church, who fed us fried chicken, rice, green beans, and some of the sweetest dinner rolls I've ever tasted. And oh yea, as if it couldn't be better timed, they had chocolate cake and none other than banana pudding for dinner. I pigged out yet again.

Completing our second big meal of the day, we made our way back to Holy Comforter where we held our team reflection, followed by a game of Live Clue with the students from Moravian. It was a fast-paced battle, and when all the dust had settled, it was Lesleigh and Heather who made the right accusation - it was Johnathan, in the stairwell, with the porta-potty...for those of you keeping track at home.

And now, everything is winding down and I'm getting ready to turn in - we've got a busy day tomorrow as it is our last work day before visiting Charleston on Friday. We'll also be down 12 people tomorrow as Moravian heads to Charleston on their own, since they will be working Friday. We've got plenty of work to do and are excited to do it - many of the students reflected tonight about how unbelievably quick the week has gone...in awe that it's already coming to an end.

Here's hoping for big time construction updates at the end of the day tomorrow! Until then, I'm going to try to drink more water and eat less food. Adios!