Well, we have already been here a week and a half and it has flown by. Every day we are pretty much constantly moving from 6 am to 7:30 pm. Our day is filled with work, PT, cooking dinner and finally some computer/reading/cards time. There are 6 interns from the University of Cincinnati who are really nice and fun. Our team was put into pairs and each pair was matched with an intern so we share the duties of the intern. My intern is in charge of doing the laundry of the dish towels and such. Along with the chores we are assigned a day to cook. This includes being up and ready by 5:30 in order to cook for about 40 people, then heading to work after cleanup and finally cooking dinner for those 40 people starting right after work. I have yet to have my day, which I am thankful for, but those days will be even longer. We sleep on bunk beds with air mattresses on top which isn't too bad besides the fact that everyone can hear when everyone else moves. All of the volunteers from last week left and only about half as many are here this week so there aren't any in the gym sleeping which is really weird and nice.
I have gotten the chance to learn some more home building essentials... Paul and I worked together putting trim in a couple rooms throughout a house that is almost ready for the homeowner to move back in. It was pretty tricky at first and semi frustrating to get the hang of which angle each side of the trim would be to match them perfectly. Scott was the name of the guy we worked with that day and he was very helpful. He taught us everything there is to know about trim and was very willing to teach us. He is another volunteer from Ohio staying for two weeks and we hope to get dinner with him sometime before he leaves.
As for today and yesterday... hmmm... how to put it... haha my hands feel so sore, along with the arms and back. We are all in pretty rough shape from the back to the hands. Why you might ask? Tile Removal would be the cause of that. Yesterday our whole team was sent to the same house which was exciting, we were told what we would be doing and the busting up of the tiles was rather fun but also hard work. One of the site supervisors brought us donuts and then told us it was because of the "crap work" we had to do, which was not a good sign. Once we demolished all of the tiles (which was a ton) we had to move on to the mortar which is NOT fun at all. We work with a couple chisels, crowbars and hammers. Our hands are so sore from holding onto the tools and the vibration of hitting them together. It is the most tedious work I think I have ever done in my life. Feels like it anyway. We have all suffered some battle wounds from the flying tiles hitting out arms and legs, along with the occasional one to the face. We make sure we have goggles, gloves and either earplugs or our ipods in the help with the noise. This brings us to the title of this blog (blob)... not only were my hands hurting today from yesterday then we were told we were doing the same thing today and most likely tomorrow and to top it off we had our PT Baseline test today. The baseline consists of as many push ups you can do in a minute, as many sit ups in a minute and the running a mile and a half. My goal was to run the whole time which I accomplished so I am happy with the outcome. This explains a little about my being so tired.
The family we are clearing the tile for is super cute... a younger couple with a little girl and 2 dogs (which of course I went running for). It is so rewarding to meet such wonderful people that we are making a difference for. Makes it that much more enjoyable and meaningful work, even though the actual labor is pretty horrible. Our team did an ISP at a massive food bank Saturday morning which was a lot of fun. We prepared boxes of food for people in need and ended up packing 1,200 which was a great accomplishment. After the food bank we went into the city of Beaumont which has a mall and is a more populated area. We shopped around for dresses to wear to the Mardi Gras ball most of the team is going to in Baton Rouge this weekend. One of my teammates went to school at LSU there and invited us and a couple other nearby teams. It should be really fun and great to see my friends on other teams too. We rented a car and are heading to New Orleans Friday evening after work and then up to Baton Rouge Saturday afternoon, and back to Orange on Sunday for the BIG GAME!!! This past Sunday a group of us went up to Chili's to watch the Vikings game and I decked out as many people as I could in my apparel. It was so great to win especially being in Cowboy territory.
This week has been a busy one and we are all looking forward to getting away and enjoying ourselves outside of work this weekend. With that said I think I am going to put some pictures up, do some reading and hit the hay. Good Night!!
Love,
Nicole
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