Day 5: Thursday!

Gabi Henderson

I didn’t understand why the group called Corey and James’ car, “the fun car” till today when I was assigned to their group. As I packed my lunch I wondered what site 1 would behold for the day. At the end of the day, after many laughs and so many memorable moments I realized why the “fun car” was the talk of the mission.

Nick Mason

Today, there was a lot of good progress on all the worksites, despite the high heat and humidity and a couple mishaps. The ramps that we started on at the beginning of the week are nearly finished. There is yet more still to complete, notably the roof at one of the worksites. Tali, Beverly, Colin, Matthew, and Nick worked with Chris and Pastor Cab to start the underside of the roof. Bobby Srour has been indispensable in keeping much of the tasks moving along.

Matthew Kunst

After we took showers, we went out to eat dinner at a barbecue place. It was a very fun time and there was a lot of great views. Charlie almost fell off the mountain. The food they served was amazing and the staff worked really hard. After our great dinner, we went to the oversight with really amazing views. We took a ton of pictures and afterwards we went back in our cars and went to Joey’s crib.

Tali Smith

After dinner, Joey and Belvia invited us to look at their finished trailer. Last year, we worked on their trailer which was completely gutted to rebuild the floors, walls, and roof, but we didn’t get to do much inside. It was a cool experience to see how different it looked since the last time we saw it, it was completely finished and furnished with lots of décor and personal stuff to their family. All of us felt really proud of our work to know that we were part of building this family’s home.

Jan Cookerly

On site again today at Randy Hatfield’s property.  Various teams have crafted and finally finished his new wheelchair ramp with Bobby Srour- Jeanne’s husband… Randy loves Bobby!  On our first day I simply waved at Randy in the pouring rain as he rocked on his porch.  We had little interaction.  I was disturbed by the many dogs on chains or in cages.  I was confident we had little in common. Although, not in good health, gradually Randy began to interact more with all team members, and spilled the beans that he knows his way around carpentry.  He was in the Navy and a coal miner, after all.  But after the last three days of very sunny weather, I consider Randy a friend.  He was attacking spindles, cutting difficult nails from old boards, and providing general guidance.  We began to talk, he came out of his shell and I did out of mine, and he has a real funny bone.  I particularly giggle when he says, “Jan Rest!” Girls shouldn’t be doing such hard work. I’ll always remember his beautiful red barn flanked with vegetable garden and stunning Hibiscus bushes.  I said that I’d love to see him in a different, non-political, ball cap tomorrow.  As we were leaving, he yelled for me and said, “look I changed it,” while pointing to his hat.  I asked, what’s it say? and he said “Trucking!”

Also:

• We lost Tommy and Bobby T. today.
• Harper successfully pulled off a coup today and took over site 1.
• Don’t fake hurl in front of Lucy.
• Stay sunscreen, wear hydrated.
• Question of the day: why does grass grow straight?
• Team Pickle haters: Juliette and Chris.
• Corinne is adamant that the egg came before the chicken.
• Zara has Corey’s vote for most reliable on the trip.
• Don’t worry, Tommy and Bobby went to visit family.
• Someone should check on Preston if he is doing well without his Tommy…

This is called .5ing: