I got to work on a Habitat For Humanity project for three days this week! Boy am I tired! But it feels good. The project that I worked on was a part of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. We worked at a subdivision called Wylam Oaks. The land was donated by U.S. Steel and there are 38 houses in the development. All 38 are Habitat houses. It's I think the largest all Habitat neighborhood in the U.S. if I heard that right... The first day Tracy and I got stuck painting trim in one of the houses. It wouldn't have been bad except that we were standing in the doorways painting and the work guys kept walking in and out. They never said "excuse me", instead they would pretty much just walk up on us and get closer and closer until we moved. Basically, they just pressed their bodies all on ours until we would move. It was so obnoxious. The lead builder guy was a complete jerk to everybody, including us. He kept yelling at us about dripping paint on the floor, when really we were dripping paint on our drop cloth and people kept stepping in it as they walked through.
On day 2 Tracy got sick of the painting and the rudeness so I ended up painting with Brittni, another Americorps member. It was really annoying because they wouldn't let us tape the wall so that we could do the little lip on the trim and so I told them that I wasn't going to paint the lip beacause it was pretty much impossible to do it and not get paint on the wall. I was very harshly told "no. It's not impossible, you just have to be careful and get it done." I didn't do it. Seriously, I'm not a professional painter and I'm not about to be the one to get yelled at for getting paint on the wall. Once I got finished with painting I went to a different house because the one I was at had way too many cooks in the kitchen and the people were such jerks. So I went and painted at another house where there were only a few people and they were much much nicer. Oh, I almost forgot. At the rude house in the middle of the morning Garth Brooks showed up to help out! He was actually mostly in the way because they would set up a project and have him like drill a hole and then everyone would take pictures and then they'd move him on to something else and he'd paint a strip of wall and everyone would take a picture... But it was pretty cool that he showed up and had good intentions. He was a really nice guy too. The Americorps team got our picture taken with him. He asked us all our names and shook our hands and said "I'm Garth" it was kind of funny.
Day 3: I woke up this morning and found out that my cell phone service got shut off... Not a great way to start the day (mom, if you don't hear from me, don't worry, I'm still alive). But I worked at the nice house this morning and put some finishing touches on the yard and mostly just stood around and hung out with my co workers which was fun. We don't get to see each other much because we're at different schools so it's fun to all get together and get to know everyone a little better. We had fried catfish for lunch which was DELICIOUS. I'd never had catfish before. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter showed up (catfish is his favorite, so that's why we had it) and we got our picture taken and he spoke at the dedication ceremony for the neighborhood and he and Rosalynn cut the ribbon. It was pretty cool to be a part of. The Carters put together a Habitat project every year and switch off between the U.S. and another counrty each year. Next year they will be bulding in Haiti. Actually they decided to build in Haiti for the next 2 years. So that's pretty cool. I guess before the earthquake Habitat built 200 houses in Haiti and every single one of them is still standing.
Anyways, it was a good week. I really enjoy working for Habitat and getting things done. I love how you can see the progress that you've made. Now for some rest and the weekend!
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