What a day! After heavy rain all night and on and off in the morning, the skies opened and it was another hot, humid day in the Appalachians. However, we did drive off the mountain in some heavy fog.
It was a good work day. We fiinished the floor with the exception of the two areas that we need metal thresholds for. We will put them on our materials list for Paul to get. I had never put in laminate tongue and groove floor before, so it was a new experience for me. That is what I love about here. You learn so many new things. I have a great team leader! Very patient and great at communication so we get along well 😁. Plus, we joke around a lot. We do have one team member who I can’t get a feel for. But, it is his first time and he is the only newbie here for the week. Therefore, I understand where he is coming from. I was in his shoes last year.
Anyways, I am not sure if I am a fan of tongue and groove flooring. Getting it to line up and then tapping it in so you could not see the seams…We had a few issues in spots. However, the homeowner’s son really likes to help. So, he was a big help to us. I really love, love, LOVE, LOVE how this family interacts with us. Again today, they came outside and we shared our lunches. We have some great conversation. Anita and Jerry were at our site looking at electric boxes and taking measurements for some electric heaters we need to install for this family. They ate with us too. What is nice is that Anita knows the family well, especially the kids. This is because she worked at the school. I say worked, because she just submitted her resignation. She told me they are so busy at Grace House, that she feels she needs to do this. Plus, she said she was not kept busy at the school. Anyway, one girl in this family is going to be a senior. Anita really wants her to go on to college. Anita told them that I am a teacher too. We are trying to talk this girl into going on. She has great goals and I am sure she can do it. Anita is going to look up some local college information for her and help her with getting scholarships and grants. I will be curious to see what happens.
After lunch Jerry and I, with a little help from Anita, put up a ceiling fan . The electrical work at this house is crazy. We saw sparks but had the switches turned off. We kept on going. I am proud to say that we are still alive and the ceiling fan works. However, we could not turn it off. In other words, the power was on the entire time we were installing it..which is why we saw the sparks😮. So, we had to use the pull chains we put on it to turn it off. We turned every switch in that room. I love Jerry and Anita. Jerry and I have the same initials. So, we keep saying we are the JB and JB team. We had lots of fun . We always joke around.
One of the big highlights of my day was this: while we were working this morning a delivery came. A family down the street donated their furniture to this family as they got new furniture. The family was happy. As a matter of fact, when we got to the house this morning the family had cleaned up the kitchen. I always notice this and it makes me happy. When we go in and start working, we motivate the families. We give them hope. So this family is starting to clean. They are very appreciative and grateful. You could tell that they were happy. As a matter of fact, just before we left they were starting to move stuff. The boy asked us to help him move the couch. So it ended up that we helped them set up their family room. It is not totally set up as we have tools and table saws and construction material around. However, they have what looks more like a family room. That made me happy.
I want to go back and talk a little bit about last night. First, our nightly meeting was awesome. We went around and told who we were and how we got involved with EAM. Then Paul went on about his experiences. We all said how we fell in love. I asked Paul if he has difficulty going back home. He and I had this great conversation. He also has trouble leaving. So, I do not feel bad. He said that he tries to leave on Saturdays when everyone else leaves. He said if he doesn’t then it is even worse being alone and leaving alone. Therefore, our goal is to make sure all jobs are finished so we can leave with everyone else. We shall see as he said numbers are low this year. Second, I loved doing compline. Here, we do the New Zealand compline. I love it. So, I was even happier to end our great meeting with compline.
Now, I am sitting on a swing after a much needed shower. I have read and am thinking of taking a nap before dinner. I am tired today. I was up late last night. As a matter of fact I didn’t get back to the bunkhouse until almost 11. Jerry and Anita and I were trying to fix my camera. It won’t charge. I will look for a battery this weekend when we go into colbourn to do our laundry. Paul said he thinks he knows where I can get one. Anyway, Anita was showing me pictures of the house where I am working this week. This house was in sad sad shape. Plastic on the roof, the walls caving in, bad floors, etc. As a matter of fact the kids were taken out of the home. Obviously they are back now. It just made me sad.
Well no nap. The dinner bell just rand. Time to eat!
appyadventuresandteaching 