Thursday, March 13, 2014

I love Chicken Wire

On Tuesday, we returned to our work sites for the longest day of building.  It's on day 2 that the walls go up to get covered with blackboard and chicken wire, the roof goes on with tar paper and shingles, the insulation and wiring are installed, the J-channel goes on the walls and the house gets ready for drywall, windows and stucco on the final day. 

All of the teams did really well accomplishing their tasks on Tuesday.  The wind got really bad sometimes and sand would get into everyone's eyes, mouth and noses.  The sand combined with sunscreen made it look like all of us were getting great tans, until we got back to the SHOC that night and started washing up and our lovely brown came off.  It was hard going something, especially for everyone who was working on the roof, but we all got it done! 

Heather once again saved the day at breakfast when it was discovered that the pancake mix required eggs, butter and milk, not just water.  At 5am. in Juarez you don't have a lot of options.  She and her kitchen team made it work (it does work OK with just water) and we had pancakes for breakfast!  

Our only injury on the trip happened on Day 2 when Andy R., one of the Casas leaders, accidentally sliced his thumb instead on the drywall.  Their team called it a day early and came back to the SHOC where Mike R. and Jon patched it up.  His thumb will be fine and he had a great attitude about it for the rest of the trip! 

Some of the things that stood out to students from Day 2 included:

 "Watching how we were getting pushed out of our comfort zones" - Jessica D
 "It's been really cool to be here and working with Maria and her kids.  It's reaffirmed my career choice (working in third world countries) as I've been able to help them." - Chris P. 

 "Jesus telling us that we're God's angels here and that we need to tell others so that they will come back and build!" - Kristin M. 

Michigan Tech had an older woman named Carol at their worksite.  She was very proud of her chickens, goats and flowers and tried to give the students a chicken.  They didn't bring any chickens back with them, but the fact that she would offer to share the little that she has with them, made an impact on those students.

"The pastor coming to visit us.  You could tell that he wanted to say thank you and really try to be a blessing to us." - Mike P. 

Team Hogoboom:










Team Tech:




 Team Baleigh:




Mike and Jon patching Andy's thumb at the SHOC
 Hanging out at the SHOC:


 




No comments:

Post a Comment