Our journey to Oklahoma City was fun and went very smoothly. After a cute little send off from all the staff and lots of hugs exchanged between corps members, we rolled away from CHU Friday morning. It was my teammate John's birthday, and we celebrated the best we could while traveling. We drove all day, all the way out of Colorado, and stayed overnight in a hotel in Salinas, Kansas. A few other teams stopped there for the night too; it was nice to have a little time together. There was also a pool that felt great to enjoy after being cramped in the van all day! We ate dinner at a great Mexican restaurant in Salinas called Gutierrez.
Most of our drive looked like this...
...or like this! Haha. There weren't many landmarks, but it truly was neat to experience the wide open prairie.
Being in two places at once on the border of Kansas.
We spent most of the next day driving too, but mid-morning we stopped in my teammate Erin's hometown! Her family welcomed us into their home and made us a huge meal full of amazing comfort food. It was sooo apprecciated. We also stopped at a Plains Indians Memorial on the Arkansas River, which is currently very dried up.
We arrived at our apartments in Oklahoma City Saturday evening and got settled in. My team is split between two two-bedroom apartments: one for the men, one for the women. Both of the apartments are fully furnished and have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, laundry and kitchens. We still spend a lot of time together, though. The girl's apartment is where we prepare and eat our meals and hang out during the evenings and weekends. It's really cozy! It already feels like a home away from home.
We had a long weekend because our work schedule this round is Tuesday - Saturday. We spent the weekend mostly resting and settling in, but we did venture out to a peace festival on Sunday. It was smaller than expected, but still neat. Sunday evening, my teammate Meghan and I prepared a special birthday meal for John (since we were traveling on his real birthday). We made taco pizza and homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. It felt good to really get to celebrate him! It was also fun to cook the first home cooked meal of Fire 1.
On Tuesday we began our work with Habitat for Humanity. We got a short orientation on the organization and a few tools, including a 16 point nail gun/framing gun, a staple gun and a joist hanger. After only a few hours, we got to go out on a project site. Central OK Habitat got a huge amount of land donated in one place, so they are building a neighborhood there called Hope Crossings that will consist entirely of Habitat houses! When it's done, there will be 270 homes. There, we helped put the finishing touches (caulking, painting, cleaning) on a home that was near completion. On Wednesday, we got to see it be dedicated to the family who owns it now. It was a really special ceremony. It was neat to see the end result that we will be working toward on every new home we help with.
Yesterday and today I got to experience Habitat's Critical Home Repair program. This program helps low-income families who already own their own homes to improve their home's "live-ability", energy efficiency, safety and quality. These repairs usually last about 3 days. I got to be there for day 1 and day 2 of a critical home repair, and it was really interesting and fulfilling. The first thing we did was a blower door test, which showed us where the "leaks" of the home were... where cold air and moisture was getting in! We proceeded to focus on repairing those leaks and doing other things the home really needed. Láni and Bruce stopped air from getting in through bathtub fixtures, Meghan and Tobin replaced the support beam beneath the house, Nadav replaced the back door and a few windows and I replaced the roof's trim. That meant I got to be on top of the roof with a nail gun for the better part of two days! I felt pretty powerful up there. =)
Tomorrow is Habitat's busiest day of the week, so we are going to help them leverage volunteers and lay sod. Sunday, we have a tour scheduled of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. We've heard it's a pretty essential experience to have during our time here. Monday, we are hoping to take time to really explore downtown. It's funny how all my sentences start with "we" instead of "I" now!
The weather here changes a lot because the prairie winds can pick up any kind of weather and bring it to where we are. At the beginning of the week it was probably high 40s, then the last few days it's been low 60s and sunny. There is always at least a breeze, but more often there's a pretty strong wind! I like the variety, and I have lots of layers for whatever comes. Michigan had it's first snow this week, I was sad to miss it!
We take turns cooking in pairs, and we've been eating really well. This week we've had lasagna, gourmet grilled cheeses and tomato soup, Mexican rice and beans... more than I can remember in full! My team mate Láni makes us homemade bread every night that we use for sandwiches in our packed lunches. My team mates are really considerate of me being a vegetarian, too. I'm very lucky.
So all in all, things are going very well. I enjoyed CTI a lot, but it feels great to be doing more of the things that I came here to do... travel, serve, be a part of a team!
Awesome statue at the Plains Indian Memorial.
We arrived at our apartments in Oklahoma City Saturday evening and got settled in. My team is split between two two-bedroom apartments: one for the men, one for the women. Both of the apartments are fully furnished and have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, laundry and kitchens. We still spend a lot of time together, though. The girl's apartment is where we prepare and eat our meals and hang out during the evenings and weekends. It's really cozy! It already feels like a home away from home.
Celebrating our arrival to the Oklahoma state border. That's me in the top right corner! Parkour. Photo credit: Lalita.
Good thing we packed light...? =)
The decimated remains of our first meal. Don't worry... there was another pizza in the oven.
The first home we ever worked on. Photo cred: Láni.
Yesterday and today I got to experience Habitat's Critical Home Repair program. This program helps low-income families who already own their own homes to improve their home's "live-ability", energy efficiency, safety and quality. These repairs usually last about 3 days. I got to be there for day 1 and day 2 of a critical home repair, and it was really interesting and fulfilling. The first thing we did was a blower door test, which showed us where the "leaks" of the home were... where cold air and moisture was getting in! We proceeded to focus on repairing those leaks and doing other things the home really needed. Láni and Bruce stopped air from getting in through bathtub fixtures, Meghan and Tobin replaced the support beam beneath the house, Nadav replaced the back door and a few windows and I replaced the roof's trim. That meant I got to be on top of the roof with a nail gun for the better part of two days! I felt pretty powerful up there. =)
Photo cred: Láni.
Tomorrow is Habitat's busiest day of the week, so we are going to help them leverage volunteers and lay sod. Sunday, we have a tour scheduled of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. We've heard it's a pretty essential experience to have during our time here. Monday, we are hoping to take time to really explore downtown. It's funny how all my sentences start with "we" instead of "I" now!
The weather here changes a lot because the prairie winds can pick up any kind of weather and bring it to where we are. At the beginning of the week it was probably high 40s, then the last few days it's been low 60s and sunny. There is always at least a breeze, but more often there's a pretty strong wind! I like the variety, and I have lots of layers for whatever comes. Michigan had it's first snow this week, I was sad to miss it!
We take turns cooking in pairs, and we've been eating really well. This week we've had lasagna, gourmet grilled cheeses and tomato soup, Mexican rice and beans... more than I can remember in full! My team mate Láni makes us homemade bread every night that we use for sandwiches in our packed lunches. My team mates are really considerate of me being a vegetarian, too. I'm very lucky.
So all in all, things are going very well. I enjoyed CTI a lot, but it feels great to be doing more of the things that I came here to do... travel, serve, be a part of a team!
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