We worked in Yukon a lot, on homes in the early stages of construction.
With José, my team and I put up the subfascia of this house. Which meant I got to use the nail gun a lot, my favorite tool.
We also got to frame a different house, which means with a huge group of other volunteers, we put up the walls! It was an awesome experience. It was a high energy environment with so many people there to help out. It was really satisfying to see the drastic change that happened there over the course of just one day's work.
At the beginning of the day, the house looked like this...
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| We assembled walls on the ground and pulled them up together. I can't tell you what an amazing feeling that was. |
Mid-day...
The end of the day!
Everyone who helped.
This picture is for Nadav's family from the day of the framing. =)
That weekend we explored a unique part of town called Stockyard City. It was very... western!
It inspired Meghan and I to change our image.
And we saw the world's largest stocker and feeder cattle market! No one was there but us... But it was pretty cool. =)
That day we also walked around the free outside portions of the Myriad Botanical Gardens. It was really beautiful and peaceful there... I highly recommend it!
partial team picture.
Another week of work blew by, and we spent a little more time in Las Rosas, a Habitat community. We were caulking and painting, and before we knew it, it was the weekend again. I got to go home to Michigan for a few days and see my sister Hanna graduate college. I also got to celebrate my dad's birthday and celebrate Christmas with some of my extended family! It was great to be home; I am so lucky. There are many more people I wish I could have seen during me short time there... but I will be back very soon for Christmas!
My family.
When I got back to OK, I had a lot of great experiences waiting for me. Nadav led the team in celebrating Hanukkah. He made us latke's and even shared his jelly donuts and gelt with us.
Playing dreidel for gelt. Somehow my pile kept getting smaller. If you eat it, you can't lose it, right? Marcus family, thank you so much for the delicious treats!
Lalita and I learned how to spray insulation at a Critical Home Repair.
And we perfected our house-wrapping skills on Central OK's 700th Habitat home.
It's been a great few weeks. I can't believe that our time here is almost up. Our last day of work is this Tuesday, then we drive back to Denver and disperse for the holidays. I've loved my time here, but I'm really looking forward to break. It will be wonderful to spend time with family and friends. (Side note: Chris will be home from India tomorrow! =D ) And after break, I have a great project to look forward to!
My team and I recently found out that for Round 2 we will be working in Center Consolidated Schools in Center, Colorado (about 4 hours from Denver). The Center community is one of low socioeconomic status, and is located 30 miles from most social service agencies. With 600 students, the school is made up primarily of students of Hispanic origin. Of these students, 91% are on free and reduced lunch. The Center school has become the hub for a variety of services provided to the community. Volunteers are in short supply due to the need for residents to work long hard hours in the local agricultural economic base. My team and I will get to provide much needed human capital to strengthen capacity and delivery of academic and social programming both during and after school! We don't know many specifics yet, but I think we'll be serving mainly as tutors and mentors there.
That's all for now! Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon.
