Sisters Oregon

We were up early and made sure everyone knew about the 9:00 am job site gathering. It was the usual chaos and of course we were almost late. I think we exited the van right at 9:00 am, yes 9:00 am, the time it started pouring down rain in Sisters Oregon. We had what Habitat calls a devotional, I think it surprised some of the kids, but most of them are religious so I don’t think they gave it a second thought.

After that we loaded into the van a drove to the main office of Habitat and watched three videos. With two days in Sisters under our belts, we have noticed one big difference between the videos we watched and what we have actually been through. In all the videos, in every scene, in every location, all around the United States and the world, there was never one shot depicting volunteers working in pouring down rain and snow. In fact most of the warnings told of heat stroke, not one mentioned frost bite or hyperthermia.

Back at the work site we drove nails and got the area ready for the big job of setting trusses when they arrived on Tuesday. At about noon the project manager, Ron, looked at our soaking wet group and called it a day. We all wanted to work, but it was so wet he felt we should set our sights on the next day.

We drove to the Laundromat, which was a block away from our church where we tossed all our wet cloths in the dryer. It took about two dollars to get them dry, but it was a great investment. By this time Linda and I were getting to know some of the student better. It is very interesting. This generation of students is a bit challenging to work with. Linda’s first example was when we got to the Laundromat and not one of the kids offered to help take their wet cloths into the place to get then dry. We had to say “hey, anyone going to help here?” Then they finally jumped and lent a hand.

I am a bit calloused by working at the college I guess, I see it every day, there is no excuse, but after a while you just learn to let it go or you spend all your time suggesting that they lend a hand in life.

While the clothes dried the students went over to the Habitat site and got their picture taken for the news paper, no problem getting them going to do that! Then they went over to the main office where they had fixed us a hot lunch.

We settled into our home at the church and everyone played games and rested from the half day of work in the rain. During this time some of the group ventured over to the Athletic Club and took showers. Two thumbs up report came back. Shayne was impressed that they had shampoo and towels for everyone.

We fixed chicken fajitas for dinner and it was a great hit. Linda assigned duties and I did most of the preparations. No one went hungry and most everyone participated.

After dinner we all played a game that Gabby set up and taught us. I have to admit it was very funny and everyone was laughing by the end of the evening. Linda and I went to bed at about 11:30 pm and we were both exhausted. My last words of the night thanked them for all their work but reiterated how important it will be to leave the church by 8:45 am on the dot.