Apparently, history repeats itself. Our planning for tomorrow's very busy day required my attention more than a blog update. I'll have full details coming soon, but for now, I'll simply say that today was very good (and a complete turnaround from he Tuesday slump). There's still a lot left to do, though. I'll write again after the Long Day.
Dad warned me that the Tuesday gremlins might attack today. Attack they did. It was a day that tried my patience, set us back, and gave me the opportunity to learn what a site leader needs to be.
We made a bunch of progress on the roof. One side is completely reshingled, and the other side is completely stripped and is ready for the already cut new wood. Should be able to finish most of it tomorrow before it gets too hot. My thanks again go out to Elizabeth Hilliard for teaching the people on my site how to roof this morning, and for teaching me how to teach others.
The floor of the bathroom is back in. Tomorrow morning we can lay the floor and seat the toilet. The kitchen is all cleaned up, and all of the existing cabinets have been polished. The wallpaper is down and we are ready to paint. We have a bunch of small projects which are going to take off this evening. I crawled under thr house to run new electrical lines which should be finished soon.
The deck. After a full day of work, we did not make ANY progress on it. Where the leader on charge of it spent his time I will never know, but we are not any closer to having a deck than we were Monday night. Looking at it, i wqs starting to feel like Carl (a reference that campers here will immediately understand. However, it is not all bad; i now have the inspiration to more strongly take control of my site, setting ddefinate goals, and occasionally, if necessary, setting my foot down. I'll let you know how it goes...
Time. Wew had major time management problems. First, we left late. Then, we had the entire team wait as we pulled materials out of the shed. Frank then went to Lowes. With all our tools. In all, we lost over and hour and a half of the cool part of the day standing around waiting. It was awful, and I felt terrible. We're going to fix this. It was definately a learning experience for me.
Did I mention under the house was muddy?
Tomorrow will be better. I can feel it.
I apologize for the brevity of this post, but our team planning meeting went absurdly long this evening and I'm already exhausted.
Today was the day traditionally known for its demolition. Our experience today was much more constructive.
Vance made considerable headway with the bathroom. The water damaged floor was torn up, and to our pleasant surprise, the joists are all solid. We should be able to have the floor replaced and the bathroom functional, albeit unfinished, tomorrow.
The kitchen cabinets, which appeared to be in bad condition, ended up being merely coated with layers of grease. After a thorough scrubbing, we've decided not to paint the cabinets, because they look really good as is.
The roof was my main priority for the day. We started on the back side of the house, stripping all of the shingles. Only two of the plywood sheet had to be replaced, and we made good progress shingling it up.
For tomorrow, we have a bunch of good plans. We, unlike some of the other sites, are in a good position after our first day of work. More details will follow tomorrow. Good night.
Sunday. The Sabbath. The day of rest before the week. This is always one of the longest days of the Salkehatchie week, because we're itching to get started, but have to wait.
First thing this morning, the newly formed youth site team met with our homeowner for the first time. It was a good meeting, albeit a little rushed because Mrs. McCauley had to get to church. We discussed our plans for the week, and listened to her desires for other projects. There's a lot on our plate, very little money to do it with, and a questionable amount of time. It should be doable, though, and I'm confident that at the end of the week she I'll be very happy.
After the meeting, we had time to kill before our worship service started, so we went to Target and began some of the shopping for the worksite tomorrow. To ensure that we had happy campers, we took the opportunity to fellowship at Starbucks.
Following the worship service, we took the camp photos for the year. They were completely different than in any year past. In past years, photos would either be nicely posed, or posed with a single member being goofy. This year, each team spontaneously competed to have the most original photo. Not to gloat, but i think that my team won.
We had a bunch of fun team building exercises in the sanctuary, which ranged from rock/paper/scissors tag to Life Savers relays. They were a good opportunity to laugh and meet all the people in our new team. We then went bowling. In total, 3 guys bowled against 5 ladies on adjacent lanes. It was tough, but the men managed to just barely lead out the women's scores in both games. It was good to be able to laugh and share such a time with each other.
We had a brief team meeting, got all of our ducks in a row for the morning, and proceeded to the Ranson House for dinner. I sat with some of the other readers, and met the ghost who also appears to inhabit the room (as indicated by s perpetually cold spot, regardless of outside temperature or A/C.
We came back to the church for our ceremony, and we were led through music and a devotional by Perry and Tresca. The theme for the week is "Serving Like Jesus." As a reminder of this theme (somehow) our symbol are friendship bracelets handmade by Mona. Each one is unique and imperfect, but each contains a small cross that is perfectly made. It's a good, soft, wearable symbol.
Work starts tomorrow. Wish us luck! I'm excited to go out and serve God and serve others through this ministry.
Today began my 7th Salkehatchie Summer Service camp. This year, like last, is marked by several changes. First, I actually had to drive up here by myself. The trip is a lot longer when you can't fall asleep in Columbia. Secondly, I am a site leader this year. It's a major increase in responsibility, especially given that last year the other adults didn't trust me with the driving directions. I must have done something right though. Fortunately, I am working with a very experienced team of adults, and we have a skilled group of youth this camp. I'm excited about jumping right in!
Frank and I had agreed to get to camp rather early this year. That way, if we needed to do any last minute discussions about our site, we could do so with enough time to go to Home Depot. As it turns out, we did enough planning beforehand that we did not need the additional time. Instead, I was tasked with setting up the shower trailer and getting music ready for the slideshow. The music was the easy part. As for the shower stall… it could still use a bit of work. I'm pretty sure that none of the showers are going to drain, and the entire contraption might just fall over. We'll see!
The tour of homes this year was interesting. For the first time in anyone's memory, it rained. Not just a little sprinkle either; it was pouring. For the last couple of homes, we had to give the tour in shifts. It certainly made taking Before pictures a lot more interesting. Good thing I had Mom's waterproof camera (thanks Mom!)
Delicious as always. Nom nom nom.
We began our evening session with the slideshow from last year. It's always amazing when you look back at a previous years' camp. All of my memories of the home I worked on were from the finished product; it was a shock to see what e homes looked like before we worked on them. After this many years, it still amazes me what kind of transformations are possible.
Our brief worship time featured the musical stylings of Perry Brittain. (As an aside, I apologize for playing most of Perry's set list during the slideshow. Imitation is flattery, right?) Then, Tresca, this year wearing the hat of Spiritual Director, led us in group building exercises and ice breakers. They were a lot of fun, and we somehow (narrowly) avoided two concussions, a shattered church door, and raw egg on the floor. We have a great group of youth this year, and I'm looking forward to serving alongside them.