The Last Day....

The Last Day
Today was a little different regarding work. Yesterday afternoon, we noticed the majority of us were standing around with nothing left to do. So today, we split up into four different groups going to different paces. Staying at Queen E’s house was PJ, Sharon, Caroline, and Aly who finished painting (that’s the only thing they know how to do). Going to Ted’s house was Danny, Dave, and I (The Dream Team) to replace a window. On the road to Nash’s house was Emmaleigh, Kyra, and Art (God bless you Art) to dig a hole and make piping for the bathroom. Last, Ryan and Jim (The Leftovers) went next door to work on some roofing. However, there was a change of plans when we were in dire need of Art to work on a window with us. To add on, Dave went back to work with The Leftovers. Unfortunately, The Dream Team had to be split. Art’s surprising efficiency with the windows caused all five of us to be at Nash’s house. Me, Danny, and Kyra dug a large hole to put a bin in while Emmaleigh and Art put pipes in to connect with the bin. At around noon, we returned back to Queen E’s house with an amazing lunch staring us right in the face. This included her famous fried chicken, southern mac and cheese, jello, and watermelon. After lunch, the groups split back up to complete our jobs. After another two hours in the sweltering heat, we all took a dip in the pool compliments of Dave’s friend. It was very cool watching their dog head a ball into the pool so someone could catch it. A busy day we had wrapped up with packing and cleaning. I think we are all ready to go home.
~Steven

PAINT!

PAINT! We are finally putting the finishing touches on the house. It was hot, muggy and above all, GNATY! But our hours of hard work is finally paying off as Ryan, Steven, Jim, and Mr.Freas finish the attic, and painting finished off by Danny, Mrs.Freas, Emmaleigh, Ally, Kyra (THAT'S ME!) Caroline, and SUPA PJ TO THE RESCUE! (AKA Pastor Jeff :))

Every day when the heat gets to its peak, I sometimes think how much I don?t want to be in the heat, and all buggy, and would rather be in the nice, air conditioned room that we sleep in. But like my mom and PJama :) have said, just remember how much we are improving Ms.Queeny's home and life. And I've learned from being here how good we really have it. Also, I realized that I would rather be hot and sweaty, then be sitting at home watching T.V. or even hanging at the pool with my friends because I know that I am helping someone in need that needs our help.

But, there is a major upside to all of this. I made 12 new friends, (including Ms.Queeny's dogs) had an air conditioned room that complete strangers are lending to us, thousands of times we have laughed because of Steven and PJama Ramas :) odd addiction to the Ipod game called tiny wings that Steven (again) introduced to him, movie night, and my favorite, play hide-Steven's things-until he goes crazy :D With all that we have learned, we are going to go home exhausted yet satisfied with what we have done.

(Kyra and Emmaleigh)

Check it out! We were on the Fuller Center blog

You can read the story on the Fuller Center blog at: http://www.fullercenter.org/blogs/fuller-center-general/it%27s-all-in-the-family

Day 4: Painting & Insolation/Sheetrock & Global Village & Youth Group Day

Today there was a race to finish the primer on the outside of the house with only one can left. When the last of the primer got all used up, we were finally ready to layer on the awesome maroon color. Aly was lucky enough not to get near as much paint on herself as yesterday. By the end of our work day, 2 ½ walls were completed. YAY!!!!!

While all of that was going on, on the exterior of the house, hard at work inside was the finishing of insolation. Insolation was tough in the heat but it didn’t come without the satisfaction of having accomplished it (and more hard work of beginning to install sheetrock). It also came with the perk of getting first showers in the inside bathroom. All in all it was a day of hard work for all of us, but after the work came the interesting part.

After rushing back to the church to have just 15 minutes to clean ourselves up, we went to explore the “Habitat for Humanity: Global Village”. Though it was hot, we all pushed through to explore different “Habitat” houses in several poverty stricken countries. After this we were able to return to air conditioning to shower and get ready for dinner and worship with the church’s youth group.

Story by: Caroline & Aly

A grey day

Day 2 A grey day, what that means will become more obvious in a few lines. We arose, had breakfast of pancakes and departed for Koinionia Farm and our work project. Yesterday, we successfully replaced a porch enclosure wall that was badly out of alignment and scraped the loose paint off the house’s cement block walls. We had put in studs and exterior plywood called T11 but it was bare wood. Today, David Snell from the Fuller Center led off the day’s activities with a short devotion. Then, we began the challenging task of priming both the wood and the concrete block walls of the house. You guessed it, battleship grey primer and soon some of it actually made it to the walls, but dabs also showed up on shirts, arms, and faces of our pastor and several of the young ladies painting with Sharon and Pastor Jeff. Aly and I installed a few more studs to reinforce a portion of the wall not replaced. This involved toe nailing the studs, not an easy task. Danny, Steve and Ryan worked with Art learning how to measure and trim out the windows. Danny soon transitioned to working with Dave, our site leader, as he taught both Danny and me what to do to remove old aluminum window frames and glass from the window openings in the concrete walls. We put in five windows in addition to the three installed yesterday. It was HOT again and all were tuckered but finished installing some insulation and began the clean up and tool put away task moving a bit slower at the work day’s end. The kids also really enjoyed Queen E.'s dogs, Max and Winny. Kyra was especially taken with Max and the feeling was mutual. Arriving back at First Baptist, the crew proceeded to shower and several of these energetic young crew promptly took a quick cat nap waiting to diner and/or the shower. Working hard in hot weather takes a lot out of you under these conditions. Tomorrow, we will finish a half day and then visit the Habitat Global Village in Americus. (Jim Anderson)

Bugs, bugs everywhere

Today there were gnats everywhere! We used lots of bug spray and they were still bugging us.

We chipped paint. It was really satisfying when a big chunk of the paint came off all at once. We put new windows in. We rebuilt one wall of what had been a screened in porch that was closed in.

It was super humid today and everyone felt like they’d been swimming with their clothes on. Boy did those showers feel good. It was fun but exhausting.

We had really good Sloppy Joe’s for dinner followed by some awesome brownies. We so appreciate all the food everyone sent for us. (Caroline and Sharon)